Under the hood, the x402 Search API serves calls through search providers (Exa first, Tavily fallback) — what you're buying is per-call access with no provider account of your own. Here's how the two ways of buying search compare:
| x402 Search API | Exa direct | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $0.01 USDC per call, nothing else | Monthly plan, billed whether you search or not |
| Auth | None — the USDC payment is the credential (x402) | API key you provision and manage |
| Best for | AI agents, bursty or unpredictable workloads, anyone who can't do subscriptions | Humans and services with high, steady search volume |
| Network | Base mainnet | — |
1,000 searches in a month costs $10 on per-call pricing — and $0 in months you don't search. A monthly plan wins only when your volume is high and constant. Agents with spiky workloads almost never are.
POST https://x402.eleeth.com/api/search with no payment header → HTTP 402 with payment requirements.X-PAYMENT header.Any x402 v2 client library (@x402/core / x402-fetch) handles this automatically.
Are the results the same as Exa's? Calls are served through Exa (then Tavily as fallback), so result quality tracks the underlying providers — you're paying for per-call access, not a different index.
When should I just use Exa directly? If you're a human or a service doing tens of thousands of searches a month on a steady schedule, a monthly plan is cheaper. If you're an agent, per-call wins.
Run by Eleeth. Questions: seo@eleeth.com