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Exa vs Tavily MCP Server
Exa exposes 2 tools and adds about 564 tokens to every model turn. Tavily exposes 4 tools and adds about 1,442. Tavily costs 2.6× as much context. Measured by connecting to each server and counting its tool list, not from the README.
 Exaexa-labs |  Tavilytavily-ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Context tax | ~564 tok/turn(leaner) | ~1,442 tok/turn |
| Tools | 2 | 4 |
| Cost per 1,000 turns (Claude Sonnet 5.5, uncached) | $1.13 | $2.88 |
| Security score | 97/100 | 97/100 |
| Cold start | — | 241 ms |
| Runs | Local or hosted | Local (stdio) |
| Needs keys | None declared | TAVILY_API_KEY |
| Freshness | Active | Active |
| GitHub stars | 5.1k | 2.4k |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Official MCP registry | Yes | Yes |
Install in Claude Code
Tavily
claude mcp add tavily -e TAVILY_API_KEY='<tavily-api-key>' -- npx -y tavily-mcp
Tools
By name, from each server's live tool list. The same name can still behave differently.
Only in Exa · 2
- web_search_exa
- web_fetch_exa
In both · 0
- none
Only in Tavily · 4
- tavily_search
- tavily_extract
- tavily_crawl
- tavily_map
Questions
- Which uses fewer tokens, Exa or Tavily?
- Exa: its tool definitions take about 564 tokens per turn against 1,442 for Tavily (2.6× more). Tool definitions are resent on every model turn.
- Do Exa and Tavily have the same tools?
- No tool names overlap: Exa has 2 tools and Tavily has 4.
- Are Exa and Tavily hosted or local?
- Exa: local or hosted. Tavily: local (stdio).
Token counts use the o200k tokenizer on each server's tool definitions as an agent receives them; clients that load tools lazily pay less. Prices are Claude Sonnet 5.5 input at $2/MTok. Want to check one yourself? Run npx mcpskillhub test <package> — how it works.