tech
February 12, 2026
Exa AI Research Blog
Discover the latest in AI research and semantic search technology on the Exa blog. Learn how our neural network search engine provides high-quality web data for AI applications
TL;DR
- Exa Instant is introduced as the world's fastest web search engine, operating under 200ms.
- It is significantly faster than Google search and other tested providers, with speeds up to 15x quicker.
- The speed is particularly valuable for real-time AI chat and voice applications where low latency is critical.
- Exa Instant maintains quality standards, with faster and deeper search options available.
- Most search APIs are slower due to wrapping Google Search, resulting in minimum 700ms latency.
- AI agents require near-instantaneous search to avoid becoming bottlenecks in their workflows.
- Exa powers thousands of companies, and Exa Instant is expected to benefit deep research, coding agents, and low-latency products.
- The development required optimizing every part of Exa's search and retrieval stack to achieve speeds under 200ms over tens of billions of pages.
- The industry is undergoing a transformation driven by the needs of AI, which differ from human search requirements.
- Exa is hiring to further improve search speed.
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