Introducing Exa Instant Search

Exa Instant delivers improved neural search with better quality and sub-200ms latency. Use type = "instant" to enable the fastest search experience.

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Date: February 5, 2026

If you’re choosing a search type today, start with the Search API Guide. This post reflects the Instant launch state in February 2026.

We’re excited to announce Exa Instant, an improved neural search with both quality and latency benefits, designed for real-time applications where speed is critical.

Try Instant Search in our API with type = "instant". Try Instant Search in the dashboard

What’s New

Sub-150ms latency: Exa Instant delivers our fastest search response times, optimized for applications where every millisecond counts.

Real-time use cases: Perfect for low-latency products like chat apps and voice AI, coding agents that need fast web lookups, autocomplete, and live suggestions.

Enhanced neural search: Exa Instant combines our best neural search technology with optimized infrastructure to deliver state-of-the-art quality at unprecedented speed.

How to Use Instant Search

Use type="instant" in your search requests:

curl -X POST https://api.exa.ai/search \
  -H "x-api-key: EXA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "What is the capital of France?",
    "type": "instant",
    "numResults": 10,
    "contents": {
      "highlights": true
    }
  }'

Python SDK

from exa_py import Exa

exa = Exa(api_key='YOUR_EXA_API_KEY')

results = exa.search(
    "What is the capital of France?",
    type="instant",
    num_results=10,
    contents = {"highlights": True}
)

print(results)

TypeScript SDK

import Exa from 'exa-js';

const exa = new Exa('YOUR_EXA_API_KEY');

const results = await exa.search(
    'What is the capital of France?',
    {
        type: 'instant',
        numResults: 10,
        contents: {
          highlights: true
        }
    }
);

console.log(results);

Search Type Comparison

Type	Latency	Best For
auto	~1s	Default search; balanced relevance and speed
instant	sub-150ms	Real-time applications, autocomplete
fast	~500ms	Balance of speed and quality
deep	~5s	Comprehensive research tasks

Need Help?

If you have questions about Instant Search or want to learn more about optimizing for latency, reach out to [e-mail].