Exa Rate Limits

Overview

Handle Exa API rate limits gracefully. Default limit is 10 QPS (queries per second) across all endpoints. Rate limit errors return HTTP 429 with a simple { "error": "rate limit exceeded" } response. For higher limits, contact hello@exa.ai for Enterprise plans.

Rate Limit Structure

Endpoint	Default QPS	Notes
/search	10	Most endpoints share this limit
/find-similar	10	Same pool as search
/contents	10	Same pool
/answer	10	Same pool
Research API	Concurrent task limit	Long-running operations

Prerequisites

• exa-js SDK installed
• Understanding of async/await patterns

Instructions

Step 1: Exponential Backoff with Jitter

import Exa from "exa-js";

const exa = new Exa(process.env.EXA_API_KEY);

async function withBackoff<T>(
  operation: () => Promise<T>,
  config = { maxRetries: 5, baseDelayMs: 1000, maxDelayMs: 32000 }
): Promise<T> {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= config.maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await operation();
    } catch (err: any) {
      const status = err.status || err.response?.status;
      // Only retry on 429 (rate limit) and 5xx (server errors)
      if (status !== 429 && (status < 500 || status >= 600)) throw err;
      if (attempt === config.maxRetries) throw err;

      // Exponential delay with random jitter to prevent thundering herd
      const exponentialDelay = config.baseDelayMs * Math.pow(2, attempt);
      const jitter = Math.random() * 500;
      const delay = Math.min(exponentialDelay + jitter, config.maxDelayMs);

      console.log(`[Exa] ${status} — retry ${attempt + 1}/${config.maxRetries} in ${delay.toFixed(0)}ms`);
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delay));
    }
  }
  throw new Error("Unreachable");
}

// Usage
const results = await withBackoff(() =>
  exa.searchAndContents("AI research", { numResults: 5, text: true })
);

Step 2: Request Queue with Concurrency Control

import PQueue from "p-queue";

// Limit to 8 concurrent requests (under the 10 QPS limit)
const exaQueue = new PQueue({
  concurrency: 8,
  interval: 1000,    // per second
  intervalCap: 10,   // max 10 per interval (matches Exa's QPS limit)
});

async function queuedSearch(query: string, opts: any = {}) {
  return exaQueue.add(() => exa.searchAndContents(query, opts));
}

// Batch many queries safely
async function batchSearch(queries: string[]) {
  const results = await Promise.all(
    queries.map(q => queuedSearch(q, { numResults: 5, text: true }))
  );
  return results;
}

Step 3: Adaptive Rate Limiter

class AdaptiveRateLimiter {
  private currentDelay = 100; // ms between requests
  private minDelay = 50;
  private maxDelay = 5000;
  private consecutiveSuccesses = 0;
  private lastRequestTime = 0;

  async execute<T>(fn: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
    const now = Date.now();
    const elapsed = now - this.lastRequestTime;
    if (elapsed < this.currentDelay) {
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, this.currentDelay - elapsed));
    }

    try {
      this.lastRequestTime = Date.now();
      const result = await fn();
      this.consecutiveSuccesses++;

      // Speed up after 10 consecutive successes
      if (this.consecutiveSuccesses >= 10) {
        this.currentDelay = Math.max(this.minDelay, this.currentDelay * 0.8);
        this.consecutiveSuccesses = 0;
      }
      return result;
    } catch (err: any) {
      if (err.status === 429) {
        // Slow down on rate limit
        this.currentDelay = Math.min(this.maxDelay, this.currentDelay * 2);
        this.consecutiveSuccesses = 0;
        console.log(`[Exa] Rate limited. New delay: ${this.currentDelay}ms`);
      }
      throw err;
    }
  }
}

const limiter = new AdaptiveRateLimiter();

// Combine with backoff
const results = await withBackoff(() =>
  limiter.execute(() => exa.search("query", { numResults: 5 }))
);

Step 4: Batch Processing with Rate Awareness

async function processBatch(
  queries: string[],
  batchSize = 5,
  delayBetweenBatches = 1000
) {
  const allResults = [];

  for (let i = 0; i < queries.length; i += batchSize) {
    const batch = queries.slice(i, i + batchSize);

    // Process batch concurrently
    const batchResults = await Promise.all(
      batch.map(q => withBackoff(() =>
        exa.searchAndContents(q, { numResults: 3, text: true })
      ))
    );
    allResults.push(...batchResults);

    // Pause between batches to stay under rate limit
    if (i + batchSize < queries.length) {
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delayBetweenBatches));
    }

    console.log(`Processed ${Math.min(i + batchSize, queries.length)}/${queries.length}`);
  }

  return allResults;
}

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
429 errors	Exceeding 10 QPS	Implement backoff + queue
Burst rejected	Too many simultaneous requests	Use p-queue with intervalCap
Batch job failures	No delay between batches	Add delayBetweenBatches
Inconsistent throttling	No jitter in retry	Add random jitter to prevent thundering herd

Examples

Simple Retry Wrapper

async function retrySearch(query: string, maxRetries = 3) {
  for (let i = 0; i <= maxRetries; i++) {
    try {
      return await exa.search(query, { numResults: 5 });
    } catch (err: any) {
      if (err.status !== 429 || i === maxRetries) throw err;
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1000 * Math.pow(2, i)));
    }
  }
}

Resources

• Exa Rate Limits
• p-queue

Next Steps

For security configuration, see exa-security-basics.