Exa Performance Tuning

Overview

Optimize Exa search API response times for production workloads. Key levers: search type selection (instant < fast < auto < neural < deep), result count reduction, content scope control, result caching, and parallel query execution.

Latency by Search Type

instant

fast

auto

neural

deep

deep-reasoning

Instructions

Step 1: Match Search Type to Latency Budget

import Exa from "exa-js";

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

function selectSearchType(latencyBudgetMs: number) {
  if (latencyBudgetMs < 200) return "instant";
  if (latencyBudgetMs < 500) return "fast";
  if (latencyBudgetMs < 1500) return "auto";
  if (latencyBudgetMs < 3000) return "neural";
  return "deep";
}

async function optimizedSearch(query: string, latencyBudgetMs: number) {
  const type = selectSearchType(latencyBudgetMs);
  const numResults = latencyBudgetMs < 500 ? 3 : latencyBudgetMs < 2000 ? 5 : 10;

  return exa.search(query, { type, numResults });
}

Step 2: Minimize Content Retrieval

// Each content option adds latency. Only request what you need.

// Fastest: metadata only (no content retrieval)
const metadataOnly = await exa.search("query", { numResults: 5 });

// Medium: highlights only (much smaller than full text)
const highlightsOnly = await exa.searchAndContents("query", {
  numResults: 5,
  highlights: { maxCharacters: 300 },
  // No text or summary — saves content retrieval time
});

// Slower: full text (use maxCharacters to limit)
const withText = await exa.searchAndContents("query", {
  numResults: 3,  // fewer results = faster
  text: { maxCharacters: 1000 },  // limit content size
});

Step 3: Cache Search Results

import { LRUCache } from "lru-cache";

const searchCache = new LRUCache<string, any>({
  max: 5000,
  ttl: 2 * 3600 * 1000, // 2-hour TTL
});

async function cachedSearch(query: string, opts: any) {
  const key = `${query}:${opts.type || "auto"}:${opts.numResults || 10}`;
  const cached = searchCache.get(key);
  if (cached) return cached; // Cache hit: 0ms vs 500-2000ms

  const results = await exa.search(query, opts);
  searchCache.set(key, results);
  return results;
}

Step 4: Parallelize Independent Searches

// Run independent queries concurrently instead of sequentially
async function parallelSearch(queries: string[]) {
  const searches = queries.map(q =>
    cachedSearch(q, { type: "auto", numResults: 3 })
  );
  return Promise.all(searches);
  // 3 parallel searches: ~600ms total (limited by slowest)
  // 3 sequential searches: ~1800ms total
}

Step 5: Two-Phase Search Pattern

// Phase 1: Fast search for URLs only
// Phase 2: Selective content retrieval for top results only
async function twoPhaseSearch(query: string) {
  // Phase 1: metadata only (fast)
  const results = await exa.search(query, { type: "auto", numResults: 10 });

  // Phase 2: get content only for top 3 results
  const topUrls = results.results.slice(0, 3).map(r => r.url);
  const contents = await exa.getContents(topUrls, {
    text: { maxCharacters: 2000 },
    highlights: { maxCharacters: 500, query },
  });

  return contents;
  // Saves content retrieval time for 7 results you won't use
}

Step 6: Query Normalization for Cache Hits

function normalizeQuery(query: string): string {
  return query
    .toLowerCase()
    .trim()
    .replace(/\s+/g, " ")       // collapse whitespace
    .replace(/[?.!,;:]+$/, ""); // strip trailing punctuation
}

async function normalizedSearch(query: string, opts: any) {
  return cachedSearch(normalizeQuery(query), opts);
}
// Increases cache hit rate by 20-40% for user-generated queries

Performance Comparison

instant

text

highlights

Promise.all

Error Handling

fast

auto

maxCharacters

Resources

• Exa Search Types
• Exa Contents Retrieval

Next Steps

For cost optimization, see

exa-cost-tuning

exa-reliability-patterns