How to Connect an ElevenLabs Agent to Exa Web Search

Connect Exa to an ElevenLabs agent to let it search the web during conversations. The integration uses an Exa API key and supports filters for source categories, domains, and publication dates. Search results give the agent additional evidence; they do not guarantee an accurate answer.

Check the integration limits

Confirm that these limits suit your deployment before connecting the service. See the official Exa integration documentation for current support.

Connect Exa in ElevenLabs

1. Create or sign in to your Exa account.
2. Open the API Keys page in the Exa dashboard and obtain a key for the integration.
3. Open the Exa integration setup in ElevenLabs and enter the key in its API Key field. Keep it out of prompts, public code, and screenshots.
4. Complete the connection and confirm that the search tool is available to the intended agent.

If you are setting up external tools more generally, see connecting external tools through MCP. Follow the workflow for your integration rather than assuming every tool requires the same setup.

Choose search options

Source categories

A category narrows the kind of results returned. The integration documentation lists these examples; check the current supported values before using them in a tool configuration.

Returned content

• Highlights: relevant excerpts returned by default. Start here when short passages are enough to answer the question.
• Text: fuller page content for questions that need context beyond an excerpt.
• Summary: an AI-generated page summary, which can add latency and still requires checking against the source.

Domain and date filters

Include domains when you need a particular publisher, or exclude domains that are unsuitable for the task. A publication-date range can help with time-sensitive questions; use the ISO 8601 format expected by the tool. Avoid overly narrow filters that hide relevant results.

Test the agent before release

Ask a question that requires a web lookup, then inspect whether the agent called Exa and whether the returned pages support its answer. Test a domain-restricted search, a recent-date search, and a query with no useful results. In the last case, the agent should acknowledge the gap rather than invent an answer.

If a search fails, check the connection and API key, account usage limits, and filter values. If the tool succeeds but the agent does not use it, review the agent's tool instructions. For conversation-control behavior that is separate from web search, see ElevenAgents system tools.