Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Exa (4.2/5) edges ahead of Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News (3.8/5) overall. Exa is the better choice for RAG and agent developers needing semantic news retrieval. Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News is the stronger option for trading-app developers already using Polygon or Massive data. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Exa | Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2021 | 2016 |
| HQ | San Francisco, USA | Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
| Team size | 51–200 | Not publicly disclosed |
| Rating | 4.2 / 5 | 3.8 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Search by meaning with page text returned in the same request | Per-ticker sentiment with a written reason, included in stock data plans |
| Pricing model | Pay per request; free monthly credit | Monthly plans per asset class |
| Entry price | $7 per 1,000 searches | $29/mo |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, Python SDK | REST API, JSON, WebSocket |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia | Financial services, Research & academia |
Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News: overview
Exa
Exa Labs started in San Francisco in 2021 as Metaphor, founded by Will Bryk and Jeff Wang, and raised an $85 million Series B led by Benchmark in September 2025. It runs its own web index searched by meaning, so a query like "startups cutting cloud costs" can match articles that never use those words. Set the category to news and ask for contents, and one request returns cleaned text you can drop into a prompt. As of 2026 search costs $7 per 1,000 requests with contents for the top 10 results included, and new accounts start with $20 of credit. SDKs cover Python and TypeScript, and an official MCP server plugs it into agent tools. It is a search engine at heart, so expect weaker coverage of small regional outlets and fuzzier publication dates than a dedicated news API gives.
Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News
Massive is the name Polygon.io took on October 30, 2025. The company was founded in Atlanta around 2016 by Quinton Pike, and old api.polygon.io endpoints keep working beside the new api.massive.com base. Its ticker news endpoint returns recent articles for a symbol with summaries, publisher details and an insights array giving a sentiment label and a one-sentence reason for each ticker mentioned. Sentiment only exists for articles published after July 2, 2024. Ticker news is included in every Stocks plan: the free Basic tier reaches two years of history, and Stocks Starter costs $29 a month. Official SDKs cover Python, Go, JavaScript and more, and flat files can be pulled from S3.
Features: Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News
| Capability | Exa | Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✗ |
| Historical archive | ✗ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✗ | ✓ |
| Story/event clustering | ✗ | ✗ |
| Official SDK | ✓ | ✓ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News
| Format / SDK | Exa | Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | ✓ |
| Node.js SDK | ✓ | ✓ |
| Webhooks | N/A | N/A |
| WebSocket | N/A | ✓ |
| MCP server | ✓ | N/A |
| S3/bulk delivery | N/A | ✓ |
| BigQuery | N/A | N/A |
Pricing comparison: Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News
| Criterion | Exa | Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $7 per 1,000 searches | $29/mo |
| Pricing model | Pay per request; free monthly credit | Monthly plans per asset class |
| Access models | Free tier, Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise contract | Free tier, Monthly plans, Enterprise contract |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Budget |
Who each API suits: Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News
| Dimension | Exa | Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia | Financial services, Research & academia |
| Example use cases | Grounding chatbot answers in recent articles. Research agents gathering background on a topic. | News beside charts in a trading app. Explaining price moves with sentiment reasons. |
| How you get access | Free tier | Free tier |
Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News: pros and cons
| Exa | |
|---|---|
| + | Finds relevant coverage that keyword queries miss |
| + | Contents come with results, so there is no second fetch-and-parse step |
| + | An MCP server and Python and TypeScript SDKs are official |
| + | Pay per request with no monthly minimum |
| - | No source taxonomy, sentiment or story clusters |
| - | Publication dates come from crawl metadata and can be off |
| - | Monitoring thousands of queries a day gets expensive |
| Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News | |
|---|---|
| + | News comes with every Stocks plan, including the free one |
| + | Sentiment includes a short explanation you can show users |
| + | Mature SDKs and WebSocket streams for prices |
| + | Old Polygon code keeps working after the rebrand |
| - | Sentiment is missing for anything before July 2024 |
| - | Covers listed companies only |
| - | Each asset class is billed separately |
Who should choose Exa?
A typical fit: grounding chatbot answers in recent articles.
Search by meaning with page text returned in the same request. Paid access starts at $7 per 1,000 searches. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Research & academia.
Who should choose Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News?
A typical fit: news beside charts in a trading app.
Per-ticker sentiment with a written reason, included in stock data plans. Paid access starts at $29/mo. Typical uses: Financial services, Research & academia.
Decision matrix: Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You want to start free before paying | Both |
| Your budget is at the lower end | Exa |
| You need full article text in the response | Exa |
| You need years of historical news | Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News |
| You want an official SDK | Both |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Exa |
Use case fit: Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News
| Use case | Exa fit | Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Limited | Exa |
| Research & academia | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| Financial services | Limited | Strong | Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News |
Verdict: Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News
Exa (4.2/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Search by meaning with page text returned in the same request.
Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News (3.8/5) is worth a look if you need explaining price moves with sentiment reasons. If your situation matches that, Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Exa vs Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News FAQ
Is Exa better than Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News?
Exa (4.2/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Exa's strongest advantage: finds relevant coverage that keyword queries miss. Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News's strongest advantage: news comes with every Stocks plan, including the free one.
How do Exa and Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News differ in pricing?
Exa: pay per request; free monthly credit, with paid access from $7 per 1,000 searches. Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News: monthly plans per asset class, with paid access from $29/mo. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Exa or Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News?
Both sell enterprise contracts. Neither carries licensed publisher content, so check copyright terms before republishing anything.
What are the main differences between Exa and Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News?
What sets Exa apart: search by meaning with page text returned in the same request. What sets Massive (ex-Polygon.io) News apart: per-ticker sentiment with a written reason, included in stock data plans. They also differ on entry price ($7 per 1,000 searches vs $29/mo) and typical uses (AI & LLM apps, Research & academia vs Financial services, Research & academia).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.