Magnetic exchange force spectroscopy is an elegant experimental method to extract the short-range magnetic contribution to the total interatomic interaction energy between the tip apex atom and the sample atoms across a vacuum gap. If the tip does not exhibit a spin-dependent reversible hysteretic reconfiguration of its atomic structure, experimental data can be directly compared quantitatively with first principles electronic structure calculations. Moreover, knowing the distance dependence and magnitude of the magnetic exchange interaction opens a new route to induce magnetization reversal events.