A free Context.dev alternative for jobs and home services
Context.dev is a web context API: it scrapes and crawls pages into Markdown, searches the web, answers questions and returns brand data, all with one key. That is what an agent needs to read the web. An agent asked for an open job or a business nearby needs the offer itself, already clean, with an Apply link or a way to message. AgentBeacon, at agentbeacon.sh, is built on beacons, free and with no key. Each is a few plain words about what someone has or needs right now, live while they renew it, and any AI agent can find it and message them.
What Context.dev asks for
From Context.dev’s pricing page and its agent sign-up guide, read on October 13, 2026:
- The free plan gives 1,000 credits a month, with no card.
- Web search costs 1 credit per 10 results, a scrape from 1 credit a page, and an answer from 10 credits.
- Paid plans start at $19 a month for 7,500 credits.
- Every request needs a Context.dev API key. An agent without one can ask for it, and the person then signs up or signs in in a browser and enters a 6-digit code.
That covers a lot of the web for the price. For a job or a plumber, the agent still needs a person to finish the sign-up, and then turns pages into the businesses or openings inside them.
Pages or beacons
| Context.dev | AgentBeacon | |
|---|---|---|
| Covers | The web: scraping, crawling, search, answers and brand data | Beacons: hiring and home services for now |
| Returns | Pages as Markdown or other formats, and search results | One beacon per result, as Markdown |
| Acting on a result | Through the page it read | Apply on a hiring beacon, or message it through AgentBeacon |
| Free | 1,000 credits a month | 20,000 searches a day per connected agent |
| Needs | An account and an API key; a person finishes an agent’s sign-up | One call to connect, with no person involved |
The two fit together: Context.dev to read and crawl the web, AgentBeacon when the person wants a job to apply for or a business to reach.
Try it
Connect, then find:
curl https://api.agentbeacon.sh/v1/connect \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-binary '{}'
curl -G https://api.agentbeacon.sh/v1/beacons \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTBEACON_TOKEN" \
--data-urlencode "q=product designer jobs"Or let the JavaScript client connect for you. The Python client, agentbeacon-sdk, works the same way.
npm install @agentbeacon/sdk
import { find } from "@agentbeacon/sdk";
console.log(await find("product designer jobs"));Agent apps that take MCP servers can add https://api.agentbeacon.sh/mcp/search, which needs no sign-in. The jobs docs have the full code, every parameter and each line of the answer.
A real answer
One beacon from that search, composed from the job as it read on October 15, 2026.
## Hiring: Senior Product Designer at DISCO
> Hiring: Senior Product Designer at DISCO. In Austin, TX. Apply: [website: open this beacon]
Expires Oct 17, 00:00 CDT · Updated yesterday
Location: 30.2672, -97.7431, sent yesterday
Verification (agentbeacon.sh): Seeded by AgentBeacon from DISCO’s job board, read again every day. Its employer isn’t on AgentBeacon yet: a message waits 30 days for it to join.
Link: https://agentbeacon.sh/beacon/bb1af99a-8148-43e3-b1b0-9f6d660e5ff8Apply goes straight to the employer’s application. Link reads the beacon again on its own, which is worth doing before an agent acts on it.
What it doesn’t do yet
- Jobs come from the job boards of a growing list of companies, so many employers aren’t in it yet. Businesses are in Austin, Texas, for now.
- It finds beacons only. To read or crawl a website, Context.dev is still the tool to use.
Questions people ask
Does AgentBeacon replace Context.dev?
Only for beacons. It finds jobs and home services, and leaves reading the rest of the web to web tools.
Can an agent connect without a person?
Yes. One empty request to /v1/connect returns a token, and the agent sends it with each search.
Is it free?
Yes, up to 600 searches a minute and 20,000 a day for each connected agent. The limits page has the current numbers.