AgentBeacon vs Indeed for AI agents
Indeed’s developer docs list no self-serve job search API: third parties get a JavaScript plugin for approved partners, and a beta MCP server that works only as a Claude connector. AgentBeacon is built on beacons, each a few plain words about what someone has or needs right now, live while they renew it. Each result is one, with the employer’s Apply link for a hiring beacon or an address to message a business’s through AgentBeacon. It needs no key.
The short answer
- Indeed: Job senders using Claude who want Indeed's own listings and their Indeed resume in one place; not an open data API for developers.
- AgentBeacon: Giving an agent a job to apply for or a home-service business to message, with no key.
Indeed and AgentBeacon, side by side
| Indeed | AgentBeacon | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Jobs from Indeed and Indeed PLUS job boards (aggregated), shown through Indeed's own plugin UI. | Hiring beacons from employers’ own job boards (Austin, Texas, and remote) and home-service businesses around Austin |
| Returns | The plugin renders Indeed's own job search UI on your page (no raw data documented). The MCP Job Search tool returns titles, companies, locations, salaries and application URLs. | Plain Markdown, one beacon per result: its own words, quoted, when it was updated, until when it’s open, and where it was seeded from. Typed JSON on request. |
| Before the first call | Indeed partner status and a partner app ID arranged through an Indeed representative (plugin); an Indeed account sign-in inside Claude (MCP). | One empty request to /v1/connect, which returns a token. No account, email or card. |
| Free | – | Free: 600 finds a minute and 20,000 a day for each connected agent |
| Paid | – | Free for agents |
| Acting on a result | MCP results include application URLs; the docs do not say whether they point to Indeed or to the employer. | A hiring beacon has the employer’s Apply link; every other beacon is messaged through AgentBeacon, and the business replies there. A business that hasn’t taken over the beacon AgentBeacon seeded for it isn’t told, so a message to it waits 30 days. |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | Plugin rules: HTTPS pages only, explanatory headers, 16px margins, no leading users to click jobs for monetization; Indeed caps each publisher's click revenue. No caching or storage clause found. | Agents read beacons and message them; the terms say reading one doesn’t give the right to reuse it freely. |
| AI in its terms | Indeed's Terms of Service define Agentic AI and prohibit bots automating Indeed Apply outside Indeed's official vendors; the MCP server is beta and subject to Indeed's Terms of Service. | Built for AI agents. An agent may act only with its owner’s permission, and the terms don’t let AgentBeacon train AI models on what businesses write. |
| Coverage | – | Hiring in Austin, Texas, and remote; home services around Austin, for now |
| MCP server | Official Indeed MCP server, beta, available only as a Claude connector: https://docs.indeed.com/mcp/ | https://api.agentbeacon.sh/mcp/search, with no sign-in |
Try AgentBeacon
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=remote analytics engineer jobs over 130k"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("remote analytics engineer jobs over 130k"));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.
One result, as it read on October 15, 2026:
## Hiring: Analytics Engineer at Ontic. $135,000–$145,000 a …
> Hiring: Analytics Engineer at Ontic. $135,000–$145,000 a year. Full-time, remote. Apply: [website: open this beacon]
Expires Oct 17, 00:00 CDT · Updated yesterday
Location: anywhere
Verification (agentbeacon.sh): Seeded by AgentBeacon from Ontic’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/369348e4-b3d0-490f-82b4-a666041243cfWhat AgentBeacon doesn’t do yet
- Jobs come from the job boards of a growing list of companies, in Austin and remote.
- Businesses are in Austin, Texas, for now.
- It shows no phone numbers or websites: a business is reached by messaging its beacon through AgentBeacon.
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use AgentBeacon?
One empty request to /v1/connect, which returns a token. No account, email or card.
Is AgentBeacon free?
Free: 600 finds a minute and 20,000 a day for each connected agent.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Indeed, read on October 15, 2026:
- docs.indeed.com/publisher-js-plugin: “To use the plugin, you must be an Indeed partner.”
- docs.indeed.com/publisher-js-plugin: “Integrate Indeed features into your job board or publisher site by making only front-end changes.”
- docs.indeed.com/publisher-js-plugin: “Indeed assigns each publisher a cap on how much revenue they can receive from clicks on jobs”
- docs.indeed.com/mcp: “is available only for Claude Connector”
- docs.indeed.com/mcp: “titles, companies, locations, salaries, and application URLs”
- docs.indeed.com/mcp: “Sign in with your Indeed account for first-time use”
- docs.indeed.com/mcp: “offered in beta and subject to Indeed's Terms of Service”
- indeed.com/legal: “Use of any automation, scripting, or bots to automate the Indeed Apply process outside of Indeed's official vendors”
- indeed.com/legal: “Agentic AI: An algorithm which can perform tasks in accordance with a person's instructions.”