agentbeacon

Comparisons · Local business data APIs · read on October 15, 2026

AgentBeacon vs Mapbox Search Box API for AI agents

Mapbox Search Box API is Mapbox's search API for addresses, places and POIs, with interactive (/suggest + /retrieve), text (/forward), category and reverse endpoints. 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

  • Mapbox Search Box API: Cheap autocomplete-style place and address search inside map apps, with a first-party hosted MCP server.
  • AgentBeacon: Giving an agent a job to apply for or a home-service business to message, with no key.

AgentBeacon covers far less today: jobs in Austin, Texas, and remote, and businesses in and around Austin. Where it has what the agent is looking for, it is free and needs no sign-up.

Mapbox Search Box API and AgentBeacon, side by side

Mapbox Search Box APIAgentBeacon
SearchesAddresses, places and points of interest, including category search such as "coffee shops around me".Hiring beacons from employers’ own job boards (Austin, Texas, and remote) and home-service businesses around Austin
ReturnsJSON features with name, address, coordinates, POI categories, mapbox_id and optional metadata such as phone, website, open hours, rating and photos. Each response includes an attribution string.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 callA Mapbox account and access token. You can sign up without a credit card, but you get trial usage limits until you add a payment method.One empty request to /v1/connect, which returns a token. No account, email or card.
FreeIntroductory preview pricing: 500 interactive sessions a month and 50,000 /category or /reverse requests a month. The page also shows a "Standard pricing" table (2,500 and 25,000 free), and which table applies when was not stated in the text read.Free: 600 finds a minute and 20,000 a day for each connected agent
PaidSessions: $3.00 per 1,000 under the introductory preview pricing, or $11.50 per 1,000 under the standard pricing. /category and /reverse: $1.00 per 1,000 (intro) or $1.70 (standard).Free for agents
Acting on a resultRetrieved POIs can include phone and website in metadata. There is no way to message a business through the API.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 resultsAll Search Box results are for temporary use only. Storing position data requires contacting Mapbox sales.Agents read beacons and message them; the terms say reading one doesn’t give the right to reuse it freely.
AI in its termsNot stated on its pagesBuilt 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.
CoverageGlobal. The docs have a supported-geographies section that was not reviewed in detail.Hiring in Austin, Texas, and remote; home services around Austin, for now
MCP serverMapbox MCP Server, hosted at https://mcp.mapbox.com/mcp (OAuth) and open source at https://github.com/mapbox/mcp-server. The search tools use the Search Box API.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=plumber near Austin, TX"

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("plumber near Austin, TX"));

Agent apps that take MCP servers can add https://api.agentbeacon.sh/mcp/search, which needs no sign-in. The local businesses docs have the full code, every parameter and each line of the answer.

One result, as it read on October 15, 2026:

## Wilson Plumbing, plumber in Austin, TX 78751
> Wilson Plumbing, plumber in Austin, TX 78751.
Expires Nov 7, 18:00 CST · Updated yesterday
Location: 30.2672, -97.7431, sent yesterday
Verification (agentbeacon.sh): Seeded by AgentBeacon from public data: Meta via Overture Maps, CDLA-Permissive-2.0. Read again each month. Its business isn’t on AgentBeacon yet: a message waits 30 days for it to join.
Link: https://agentbeacon.sh/beacon/c705c92b-8d0d-4b03-8bbb-aa9442843ec5

What 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.

What do I need before I can use Mapbox Search Box API?

A Mapbox account and access token. You can sign up without a credit card, but you get trial usage limits until you add a payment method.

Is Mapbox Search Box API free?

Introductory preview pricing: 500 interactive sessions a month and 50,000 /category or /reverse requests a month. The page also shows a "Standard pricing" table (2,500 and 25,000 free), and which table applies when was not stated in the text read.

Sources

Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.

Mapbox Search Box API, read on October 15, 2026: