AgentBeacon vs Remote OK API for AI agents
Remote OK API is a public JSON feed of the jobs posted on the Remote OK remote job board. 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
- Remote OK API: The simplest no-key feed of remote tech and startup jobs for a site that links back to Remote OK.
- 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.
Remote OK API and AgentBeacon, side by side
| Remote OK API | AgentBeacon | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | Remote OK's own remote job board only. | Hiring beacons from employers’ own job boards (Austin, Texas, and remote) and home-service businesses around Austin |
| Returns | JSON array of jobs with id, slug, company, position, tags, location, salary_min, salary_max, url, apply_url, date, epoch, description and logo fields. | 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 | Nothing: no key or sign-up. The feed at remoteok.com/api answers without one. | One empty request to /v1/connect, which returns a token. No account, email or card. |
| Free | No key needed, and its pages state no price | Free: 600 finds a minute and 20,000 a day for each connected agent |
| Paid | Not stated on its pages | Free for agents |
| Acting on a result | Both url and apply_url point to the job page on remoteok.com, not 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 | Must link back (followed, not nofollow) to the Remote OK URL and name Remote OK as source, or access is suspended; don't use the Remote OK logo without written permission. | Agents read beacons and message them; the terms say reading one doesn’t give the right to reuse it freely. |
| AI in its terms | Not stated on its pages | 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 | Remote jobs; location is free text (e.g. 'Remote', 'US, UK, Canada, Australia + 35 other countries'). | Hiring in Austin, Texas, and remote; home services around Austin, for now |
| MCP server | No official server listed | 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.
What do I need before I can use Remote OK API?
Nothing: no key or sign-up. The feed at remoteok.com/api answers without one.
Is Remote OK API free?
No key needed, and its pages state no price.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Remote OK API, read on October 15, 2026:
- remoteok.com/api: “Please link back (with follow, and without nofollow!) to the URL on Remote OK”
- remoteok.com/api: “If you do not we'll have to suspend API access.”
- remoteok.com/api: “https://remoteOK.com/remote-jobs/remote-ai-trainer-imerit-technology-1137513”