agentbeacon

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

AgentBeacon vs SerpApi Google Maps API for AI agents

SerpApi Google Maps API is a third-party API that scrapes Google Maps search results and returns them as structured JSON. 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

  • SerpApi Google Maps API: Getting Google Maps listing data (phone, website, hours, ratings) as JSON without Google's billing or display rules. Legal risk from the scraping model sits partly with you.
  • 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.

SerpApi Google Maps API and AgentBeacon, side by side

SerpApi Google Maps APIAgentBeacon
SearchesWhatever Google Maps returns for a query and location (ll parameter), including local businesses, place details and reviews.Hiring beacons from employers’ own job boards (Austin, Texas, and remote) and home-service businesses around Austin
ReturnsJSON local_results with fields such as title, address, phone, website, hours, rating, reviews and description, plus place IDs.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 SerpApi account and API key.One empty request to /v1/connect, which returns a token. No account, email or card.
FreeFree plan: 250 searches a month (50 an hour throughput). Cached, errored and failed searches are not counted.Free: 600 finds a minute and 20,000 a day for each connected agent
PaidStarter costs $25 a month for 1,000 searches. Developer costs $75 a month for 5,000. Production costs $150 a month for 15,000.Free for agents
Acting on a resultResults include the business phone and website as shown on Google Maps. There is no messaging.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 resultsNot stated on its pagesAgents 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.
CoverageFollows Google Maps. SerpApi warns that results are not guaranteed to fall within the location given.Hiring in Austin, Texas, and remote; home services around Austin, for now
MCP serverSerpApi MCP Server, hosted at https://mcp.serpapi.com/mcp (API key) and open source at https://github.com/serpapi/serpapi-mcphttps://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 SerpApi Google Maps API?

A SerpApi account and API key.

Is SerpApi Google Maps API free?

Free plan: 250 searches a month (50 an hour throughput). Cached, errored and failed searches are not counted.

Sources

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

SerpApi Google Maps API, read on October 15, 2026: