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

AgentBeacon vs Yelp Places API for AI agents

Yelp Places API is Yelp's licensed API (formerly Yelp Fusion) for searching businesses and reading Yelp business details, ratings, photos and review excerpts. 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

Yelp Places API: Yelp ratings, review excerpts and photos for restaurants and local services in consumer apps that display Yelp content. The terms rule out passing that content to an LLM.
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.

Yelp Places API and AgentBeacon, side by side

	Yelp Places API	AgentBeacon
Searches	Local businesses listed on Yelp. Yelp says it covers "millions of businesses around the world," and the supported-locales page lists 32 countries.	Hiring beacons from employers’ own job boards (Austin, Texas, and remote) and home-service businesses around Austin
Returns	JSON over REST at https://api.yelp.com/v3. Results include name, address, phone, Yelp rating, price level, review count, coordinates, categories, image and Yelp URL. Photos and review excerpts depend on the plan.	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	A Yelp developer account (a business email is required for the trial) and a private API key. Paid plans need a credit card on file.	One empty request to /v1/connect, which returns a token. No account, email or card.
Free	A 30-day trial with up to 5,000 API calls, for evaluation only, not commercial use. There is no permanent free tier.	Free: 600 finds a minute and 20,000 a day for each connected agent
Paid	Base costs $229 a month plus $5.91 per extra 1,000 calls. Enhanced costs $299 a month plus $6.57 per 1,000. Premium costs $643 a month plus $14.13 per 1,000. The FAQ says paid plans include 30,000 calls a month by default.	Free for agents
Acting on a result	Results include the business phone number and its Yelp page URL. There is no way to message a business through the Places 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 results	No caching or storing of Yelp Content for more than 24 hours. No building your own business-listing database from it. Display Requirements apply, and Yelp can require removal of content within 24 hours.	Agents read beacons and message them; the terms say reading one doesn’t give the right to reuse it freely.
AI in its terms	Very restrictive. Section 9 bans training or fine-tuning generative AI models on Yelp Content. Section 9.4 bans submitting or ingesting any Yelp Content into any Generative AI Model, for example in prompts to ChatGPT. Yelp sells a separate Yelp AI API for conversational use at $25 per 1,000 calls.	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	32 countries in Yelp's supported-locales list, including the US.	Hiring in Austin, Texas, and remote; home services around Austin, for now
MCP server	Yelp/yelp-mcp on GitHub (https://github.com/Yelp/yelp-mcp). It wraps the Yelp Fusion AI API with one yelp_agent tool and needs a Yelp Fusion AI key, not a Places API key.	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 Yelp Places API?

A Yelp developer account (a business email is required for the trial) and a private API key. Paid plans need a credit card on file.

Is Yelp Places API free?

A 30-day trial with up to 5,000 API calls, for evaluation only, not commercial use. There is no permanent free tier.

Sources

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

Yelp Places API, read on October 15, 2026:

business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$229 per month plus $5.91 per additional 1,000 API calls”
business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$299 per month plus $6.57 per additional 1,000 API calls”
business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$643 per month plus $14.13 per additional 1,000 API calls”
business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “Receive 5,000 free API calls during the 30-day trial period”
business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “Start 30-day free trial Business email required”
business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing: “$25 / 1,000 API calls Minimum 1,000 daily API calls”
docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-faq: “These API calls are STRICTLY FOR EVALUATION AND NOT FOR COMMERCIAL DEPLOYMENT”
docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-faq: “This plan includes 30,000 API calls per month by default”
docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-intro: “valuable information such as name, address, phone number, Yelp rating, price levels, and review counts”
docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-intro: “The Yelp Places API uses private key authentication to authenticate all endpoints.”
docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/places-intro: “millions of businesses around the world”
terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “opt into a paid subscription program by providing credit card and other necessary information”
terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “cache, record, pre-fetch, or otherwise store any portion of the Yelp Content for a period longer than twenty-four (24) hours”
terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “use it to update or create your own database of business listing information”
terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “Submit or ingest any Yelp Content into any Generative AI Model (e.g., prompts that contain any Yelp Content into ChatGPT”
terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms: “for the purpose of training, developing, enhancing, or fine-tuning any Generative AI Models without Yelp’s prior written approval”
github.com/Yelp/yelp-mcp: “MCP server for exposing tools powered by Yelp's data”
docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/resources-supported-locales: “Following are the locales Yelp Places API supports.”