FAQ
Frequently asked questions about the Research API
Product teams, analysts, researchers, and anyone who needs structured answers that require reading multiple web sources — without having to build their own search + scraping + LLM pipeline.
/answer is designed for single-shot Q&A. The Research API handles long-running, multi-step investigations. It’s suitable for tasks that require complex reasoning over web data.
Tasks generally complete in 20–40 seconds. Simple tasks that can be solved with few searches complete faster, while complex schema’s targeting niche subjects may take longer.
- Be explicit about the objective and any constraints
- Specify the time range or types of sources to consult if important
- Use imperative verbs (“Compare”, “List”, “Summarize”)
- Keep it under 4096 characters
Yes. Every root-level field in your data object has a corresponding array of
citation URLs in the citations object.
We recommend ≤ 8 root fields and payloads under 10 KB. Larger schemas will work but increase latency and cost.
If your schema is not valid, an error will surface before the task is created with a message about what is invalid. You will not be charged for such requests.
Each request has a fixed base cost determined by the model you select. In addition, usage-based costs are incurred for agent operations such as search, crawling, and LLM compute. Each response includes a costDollars breakdown so you can track spend in real time.