# AnswerPool Funding Signals

> AnswerPool Funding Signals is a paid API for AI agents from answerpool.io, paid per call via x402, $0.02/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Returns aggregated US federal funding signals (USAspending + NIH grants) for a technology keyword across multiple fiscal years, with growth metrics and top recipients.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://answerpool.io/v1/funding/signals
- Price: $0.02/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/answerpool-funding-signals-98a5ebf2
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_Py99kyBD0EyHjwnQSWO3Z

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability answerpool-funding-signals-98a5ebf2
```

Example prompt: How much has the US federal government been spending on quantum computing over the past 5 years — break it down by fiscal year and show me which organizations are getting the most money and whether the trend is growing?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a quick, pre-computed US federal funding intelligence signal for a specific technology keyword — especially for due diligence, grant proposal research, or trend monitoring. It is ideal for AI agents that need machine-readable, pay-per-call research without maintaining their own data pipelines to USAspending.gov and NIH RePORTER. Prefer it over building custom queries to source APIs when you need growth rates, top recipients, and NIH project listings aggregated in a single call. It is US-federal-focused and keyword-matched, so it is not appropriate for private investment data, non-US government funding, or precise legislative budget analysis.

## Known failure modes

- Term too short (under 2 chars) or too long (over 200 chars) returns 422 validation error
- Years parameter outside 2–8 range returns 422 validation error
- Payment not processed or x402 header missing returns 402 Payment Required
- Term that matches no federal spending or NIH data returns empty arrays with zero values
- Partial current fiscal year data flagged via 'partial_current_fy' in flags array
- NIH RePORTER or USAspending API upstream outage may cause 503 or stale data

## How this service works

AnswerPool turns SEC EDGAR, the Federal Register, USAspending, NIH, BLS and OpenAlex into structured JSON answers that AI agents and developers fetch in one call. 69 endpoints free, no account; derived analyses $0.02–$0.05 per call by card credits or USDC (x402). MCP server, full provenance.

## Output

A JSON object containing: the queried term, a timestamp, a list of fiscal years covered, US federal spending broken down by fiscal year (grants, contracts, total obligations), a 3-year USAspending growth rate, a 3-year NIH grant growth rate, NIH project counts by fiscal year, a list of recent NIH-funded projects with titles and award amounts, the top funding recipients by name and total amount, and data quality flags (e.g. partial current fiscal year, NIH active).

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "title": "FundingInput",
     "required": [
      "term"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "term": {
       "type": "string",
       "title": "Term",
       "maxLength": 200,
       "minLength": 2,
       "description": "Technology keyword, e.g. 'quantum computing'."
      },
      "years": {
       "type": "integer",
       "title": "Years",
       "default": 5,
       "maximum": 8,
       "minimum": 2,
       "description": "How many fiscal years back to aggregate."
      }
     },
     "additionalProperties": false
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "term": "quantum computing",
  "as_of": "2026-08-30T18:00:00Z",
  "flags": [
   "partial_current_fy",
   "nih_active"
  ],
  "fiscal_years": [
   2022,
   2023,
   2024,
   2025,
   2026
  ],
  "nih_growth_3y": 0.19,
  "top_recipients": [
   {
    "uei": "UYTTZT6G9DT1",
    "name": "UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO",
    "amount_usd": 44900000
   }
  ],
  "usaspending_by_fy": [
   {
    "fiscal_year": 2025,
    "grant_obligations_usd": 57100000,
    "total_obligations_usd": 237100000,
    "contract_obligations_usd": 180000000
   }
  ],
  "nih_projects_by_fy": {
   "2024": 47,
   "2025": 37
  },
  "nih_recent_projects": [
   {
    "title": "Quantum sensing for neuroimaging",
    "fiscal_year": 2026,
    "project_num": "1R01EB035892-01",
    "organization": "MIT",
    "award_amount_usd": 612000
   }
  ],
  "usaspending_growth_3y": 0.48
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/answerpool-funding-signals-98a5ebf2/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from answerpool.io](https://www.zero.xyz/host/answerpool.io/llms.txt)