# OpenAlex Academic Paper Search

> OpenAlex Academic Paper Search is a paid API for AI agents from api.x402node.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.008/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Searches 240M+ academic publications via OpenAlex and returns paper metadata including title, authors, abstract, year, citation count, DOI, and PDF link

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://api.x402node.dev/search/academic
- Price: $0.008/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/api-x402node-dev-0c180904
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_bQc7ixuEo8KKXjFaw8lFh

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 api-x402node-dev-0c180904
```

Example prompt: Search for the top 10 academic papers on transformer neural networks for natural language processing — I need titles, authors, abstracts, citation counts, and PDF links.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need broad academic literature search across 240M+ publications without needing an API key or worrying about rate limits. Prefer over arXiv-specific endpoints when you need coverage beyond preprints, or over CrossRef/DOI lookups when you don't already have a specific DOI and need keyword-based discovery.

## Known failure modes

- Empty query string returns error or zero results
- Limit parameter too high may slow response or be capped
- OpenAlex upstream unavailability causes 502/503
- Obscure or niche topics may return few or no results
- Non-English queries may have limited coverage

## How this service works

Search academic papers across 240M+ publications via OpenAlex (free, no API key, no rate-limit issues). Returns papers with title, authors, abstract, year, citation count, DOI, PDF link. Use ?q=YOUR_QUERY and limit=10. Built for research agents and literature review workflows. Accepts payment on Base or Solana — either network works.

## Output

Returns a list of up to N academic papers, each with: title, author list, abstract text, publication year, citation count, DOI, and a PDF link where available — sourced from OpenAlex's index of 240M+ publications.

## 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"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "q"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "q": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Search query (required)"
      },
      "limit": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Max results (optional)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/api-x402node-dev-0c180904/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.x402node.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.x402node.dev/llms.txt)