# CortexCloud Grounded Web Search with Citations

> CortexCloud Grounded Web Search with Citations is a paid API for AI agents from api.cortexcloud.org, paid per call via x402, $0.006/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Performs grounded web search with cited results using Brave Search, paid per call via x402/USDC

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://api.cortexcloud.org/v1/research/search
- Price: $0.006/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/cortexcloud-grounded-web-search-with-citations-c5019c51
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_zbPvN7tZl4MqgaCykCxUn

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 cortexcloud-grounded-web-search-with-citations-c5019c51
```

Example prompt: Search the web for the latest news on OpenAI's newest model releases and give me 10 results from the past week with citations.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need real-time, grounded web search results with source citations and freshness control, especially in agentic workflows that require verifiable references. Prefer it over static knowledge bases when recency matters. Ideal for agents that need to cite sources or cross-check current facts without managing API keys, using x402 micropayment per call instead.

## Known failure modes

- Query string missing or empty — returns 400 error
- Query exceeds 400 character limit — returns validation error
- Insufficient USDC balance for x402 payment — returns 402 Payment Required
- Freshness filter yields no results for very recent timeframes — returns empty result set
- Brave Search API upstream outage — returns 503 or timeout
- Count parameter out of range (below 1 or above 20) — returns validation error

## How this service works

One pay-per-call API for AI agents: optimization, AI, research, on-chain data, and automation — all settled in USDC on Base via x402. Discover via MCP and Bazaar, estimate free, pay per call. No API keys, no signup.

## Output

Returns a list of web search results (up to 20) including titles, URLs, snippets, and citation metadata sourced from Brave Search, grounded in real web content with freshness filtering applied.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "count": {
   "type": "integer",
   "default": 5,
   "maximum": 20,
   "minimum": 1
  },
  "query": {
   "type": "string",
   "maxLength": 400,
   "minLength": 1
  },
  "freshness": {
   "type": "string",
   "default": "pw"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "format": "application/json",
 "example": {
  "query": "quantum annealing",
  "results": [
   {
    "url": "...",
    "title": "...",
    "source": "..."
   }
  ],
  "price_usd": 0.006
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/cortexcloud-grounded-web-search-with-citations-c5019c51/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.cortexcloud.org](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.cortexcloud.org/llms.txt)