# Crustdata Live Web/News/Scholar/AI/Social Search

> Crustdata Live Web/News/Scholar/AI/Social Search is a paid API for AI agents from crustdata.withzero.xyz, paid per call via MPP, $0.1/query, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Runs a live multi-source search (web, news, scholar, AI, or social) to gather external context around companies, people, funding events, markets, or recent news.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://crustdata.withzero.xyz/api/v1/web/search/live
- Price: $0.1/query
- Payment: MPP
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 3
- Provider: crustdata.withzero.xyz
- Website: https://crustdata.withzero.xyz
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/crustdata-withzero-xyz-crustdata-live-web-news-scholar-ai-social-search-9bf63a1d
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_uDoivdyE3kjUT_s6k5CgY

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 crustdata-withzero-xyz-crustdata-live-web-news-scholar-ai-social-search-9bf63a1d -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search Crustdata for recent funding news about AI infrastructure startups using both web and news sources, US region, page 1 — I need to find companies that raised money in the last quarter.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need live, real-time external context from the web, news, academic literature, AI-synthesized results, or social media — especially for researching companies, people, funding rounds, or market events. Prefer this over cached Crustdata company/person search endpoints when freshness matters and you need information that may not be in Crustdata's internal dataset.

## Known failure modes

- Upstream Crustdata error returns no results and settles $0
- Query exceeds 5000 character limit returns validation error
- Invalid source type in sources array causes rejection
- Invalid ISO country code for location causes rejection
- Page number outside 1–10 range causes validation error
- Network timeout to Crustdata upstream returns error

## How this service works

Core workflow route: run live web, news, scholar, AI, or social search to add external context around accounts, people, funding, markets, or recent events. Default pricing is $0.10 per Crustdata credit with a $0.01 minimum successful-call settlement. Upstream Crustdata errors settle $0. Estimates one Crustdata credit per query.

## Output

Returns the raw Crustdata JSON response containing search result objects (snippets, links, metadata) from the requested sources, plus billing details including credits used, USDC settled, and price per credit.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "example": {
  "page": 1,
  "query": "recent funding news for AI infrastructure startups",
  "sources": [
   "web",
   "news"
  ],
  "location": "US"
 },
 "required": [
  "query"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "page": {
   "type": "integer",
   "example": 1,
   "maximum": 1,
   "minimum": 1,
   "description": "Number of result pages to aggregate."
  },
  "site": {
   "type": "string",
   "example": "example.com",
   "maxLength": 500,
   "description": "Restrict results to a domain or path."
  },
  "query": {
   "type": "string",
   "example": "recent funding news for AI infrastructure startups",
   "maxLength": 5000,
   "minLength": 1,
   "description": "Search query text."
  },
  "sources": {
   "type": "array",
   "items": {
    "type": "string",
    "minLength": 1
   },
   "example": [
    "web",
    "news"
   ],
   "description": "Sources to query, such as web, news, scholar-articles, ai, or social."
  },
  "end_date": {
   "type": "integer",
   "example": 1767225600,
   "maximum": 9007199254740991,
   "minimum": -9007199254740991,
   "description": "Unix timestamp in seconds; only results before this date."
  },
  "location": {
   "type": "string",
   "example": "US",
   "maxLength": 2,
   "minLength": 2,
   "description": "ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for region-specific results."
  },
  "human_mode": {
   "type": "boolean",
   "example": false,
   "description": "Attempt a browser-like retrieval path when standard access is blocked."
  },
  "start_date": {
   "type": "integer",
   "example": 1735689600,
   "maximum": 9007199254740991,
   "minimum": -9007199254740991,
   "description": "Unix timestamp in seconds; only results after this date."
  }
 },
 "additionalProperties": false
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "data"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "data": {
   "description": "Raw JSON response returned by Crustdata."
  },
  "billing": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "apiCredits",
    "minimumCallUsdcMicro",
    "pricePerCreditUsdcMicro",
    "settledUsdcMicro"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "apiCredits": {
     "type": "number",
     "example": 0.06,
     "description": "Estimated Crustdata API credits charged for this request."
    },
    "settledUsdcMicro": {
     "type": "string",
     "example": "10000",
     "description": "USDC micro-units settled for this request."
    },
    "minimumCallUsdcMicro": {
     "type": "string",
     "example": "10000",
     "description": "Configured minimum successful-call settlement in USDC micro-units."
    },
    "pricePerCreditUsdcMicro": {
     "type": "string",
     "example": "100000",
     "description": "Configured USDC micro-units charged per Crustdata API credit."
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  }
 },
 "additionalProperties": false
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/crustdata-withzero-xyz-crustdata-live-web-news-scholar-ai-social-search-9bf63a1d/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from crustdata.withzero.xyz](https://www.zero.xyz/host/crustdata.withzero.xyz/llms.txt)