# Olostep Web Search & Browse Answer Engine

> Olostep Web Search & Browse Answer Engine is a paid API for AI agents from x402.orthogonal.com, paid per call via x402, $0.05/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Performs autonomous web searching and browsing to answer a given task, returning structured JSON results within 3–30 seconds.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://x402.orthogonal.com/olostep/v1/answers
- Price: $0.05/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/olostep-web-search-browse-answer-engine-40c51b09
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_XlUnvU665SrP0-OqI5vVv

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 olostep-web-search-browse-answer-engine-40c51b09 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search the web and find out what the current price of a MacBook Pro 16-inch is, and return the result as JSON with fields for price, currency, and source URL.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a quick, structured answer sourced from live web browsing in under 30 seconds. It is ideal for factual lookups, pricing checks, news retrieval, or any task where a human would normally open a browser and search. Prefer the sibling agent endpoint for multi-step tasks that require longer processing. Use this over a raw scraping endpoint when you need the AI to interpret and synthesize information rather than return raw HTML.

## Known failure modes

- Task is too ambiguous for the agent to resolve — returns vague or empty result
- Web pages are paywalled or blocked — agent cannot access content and may return incomplete data
- Execution times out for highly complex tasks — use the agent endpoint for longer tasks instead
- Requested JSON schema fields cannot be populated from available web sources — fields may be null or missing
- Rate limiting or payment failure causes the call to be rejected with a 402 error

## How this service works

The AI will perform actions like searching and browsing web pages to find the answer to the provided task. Execution time is 3-30s depending upon complexity. For longer tasks, use the agent endpoint instead.

## Output

A structured JSON object matching the schema provided by the caller (or a default structure if none is given), populated with the answer found by autonomously searching and browsing the web. The response reflects information gathered from live web pages within the 3–30 second execution window.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "task": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "The task to be performed."
  },
  "json_format": {
   "type": "object",
   "description": "The desired output JSON object with empty values as a schema, or simply describe the data you want as a string."
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/olostep-web-search-browse-answer-engine-40c51b09/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from x402.orthogonal.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/x402.orthogonal.com/llms.txt)