# OpenAlex Academic Research Search via AgentToll

> OpenAlex Academic Research Search via AgentToll is a paid API for AI agents from agenttoll.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.03/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Searches the OpenAlex academic literature database and returns scholarly works, authors, institutions, and research metadata matching a query.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://agenttoll.dev/paid/academic/openalex
- Price: $0.03/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/openalex-academic-research-search-via-agenttoll-0fcfcdc4
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_PFUYlzs50RNvMnikS65_i

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 openalex-academic-research-search-via-agenttoll-0fcfcdc4 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search OpenAlex for up to 10 academic papers on CRISPR gene editing applications in cancer treatment and give me the titles, authors, and publication years.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need structured academic literature data from OpenAlex — the world's largest open scholarly graph — especially for research discovery, literature reviews, or citation lookups. Prefer over general web search when you need curated scholarly metadata (titles, abstracts, DOIs, citation counts) rather than raw web content.

## Known failure modes

- Empty or overly broad query returns too many or irrelevant results
- Query with no matches returns empty data array with success:true
- Network timeout or upstream OpenAlex API unavailability returns error
- Invalid limit parameter type causes schema validation failure
- Payment failure in USDC/x402 prevents request from being processed

## How this service works

108+ receipt-backed x402 work products for AI agents. Clear prices, spend caps, buyer metadata, and structured results over Base USDC.

## Output

Returns a JSON object with a 'data' field containing an array or object of matching academic records (works, authors, institutions, or concepts depending on query), a 'meta' object with result count, source identifier, and generation timestamp, plus boolean 'success' and 'cached' flags.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer"
  },
  "query": {
   "type": "string"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "data": {
   "oneOf": [
    {
     "type": "array"
    },
    {
     "type": "object"
    }
   ]
  },
  "meta": {
   "type": "object",
   "properties": {
    "count": {
     "type": "integer"
    },
    "source": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "generated_at": {
     "type": "string",
     "format": "date-time"
    }
   }
  },
  "cached": {
   "type": "boolean"
  },
  "success": {
   "type": "boolean"
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/openalex-academic-research-search-via-agenttoll-0fcfcdc4/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from agenttoll.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/agenttoll.dev/llms.txt)