Pricing and Billing - Developer Guide

Billing

Manage payments, balance, request logs, and spending from the Billing menu in Desearch Console.

Supported top-up methods:

Card payments — add funds with a credit or debit card.
TAO cryptocurrency payments — add funds using TAO where supported.

You can enable auto-recharge with a linked card so your balance is topped up when it reaches a configured threshold. Console also provides transaction history, request-cost breakdowns, and usage visibility by API key/service.

Per-request cost in USD

Billable API responses expose the exact request cost in USD. Use this metadata for customer-facing usage displays, internal metering, debugging, and reconciliation with Console billing history.

JSON object responses include these body fields in addition to the endpoint-specific payload:

Field	Type	Meaning
`cost_usd`	number	Cost charged for this request, denominated in USD.
`usage_count`	integer	Number of billable usage units applied to the request.
`service`	string	Metered service path used for pricing, such as `/desearch/ai/search`.
`currency`	string	Currency for `cost_usd`; currently `USD`.

Compatible charged responses also include the same values as HTTP headers:

Header	Meaning
`X-Desearch-Cost-Usd`	Cost charged for this request, in USD.
`X-Desearch-Usage-Count`	Billable usage units applied to the request.
`X-Desearch-Service`	Metered service path used for pricing.
`X-Desearch-Currency`	Currency for the cost value; currently `USD`.

Compatibility rules:

JSON object responses preserve their endpoint fields and add cost_usd, usage_count, service, and currency.
JSON arrays preserve the array body shape and expose cost metadata through the X-Desearch-* headers only.
text/plain responses, such as crawl text output, preserve the text body and expose cost metadata through headers only.
Streaming/SSE responses are not buffered or reshaped; read request cost from the response headers.

Representative charged endpoint behavior:

Endpoint	Success body shape	Cost metadata location
`POST /desearch/ai/search`	JSON object for non-streaming calls; SSE for streaming calls	Object body fields + headers for JSON objects; headers only for streaming/SSE.
`POST /desearch/ai/search/links/web`	JSON object	Object body fields + headers.
`POST /desearch/ai/search/links/twitter`	JSON object	Object body fields + headers.
`GET /twitter`	JSON array for typical search results; JSON object for object responses	Headers only for arrays; object body fields + headers for object responses.
`GET /web`	JSON object	Object body fields + headers.
`GET /web/crawl`	`text/plain`	Headers only; text body is unchanged.

Example non-streaming JSON object response:

json

{
  "answer": "ok",
  "cost_usd": 0.00015,
  "usage_count": 10,
  "service": "/desearch/ai/search",
  "currency": "USD"
}

Example headers for the same request:

http

X-Desearch-Cost-Usd: 0.00015
X-Desearch-Usage-Count: 10
X-Desearch-Service: /desearch/ai/search
X-Desearch-Currency: USD

Pricing

Pricing is usage-based and may vary by endpoint, source, volume, and account agreement. Check Pricing in Console for the latest rates available to your account.

Common pricing groups include:

Basic services — web search, X search, and link search endpoints.
AI-powered services — AI Search, AI X Posts Search, Deep Research, and multi-source summarization.
Social data services — TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and expanded X retrieval endpoints.
High-volume or enterprise usage — custom limits, volume discounts, support/SLA, invoiced billing, or dedicated agreements.

Cost calculation example

If an endpoint rate is $0.015 / 1,000 usage units and the request uses 10 units, the API reports:

text

cost_usd = 10 * (0.015 / 1000) = 0.00015

This is why Desearch reports fractional USD values instead of cents.

Minimum charge for X searches

X (Twitter) search endpoints bill for the number of posts actually returned, with a minimum of 10 posts per request. A search that returns few or zero posts is billed at the 10-post minimum rather than the full requested count, and a request is never billed above the count you asked for.