Resources
FAQ
Short answers to the questions people ask most. Each one links to the page with the full details.
Account, pricing and limits
Section titled “Account, pricing and limits”How do I get an API key?
Section titled “How do I get an API key?”Sign in to the Telem console with Google or GitHub, open your project and select API keys. Only organization admins and project Maintainers can create keys. See Quickstart.
What does a search cost?
Section titled “What does a search cost?”You pay for each provider that answers, at the provider’s published price, with no markup. A search that runs on three providers is three charges. To pay less, name the providers you want, or turn on auto-routing, which often runs a query on fewer providers. See Pricing.
Is there free credit?
Section titled “Is there free credit?”Your first sign-in adds $20 of credit. After that, you add credit by card in the console. See Pricing.
Am I charged for failed calls or empty results?
Section titled “Am I charged for failed calls or empty results?”A provider call that fails is free, and so is a page that a fetch could not read. A search that succeeds with no results is charged, because the provider charges for it. See Pricing.
Is there a rate limit?
Section titled “Is there a rate limit?”Yes, per minute. By default, each account can send up to 6,000 search queries or fetched URLs a minute. There is no daily or monthly limit and no spending cap. See Rate limits.
How many queries or URLs fit in one call?
Section titled “How many queries or URLs fit in one call?”A search batch takes up to 32 queries, and the number of queries times num_results
can be at most 160. A fetch takes up to 5 URLs. See
Request limits.
Search and fetch results
Section titled “Search and fetch results”Which providers does Telem use?
Section titled “Which providers does Telem use?”A search with no provider list runs on the default providers. Some providers run only when you name them, such as the social, video and shopping platforms. See Providers.
Which tier should I use?
Section titled “Which tier should I use?”default, for most agents: each result has a summary that your agent can read to
choose pages. Use a higher tier only for the fields it adds. See
Choose a tier.
Why do I get the same URL more than once?
Section titled “Why do I get the same URL more than once?”Telem keeps each provider’s results apart, so a page that three providers found comes back three times. Merge the results by URL. See Merge the results.
Is there a relevance score?
Section titled “Is there a relevance score?”No. Each result has its provider’s rank, its place in that provider’s list. No
score compares results across providers.
Why is a field null?
Section titled “Why is a field null?”The provider that found the result cannot give that field. The run’s warnings have a
capability_gap entry that says which field and why. The provider still answers.
Why did a max search take so long?
Section titled “Why did a max search take so long?”At max, Telem asks the providers for paid extras and waits up to 90 seconds for
them. The hosted MCP server stops waiting after about 60 seconds. See
Choose a tier.
Why did a fetch return an old copy of a page?
Section titled “Why did a fetch return an old copy of a page?”Telem can answer with a copy of a page that it read in the last day. To read the page
as it is now, set no_cache: true. See
Fetch best practices.
Why does a fetch say “succeeded” for a missing page?
Section titled “Why does a fetch say “succeeded” for a missing page?”A site’s own error page can come back as succeeded. Check http_status and
warnings on each result. See
Fetch best practices.
Can Telem read YouTube videos, Reddit posts or X posts?
Section titled “Can Telem read YouTube videos, Reddit posts or X posts?”Yes. For some kinds of link, such as YouTube videos, Reddit posts, X posts and TikTok videos, Telem first tries a provider made for that site. See Supported platforms.
Agents and integrations
Section titled “Agents and integrations”Which agents work with Telem?
Section titled “Which agents work with Telem?”Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Pi, DeepSeek Harness and Hermes have their own integration. Any other agent can use the MCP server or the Agent skill. See Integrations.
Does Telem replace my agent’s built-in web search?
Section titled “Does Telem replace my agent’s built-in web search?”For Claude Code and Codex, the installer asks whether to turn off the agent’s own web search. In other agents, Telem’s tool description asks the agent to prefer Telem for web search, but the agent’s own tool stays available.
Why do my searches show up as unrelated in the console?
Section titled “Why do my searches show up as unrelated in the console?”Each search needs to say which conversation it belongs to. The agent integrations do
this for you. In your own code, send the session_id of the first response with the
next searches, or use the SDK helpers.
Does the MCP server choose the providers for me?
Section titled “Does the MCP server choose the providers for me?”Yes. Without a setting, the MCP server turns on auto-routing. To turn it off for a
connection, send the header X-Telem-Auto-Routing: off. See
MCP server.
Next steps
Section titled “Next steps”- Quickstart: from a new key to a first search
- Errors: every status code and what to do
- Feedback: ask a question that this page does not answer