# Local business search API for your agent Local business search API for an agent: it sends a business type and a location to a catalog endpoint and reads business name, address and coordinates back. Several providers sell the call, so the agent tries the cheapest first. You pay per call, and a failed call costs nothing. ## What this does A local search finds businesses by type and place, the way a person types it into Google Maps. Your agent sends coffee shop and Austin and gets back the businesses with their rating, address and contact basics. That is a lead list for any local trade, or a map of the competition around a site. The providers return different slices. One returns up to 20 normalized places with filters for category words, minimum stars and whether the business has a website. One searches by text and coordinates with a zoom. One parses the Google Maps results page. Use the filters when the list will feed outreach. You give: a business type and a location. Example: coffee shops in Austin, USA. ## What differs between providers - AnyAPI (anyapi-run-maps-search): returns up to 20 normalized places per request with ratings, addresses and contact basics, and filters by category words, minimum stars and website. - Any Site API (anysite-api-google-maps-places-search): searches by text with optional latitude, longitude and zoom, returns name, address, rating, categories and GPS, and bills per result. - SearchApi (searchapi-io-google-maps): returns local businesses with ratings, reviews and contact details, with a coordinate parameter and paging. - DataForSEO (dataforseo-google-maps-advanced): returns Google Maps results in the advanced format, as live tasks. ## Before you start - Give a location with the search. A city and a country work best. For a map area, send coordinates and a zoom on the providers that take them. - Filter early. A minimum star rating or a website requirement cuts the list before you pay to enrich it. - Plan the next call. A place found here can go to the reviews endpoint, or to a person search for the owner. ## Prompt Use looot to find coffee shops in Austin, USA through Google Maps and return name, address, rating, review count and website for each, highest rated first. 1. Set up https://looot.ai/skill.md. 2. Search the catalog for each step and check its price before you call. 3. Run the cheapest endpoint that fits. 4. Show the results as a table and the total cost. ## Steps and providers - Search Google Maps: anyapi, anysite, searchapi-io, dataforseo. 1 call per search. ## What comes back - Business name - Address and coordinates - Rating and review count - Category - Website and phone ## The request and what comes back Each run is one POST to /v1/runs with an endpoint id and an input. These are illustrative calls with generic values. The run's result holds the provider's own fields. - AnyAPI: {"endpointId":"anyapi-run-maps-search","input":{"query":"coffee shop","location":"Austin, USA"},"wait":30} - Any Site API: {"endpointId":"anysite-api-google-maps-places-search","input":{"query":"coffee shop Austin TX","count":20},"wait":30} ## How do I find local businesses by keyword and location? Send a business type and a place to a Maps search endpoint. Your agent returns the businesses with their rating, address and contact details, ready to put in a sheet. ## Can I filter by rating or by website? On the provider that supports it, yes. One endpoint takes a minimum star rating and a website filter, which saves you from paying to enrich weak leads. ## How many businesses does one search return? Up to 20 on one provider and a page at a time on the others. Your agent pages through more, and each call is billed. ## Can I get the phone number and website? When the business lists them on Maps, the provider returns them with the place. Some providers return only the basics, so check the endpoint page for the fields. ## Can I search an area, not a city? Two providers take coordinates, and one adds a zoom level. Send the center of the area and the zoom that covers it. ## How much does one search cost? You pay per call, and the price depends on the provider your agent picks. This page reads the cheapest live price from the catalog and shows no number when the catalog is unreachable. ## Do I pay when a local business search call fails? No. A call that fails at the provider costs nothing, and your agent can retry it or send it to another provider. ## Do I need an account with each local business search provider? No. One looot key reaches every provider in the catalog. You top up once, and each call is billed at the price shown before it runs. ## How do I call local business search from code? Send a POST to /v1/runs with the endpoint id, the input and a new idempotency key, and your looot token in the Authorization header. With wait set to 30, the answer comes back in the response when the run ends within 30 seconds. Otherwise poll GET /v1/runs/. ## Can I run local business search on a schedule? That needs scheduled runs, not available yet. Run it by hand whenever you want fresh results. ## Do I pay while my agent is idle? No. looot bills per call, and nothing runs while your agent is idle. ## Related pages - /use-cases/google-maps-reviews-api - /use-cases/enrich-a-company - /use-cases/find-professional-emails ## Last reviewed 2026-10-04. The cost per 1,000 search runs is read live from the catalog on the web page.