# Yelp API pricing and the alternatives.

> Yelp's API now starts at $229 a month, gives no review excerpts on Base, and caps caching at 24 hours. What it costs and when a per-record API fits.

Canonical: https://apiforagents.dev/guides/yelp-api-alternatives · Updated 2026-10-21

Yelp's API is paid now. As of October 2026 its plans run from $229 to $643 a month after a 30-day trial of 5,000 calls; the Base plan has no review excerpts and the top plan returns up to 7 per business. Yelp's terms also cap caching at 24 hours and rule out feeding Yelp content into generative AI models.

- Plans from: $229 / month
- Trial: 30 days, 5,000 calls
- Review excerpts: 0, 3 or 7 by plan
- Caching: 24 hours max

## Yelp's plans

From Yelp's pricing page, seen 21 October 2026.

| Plan | Per month | Extra 1,000 calls | Review excerpts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | $229 | $5.91 | None |
| Enhanced | $299 | $6.57 | Up to 3 per business |
| Premium | $643 | $14.13 | Up to 7 per business |

## Official API or this one

|  | Yelp Places API | API for Agents |
|---|---|---|
| Business search and details | Yes | Yes |
| Review text | Excerpts on Enhanced and Premium | Full reviews, up to 100 per call, $0.000225 per record |
| Use with AI models | Yelp's terms forbid it | Built for agents |
| Keeping the data | 24 hours, except business IDs | Your rows are yours to keep |
| Who can get access | Register for keys; business email for the trial | Anyone. An agent signs itself up in one call and starts on a $0.10 trial |
| Price model | Monthly plan plus calls over the allowance | Pay as you go, from $0.000225 per record |
| Setup | Yelp developer account and plan | One API key. No Yelp account or app review |

## When Yelp's API is the right tool

If your app shows Yelp ratings and business details to your own users, with Yelp's attribution, the official API is built for that and its plans include the licence to display the content.

Its terms rule out several other jobs: using the API on behalf of a third party, storing content beyond 24 hours, selling the data, or putting Yelp content into a generative AI model. For research datasets or an agent's workflow, look at a different source.

## What you can get here

- **[Yelp Search API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/yelp/search-api).** Businesses for a keyword in a place, with price and feature filters, rating and phone.
- **[Yelp Business API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/yelp/business-api).** Business profiles with address, phone, rating, review count, hours and menu link.
- **[Yelp Reviews API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/yelp/reviews-api).** Review text, rating, date, reactions, reviewer and the owner's public reply.

> **Not affiliated** API for Agents is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Yelp. It returns public data only: nothing behind a login.

## Operation pages

- [Yelp Search API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/yelp/search-api)
- [Yelp Business API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/yelp/business-api)
- [Yelp Reviews API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/yelp/reviews-api)

## Questions

### Is the Yelp API free?

No. Yelp offers a 30-day trial with 5,000 calls, then paid plans from $229 a month, as of October 2026.

### How many reviews does the Yelp API return?

None on the Base plan, up to 3 review excerpts per business on Enhanced and up to 7 on Premium. The reviews endpoint needs Enhanced or Premium.

### Can I use the Yelp API with ChatGPT or another AI model?

Yelp's API terms say you may not submit or ingest Yelp content into any generative AI model, including in prompts. Check the current terms for your case.

### What does Yelp data cost here?

Priced per record, from $0.000225 per record. Quote any call first with estimateOnly, which is free.

## Sources

1. [Yelp: Places API pricing](https://business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing/), seen 21 October 2026
2. [Yelp developer docs: Business reviews endpoint](https://docs.developer.yelp.com/reference/v3_business_reviews), seen 21 October 2026
3. [Yelp API Terms of Use](https://terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms/), seen 21 October 2026
4. [Yelp developer docs: Fusion API introduction](https://docs.developer.yelp.com/docs/fusion-intro), seen 21 October 2026

## Why API for Agents

- One key for 26 platforms: social, commerce, jobs, places, search and contacts, with one request shape and one response shape.
- A free quote before any spend: add "estimateOnly": true to any call and see the most it can cost.
- Pay per record in US dollars. No subscription, nothing expires, top-ups from $5.
- $0.10 free to try, no card. An AI agent can sign itself up in one request; a person claims it later.
- Measured, not estimated: every answer says when each row was measured, whether it was fresh or a recent capture, and how sure to be of each field.
- Partial success is success: anything that could not be fetched is named with a reason, and the charge settles to what came back, never above the quote.
- Typed fields that keep their names whichever source answered, and a details object last with everything else the source sent, under our own field names.
- Try any endpoint in the playground and download the answer as CSV or JSON.

## Start

The playground runs any endpoint by hand: pick a platform and what you want from it, fill a short form named in plain words (or press Use sample input), see the free quote on the Run button, run it, then read the answer as a table or JSON and download it as CSV or JSON. The same call is written out as cURL, Python and Node while you type. Open it at https://apiforagents.dev/dashboard/run (sign in first).

Agents register at https://apiforagents.dev/auth.md (one POST, $0.10 free). People: https://apiforagents.dev/docs#start. Prices: https://apiforagents.dev/pricing.md