Research tools reference

Your teammates have 57 built-in research tools. They get public data for your squad: web pages, search results, people and companies, local businesses, SEO data, reviews, ads, and posts from social platforms. These are the only tools in Squad that spend credits. This page lists every tool, what it returns, and its price. For the monthly allowance, credit packs, and auto-recharge, see What Squad costs and what uses credits.

Ask for research

You do not call these tools yourself. You ask a teammate in plain words, and the teammate picks the tools. For example:

Ask your lead

Find 20 coffee shops in Austin, TX with a rating under 4 stars. Put the names, websites, and ratings in a doc.

Ask your lead

What does acme.com rank for on Google? Start with its domain rank, and only pull the full keyword list if the domain is big.

Ask your lead

Pull the last 50 Trustpilot reviews for acme.com and group the complaints into themes. Don't spend more than 40 credits on this task.

Teammates are told to pick the cheapest tool that answers the question. For example, to find one person’s LinkedIn profile, a teammate searches Google first and then reads the profile, instead of running a LinkedIn search.

How a price works

Each tool has a base price. Some tools also have a price for each result.

Flat price: the call costs the base price, for example 1 credit for a Google search.
Base plus per result: the call costs the base price plus the per-result price for each result that comes back, rounded up to a whole credit. You pay for the results that come back, up to the number the teammate asked for.

A call that comes back with no results still costs the base price. Before a call runs, Squad checks the balance against the full price at the number of results that the teammate asked for. A call that could cost more than your balance is refused, even when fewer results would come back. The same check applies to a task budget. Teammates can ask Squad for a price estimate before they start a big job. The estimate gives the credits for each step and the total, says which steps would come from the cache, and says whether the job fits or what stops it: your balance, the task budget, or research tools that are off. A teammate can ask for an estimate for anyone it works for, except a Viewer. When it works for someone other than the owner, the estimate leaves out your balance. Teammates are told to run jobs under 100 credits, to tell you about jobs of 100 to 500 credits, and to ask you first before a job of 500 credits or more. These are instructions, not limits that Squad enforces. The Credit cost per use card on Settings > Billing and usage > Billing shows the same prices, grouped like the tables below. Only the owner can open this page. The card writes a flat price as, for example, 1 credit, and a per-result price as, for example, 8 + 5 per result.

Calls that cost 0 credits

Call	Why it is free
A result from the cache	Squad already has the answer. See Cached results.
A call that fails	For example, the page is not found, or the source is busy. Squad records the call at 0 credits.
A call that Squad refuses	For example, your balance is too low, the task budget is spent, the research tools are off, or a rate cap is reached.
A price estimate	The teammate asks what a call or a plan would cost. Nothing runs.
Reading the rest of a long result	A long result comes back in parts. Getting the next part is free. See Long results.

Cached results

Squad keeps each result for a set time, shown in the Cached for column of each table below. When a teammate makes the same request with the same inputs within that time, it gets the saved result for 0 credits. The cache is shared across Squad, so the saved result can come from the same request made in another workspace. A cached result still works when your balance is 0. Squad does not cache a result with no items, or a result that was too long to return in one part.

Fresh data

A teammate can ask for fresh data. Squad then skips the cache, runs the call, and charges the normal price. The fresh result replaces the saved one. Teammates are told to ask for fresh data when timing matters, for example “what is X posting right now” or “the latest news on Y”. To make sure a teammate does this, say so:

Ask a teammate

Get today's top posts in r/SaaS. I need fresh data, not a cached copy.

Rate caps

Squad caps how many research calls one teammate session and the whole squad can make in a short time. The caps stop a teammate that repeats calls in a loop. They do not depend on your balance. For the values, see Limits and defaults. A call refused by a cap costs 0 credits. Cached results and failed calls also count toward the caps.

Long results

A tool returns up to 50 results by default. Some tools have their own default, shown in the Default results column. A teammate can ask for up to 500 results in one call. Some tools have a lower maximum, shown in the table.
A teammate sees up to 100 results at once. A result with more items, or one very long page, is saved in full. The teammate reads the rest in parts for free.
One stored item has a size limit. When a page is longer, Squad keeps the start of it and marks where it was cut.

When a call fails

When a research call does not work, teammates are told to say it in plain words. This is what you can see in chat:

What happened	What the teammate says
The data is not public, or not found	”I couldn’t find that publicly.”
The source had a problem	”Let me try a different angle.” The teammate continues with what it has.
Too many calls at once	”Pulling in a lot at once — let me focus on the most relevant.”
The session cap is reached	”We’ve fanned out a lot this turn — let me work with what we have.”
Your balance is too low	”We’re out of credits for this. You can buy more from the Billing page — I’ll keep going once they land.”
The task budget is spent	”We’ve hit the budget you set for this task. Continue with what we have, or raise the limit?”
The research tools are off	”Scraping is paused for this workspace right now.”

These tools have a time limit for each call: YouTube Search and Comments, every LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok tool, Reddit Subreddit and Search calls with a time window, Reddit Post comments, and Product Hunt: Launches. When such a call runs out of time after it found some results, the teammate gets those results instead of an error, and you pay for the results that came back. A call that found nothing by then fails, and costs 0 credits. A Reddit Subreddit or Search call with a time window that ran out of time with nothing found runs once more with the time that is left, when enough time is left. You pay once, for the results that came back. For the time limits, see Limits and defaults. To buy credits, see Buy credits. Teammates cannot buy credits for you.

Turn tools off

To turn off one tool or a whole platform, the owner selects Choose which ones on the Research tools card on Settings > Billing and usage > Billing. The card groups the tools by platform. A teammate cannot use a tool that is off. The owner can also ask a teammate to switch a whole platform off or on. Squad refuses this switch for anyone else, also an Administrator, because research tools spend credits. See Your squad’s settings.
To turn off every research tool at once, the owner uses the switch on the same card. Choose which ones lists the research tool families, each with a switch and Show for its tools. Select Save to apply.

For both controls, see What Squad costs.

The tools

Each table follows a group on the Credit cost per use card. The first column shows the tool’s name under Choose which ones on the Research tools card, then its name on the Credit cost per use card. In the Credits column, ”+ 0.5 per result” means half a credit for each result. The total is rounded up. Typical call is the price at the default number of results.

Web

Under Choose which ones: Web pages.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Read page Billing: Web Page	Reads any web page, including pages that need a browser to load	The page title and the page text as markdown	1	1 page	1	24 hours
Screenshot Billing: Web Screenshot	Takes a picture of a page, the visible part or the full page	A link to a PNG image	1	1 image	1	1 hour
Extract data Billing: Web Extract	Pulls the fields that the teammate describes out of a page	The fields as structured data	6	1 page	6	1 hour

Search

Under Choose which ones: Search.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Google search Billing: Google Search	Searches Google, optionally for one country	Title, link, snippet, and position of each result. At most 50.	1	10	1	1 hour
Google News Billing: Google News	Searches Google News	Title, link, snippet, source, and date of each article	1	10	1	15 minutes
AI search Billing: AI Search	Answers a question from web sources, for general or news topics	A written answer and the sources it used	6	8 sources	6	30 minutes

Leads

Under Choose which ones: People & companies. People search and person enrich work as a pair. People search is cheap and hides last names and contact details. Each row has an ID. Person enrich unlocks the full profile for one ID. Teammates are told to search wide and unlock only the people the task needs.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
People search Billing: People Search	Finds business contacts by job title, location, seniority, company domain, company size, or keywords	First name, title, company, company domain, location, whether an email or phone exists, and an ID. At most 100.	1	25	1	24 hours
Person enrich Billing: Person Enrich	Unlocks one person from a people search	Full name, title, company, location, work history, education, skills, and social profile links. Email and phone only when the source can reveal them, which is often not the case.	60	1 person	60	7 days
Person enrich (deep) Billing: Person Enrich Deep	Builds a full profile from a name and company, an email, or a LinkedIn link	Full work history, education, skills, and social profiles	360	1 person	360	7 days
Company enrich Billing: Company Enrich	Looks up a company by domain, name, or LinkedIn link	Name, domain, website, LinkedIn link, industry, employees, size, founded year, location, description, and total funding	60	1 company	60	7 days
Company enrich (deep) Billing: Company Enrich Deep	Looks up a company by domain, website, or name, with more detail	The same fields, filled in more fully	120	1 company	120	7 days

Person enrich (deep) is the most expensive research tool. One call uses more than a third of the monthly allowance.

Local

Under Choose which ones: Local businesses.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Local businesses Billing: Local Businesses	Finds businesses on the map for a search and a place, for example “plumbers” in “Austin, TX”	Name, address, phone, website, rating, review count, category, map position, place ID, and opening hours	8 + 5 per result	20	108	24 hours
Local reviews Billing: Local Reviews	Gets Google reviews for one place, by place ID or by business name and city	Rating, title, text, author, date, and link of each review	4 + 0.1 per result	50	9	6 hours

SEO

Under Choose which ones: SEO.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Keyword data Billing: SEO Keywords	Looks up up to 100 keywords in one call, for one market (United States by default)	Search volume, cost per click, competition, difficulty, intent, and monthly trend for each keyword	8 + 0.5 per result	One result per keyword sent	18 for 20 keywords	7 days
Keyword ideas Billing: SEO Keyword Ideas	Suggests keywords related to one seed keyword	The same metrics for each idea	7 + 0.3 per result	50	22	7 days
Ranked keywords Billing: SEO Ranked Keywords	Lists the keywords a domain ranks for	Keyword, position, search volume, ranking page, and traffic estimate	9 + 0.2 per result	100	29	7 days
Domain rank Billing: SEO Domain Rank	Gives a quick overview of one domain	Rank, organic keyword count, organic traffic, traffic value, and paid keywords and traffic	3	1 domain	3	24 hours
Backlinks Billing: SEO Backlinks	Lists links that point to a domain or a page	Linking page, target page, anchor text, linking page rank, dofollow status, and first-seen date	14 + 0.2 per result	100	34	7 days
Google Trends Billing: Google Trends	Shows interest over time for one keyword	Dated interest values	14	1 keyword	14	24 hours
Site tech Billing: SEO Site Tech	Finds the technology a website uses, such as analytics, live chat, CMS, and CDN	Technologies by category, plus the domain’s rank, country, and public emails and phones found on the site	15	1 domain	15	24 hours
Page audit Billing: SEO Page Audit	Checks one page for on-page SEO	On-page score, status code, title, description, H1 headings, link and image counts, load times, and check flags such as missing image text	2	1 page	2	6 hours
Lighthouse Billing: SEO Lighthouse	Runs a Google Lighthouse audit of one page. Takes about 30 to 60 seconds.	Scores for performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO, the core web vitals, and the worst audits to fix. At most 25 audits.	6	12 audits	6	6 hours
Rank check Billing: SEO Rank Check	Checks where a domain ranks on Google right now for one keyword, in the top 100	The top results, plus the domain’s own position. No position means the domain is not in the top 100. At most 100 results.	14 + 0.5 per result	10	19	1 hour
AI mentions Billing: AI Mentions	Checks whether ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews mention a brand or a domain	The platform, the question, the answer, AI search volume, cited sources, and last-seen date. At most 100.	100 + 2 per result	25	150	24 hours

A site audit is not one tool. For “audit my site”, teammates run Page audit and Lighthouse on your key pages and write the findings into one doc. For rank tracking, teammates run Rank check from a routine and keep a doc with the changes.

Ask your lead

Every Monday, check where acme.com ranks for "invoice software" and "billing software". Keep a doc with the positions week by week.

Reviews

Under Choose which ones: Review sites. For Google reviews of a place, see Local.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Trustpilot Billing: Reviews Trustpilot	Gets a company’s Trustpilot reviews by its domain	Rating, title, text, author, date, and link of each review	4 + 0.1 per result	50	9	12 hours
Tripadvisor Billing: Reviews Tripadvisor	Gets Tripadvisor reviews by business name and place	The same fields	4 + 0.1 per result	50	9	12 hours
App Store Billing: Reviews Appstore	Gets reviews of an iOS app by the number in its store link	The same fields	4 + 0.1 per result	50	9	12 hours
Google Play Billing: Reviews Googleplay	Gets reviews of an Android app by the ID in its store link	The same fields	4 + 0.1 per result	50	9	12 hours

Under Choose which ones: Ads.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Facebook ads Billing: Facebook Ads	Searches the Meta Ad Library for a brand or keyword, in one country (US by default)	Page name, ad text, platforms, start and end dates, and link of each ad	9 + 1 per result	25	34	12 hours

Twitter

Under Choose which ones: Twitter / X.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
User tweets Billing: Twitter User Tweets	Gets an account’s recent tweets. At most 200.	Text, author, date, likes, retweets, replies, views, bookmarks, link, language, media, and quoted tweet	1	50	1	1 hour
Search Billing: Twitter Search	Searches tweets, with search operators such as `from:` and `since:`, sorted by latest or top	The same fields for each tweet	1	50	1	30 minutes
Profile Billing: Twitter Profile	Gets one account’s profile	Handle, name, bio, followers, following, and verified status	1	1 profile	1	24 hours

YouTube

Under Choose which ones: YouTube.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Search Billing: YouTube Search	Searches YouTube videos	Title, channel, link, views, likes, comments, date, duration, and description	2 + 0.2 per result	20	6	2 hours
Video info Billing: YouTube Video Info	Gets the details of one video	The same fields for that video	1	1 video	1	24 hours
Comments Billing: YouTube Comments	Gets the top comments on a video	Author, text, likes, date, reply count, and whether the channel owner wrote or liked it	1	100	1	1 hour
Transcript Billing: YouTube Transcript	Gets the spoken text of a video, in a language the teammate picks	Text lines with start times	8	1 video	8	7 days
Channel Billing: YouTube Channel	Gets a channel’s details	Name, subscribers, video count, view count, description, and link	1	1 channel	1	24 hours

Under Choose which ones: LinkedIn.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Profile Billing: LinkedIn Profile	Gets a public profile	Name, headline, location, about, followers, connections, experience, education, skills, and open-to-work status	5	1 profile	5	24 hours
Company Billing: LinkedIn Company	Gets a company page	Name, industry, size, about, and followers	4	1 company	4	24 hours
Posts Billing: LinkedIn Posts	Gets the posts a profile wrote, without reshares	Author, text, likes, comments, date, and link	4	25	4	1 hour
Feed Billing: LinkedIn Feed	Gets a profile’s activity: posts, reshares, and posts it engaged with	The same fields	5	25	5	1 hour
Search Billing: LinkedIn Search	Searches LinkedIn for people, companies, or jobs	The matching profiles, companies, or jobs	145	25	145	1 hour

Under Choose which ones: Reddit.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Subreddit Billing: Reddit Subreddit	Gets posts from a subreddit, sorted by hot, new, top, or rising. Top posts in a time window use Subreddit with a time window.	Title, subreddit, author, link, score, comment count, date, and text	3 + 0.2 per result	25	8	5 minutes
Search Billing: Reddit Search	Searches all of Reddit or one subreddit, with no time window or for all time	The same fields	3 + 0.2 per result	25	8	10 minutes
Subreddit with a time window Billing: Reddit Subreddit with a time window	Gets the top posts of a subreddit in a time window, such as the past week. Any window other than all time uses this price.	The same fields, without score and comment count	65 + 4 per result	25	165	5 minutes
Search with a time window Billing: Reddit Search with a time window	Searches all of Reddit or one subreddit for posts in a time window, such as the past week. Any window other than all time uses this price.	The same fields, without score and comment count	65 + 4 per result	25	165	10 minutes
Post comments Billing: Reddit Post Comments	Gets the comment thread under one post	Author, text, score, reply position, and date of each comment	80 + 1 per result	100	180	30 minutes
User Billing: Reddit User	Gets a user’s posts, comments, or both	The same post fields	3 + 0.2 per result	25	8	1 hour

Instagram

Under Choose which ones: Instagram.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Profile Billing: Instagram Profile	Gets a public profile	Handle, name, bio, followers, following, post count, and verified status	3	1 profile	3	24 hours
Posts Billing: Instagram Posts	Gets an account’s recent posts	Caption, likes, comments, date, and media link	3	25	3	1 hour
Hashtag Billing: Instagram Hashtag	Gets recent posts under a hashtag	The same fields	3	25	3	30 minutes

TikTok

Under Choose which ones: TikTok.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
User Billing: TikTok User	Gets an account’s recent videos	Caption, views, likes, comments, shares, date, and link	3	25	3	1 hour
Search Billing: TikTok Search	Searches TikTok videos	The same fields	3	25	3	30 minutes
Hashtag Billing: TikTok Hashtag	Gets recent videos under a hashtag	The same fields	3	25	3	30 minutes

Other

Under Choose which ones: Bluesky, Hacker News, Product Hunt, and GitHub.

Tool	What it does	What it returns	Credits	Default results	Typical call	Cached for
Bluesky: User Billing: Bluesky User	Gets an account’s recent posts	Text, author, likes, reposts, replies, date, and link	1	25	1	1 hour
Hacker News: Search Billing: HackerNews Search	Searches stories and comments, by relevance or date	Title, link, author, points, comment count, and date	1	25	1	10 minutes
Product Hunt: Launches Billing: ProductHunt Launches	Finds the launches that match your words among today’s launches. When none match, it returns today’s launches.	Name, tagline, link, upvotes, and launch date. At most 25.	55	25	55	1 hour
GitHub: User Billing: GitHub User	Gets a public user profile	Name, bio, company, location, website, followers, following, and public repository count	1	1 profile	1	24 hours
GitHub: Repo Billing: GitHub Repo	Gets a public repository	Description, stars, forks, language, topics, last update, open issues, license, and homepage	1	1 repository	1	1 hour

Common questions

Where do I see what research cost?

Settings > Billing and usage > Billing shows Usage by tool, Usage by teammate, Usage by task, and Recent credit usage. In History, a research call shows the credits it used, or “cache hit” when it was free. See What Squad costs.

Can I cap what one task spends?

Yes. Tell the teammate, for example “don’t spend more than 50 credits on this”. The teammate records a budget on the task, and Squad refuses calls that would pass it. There is no dashboard field for it. See Budgets for a task.

Why was a call refused when I still had credits?

Squad checks your balance against the price at the number of results the teammate asked for, not the number that would come back. Ask the teammate to request fewer results, or buy credits.

Do my connected apps use these tools?

No. Apps that you connect on the Apps page, MCP servers, and email never use credits. See What your teammates can do.

Get started

Work with your squad

Manage your squad

Connect apps and channels

Use Squad from other apps

Billing and account

Troubleshooting

Reference

Research tools reference

Ask for research

How a price works

Calls that cost 0 credits

Cached results

Fresh data

Rate caps

Long results

When a call fails

Turn tools off

The tools

Web

Search

Leads

Local

SEO

Reviews

Ads

Twitter

YouTube

LinkedIn

Reddit

Instagram

TikTok

Other

Common questions