| name | search |
| description | Use when the user wants real-time web or news results with AI-summarized answers and citations — Grok Live Search via BlockRun. Cheapest path for "what just happened" questions where freshness beats neural-semantic ranking. |
| triggers | ["live search","grok live","what just happened","real time news","breaking news","today's news","search with citations","cited search","news search"] |
Live Search (Grok)
Real-time web + news search with AI-summarized results and citations. PRICED PER SOURCE and expensive by default: $0.025 × max_results, +5% +$0.001 → default 10 settles $0.2635 per call. Best for fresh queries; for semantic / neural research use blockrun_exa instead.
How to Call from MCP
blockrun_search({ body: {
query: "what's the consensus on the Fed's next move",
sources: ["web", "news"],
max_results: 10
}})
Body Shape
| Field | Required | Type | Notes |
|---|
query | yes | string | Natural-language search query |
sources | no | string[] | Subset of ["web","news"]. Default: both. Does NOT multiply price. |
max_results | no | number | 1–50, default 10. Drives the price — ~$0.0263 charged per source. Pass a small number to cap spend; the gateway prices the raw value and does not floor fractions. |
from_date | no | string | YYYY-MM-DD lower bound on result date |
to_date | no | string | YYYY-MM-DD upper bound |
When to Reach for Which Source
| User intent | sources setting |
|---|
| Breaking news / today's headlines | ["news"] |
| What's the CT / KOL sentiment on X | ["x"] |
| Backgrounder / explainer / docs | ["web"] |
| General "find current info" question | omit — defaults to all three |
Worked Examples
1. "What's the latest on the ETH ETF approval timeline?"
blockrun_search({ body: { query: "Ethereum ETF approval SEC", sources: ["news","web"], max_results: 8 } })
Cost: ~$0.2110 (8 sources: $0.025 × 8 × 1.05 + $0.001).
2. "What is X saying about Solana's latest outage?"
blockrun_search({ body: { query: "Solana outage today", sources: ["x"], max_results: 15 } })
Cost: ~$0.3948 (15 sources: $0.025 × 15 × 1.05 + $0.001).
3. "Background on Pectra upgrade, last 90 days only"
blockrun_search({ body: {
query: "Ethereum Pectra upgrade",
sources: ["web","news"],
from_date: "2026-02-17"
}})
Cost: $0.2635 (10 sources, the default — verified live).
search vs exa — Pick the Right Tool
| Use case | Tool |
|---|
| "What's happening right now?" — freshness matters | blockrun_search |
| "Find the canonical paper on X" — semantic relevance matters | blockrun_exa |
| "Pull the full text of these 5 URLs" — content fetch | blockrun_exa contents |
| "Cited answer to a question" | both work; blockrun_exa answer is grounded in pre-indexed corpus, blockrun_search searches the live web |
Notes
- Returns AI-summarized text + a list of sources with URLs. The summary is one paragraph; sources let you drill in.
- Price is per result, not per source.
max_results: 20 with one source or three sources both charge $0.526 ($0.025 × 20 × 1.05 + $0.001 — verified live). Pass a smaller max_results to cap spend.
- Date filters are strict — results outside the window are dropped, not down-ranked.
Reference
- Endpoint:
POST /v1/search
- Upstream: xAI Grok Live Search
