Ai Web Research Agent

An autonomous AI-powered agent that researches any topic across the web, synthesizes information from multiple sources, and produces comprehensive reports with citations and confidence scores. Stop spending hours on manual research - let AI do the heavy lifting.

What does AI Web Research Agent do?

This Actor is a true AI research assistant that goes beyond simple web scraping. Give it a topic or question, and it will:

1. Generate smart search queries based on your research topic
2. Crawl relevant web sources automatically
3. Analyze each source with AI to extract key information
4. Synthesize findings into a structured research report
5. Cite sources and provide confidence scores for each finding

This is not a scraper - it's a research agent that thinks.

Why use AI Web Research Agent?

Save 10+ hours on every research project

Instead of manually searching, reading, and note-taking across dozens of sources, get a comprehensive research report in minutes.

Perfect for multiple use cases

• Market Research - Competitive analysis, industry trends, market sizing
• Academic Research - Literature reviews, topic exploration, source compilation
• Content Creation - Background research for articles, blogs, whitepapers
• Due Diligence - Company research, technology assessment, risk analysis
• Trend Analysis - Track emerging topics, technologies, and market shifts

What makes this different?

Feature	Basic Scrapers	AI Web Research Agent
Understands context	No	Yes
Generates search queries	No	Yes
Analyzes relevance	No	Yes (1-10 score)
Synthesizes findings	No	Yes
Provides citations	No	Yes
Identifies key points	No	Yes
Confidence scoring	No	Yes

Platform advantages

• API Access - Integrate research into your workflows programmatically
• Scheduling - Set up recurring research tasks for trend monitoring
• Proxy Rotation - Built-in proxy support prevents blocking
• Cloud Execution - No need to keep your computer running
• Multiple Formats - Export as JSON, CSV, Excel, or Markdown

What data can AI Web Research Agent extract?

Research Report

A comprehensive markdown report with:

• Executive summary
• Key findings with citations
• Detailed analysis
• Conclusions and recommendations

Source Analysis

Field	Description
title	Page title
url	Source URL
relevanceScore	AI-determined relevance (1-10)
summary	AI-generated 2-3 sentence summary
keyPoints	Array of key points from the source
category	Source type (primary, supporting, expert opinion, etc.)

Key Findings

Field	Description
finding	The synthesized finding
confidence	High, Medium, or Low
sources	Which sources support this finding
category	Topic category

How to use AI Web Research Agent

Step 1: Get an OpenAI API Key

You'll need an OpenAI API key for the AI analysis. Get one at platform.openai.com/api-keys

Step 2: Configure your research

1. Click "Try for free" to open the Actor
2. Enter your Research Topic - be specific for better results
3. Paste your OpenAI API Key
4. Choose your Research Depth:
   • Quick: 5-10 sources (fast overview)
   • Standard: 15-25 sources (balanced)
   • Comprehensive: 30-50 sources (thorough)
5. Select Output Format:
   • Summary: Key findings only
   • Detailed: Full analysis with sections
   • Academic: Citations and references

Step 3: Run and get results

Click Start and wait for the research to complete. You'll get:

• A markdown research report (in Key-Value Store)
• Analyzed sources with relevance scores (in Dataset)
• Synthesized key findings with confidence levels

Input example

{
    "researchTopic": "What are the latest trends in artificial intelligence for 2024?",
    "researchDepth": "standard",
    "outputFormat": "detailed",
    "openaiApiKey": "sk-...",
    "model": "gpt-4o-mini",
    "maxSources": 20
}

Output example - Source Analysis

{
    "type": "source",
    "title": "State of AI Report 2024",
    "url": "https://example.com/ai-report-2024",
    "relevanceScore": 9,
    "summary": "Comprehensive analysis of AI developments in 2024, focusing on LLM advances, multimodal models, and enterprise adoption trends.",
    "keyPoints": [
        "GPT-4 and Claude 3 represent major capability jumps",
        "Enterprise AI adoption increased 45% year-over-year",
        "Open-source models closing gap with proprietary ones",
        "AI regulation becoming major focus globally"
    ],
    "category": "primary_source"
}

Output example - Key Finding

{
    "type": "finding",
    "finding": "Enterprise AI adoption has accelerated significantly in 2024, with 45% year-over-year growth driven primarily by generative AI applications.",
    "confidence": "high",
    "sources": [1, 3, 7],
    "category": "Market Trends"
}

Output example - Research Report (excerpt)

# Research Report: AI Trends in 2024

## Executive Summary
This research analyzed 23 sources to identify the key trends 
shaping artificial intelligence in 2024...

## Key Findings

### 1. Large Language Models Continue to Advance [1][3][7]
The release of GPT-4 Turbo and Claude 3 marked significant 
capability improvements...

### 2. Enterprise Adoption Accelerating [2][5][9]
Organizations are moving beyond experimentation to production 
deployments...

## References
[1] State of AI Report 2024 - https://example.com/ai-report
[2] Enterprise AI Survey - https://example.com/survey
...

How much does it cost?

AI Web Research Agent uses pay-per-usage pricing based on:

1. Apify compute costs - For crawling and processing
2. OpenAI API costs - For AI analysis (billed directly to your OpenAI account)

Estimated Apify costs

Research Depth	Sources	Estimated Cost
Quick	5-10	$0.01-0.03
Standard	15-25	$0.03-0.08
Comprehensive	30-50	$0.08-0.15

OpenAI API costs (approximate)

Using GPT-4o-mini (recommended):

• ~$0.01-0.05 per research run

Free tier: New Apify users get $5 in free credits - enough for 50+ research runs!

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
researchTopic	string	Yes	The topic or question to research
openaiApiKey	string	Yes	Your OpenAI API key
searchQueries	array	No	Custom search queries (auto-generated if empty)
startUrls	array	No	Specific URLs to include
maxSources	integer	No	Max pages to analyze (default: 20)
researchDepth	string	No	quick, standard, or comprehensive
outputFormat	string	No	summary, detailed, or academic
model	string	No	gpt-4o-mini, gpt-4o, or gpt-4-turbo
includeSourceContent	boolean	No	Include raw content in output

Tips for best results

• Be specific with your topic - "AI trends in healthcare diagnostics 2024" works better than "AI trends"
• Use the right depth - Quick for overviews, Comprehensive for thorough research
• Add specific URLs - If you know authoritative sources, include them in startUrls
• Choose the right model - GPT-4o-mini is fast and cheap; GPT-4o for complex topics
• Academic format - Use this for research that needs proper citations

Integrations

Connect AI Web Research Agent to your workflow:

• Google Sheets - Export research to spreadsheets automatically
• Slack - Get notifications when research completes
• Zapier/Make - Trigger workflows based on findings
• Webhooks - Send reports to your applications
• API - Programmatically run research and retrieve results

FAQ

Is this legal?

This Actor only accesses publicly available information. It respects robots.txt and implements rate limiting. Always ensure your use case complies with applicable laws and website Terms of Service.

Why do I need an OpenAI API key?

The AI analysis (relevance scoring, summarization, synthesis) requires OpenAI's GPT models. You're billed directly by OpenAI for this usage, keeping costs transparent.

Can I use other AI models?

Currently, the Actor supports OpenAI models (GPT-4o-mini, GPT-4o, GPT-4-turbo). Support for other providers (Anthropic, etc.) may be added in future versions.

How accurate are the confidence scores?

Confidence scores reflect how well-supported a finding is across sources. "High" means multiple reliable sources agree; "Low" means limited or conflicting evidence.

What if a source is behind a paywall?

The crawler uses HTTP requests and can't bypass paywalls. Paywalled content will be skipped or have limited analysis.

How do I get support?

• Check the Issues tab for known problems
• Open a new issue for bugs or feature requests
• Contact for custom enterprise solutions

Related Actors

• Website Content Crawler - Extract full text from websites
• Google Search Results Scraper - Get Google search results
• RAG Web Browser - AI-powered web browsing

Changelog

• v0.0 - Initial release with AI-powered research, synthesis, and reporting

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