Yelp — can an agent use it?
Yelp has a real API and a freshly launched official MCP server, but every other signal is hostile: all AI crawlers blocked, 24-hour data expiry in ToS, no free tier (killed July 2024 with 4 days notice at $229/mo minimum), read-only API surface, and explicit bans on AI-generated content. An agent can search businesses via the API but cannot store results, post reviews, or transact.
FIND & RETRIEVE · 4.7
ACT & TRANSACT · 3.6
TRUST & DURABILITY · 3.2
FIND & RETRIEVE4.7/10Can an agent get correct information?
Machine-readable surface2/10
Home page returns HTTP 403 to non-browser user-agents. No llms.txt, no .well-known/mcp.json, no sitemap.xml accessible, no Content-Signal directives. Raw HTML is nearly empty (9 words per Site Scan) — content is entirely JS-rendered and invisible to AI crawlers. No markdown negotiation. No JSON-LD structured data on home page. source
Information retrieval quality5.5/10
The Fusion/Places API returns real, current business data — name, address, phone, hours, rating, price level, review excerpts (Enhanced/Premium plans only). Data is specific and dated. However, the 24-hour cache expiry in the API ToS means an agent cannot retain answers for reuse. Pricing for the API itself is published but buried (business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing/). The website's business pages carry useful public data but are behind a JS/CAPTCHA wall for machines. source
Documentation for machines6.5/10
docs.developer.yelp.com provides endpoint reference for the Places API (search, details, reviews, events, autocomplete, transactions). Auth documented (Bearer token). GraphQL intro available. Rate limits mentioned (QPS throttling, daily quotas) but not precisely specified per tier on the docs themselves. No changelog visible. Display Requirements documented. Overall adequate but not developer-first. source
ACT & TRANSACT3.6/10Can an agent do the job?
Action coverage3/10
The API is overwhelmingly read-only: business search, details, review excerpts, events. There is no endpoint to post reviews (AI reviews are explicitly banned), create business listings, or modify business data. The only write-capable surfaces — Respond-to-Reviews, Checkout, Fulfillment, Reservations — are partner-only APIs requiring a Yelp partnership agreement, not available via self-serve. An agent cannot perform Yelp's core consumer actions (write a review, book a reservation, request a quote) through the public API. source
Agent protocol support5/10
Official MCP server exists (Yelp/yelp-mcp, Apache 2.0, July 2025) but is thin: a single tool ('yelp_agent' for natural language search), 4 commits, 26 stars. It wraps the Yelp AI API ($25/1,000 calls). Conversational restaurant reservations listed as 'on request'. No .well-known/mcp.json discovery. Community servers exist (HasData, pipeworx-io) but are read-only wrappers. The official server is real but early-stage and expensive to use. source
Access & auth friction6/10
Self-serve API key creation via the developer portal — register, get a Bearer token. No OAuth for the public API (OAuth is partner-only). No scoped credentials — the key grants access to whatever your plan includes. No manual approval gate for the standard Places API. However, the 30-day free trial gives only 5,000 total calls; after that, the minimum is $229/mo. Knowledge and Transactions APIs require sales onboarding. source
Agent payment capability1/10
No agent payment protocol support whatsoever. No ACP, AP2, MPP, or x402 integration. Yelp's API billing is traditional: credit card on file, monthly subscription, overage billed monthly. The Transactions API lets businesses sell TO Yelp users, not agents pay Yelp. An agent cannot subscribe to or pay for the API programmatically. source
Cost & rate fairness3/10
No free tier — killed July 2024 with only 4 days notice. Plans start at $229/mo (Base, ~1,000 calls/day), $299/mo (Enhanced), $643/mo (Premium). The AI API costs $25 per 1,000 calls with a 1,000/day minimum ($750/mo floor). GraphQL limited to 10,000 queries/day in beta. Maximum 150,000 monthly API calls on self-serve; above that requires sales contact. Overage rates $5.91–$14.13 per 1,000 calls. This is among the most expensive review-data APIs available. source
TRUST & DURABILITY3.2/10Will it still work next quarter?
Permission & ToS stance2.5/10
robots.txt explicitly blocks every major AI crawler by name (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, Google-Extended, Meta-ExternalAgent, Bytespider) with Disallow: /. Default rule is Disallow: / for all unspecified agents. API ToS (Section 9) explicitly prohibits using Yelp Content for training AI/LLM models without written approval. 24-hour data expiry — cannot cache any Yelp content beyond 24 hours (only business IDs may be retained). Cannot build a database of business listings. AI-generated reviews are banned. Scraping and bulk download prohibited. Among the most restrictive ToS for agentic use in the index. source
Reliability & continuity4/10
The API itself is technically stable when accessible, but Yelp's track record on developer trust is poor. The July 2024 free-tier removal gave developers 4 days to migrate to $229+/mo plans — apps with 10+ years of history were broken overnight. 88 total incidents tracked since July 2021 (IsDown). Reservation APIs alone had 49+ outages. Rebranding (Fusion → Places) and pricing restructuring suggest ongoing churn. The pattern of breaking changes with minimal notice is a material continuity risk for agent integrations. source
Sources
Point-in-time assessment — services change terms, prices and APIs often. That volatility is itself scored under Reliability & continuity. Re-verified at least quarterly.
- yelp.com/robots.txt — robots.txt — blocks all major AI crawlers (accessed 2026-09-19)
- yelp.com/developers — Developer portal — Fusion/Places, GraphQL, Knowledge, Transactions (accessed 2026-09-19)
- docs.developer.yelp.com — API documentation — endpoints, auth, rate limits (accessed 2026-09-19)
- business.yelp.com/data/resources/pricing — API pricing — $229–643/mo self-serve plans (accessed 2026-09-19)
- terms.yelp.com/developers/api_terms/20250113_en_us — API Terms — 24h data expiry, AI training ban, no scraping (accessed 2026-09-19)
- github.com/Yelp/yelp-mcp — Official MCP server — single tool, wraps AI API (accessed 2026-09-19)
- techcrunch.com/2024/08/02/yelps-lack-of-transparenc… — July 2024 free-tier removal — 4 days notice, developer backlash (accessed 2026-09-19)
- yelp-support.com/article/Does-Yelp-allow-posting-re… — AI review ban policy (accessed 2026-09-19)