# Competitor Signals API: Dated competitor prices, promotions and briefs over MCP or REST, paid per call.

> The RivalSweeper Signals API returns dated competitor signals over MCP or REST: price for a brand and SKU or category, active promotions with start dates, an agent-readiness score, history and written briefs. Every response carries its capture time, and a call with no data for the domain costs nothing.

- Page: https://rotomal.com/competitor-signals-api/
- Category: Competitive intelligence
- Language: en
- Billing: subscription
- From: $299 per month
- Provided by RivalSweeper: https://www.rivalsweeper.com/solutions/signals-api?utm_source=rotomal&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=rotomal-usecases&utm_content=competitor-signals-api&utm_term=agent

- Core signals at about $0.02 a call (1 credit); a full brand snapshot at about $0.30 (15 credits)
- A freshness stamp on every response, so your pipeline or agent can decide whether the data is current enough to act on
- A hard spend cap on every account, so a runaway agent loop cannot drain the balance

## Scraping competitor storefronts is a pipeline you maintain forever

If your agent or dashboard needs a competitor's current price, the usual path is a scraper per storefront: selectors that break on a theme change, bot challenges, currency and locale variants, and a dedupe step so one product in three markets is not counted three times. Together that is a standing maintenance budget.

Agents add two more problems: staleness and cost. A tool call that returns a price without saying when it was captured invites the model to act on old data, and an agent stuck in a loop against a per-request API can run up a bill before anyone looks.

The job needs a dated signal behind one key, priced per answer, with a ceiling on spend and no charge when there is nothing to return.

- Anthropic introduced the Model Context Protocol on Nov 25, 2024 as an open standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives. (source: https://www.anthropic.com/news/model-context-protocol)
- RivalSweeper Signals bills 1 credit as $0.02, and a call that finds no data for the domain costs zero credits. (source: https://www.rivalsweeper.com/solutions/signals-api)
- Pay As You Go top-ups earn bonus credits from +10% at $20 up to +50% at $320 and above. (source: https://www.rivalsweeper.com/solutions/signals-api)

## How it works

1. **Request access.** Signals is in early access. Request access and get a reply within 24 hours; approved qualified accounts get a one-time 50 free trial credits, no card.
2. **Connect over MCP or REST.** Point an MCP-compatible agent at the RivalSweeper Signals MCP server, or call the same signals over REST with your API key.
3. **Call for the signal you need.** A price, a promotion list, a readiness score, a brand snapshot, a history window or a written brief. Each response carries the time the data was captured.
4. **Keep spend predictable.** Each answer debits a set number of credits. The spend cap and per-key rate limits bound what an agent can use, and empty answers cost nothing.

## Features

- **Core signals, 1 credit.** Competitor price for a brand and SKU or category, dated; active promotions with start dates; the AI and agent-readiness score. About $0.02 a call.
- **Brand snapshot, 15 credits.** Price, promotions and readiness for one brand in a single call instead of several. About $0.30.
- **History, from 5 credits.** The time series behind a signal over the window you choose. About $0.10 per brand-signal-month.
- **Synthesis, 75 credits.** A SWOT delta or competitive brief for a brand, written for an agent to act on. About $1.50 a call.
- **Freshness stamp.** Every response carries its capture time, so your code can reject data older than it accepts.
- **Spend cap and rate limits.** A hard spend cap on every account and per-key rate limits. Growth raises the limits.
- **No data, no charge.** Billing is triggered by an answer that carries data. If there is nothing for the domain, the call returns empty at zero credits.

## Who it's for

- **Data engineers.** You want competitor prices in the warehouse without owning scrapers. One REST API returns dated signals you load on your own schedule.
- **BI and pricing analysts.** You build your own price index or promo calendar. You get dated competitor prices and promotion start dates, plus history when you need a backfill from the tracked period.
- **Developers building AI agents.** Your agent needs facts it can date and a budget it cannot blow. MCP tool discovery, a capture time on every answer and a hard spend cap cover both.
- **Existing RivalSweeper customers.** You already track rivals in the app. You use Signals within your plan for the domains you track.

## Works with

MCP for Claude and other MCP-compatible agents, REST over HTTPS, described by an OpenAPI file, API key sent as a Bearer token, Prepaid credits topped up by invoice, RivalSweeper app plans for tracked domains

## Pricing

Prices in USD; 1 credit is $0.02 at list price. Every account has a hard spend cap and calls with no data cost nothing. Early access: reply within 24 hours, and approved qualified accounts get a one-time 50 free trial credits, no card.

| Plan | Price | Includes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pay As You Go | $0 no monthly fee | Top up credits whenever you like; Bonus credits: +10% at $20, +20% at $40, +30% at $80, +40% at $160, +50% at $320 and up; List price per call, from about $0.02; Spend cap required; MCP and REST |
| Growth | $299 per month | Included monthly credits at a better effective rate; Higher rate limits; Spend cap included; Priority support; MCP and REST |
| Already on a RivalSweeper plan | Included in Basic $39 or Pro $199 per month | Basic: 2 monitored domains, MCP with limited credits; Pro: 15 monitored domains, MCP and REST API with 10,000 requests per month; Enterprise: REST API with 200,000 requests per month; Signals cover the domains you track; Add rivals in the app |

## Compared with the alternatives

- **Building and running your own scrapers.** Full control and no per-call price, but you own selectors, bot challenges, currency handling and product matching for every storefront.
- **General web-scraping APIs and proxy services.** They fetch pages for you. You still write the parsing, currency handling and product matching, and the output is a page, not a dated price signal.
- **Enterprise price-intelligence suites.** Dashboards for in-house pricing teams, usually on custom quotes. More than you need if the consumer is an agent or a pipeline.

## Security and data

- Signals are built from public storefront pages; nothing connects to your store or your systems.
- Access is by API key; each response carries the capture time of its data.
- Every account has a hard spend cap and per-key rate limits.
- Calls that return no data are not charged.

## From request to first call

Early access is handled by the team; most of the week goes into wiring the calls you need.

- Day 1: Request access and describe the use: agent, dashboard or pipeline.
- Day 2: Reply within 24 hours; approved qualified accounts get 50 one-time trial credits, no card.
- Day 3: Connect over MCP or REST, set your spend cap and call core signals for a brand you know well.
- Day 7: Choose Pay As You Go or Growth based on the week's call volume.

## FAQ

### How do I get a key and start free?

Request access on the Signals API page. We reply within 24 hours, and approved qualified accounts get a one-time 50 free trial credits with no card.

### How are credits billed?

1 credit is $0.02. Core signals cost 1 credit, a brand snapshot 15, history from 5 and a synthesis brief 75. You top up a prepaid balance by invoice and each call draws it down.

### What happens when you have no data for a domain?

You are not charged. The call returns empty and costs zero credits.

### How fresh is the data?

Every response carries the capture time, so your code decides what is current enough. A newly added brand can take up to 24 hours before data appears.

### MCP or REST?

Same dataset, auth, credits and freshness stamp either way. MCP lets a compatible agent discover and call signals without glue code; REST suits pipelines and services.

### Which signals are available today?

Competitor price, active promotions and the AI and agent-readiness score, plus brand snapshot, history and synthesis. Price position index, discount depth, new arrivals, out-of-stock rate and promo calendar are on the roadmap, not available yet.

### We already use the RivalSweeper app. Do we pay again?

No. App customers use Signals within their plan for the domains they track.

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Rotomal · https://rotomal.com/competitor-signals-api/ · hello@rotomal.com