Frequently asked questions
Everything people ask about the ODEN web search API — pricing, technical details, EU compliance, and how it compares.
General
What is ODEN?
ODEN is an EU-native web search API for LLMs and AI agents. One HTTPS request turns a natural-language query into a synthesized answer plus ranked, citation-backed sources, returned as JSON. It also makes Tungsten, a local-first AI code editor.
Who built ODEN?
ODEN is built and run by Samie Stenberg, a solo founder operating a one-person company (enskild firma) in Söderhamn, Sweden. There is no outside funding and no third party doing the real work behind the scenes.
Is ODEN a real, registered company?
Yes. ODEN is a Swedish sole proprietorship (enskild firma) with VAT number SE970629669701, operated from Söderhamn, Sweden.
What can I build with ODEN?
Anything that needs the live web inside an LLM: retrieval-augmented generation, agent tool calls, chatbots that cite sources, research assistants, and monitoring tools. The API returns clean, context-ready text rather than raw HTML.
Does ODEN have a free tier?
Yes. Every account gets 1,000 searches per month for free, with the full retrieval pipeline and no credit card required.
Pricing
How much does the ODEN web search API cost?
ODEN has three options. Free: 1,000 searches per month at no cost, no card. Pro: €29 per month for 6,000 searches, cancel anytime. Top-up: €7 for an extra 1,000 searches, one-time, never expires and stacks on any plan.
What counts as a search?
One search is one successful call to the /search endpoint. Failed requests are not counted, and ODEN's own internal traffic is excluded — you only spend quota on calls that return a result.
Do ODEN top-up searches expire?
No. Top-up searches are a persistent balance that carries over month to month and is only drawn down as you use them. They never expire and stack on top of your Free or Pro monthly quota.
Can I cancel ODEN Pro anytime?
Yes. Pro is a monthly subscription billed through Stripe with no lock-in. You can cancel at any time and keep access until the end of the period you have paid for.
What happens if I go over my monthly quota?
When your monthly quota is used up, further calls return HTTP 429 unless you have top-up searches available. A €7 top-up adds 1,000 searches that are spent automatically once the monthly quota runs out.
Technical
What LLMs does ODEN work with?
All of them. ODEN is a plain JSON-over-HTTPS API, independent of any model provider. Use it with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Llama, Mistral or any local model — it just returns text your model can read.
How do I authenticate with the ODEN API?
Pass your API key as a bearer token in the Authorization header: Authorization: Bearer <key>. Create and rotate keys from your dashboard, and keep them server-side.
Does ODEN have an SDK?
No SDK is required — ODEN is a plain HTTPS endpoint that sends and receives JSON, so it works from any language with an HTTP client. Copy-paste Python and TypeScript clients are provided in the docs.
How fast is ODEN?
A fresh advanced search reads and distills live sources, so it takes a few seconds; cached queries return in tens of milliseconds. The response includes a "cached" flag so you know which you got. Use depth "basic" for faster, snippet-level results.
Does ODEN support streaming?
No. The API returns a complete JSON object — the synthesized answer plus its citations — in a single response, rather than streaming tokens. If you want a streaming UX, stream ODEN's answer through your own model.
What does an ODEN response look like?
A JSON object with the echoed query, a trace_id, a cached flag, and a results object containing the synthesized answer and a ranked citations array (title, url, score, and optionally a snippet). See the search endpoint reference for the full schema.
Can I get citations without a synthesized answer?
Yes. Send "answer": false in the request body and the response returns ranked citations only, with no synthesized answer. The answer field defaults to true.
What language does ODEN answer in?
ODEN mirrors the language of your query. Ask in Swedish and the answer comes back in Swedish; ask in English and it answers in English, translating facts from foreign-language sources when needed.
EU and compliance
Is ODEN hosted in the EU?
Yes. ODEN runs on Cloudflare's infrastructure and is operated from Sweden. It is EU-native rather than a US product with an EU region added on.
Does ODEN respect the TDM opt-out?
Yes. ODEN checks robots.txt and the machine-readable text-and-data-mining opt-out (EU DSM Directive Article 4) before a page is read, and it returns citations as metadata rather than reproducing source text.
How does ODEN comply with the EU AI Act?
ODEN is a retrieval tool, not a model provider, but it is built to fit compliant AI systems: it honors source-level opt-outs, keeps data processing in the EU, and returns attributable citations so your application can cite its sources. See the EU compliance guide for detail.
Is ODEN GDPR-compliant?
ODEN processes queries to fulfil requests and keeps only minimal, short-lived operational data. The website uses cookieless analytics with no third-party trackers and no consent banner. Full detail is in the privacy policy.
Does ODEN sell or share my data?
No. ODEN does not sell personal data or share it for advertising. Data is shared only with the processors needed to run the service (hosting, auth, payments), each under contract.
Comparison
How is ODEN different from Tavily?
Both return a synthesized answer plus citations for LLMs. ODEN is EU-hosted, checks robots.txt and the EU TDM opt-out at the source, and bills on a flat quota with never-expiring top-ups. Tavily is US-based with a larger ecosystem. See the full ODEN vs Tavily comparison.
Why not just use a Google or Bing search API?
SERP APIs (and Google Custom Search) return the results page — links and snippets you still have to fetch, extract and rank before a model can use them. ODEN returns the finished answer with citations in one call. Microsoft also retired the Bing Search API in August 2025, leaving a gap ODEN fills.
How is ODEN different from a SERP API like SerpAPI or Serper?
SERP APIs give you the raw search-results page as JSON; ODEN reads the sources and gives you a distilled answer with citations. SERP APIs are cheaper per raw call but leave you the extraction work; ODEN includes it. See the comparison pages for detail.
Is ODEN related to Tungsten, the editor?
They are two products from the same one-person company. ODEN is a hosted web search API; Tungsten is a local-first AI code editor that needs no network at all. They share a philosophy — put the work in the right place — but not a codebase or an account.