Build with Cerul

Add video understanding to your AI agents with one API call. Search across visual scenes, speech, and on-screen text — get back timestamped results with relevance scores and source links.

Base URL: https://api.cerul.aiBearer authenticationJSON responses

Step 1

Get your API key

Sign up at cerul.ai and your default API key is ready in the dashboard. New accounts start with 100 signup credits and 10 free searches per day. Add a credit card when you want the 300-credit monthly free tier.

Step 2

Make your first search

Replace YOUR_CERUL_API_KEY with your actual key. This searches across visual scenes, speech, and on-screen text in one call.

queryNatural-language search (required)
max_results1–50, default 10
include_answerAI summary from matched evidence

Full search reference →

search.sh

bash
curl "https://api.cerul.ai/v1/search" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_CERUL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "Sam Altman views on AI video generation",
    "include_answer": true
  }'

Step 3

Understand the response

Each result includes a relevance score, timestamps, source metadata, and a tracking URL that redirects to the original video.

scoreRelevance from 0.0 to 1.0
urlTracking link → redirects to source video
keyframe_urlPreview frame when available
transcriptFull ASR text for speech-backed segments
keyframe_urlPreview frame when available
answerAI summary (when include_answer is true)

response.json

json
{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "unit_hmtuvNfytjM_1223",
      "score": 0.92,
      "url": "https://cerul.ai/v/a8f3k2x",
      "title": "Sam Altman on AGI Timeline",
      "snippet": "AGI is coming sooner than most people expect.",
      "transcript": "AGI is coming sooner than most people expect, and the roadmap gets clearer once model capability and product reliability converge.",
      "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hmtuvNfytjM/hqdefault.jpg",
      "keyframe_url": "https://cdn.cerul.ai/frames/hmtuvNfytjM/f0123.jpg",
      "duration": 7200,
      "source": "youtube",
      "speaker": "Sam Altman",
      "timestamp_start": 1223.0,
      "timestamp_end": 1345.0
    }
  ],
  "answer": "Summary grounded in matched evidence.",
  "credits_used": 2,
  "credits_remaining": 998,
  "request_id": "req_9f8c1d5b2a9f7d1a8c4e6b02"
}

Daily free

Today: 10 / 10 free searches reset every UTC day

Sign in to see your live remaining count here. The first 10 searches each day still cost 0 credits.

Step 4

Check your usage

Monitor your credit balance, daily free allowance, wallet breakdown, and rate limits before scaling traffic.

Full usage reference →

usage.sh

bash
curl "https://api.cerul.ai/v1/usage" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_CERUL_API_KEY"

# Response:
# {
#   "tier": "free",
#   "credits_used": 128,
#   "credits_remaining": 872,
#   "wallet_balance": 872,
#   "daily_free_remaining": 7,
#   "daily_free_limit": 10,
#   "rate_limit_per_sec": 1,
#   "api_keys_active": 1
# }

Endpoints