levelsio puts Nomads data behind a $2,490 a year API

levelsio has put the Nomads data behind a paid API, priced from $2,490 a year up to $9,990 a year. It follows an MCP server for the same site, and he says the API is built primarily for AI agents, with an MCP server too, and secondly for companies that want to pull Nomads data into their own applications.

@levelsio

@levelsio

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This week we talk a lot about moats, and data is a moat, and Nomads has a lot of data that I can get paid for

What you get for the money

The list is long because the site has been collecting for years. Cost of living data for nomads, expats, locals and families. Live tested internet speeds, which levelsio is careful to point out come from nomads actually running tests rather than marketed numbers. Live weather and air quality, quality of life scores, short-stay hotel and coworking prices.

Then the softer stuff that is harder to scrape anywhere else. Ratings and reviews from tens of thousands of nomads who have visited cities around the world, the best neighborhoods to stay in, pulled from Hoodmaps, and demographics like population, currency, median age, gender ratio and how good a place is for dating. levelsio says he collected it manually over years and keeps it fresh from hundreds of data sources.

The business read

His own framing is the interesting part. He describes it as chasing the moats, and says that because data continuously changes, a single dump is fine but a subscription means he does the updating for you. That is the whole pitch for selling data rather than access to a tool. The value is not the one-time export, it is that the numbers go stale the moment you stop paying someone to refresh them.

The agent angle matters for anyone sitting on a pile of structured data they currently publish for free. An agent that reads your site to answer a question costs you bandwidth and gives you nothing back. An agent that hits a metered API gives you four figures a year per customer for the same information. levelsio is not describing a new product so much as a new front door onto an old one.

Worth being clear about what is not known. There is no revenue figure here, no customer count and no indication of how many agents or companies have signed up. This is a launch and a price list, not a results post. What it does show is one operator deciding that the asset worth charging for is not the website, it is the thing the website sits on top of.