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How to set up Parallel

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Authentication

Parallel runs on Cargo credits out of the box, so you can use it without a Parallel account. To bill Parallel directly instead, connect your own API key:
  1. Sign up at parallel.ai
  2. Create an API key in your Parallel dashboard
  3. Paste the API key in Cargo when connecting
Code slugs — integration slug: parallel · actions: search, extract, createTask. In a workflow, declare the connector in uses and call uses.<key>.search(...).

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Parallel actions

Search the web with Parallel AI and return ranked results with relevant excerpts. Required fields:
  • Search queries: Concise keyword queries, 3-6 words each; provide 2-3 for best results
Optional fields:
  • Objective: Natural-language description of the question or goal driving the search
  • Search mode: basic for lowest latency, advanced for higher quality (default)
  • Number of results: Maximum results to return (1-100)
  • Max characters total: Upper bound on total characters across excerpts
  • Include domains: Only return results from these domains (accepts .gov-style extensions)
  • Exclude domains: Exclude results from these domains
  • After date: Only include results published on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
Use case: Find recent news, funding announcements, or public signals about an account before outreach.

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Extract

Extract relevant content from specific web URLs. Required fields:
  • URLs: URLs to extract content from (up to 20)
Optional fields:
  • Objective: Natural-language goal used to focus excerpts on the most relevant content
  • Search queries: Keyword queries used together with the objective to focus excerpts
  • Max characters total: Upper bound on total characters across extracted excerpts
  • Include full content: Also return the full page content as markdown
Use case: Pull pricing, careers, or product details from known pages of a prospect’s website for enrichment.

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Create Task

Execute a full web research task — complex queries that require deep research, analysis, and structured output. The task runs asynchronously on Parallel’s side and the workflow resumes when it completes (up to 60 minutes). Required fields:
  • Input: A natural-language question or a description of what to research
  • Processor: lite, base, core (balanced, default), core2x, pro, ultra, ultra2x, ultra4x, or ultra8x — from fastest and cheapest to deepest and most expensive
Optional fields:
  • Output schema: Description of the desired output — natural language or a JSON schema as a string
  • Include domains: Only use results from these domains
  • Exclude domains: Exclude results from these domains
  • After date: Only include results published on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
  • Location: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for geo-targeted results (e.g., us, gb)
The result includes the task output, output metadata (citations and confidence), and the sources used. Use case: Research an entire account — business model, ICP fit, recent initiatives — and return it as a structured object for scoring.

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Best practices

  • Use Search for quick lookups and Create Task for research that needs synthesis across many sources
  • Give Create Task an output schema to get structured, mappable results instead of free text
  • Scope searches with include/exclude domains and an after date to cut noise and stale results
  • Pick the cheapest processor that does the job: lite or base for simple lookups, the ultra tiers only for genuinely complex questions — each step up the ladder multiplies the credit cost
  • Cap Number of results on Search: the first 10 come with the request, and every result past that adds to the bill
  • Account for Create Task’s asynchronous nature (up to 60 minutes) when designing time-sensitive workflows

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Credits

Parallel is billable with Cargo credits, so you can use it without your own Parallel account. Costs mirror Parallel’s published pricing at $0.04 per Cargo credit.
  • Search: 0.125 credits per search, which covers the first 10 results, plus 0.025 credits for each additional result returned
  • Extract: 0.025 credits per URL submitted, whether or not the page could be read
  • Create Task: a flat cost per run that depends on the processor
Cargo tracks credit usage and supports caching to optimize costs.

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Rate limits

Parallel rate-limits each endpoint separately, and only counts the requests that create work — retrieving a task result is free. Cargo spreads calls to stay under the limits and retries on rejection.
  • Search: 600 requests per minute
  • Extract: 600 requests per minute
  • Create Task: 2,000 task runs per minute
On Cargo credits these limits are shared across all workspaces on Cargo’s key; on your own API key they apply to your connector alone.