What is You.com?
You.com offers a set of APIs that connect AI applications to the live web. Its core product is the Web Search API, which returns ranked web and news results optimized for programmatic use, with additional endpoints for extracting clean Markdown or HTML from known URLs, generating cited answers in one call, and running multi-step research that plans, searches repeatedly and reads full pages before answering. A Finance Research API applies the same research engine to financial questions.
Developers get an API key and call the endpoints from Python or other SDKs, or connect through an MCP server. Typical uses include feeding live content into a RAG pipeline, building agents that need current information, producing research reports with sources, and analysing stock, market or earnings data. The company states that it offers Zero Data Retention, SOC 2 certification and custom plans for enterprises.
Key features
- Web Search API with real-time web and news results
- Contents API that returns clean Markdown or HTML from URLs
- Answer API that produces a cited answer in one call
- Research API with five effort levels for multi-step research
- Finance Research API for company and market analysis
- MCP server access and Python SDK
Who is it for
- Developers building AI agents and LLM applications
- Teams implementing RAG with live web data
- Enterprises needing SOC 2 and data retention controls
- Financial analysts running market research
Pros and cons
- Real-time index with published accuracy and latency benchmarks
- Free tier of 100 Web Search queries per day via MCP without an account
- Zero Data Retention and automatic purge options
- Pricing is per call, so costs scale with usage and deeper research tiers are expensive
- Frontier-level research works only in background mode
You.com pricing
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 USD | 100 Web Search API queries/day via MCP, no API key or account |
| Web Search API Standard (pay as you go) | 5 USD / one-time | per 1,000 calls; no minimums, no seats, no platform fee; auto top-up |
| Contents API | 1 USD / one-time | per 1,000 pages |
| Answer API | 5 USD / one-time | per 1,000 calls |
| Research Lite | 12 USD / one-time | per 1,000 calls; single-pass factual lookups |
| Research Standard | 50 USD / one-time | per 1,000 calls |
Prices copied from You.com pricing, checked October 12, 2026. Currency as shown by the vendor; taxes may apply.
Is You.com free?
Yes, there is a free plan. 100 Web Search API queries per day via MCP, with no API key, account or credit card needed. The pricing page also mentions $100 of free credit equal to 20,000 searches.
You.com alternatives
| Tool | Price from | Free plan | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
 Exa | not listed | trial | APIs & models |
 Tavily | 0.008 USD | yes | APIs & models |
 Firecrawl | 16 USD/mo | yes | APIs & models |
 Pinecone | 20 USD/mo | yes | APIs & models |
 Qdrant | not listed | yes | APIs & models |
 Helium 10 | not listed | ? | APIs & models |
FAQ
What is You.com used for?
Web search, content extraction and research APIs that give AI agents and LLMs live, grounded web data for developers and enterprises.
Is You.com free?
Yes, there is a free plan. 100 Web Search API queries per day via MCP, with no API key, account or credit card needed. The pricing page also mentions $100 of free credit equal to 20,000 searches.
How much does You.com cost?
The cheapest paid plan is 1 USD (vendor pricing, October 12, 2026).
What are the best You.com alternatives?
Closest alternatives: Exa, Tavily, Firecrawl, Pinecone, Qdrant.
Data checked October 12, 2026 on the vendor website (you.com).