You.com
Ground an agent in live web sources while choosing explicitly between retrieval and a generated answer.
- Starting price
- USD 5 / 1,000 search calls
- Free access
- MCP: 100 searches/day
- Billing unit
- Calls or extracted pages
- Platform
- API, SDK and MCP
- Verified
- 22 Oct 2026
Overview
What you provide
- Send a search query, known URL or research question to the appropriate endpoint.
What you get
- The selected API returns web results, extracted content or a generated answer with sources.
Choosing this tool
You.com fits an agent that needs search results, extracted pages or a cited answer behind a single vendor integration. The cheapest retrieval path is not equivalent to Research, which performs more work. Compare Tavily when credits suit a mixed search/extract workflow, and Exa when you need explicit result-count and content-type budgeting.
A decision worked through
At the listed Standard rates, 2,000 search calls cost USD 10 and 3,000 extracted pages add USD 3. The USD 13 subtotal excludes your reasoning model and any Research calls. The daily free MCP allowance is a separate entry path, not 100 free calls to every endpoint.
You.com alternatives for web search and cited-answer apis
Compare You.com with Tavily, Exa for web search and cited-answer apis. Match billing units and operating responsibility before comparing rates.
| Product | Price / unit | Free allowance | Input → output | Key limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You.comRead profileOfficial source ↗ | Search USD 5/1k calls | MCP 100 queries/day | Queries become sourced web data. | Research uses different rates. |
| TavilyRead profileOfficial source ↗ | PAYG USD 0.008/credit | 1,000 credits/mo | Queries become retrieval evidence. | Credits differ by operation. |
| ExaRead profileOfficial source ↗ | Lite USD 4/1k, up to 10 results | USD 10 credits/mo | Query becomes pages or research. | Extra results are billable. |
Setup & workflow
- Choose retrieval, extraction or synthesis before selecting an endpoint.
- Run a small set of dated questions and inspect source quality.
- Track request counts separately from page and model-token usage.
Requirements & installation
- Use the documented free MCP entry or create an API integration with the appropriate access credentials.
Limits & review
- Search output is not a guarantee of factual correctness. Contents bills pages, and Research depth changes both latency and price; application model costs remain separate.
Your part
- Inspect source dates and citations before passing an answer into a consequential workflow.
Sources & verification4
This profile is based on official sources, not a hands-on product test.
Vendor descriptions and demos document advertised features. Editorial guidance is based on these sources.
- Official You.com functionalityyou.com
- Official You.com pricingyou.com
- Tavily official referencewww.tavily.com
- Exa official referenceexa.ai
