You.com
AI search engine with customizable, agent-style research modes.
Description
You.com combines web search with AI chat and configurable research modes for deeper, multi-step queries, though by 2026 the company has shifted much of its focus toward usage-based Search, Answer, and Research APIs for developers rather than a simple consumer subscription.
Pros
- Multiple specialized modes (research, code, etc.)
- Good source transparency
- Usage-based API pricing suits building your own product
Cons
- Consumer subscription tiers are no longer clearly published as the company prioritizes its API/enterprise business
- Less mainstream recognition than Perplexity
What it does & solves
You.com solves multi-step research questions that a single search query can't answer well, by layering configurable 'modes' on top of standard web search and AI chat. Instead of manually running several searches and synthesizing them yourself, you pick a mode suited to the task and it handles multi-step retrieval and synthesis, citing sources along the way. It sits between a plain search engine and a heavier AI research agent — depth without needing a fully autonomous report every time.
Use cases
- Running multi-step research queries with source citations
- Switching between specialized modes (research, code, etc.) for different question types
- Getting a synthesized, citation-backed answer instead of a list of links
- Extracting clean text and summaries from multiple pages at once via the Contents API
- Building custom research or search features into another product with You.com's APIs
- Comparing options with sources shown for each claim
- Prototyping an AI search feature using the free API credit before committing to paid usage
Who it's for
The consumer search product suits people who want more mode-based configurability than a simpler tool like Perplexity. Increasingly, though, You.com's real focus in 2026 is developers and businesses building on its Search, Contents, Answer, and Research APIs, so technical teams get more long-term value from the platform than casual searchers. No coding is needed to use the consumer search product itself.
Getting started
- 1Go to you.com and enter a question directly, or pick a specific mode for research/code tasks.
- 2Review the synthesized answer along with its cited sources.
- 3Refine with a follow-up question in the same session.
- 4For building your own product, get an API key and test with the free credit allowance.
- 5Pick the relevant API (Search, Contents, Answer, or Research) based on whether you need raw results, page content, or a synthesized answer.
Tips for using it well
- Pick the mode that matches your question (research vs. quick answer) rather than defaulting to plain chat
- If you're evaluating it for a product integration, test the API tiers directly — pricing there is usage-based, not a flat subscription
- Use the free API credit to prototype before committing to paid usage
- Cross-check citations on research-mode answers the same way you would with any AI search tool
- Don't assume feature parity with older versions of You.com — the product has shifted noticeably toward API/enterprise since 2025
Plans & pricing
Free plan: The consumer search/chat product remains free to use for basic Q&A and web search; on the developer side, the Search API includes roughly 100 free queries a day plus a one-time credit to test other endpoints.
Web Search API
$5 per 1,000 calls
Real-time web and news results with LLM-ready snippets and metadata.
Answer API
$5 per 1,000 calls
A single-call, synthesized, citation-grounded answer to a query.
Research API
$12 per 1,000 calls
Deeper multi-step research with inline citations across sources.
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