Tool review · By Adam Johnstone · Updated 2026-09-13
If you came here to compare a You.com Pro subscription against ChatGPT Plus, there is nothing to compare. Every You.com-controlled surface now sells search and research APIs to developers. The consumer product is gone.
Plans and prices
Checked against official sources on 2026-09-13. Where the vendor does not publish a figure, this table says so rather than filling the gap.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 100 queries per day on the Web Search API. New accounts also get $100 in credits. |
| Web Search API | $5.00 per 1,000 calls | Up to 100 URLs per call. Full page extraction is $1.00 per 1,000 pages. |
| Contents API | $1.00 per 1,000 pages | Returns clean Markdown or raw HTML per page. |
| Answer API | $5.00 per 1,000 calls | Synthesised response with citations. |
| Research API | $12–$1,200 per 1,000 calls | Five effort tiers: Lite $12, Standard $50, Deep $100, Exhaustive $450, Frontier $1,200. |
| Finance Research API | $110–$500 per 1,000 calls | Filings, macro data, markets and derived calculations. |
Model access
Not applicable. You.com's APIs return search results, page contents and cited synthesised answers; your own model consumes them. There is no consumer model picker, and which models power the Answer and Research APIs is not disclosed.
This is the opposite economic model from TypingMind. There, you supply the model keys and pay providers directly. Here, model costs are internalised into a per-call price and you never see them. Neither is comparable to a flat monthly bundle fee.
Limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Free tier | 100 queries per day |
| Free MCP profile | Search only — no answer, research, contents or finance endpoints |
| Web Search | Up to 100 results per call |
| Research at high effort | Over 1,000 reasoning turns, up to 10 million tokens per query |
| Frontier tier | Background mode only — synchronous requests return a 422 error |
| Numeric rate limits | Not published — the documentation pages that should carry them return 404 |
The Frontier research tier appears to have come down in price during 2026: the February launch announcement quoted over $2,000 per 1,000 requests against $1,200 in the current documentation. No formal repricing announcement accompanies that, so treat it as directional.
Fit
Open questions
Every comparison has gaps. Listing them is more useful than guessing, and these are the things worth checking yourself during a trial.
Platform and data
APIs only. REST endpoints, Python and TypeScript SDKs, framework integrations, and remote and local MCP servers. No web app, no desktop app, no mobile app, no self-hosting verified.
Not established. No current You.com data-retention, training-opt-out or data-residency policy could be located, and there is no published DPA or compliance page. Enterprise data controls are presumably contractual through sales. Anything stated about You.com's current retention or training use would be guesswork.
Sources
All figures on this page were checked on 2026-09-13. Prices and limits in this category change frequently — verify on the official page before paying. You.com API pricing · You.com Research API guide and effort tiers · You.com MCP server documentation · You.com Series C announcement · The New Stack on You.com's pivot to enterprise
FAQ
Not on any You.com-controlled page as of 13 September 2026. The pricing page lists only APIs, the homepage describes the company as selling search infrastructure, the search path returns a marketing page, and the old “manage my Pro subscription” support article now redirects to a generic support home. Whether a legacy plan survives for existing users behind login could not be verified.
It is metered, not subscription. Web Search and Answer APIs are $5 per 1,000 calls, Contents is $1 per 1,000 pages, and the Research API runs from $12 per 1,000 calls at the Lite tier to $1,200 at Frontier. A free tier gives 100 queries a day and new accounts get $100 in credits.
Because it used to be one. You.com ran a consumer AI search product with a model picker and subscription tiers, and most comparison content has not been updated since the pivot. If a page still quotes you a You.com Pro monthly price, that page is out of date.
Not for a consumer. Both once competed for the same AI-search user, but You.com now sells research infrastructure to developers and agents while Perplexity still sells consumer subscriptions. The comparable product to You.com's Research API is Exa, not Perplexity Pro.
It moved to enterprise and developer products. The company raised a $100 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation in September 2025 led by Cox Enterprises, launched a Research API in February 2026 and a Finance Research API later that year, and reports customers including DuckDuckGo, Harvey AI, Windsurf and Databricks.
Compare