# You.com API

Web search API with its own index that returns ranked web and news results as JSON, with optional page content.

- Provider: You.com (SuSea, Inc.) (https://you.com)
- Category: Search the web
- Type: Hosted API
- Pricing model: Pay as you go, prepaid credits; keyless pay-per-call by x402 or MPP [2]
- Free tier: $10 credit on sign-up plus $90 after account verification, no card; 100 keyless MCP searches a day [1]
- Authentication: API key in `X-API-Key` header; OAuth 2.1 for the MCP server; keyless via x402/MPP payment [6]
- Connect via: REST API, hosted MCP server, local MCP package, Python SDK, agent skills [8]
- Read from the provider's pages on 2026-11-04
- Page: https://supermarket.dev/tools/search-the-web/you-com

## Pricing

### Billing
- Pricing model: Pay as you go, prepaid credits; Auto Top-Up optional [2]
- Free tier: $10 credit on sign-up and $90 more after verifying the account; free credits valid for 60 days; keyless MCP profile allows 100 `you-search` queries a day [1]
- Card required for free tier: No [1]
- Minimum spend: None [1]
- Billing period: Not published
- Credit expiry: Free signup credits expire after 60 days; purchased credits do not expire while the account is active [1]

### Prices
Web Search API is $5.00 per 1,000 calls (flat, up to 100 results per call), so $5.00 per 1,000 requests. Full page extraction adds $1.00 per 1,000 pages crawled live. Default `extraction_source` is `blend`; advertised price excludes extraction.
| Item | $ per 1,000 requests |
|---|---|
| Web Search API call (default, snippets) | $5.00 |
| Web Search with `extraction_mode: "full_page"`, per page crawled live (added to the call) | +$1.00 per 1,000 pages; cached pages free |
| Web Search by x402 machine payment | $5.00 ($0.005 per call) |
| Web Search by MPP machine payment | $10.00 ($0.01 per call) |
| Contents API | $1.00 per 1,000 pages |
| Answer API | $5.00 |
Source [2]

### Other charges
- Full page extraction: $1.00 per 1,000 pages fetched live; pages served from cache are free [2]
- Deprecated `livecrawl` on machine payments: Adds $0.001 per result [9]
- Out of credits: API calls return `402 Payment Required` [1]
- Enterprise: Custom rates, annual commitments, volume discounts via sales [2]

## Tools

### MCP server
- Official MCP server: Yes, remote and local [8]
- Address or package: `https://api.you.com/mcp` (keyless: `https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free`); local `@youdotcom-oss/mcp` [8]
- Number of tools (checked on free profile): 2 tools returned by `tools/list` on `?profile=free`; docs list 6 on the full server [18]

### MCP tools
`readOnlyHint` read from `tools/list` on the keyless free profile; the other four tools were not visible without credentials.
| Tool | What it does | Read-only |
|---|---|---|
| `you-search` | Search the web for current information, facts, news and sources; returns ranked results with URLs and snippets | Yes |
| `you-discover` | Discover AI agents, MCP servers, A2A agents and skills; search-only, never installs | Yes |
| `you-contents` | Extracts page content from URLs as Markdown or HTML | Not stated |
| `you-research` | Cited research answers; excluded from the default tool set | Not stated |
| `you-finance` | Finance research; excluded from the default tool set | Not stated |
| `you-balance` | Account balance | Not stated |
Source [8]

### API
| Endpoint | What it does |
|---|---|
| `POST https://ydc-index.io/v1/search` | Web Search API: ranked web and news results (also `GET`) |
| `POST https://ydc-index.io/v1/contents` | Contents API: Markdown or HTML from URLs |
| `POST https://api.you.com/v1/answer` | Answer API: synthesized answer with citations |
| `POST https://api.you.com/v1/research` | Research API: multi-step cited research |
| `POST https://api.you.com/v1/finance_research` | Finance Research API |
| `POST https://api.you.com/v1/chat/completions` | Inference Router: OpenAI-compatible; `/v1/messages` is Anthropic-compatible |
| `GET https://api.you.com/v1/billing/account_balance` | Account balance in cents |
Source [10]

### Features
- Results per query: Up to 100 per call; up to 50 when highlights are requested [12]
- Content returned: Title, URL, description and snippets by default; highlights or full-page Markdown/HTML with `extraction`; optional licensed `knowledge` results [10]
- Search types: Web and news in one request; news is ranked in when the query has news intent [13]
- Freshness controls: `freshness`: `day`, `week`, `month`, `year` or a custom `YYYY-MM-DDtoYYYY-MM-DD` range; also `country` and `language` [11]
- Domain filters: `include_domains`, `exclude_domains` and `boost_domains` [11]
- Storing results: Not published

## Authentication

### Methods
| Method | Used for | How |
|---|---|---|
| API key | REST APIs and MCP server | `X-API-Key: $YDC_API_KEY` header on REST; `Authorization: Bearer <YDC_API_KEY>` on the MCP server and Inference Router |
| OAuth 2.1 | Hosted MCP server | Client starts the OAuth flow when no credentials are sent |
| No credentials, free profile | MCP `you-search` and `you-discover` | `https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free`, 100 queries a day |
| Machine payments (x402, MPP) | Web Search and Finance Research APIs | HTTP 402 challenge, paid in USDC; no key or account |
Source [6]

### Getting access
- Who creates the account: A person signs up on the Platform with Google, Apple, email one-time password or SSO; agents can instead pay per request with x402 or MPP and need no account [7]
- Where to get a key: `https://you.com/platform/api-keys`; keys are scoped per product and shown once [6]
- Other requirements: None for the free credits; $90 of the free credit needs account verification; optional per-key spending cap [1]

## Setup

### Addresses
- REST API: `https://ydc-index.io/v1/search` (search, contents); `https://api.you.com` (answer, research, finance, router) [10]
- MCP server: `https://api.you.com/mcp` [8]
- OpenAPI spec: `https://you.com/docs/openapi.json` [14]
- Docs for agents: `https://you.com/docs/llms.txt`; append `.md` to any docs URL for Markdown [14]
- Status page: `https://status.you.com` [17]

### Install
| What | Command |
|---|---|
| Claude Code, remote MCP with API key | `claude mcp add --transport http youdotcom https://api.you.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <YDC_API_KEY>"` |
| Claude Code, remote MCP with OAuth | `claude mcp add --transport http youdotcom https://api.you.com/mcp` |
| Claude Code plugin | `/plugin marketplace add youdotcom-oss/agent-skills` then `/plugin install you@you-com` |
| VS Code, keyless MCP | `code --add-mcp '{"name":"youdotcom","url":"https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free","type":"http"}'` |
| Local MCP (STDIO) | `npx @youdotcom-oss/mcp` |
| Python SDK | `pip install youdotcom` |
| Agent skills | `npx skills add youdotcom-oss/agent-skills` |
Source [8]

## Limits

### Rate limits
Enterprise limits are set by contract. Responses carry `X-RateLimit-Limit`, `X-RateLimit-Remaining` and `X-RateLimit-Reset`; 429 includes `Retry-After`.
| Endpoint | Default limit (self-serve) |
|---|---|
| `/v1/search` | 10 requests/second |
| `/v1/contents` | 10 requests/second |
| `/v1/answer` | 10 requests/second |
| `/v1/research` | 10 requests/second |
| `/v1/finance_research` | 5 requests/second |
| Free MCP profile | 100 queries/day |
Source [3]

### Other limits
- Results per call: 100 without extraction; 50 with highlights [12]
- Pagination: `offset` 0 to 9 [11]
- Page crawl timeout: `crawl_timeout` 1 to 60 seconds, default 10 [12]
- Per-key spending cap: Optional dollar cap per key per billing period; reaching it returns 429 `spend_cap_exceeded` [5]
- Tokens in highlights: `total_max_tokens` 1024 to 8192 (default 8192) [12]

## Privacy

### Your data
- Data location: Services are provided from the United States [16]
- Retention: Kept for the period necessary to deliver and secure the Services; no fixed period stated [15]
- Used for training: No: prompts, files and outputs are not used to train own models; LLM-provider contracts prohibit their training [15]
- Used for training (other page): Terms of service say Content may be used to train and improve the Services; the privacy policy says paid-subscriber and enterprise terms control on conflict [16]
- Zero data retention: Available on enterprise agreements for Web Search and Answer APIs, enabled on request; not available for keyless machine-payment requests [4]

### Compliance
- Certifications: SOC 2; DPA-ready; CCPA; EU-U.S., UK and Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework [1]
- HIPAA: Not published

## Sources

1. Pricing: https://you.com/pricing
2. Billing: https://you.com/docs/administration/billing.md
3. Rate limits: https://you.com/docs/rate-limits.md
4. Zero Data Retention: https://you.com/docs/administration/zero-data-retention.md
5. API keys: https://you.com/docs/administration/api-keys.md
6. Authentication: https://you.com/docs/using-the-api/authentication.md
7. Account: https://you.com/docs/administration/account.md
8. MCP server: https://you.com/docs/agents/mcp-server.md
9. Machine payments: https://you.com/docs/administration/machine-payments.md
10. Web Search API overview: https://you.com/docs/guides/search.md
11. Request controls: https://you.com/docs/guides/search/request-controls.md
12. Retrieve page content: https://you.com/docs/guides/search/retrieve-page-content.md
13. Get live news: https://you.com/docs/guides/search/live-news.md
14. llms.txt: https://docs.you.com/llms.txt
15. Privacy policy: https://you.com/privacy
16. Terms of service: https://you.com/terms
17. Get help: https://you.com/docs/support/get-help.md
18. Checked by supermarket.dev