# Arcmira vs You.com APIs

> You.com scores 75.9 (BB) to Arcmira's 64.2 (B) for research search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-you-com-api
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-you-com-api.md (~3,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-you-com-api.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-you-com-api.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-30

You.com APIs scores 75.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Arcmira's 64.2 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Arcmira leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do research search.

- Arcmira: grade B, 64.2/100, rank #420 of 1227. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arcmira.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/arcmira.json
- You.com APIs: grade BB, 75.9/100, rank #48 of 1227. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/you-com-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/you-com-api.json
- Best web search APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/search/index.md
- All 182 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Arcmira (B)

Good for: Agents answering what was said on YouTube shows and podcasts, who was mentioned or appeared where, which brands sponsor a show and how a name's mentions are trending, with timestamped source links, through one connection on a free monthly allowance.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 82
- Agent ergonomics, 91 against 81

Watch for: No status page, incident history or SLA was found; the terms disclaim uninterrupted service and Enterprise lists priority support without an uptime commitment

### You.com APIs (BB)

Good for: An unattended agent that needs search, page text and cited answers and wants to pay per call without an account.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 40
- Payments & pricing, 88 against 55

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Runs on your own machine
- No incidents deducted, where Arcmira loses 3 points for them

Watch for: Two API hosts. Answer and Research return 'Missing Authentication Token' on ydc-index.io


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Arcmira | You.com APIs | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 80 | You.com APIs +40 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 82 | Arcmira +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 91 | 81 | Arcmira +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 61 | 57 | Arcmira +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 55 | 88 | You.com APIs +33 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 82 | Arcmira +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 60 | Arcmira +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.2 · B** | **75.9 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Arcmira | You.com APIs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Arcmira, Inc. | You.com |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.arcmira.com/mcp` | `https://api.you.com/v1/search` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for research search | not published | $50 per 1,000 requests |
| x402 | no | payer tooling only |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Arcmira's Terms of Service. The MCP server's source is public under an all-rights-reserved notice; the Claude Code plugin, the arcmira TypeScript SDK and CLI and the Python SDK are Apache-2.0, and the Famous rankings are CC BY 4.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | 4 | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.arcmira/arcmira` | `io.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-13 | 2024-08-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-02 | 2026-09-22 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 78 stars | 4.4k npm/wk, 92k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.8/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**Arcmira.** Four code-mode tools over a documented v1 API, OAuth 2.1 with four scopes, a read-only sign-up key from two API calls and no card, and a 1,000-credit free month. No status page, SLA or security.txt, breaking v1 changes shipped in October with same-day notice, the server is at 0.10.7, and the index covers the shows Arcmira transcribes.

**You.com APIs.** x402 and MPP on Web Search and Finance Research, with no account needed. Two API hosts. Answer and Research return 'Missing Authentication Token' on ydc-index.io.

## Before you call either

### Arcmira

1. Call `arcmira_describe` once per session and write one program per question for `arcmira_execute_read`; return only the fields the answer needs, since output is cut at 12,000 characters and 3,000 per string.
2. Resolve names with `arcmira.resolve` (free) before any `about`, `by`, `entity_ids` or `channel` filter; a name in a filter fails with `id_required`. Plain keyword search needs no resolver call.
3. Check `arcmira.status()` or GET /v1/me for the plan, scopes and `usage.credits.available` before metered reads; on Free, media newer than 30 days and pages past the first fail with `freshness_requires_paid` and `pagination_gated`.
4. A Premium read of an untranscribed video starts a transcription that uses credits (300 per started 15 minutes) and may return `pending`; read the same video again later, which is never charged twice, and send `retry: true` only when the user asks.
5. Over HTTP send `Authorization: Bearer arc_sk_...`, an `Idempotency-Key` on every POST and PATCH, honour `Retry-After` on 429, and switch on `error.code`, following `unlock.url` on 402 and 403 rather than re-authenticating.
6. Use `arcmira_execute_write` only after listing the user's monitors; it creates, follows and pauses but never deletes, and a connection made before server 0.9.0 answers `insufficient_scope` until reconnected.

### You.com APIs

1. For unattended runs call GET https://api.you.com/v1/search, handle the 402 and pay with x402. It's half the MPP price for search
2. Use `https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=free` to try search with no key (100 queries a day)
3. Send Answer, Research and Finance Research to api.you.com. On ydc-index.io they fail with 'Missing Authentication Token'
4. Pass `?tools=` with only the tools you need to keep the MCP tool list short
5. With Python SDK 3.6.0 or later, pass `knowledge=None, extraction=None` on search unless you want highlights and knowledge cards, which are now on by default and may cost more

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Arcmira or You.com APIs?

You.com APIs scores 75.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Arcmira's 64.2 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Arcmira leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.

### Do Arcmira and You.com APIs need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Arcmira and You.com APIs without installing anything?

Yes. Arcmira has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.arcmira.com/mcp and You.com APIs at https://api.you.com/v1/search.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-you-com-api.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-you-com-api.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "arcmira", "b": "you-com-api"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare arcmira you-com-api`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/arcmira.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/you-com-api.json

## Other comparisons with Arcmira or You.com APIs

- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Arcmira](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-arcmira.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Arcmira vs Brave Search API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-brave-search-mcp.md)
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- [Arcmira vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-serper.md)
- [Arcmira vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [DeepSeek Search and Fetch API vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-search-api-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Linkup vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [SerpApi vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Serper vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [SerpKite vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Tavily API + MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tavily-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [TinyFish Search vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tinyfish-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Valyu vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/valyu-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Arcmira vs Exa API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-exa-mcp.md)
- [Arcmira vs Grep AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-grep-ai.md)
- [Arcmira vs Linkup](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-linkup.md)
- [Arcmira vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-parallel-search-api.md)
- [Arcmira vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [Arcmira vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Arcmira vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-valyu.md)
- [Grep AI vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-you-com-api.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp