# Exa API + MCP vs You.com APIs

> You.com APIs has a score of 76.9 (BB) against Exa API + MCP's 66.1 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is reliability, 18 points. Exa API + MCP accepts x402. You.com APIs doesn't. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-you-com-api
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- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-you-com-api.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-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
- Updated: 2026-10-04

You.com APIs has a score of 76.9 (BB) against Exa API + MCP's 66.1 (B). Both do web search. The largest gap is reliability, 18 points. Exa API + MCP accepts x402. You.com APIs doesn't.

- Exa API + MCP: grade B, 66.1/100, rank #163 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/exa-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/exa-mcp.json
- You.com APIs: grade BB, 76.9/100, rank #24 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/you-com-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/you-com-api.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Exa API + MCP for agent ergonomics (+12), maintenance & community (+6).

Pick You.com APIs for reliability (+18), security & auth (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Exa API + MCP | You.com APIs | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 85 | You.com APIs +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 82 | Exa API + MCP +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 96 | 84 | Exa API + MCP +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 53 | You.com APIs +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 90 | 88 | Exa API + MCP +2 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 82 | Exa API + MCP +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 63 | Exa API + MCP +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -9 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.1 · B** | **76.9 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Exa API + MCP | You.com APIs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Exa | You.com |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp` | `https://api.you.com/v1/search` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | yes, from $0.007/call | payer tooling only |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 4 | 6 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `ai.exa/exa` | `io.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-22 |
| Popularity | 4.9k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 1.4M PyPI/wk | 4.4k npm/wk, 92k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4.5/5 (2) | 3.8/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**Exa API + MCP.** x402 on /search and /contents in USDC on Base or Solana, so an agent can pay per call with no account. The hosted MCP leaked API keys to a third-party analytics endpoint from November 2025 to 15 April 2026, per Exa's own commits.

**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

### Exa API + MCP

1. Send the key as `x-api-key` or a Bearer header, never `?exaApiKey=` in the MCP URL
2. Ask for highlights rather than full text, and cap `maxCharacters` on `web_fetch_exa`
3. Request only the results you'll read. More than 10 costs extra, and x402 calls stop at 10
4. On 429, honour `Retry-After`. The QPS limit is shared by every key on the team
5. Add `?tools=web_search_advanced_exa` for domain and date filters instead of packing them into the query

### 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. On 429, wait for `Retry-After` and watch `X-RateLimit-Remaining` before the next burst

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