Head to head · Research search · October 2026 research run

Liner Search MCP vs You.com APIs

You.com APIs scores 76.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Liner Search MCP's 43.4 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do research search.

Best web search APIs for AI agents · All 326 search comparisons

Which one, for what

Liner Search MCP E

Best for Agents that need cheap cited search across the web and scholarly sources, with optional deep research reports.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where You.com APIs loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No free tier found

You.com APIs BB

Best 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 50
  • Schema & documentation, 92 against 45
  • Agent ergonomics, 83 against 65
  • Security & auth, 59 against 35
  • Payments & pricing, 88 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 45
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 34

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

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

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Payments & pricing You.com APIs +68

Liner Search MCP 20

No machine payment protocol (0). Per-call prices public (20). No free tier found (0). A person signs up in a browser for OAuth or an API key (0). 0 + 20 + 0 + 0 = 20.

You.com APIs 88

x402 (USDC on Base or Solana) and MPP (USDC on Tempo) on GET /v1/search, /v1/agents/search and POST /v1/finance_research. On 1 November an unpaid GET https://api.you.com/v1/search returned 402 with an x402 v2 PAYMENT-REQUIRED challenge for 5,000 base units of USDC on Base and on Solana and an MPP WWW-Authenticate: Payment challenge on Tempo, and an unpaid POST /v1/finance_research returned the same pair, with x402 at 110,000 base units. Contents, Answer and Research still need a key (28). Per-call and per-page prices published without a login (20). The pricing FAQ now says $10 of API credit on sign-up and $90 more on verifying the account, no card, with sign-up credits valid 60 days. The Web Search card on the same page says '$10 free credit' (20). The MCP free profile needs no key (100 queries a day), and x402 or MPP needs no account (20).

Schema & documentation You.com APIs +47

Liner Search MCP 45

Tool schemas not read without sign-in (15 of 25). llms.txt (10). A table says which tool fits which need, and that the domain tools return the same shape as search_web (12 of 20). Inputs not verifiable (3 of 15). Setup examples, no error responses (5 of 15). Registry version 1.0.0 since 11 September; no changelog found (0). 15 + 10 + 12 + 3 + 5 + 0 = 45.

You.com APIs 92

Public OpenAPI, one specification per API from the index at you.com/docs/openapi.json (25). llms.txt with Markdown twins of every page (10). A 'Choose the right API' page and MCP docs say which endpoint fits which job, and the MCP docs say there is no you-answer tool (15). Typed parameters in the OpenAPI, and the MCP rejects conflicting domain filters, such as include_domains with exclude_domains (12). The error reference covers 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 422, 429 and 500 with guidance per code, body examples and the host-split pitfall (15). Versioned paths (/v1) and a dated public API changelog at you.com/docs/changelog, linked from llms.txt, with entries from 15 July to 26 October 2026 (15).

Maintenance & community You.com APIs +40

Liner Search MCP 45

Registry entry com.liner/search last updated 11 September 2026 (20). No dated changelog found (0). Support page linked from the docs (10 of 15). Official registry entry under its own namespace (15). No package to read (0). 20 + 0 + 10 + 15 + 0 = 45. Registry presence read from Anchor Terminal's own daily import of the official MCP registry (/api/v1/registry.json, 6 November 2026), not the registry's API.

You.com APIs 85

@youdotcom-oss/mcp 4.0.7 tagged on 2026-10-28 and an API changelog entry on 26 October for the Inference Router (30). MCP 4.0.5, 4.0.6 and 4.0.7 between 19 and 28 October, all version-bump publishes, and API changelog entries on 4, 5 and 11 August, 2 and 23 September and 5, 7, 9 and 26 October (20). A dated public API changelog, support at api@you.com and a support page, and the MCP repo merges changes weekly. We didn't read the open issues (11). Listed in the official MCP registry as io.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp at 4.0.7, with a current Python SDK (3.6.0, 14 October). The TypeScript SDK is deprecated (15). CI, Semgrep and conventional commits on the MCP repo (9).

Transparency & trust You.com APIs +33

Liner Search MCP 34

Terms and privacy linked from the docs but not read in this batch (5 of 30). Data handling not read (5 of 30). No deprecation policy found for the MCP server; the docs note older endpoints priced per version (5 of 20). Subprocessors not read (5 of 20). 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 20.

You.com APIs 67

Closed API, with the MCP stdio bridge under MIT (18). The privacy policy (last updated 22 September 2026, re-read on 1 November) says prompts and outputs aren't used for training and a DPA is linked, but gives no retention periods. Zero Data Retention covers Web Search and Answer only, on enterprise agreements, not self-serve, and the machine payments page says it isn't available on keyless requests (17). No deprecation policy. The changelog dates one removal, the authors field from Web Search and Answer responses on 15 July 2026, announced as already done (5). The privacy policy names OpenAI, Anthropic and Google as model providers and points to trust.you.com for the full list, which we couldn't render. No data locations stated (10).

Reliability You.com APIs +30

Liner Search MCP 50

incident.io status page at status.liner.com with components for liner.com and app.liner.com only, none for the API or MCP (15). 100% uptime shown since August (20, no incidents shown). Rate limits published per API with numbers (Scholar Search 2 requests a second, agents 2 a second) (15). 429 with a code for concurrency limits, no Retry-After or backoff guidance found (0 of 15). No SLA found (0). Not labelled beta (0 of 10; 'limits may be adjusted over time', GA not stated). 15 + 20 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 50.

You.com APIs 80

Rootly status page at status.you.com with Search/Index, Live News and AI Search API components (20). Its robots.txt loaded on 1 November, but incident pages still answered with a Cloudflare challenge, so we read the history RSS feed as before. In the 90 days to 1 November it lists one incident, an 'Authentication Outage' on the AI Search API component posted on 5 October, and nothing after it. The feed gives no duration, so we couldn't establish the outage as a major. Minor only (20). 10 requests a second per API and 5 for Finance Research on self-serve accounts, re-read on 1 November (15). 429 carries Retry-After, the docs give exponential backoff capped at 60 seconds, and X-RateLimit-* headers allow client-side throttling (15). No SLA found for the search APIs. The pricing page banner claims an uptime SLA of at least 99.9% for the new Inference Router, but we found no SLA document (0). GA (10).

Security & auth You.com APIs +24

Liner Search MCP 35

OAuth 2.1 or an API key; scopes not published (20 of 30). All tools are reads (10 of 20). Results carry web pages and documents with no injection guidance (0). No audit log found (0). No security.txt (404) or security programme found (5 of 20). 20 + 10 + 0 + 0 + 5 = 35.

You.com APIs 59

Several keys per organisation in the X-API-Key header, revoked immediately on delete, rotation by create-then-delete, and roles where developers see only their own keys. The hosted MCP takes OAuth 2.1. No per-key scopes documented. No secret in a URL (22). Tool allow-lists on the MCP, a two-tool free profile and no tool that writes or deletes. Since 5 October a key can carry a spending cap per billing period, and a capped key answers 429 spend_cap_exceeded when it's reached, which bounds what a leaked or runaway key can spend, as kagi-search's per-key cap does (18). Search and Contents return untrusted page text. The only content control we found is safesearch, and no prompt-injection guidance (2). The key list shows a last-used date and each capped key's spend, and the troubleshooting page says Platform Logs list recent requests with error messages, response details and a request ID. No retention period, logs API or audit log of key actions was found, so 9, between numeral's 8 for a dashboard Logs tab and deepgram-stt's 10 for console and API logs (9). trust.you.com, a Vanta trust centre, links a vulnerability disclosure page and a subprocessor list but rendered only with JavaScript on 1 November, security.txt returned 404 on you.com, and the MCP repo runs Semgrep in CI (8).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runLiner Search MCPYou.com APIsEdge
Reliability16%205080You.com APIs +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24592You.com APIs +47
Agent ergonomics13%16.26583You.com APIs +18
Security & auth14%17.53559You.com APIs +24
Payments & pricing10%12.52088You.com APIs +68
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84585You.com APIs +40
Transparency & trust7%8.83467You.com APIs +33
Negative events≤150-3
TotalE 43.4/100BB 76.1/100

Facts side by side

FactLiner Search MCPYou.com APIs
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorLinerYou.com
Hosted endpointhttps://platform.liner.com/api/v1/mcphttps://api.you.com/v1/search
TransportsStreamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuthOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
Price for research searchnot published$50 per 1,000 requests
x402nopayer tooling only
Tools exposed96
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrycom.liner/searchio.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp
Last releasenone2026-10-28
Terms last updatedno document linked2024-08-27
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-09-22
Customer content may train modelsnot read yetyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot read yetyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot read yetyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot read yetyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot read yetyes
Popularitynone4.4k npm/wk, 92k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.8/5 (8)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Liner Search MCP

Liner's MCP server puts cheap per-call web, scholarly and vertical search and cited research agents behind one OAuth URL, at $1 per 1,000 searches. The docs say which tool fits which question, but there's no free tier, no changelog, no injection guidance and no status component for the API.

You.com APIs

x402 and MPP on Web Search and Finance Research, with no account needed, and keys can carry a spending cap. Two API hosts, so Answer and Research return 'Missing Authentication Token' on ydc-index.io, and Python SDK 3.6.0 changed the default search response in a minor release.

Before you call either

Liner Search MCP

  1. Use search_scholar for papers and the domain tools for legal, finance, medical or business questions
  2. Deep research is slower and costs more; use quick_answer_agent for short lookups
  3. Treat search results and research reports as untrusted content
  4. Keep under 2 requests a second for scholar search and the agents

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. With Python SDK 3.6.0 or later, pass knowledge=None, extraction=None on search unless you want highlights and knowledge cards, which are on by default and may cost more
  5. Treat a 429 with spend_cap_exceeded as a budget stop, not a rate limit. Retrying won't clear it until the cap is raised

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Liner Search MCP or You.com APIs?

You.com APIs scores 76.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Liner Search MCP's 43.4 (E), and leads in every scored category.

Do Liner Search MCP and You.com APIs need an API key?

Liner Search MCP uses an OAuth sign-in. You.com APIs takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Liner Search MCP and You.com APIs without installing anything?

Yes. Liner Search MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://platform.liner.com/api/v1/mcp and You.com APIs at https://api.you.com/v1/search.

Other comparisons with Liner Search MCP or You.com APIs

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