# Mojeek Web Search API vs You.com APIs

> You.com scores 76.1 (BB) to Mojeek Web Search's 36.4 (F) for web search. Mojeek Web Search is cheaper for web search, $2.68 against $5 per 1,000 requests. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-you-com-api
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-you-com-api.md (~5,800 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: 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)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

You.com APIs scores 76.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Mojeek Web Search API's 36.4 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do web search. Mojeek Web Search API is cheaper for web search, $2.68 against $5 per 1,000 requests.

- Mojeek Web Search API: grade F, 36.4/100, rank #1387 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mojeek.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mojeek.json
- You.com APIs: grade BB, 76.1/100, rank #48 of 1510. 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 326 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Mojeek Web Search API (F)

Good for: Agents and products that want a second, independent index beside Google-derived results, or European data handling with no sub-processors.

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for web search, $2.68 against $5 per 1,000 requests
- No incidents deducted, where You.com APIs loses 3 points for them

Watch for: The API key is documented only as a URL query parameter, and rotating a key means emailing the API team

### 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 45
- Schema & documentation, 92 against 29
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 66
- Security & auth, 59 against 15
- Payments & pricing, 88 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 10

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- 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

### Maintenance & community: You.com APIs +75

- Mojeek Web Search API (10): Read for a closed service. No API changelog, release notes or dated API change were found, and the blog's posts since 2024 are about search in general, so the last change can't be dated (0). No dated changes in the 90 days from 8 August (0). A staff member answered API questions on the community forum within a day in December 2025 and October 2026, and support is by email; no public changelog (10 of 15). No official SDKs or MCP server (0). No public packages or CI to measure (0). 0 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 10.
- 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).

### Payments & pricing: You.com APIs +68

- Mojeek Web Search API (20): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-request prices published without login, £2 and £3 per 1,000 requests (20). The FAQ says a free credit comes with the Startup plan, but a bank card is required to open an account (0). A person signs up in a browser and adds a card (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 +63

- Mojeek Web Search API (29): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract (0). No llms.txt (404) and no Markdown pages for agents (0). The parameters page states what each parameter does, with notes on when not to use `reg` and `clufmt`, but nothing on when another endpoint fits better (12 of 20). Every parameter has a type, defaults and valid ranges (tlen 0 to 127, dlen 0 to 511, rbb and lbb 1 to 100, up to 25 domains), though `reg` is called an enum without listing its values (11 of 15). One curl example and annotated JSON and XML response formats; errors appear only as a `status` string with one example (6 of 15). No API version, changelog or dated release notes, and the quickstart and the parameters page give different hosts (0). 0 + 0 + 12 + 11 + 6 + 0 = 29.
- 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).

### Security & auth: You.com APIs +44

- Mojeek Web Search API (15): One key per account, documented only as the `api_key` query parameter, and rotation or revocation is by email to the API team (a staff reply of 22 October 2026 on the community forum asks for the key's last 8 digits). One all-powerful key (10) less 10 for the key in the URL (0). Search is read-only and there is nothing to write, but no scoped or restricted key (10 of 20). Results are third-party titles and snippets, with no prompt-injection guidance found (0). No audit log or per-call usage view was found in the docs; the FAQ mentions budget alerts on the account (0 of 15). security.txt names security@mojeek.com, with no Expires field. No bug bounty, disclosure policy, SOC 2 or ISO 27001 found; the API page claims compliance with European rules such as the EU Data Act without a certification (5 of 20). 0 + 10 + 0 + 0 + 5 = 15.
- 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).

### Reliability: You.com APIs +35

- Mojeek Web Search API (45): Read with the hosted lines. status.mojeek.com is a Site24x7 StatusIQ page with Search, Website, Blog and Community components. It is drawn by script, so only its RSS feed could be read, which shows each component's current state (Search operational since 7 September 2026) and no incident entries (15 of 20). No readable incident history (5). Rate limits are published per plan, 5 a second and 100,000 a day on Startup, 10 a second and 400,000 a day on Business (15). Over the daily limit the JSON `status` reads 'ERROR: Daily Limit Reached'; no HTTP 429, Retry-After or backoff guidance was found (0). No SLA, and the API terms say the service is provided as is and may be interrupted without notice (0). Generally available, with only the `lr` parameter marked beta (10). 15 + 5 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 45.
- 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).

### Agent ergonomics: You.com APIs +17

- Mojeek Web Search API (66): Responses can be sized with `t` (up to 10, 40 or 100 results by plan), `tlen`, `dlen` and opt-in date and size fields (22 of 25). `s` for paging, `since` and `before`, `site`, included and excluded domains, region and language boosting and safe search (20). Errors are a free-text `status` with no documented codes, which an agent can't branch on reliably (5 of 20). Searches only read, so a retry is safe, but no page says whether failed or empty requests are billed (12 of 20). Only `q` and `api_key` are required, with recommended values for the boosts. No official SDK in any language (7 of 15). 22 + 20 + 5 + 12 + 7 = 66.
- You.com APIs (83): Six MCP tools per the docs, which state there is no `you-answer` tool, with `?tools=` or `X-Allowed-Tools` to load a subset, a default allow-list of four, and a free profile that exposes two. Web Search returns up to 100 results with extraction opt-in (25). Result count, domain include, exclude and boost lists, `safesearch`, and since 9 October a `total_max_tokens` budget of 1,024 to 8,192 on highlights, which the changelog says brings a 10-result response under 1,000 tokens (20). Each error code says what to do next, and 402 says whether to add credits or pay the challenge (20). Search is read-only and a 402 can be retried once paid. We couldn't see MCP annotations, since the hosted server's source isn't public (8). Few required parameters, but Web Search and Contents live on ydc-index.io while Answer and Research run only on api.you.com, and the only current SDK is Python. The TypeScript `@youdotcom-oss/sdk` has been deprecated on npm since 3 March 2026 in favour of the MCP package (10 of 15).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Mojeek Web Search API | You.com APIs | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 80 | You.com APIs +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 29 | 92 | You.com APIs +63 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 83 | You.com APIs +17 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 15 | 59 | You.com APIs +44 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 88 | You.com APIs +68 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 10 | 85 | You.com APIs +75 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 67 | Mojeek Web Search API +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **36.4 · F** | **76.1 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Mojeek Web Search API | You.com APIs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Mojeek Limited | You.com |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.you.com/v1/search` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for web search | $2.68 per 1,000 requests | $5 per 1,000 requests |
| x402 | no | payer tooling only |
| Tools exposed | 0 | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp` |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-28 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2024-08-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2022-02-02 | 2026-09-22 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | none | 4.4k npm/wk, 92k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.8/5 (8) |

## How the scores have moved

### Mojeek Web Search API

No score change since it was listed.

### You.com APIs

- +0.2 on 1 November 2026: new evidence, negative event
- +0.2 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.8 on 17 October 2026: reliability, new evidence

## Verdicts

**Mojeek Web Search API.** Mojeek sells search over its own independent index at published per-request prices, with region, language, date and domain controls and storage rights on the Business plan. The key travels only in the URL, rotation is by email, a card is needed to start, and there is no OpenAPI, changelog, 429 handling or SLA.

**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

### Mojeek Web Search API

1. Send `fmt=json`, since the default response is XML
2. Read `response.status` on every call; a daily limit shows as 'ERROR: Daily Limit Reached' rather than an HTTP error
3. Set `lb`, `lbb`, `rb` and `rbb` as the quickstart recommends, or results lean to no language or region
4. Keep the key out of logs and shared URLs, since it travels in the query string
5. On the Startup plan, don't keep results for more than an hour

### 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, Mojeek Web Search API or You.com APIs?

You.com APIs scores 76.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Mojeek Web Search API's 36.4 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Which is cheaper for web search, Mojeek Web Search API or You.com APIs?

Mojeek Web Search API, at $2.68 per 1,000 requests against $5 per 1,000 requests for You.com APIs. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Mojeek Web Search API and You.com APIs need an API key?

Mojeek Web Search API needs an API key. You.com APIs takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Mojeek Web Search API and You.com APIs without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Mojeek Web Search API. You.com APIs has a hosted endpoint at https://api.you.com/v1/search.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Mojeek Web Search API or You.com APIs

- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-mojeek.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 Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Grounding with Bing Search vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bing-grounding-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Grounding with Bing Search vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bing-grounding-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-mojeek.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 Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-mojeek.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 Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-search-api-vs-mojeek.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 Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Grep AI vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Linkup vs Mojeek Web Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-mojeek.md)
- [Linkup vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs NewsCatcher](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-newscatcher.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs Parallel Search and Task APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-parallel-search-api.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs Perplexity Search API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-perplexity-search-api.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SearchAPI.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-searchapi-io.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SerpApi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serpapi.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs Serper](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serper.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-specstream.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-valyu.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Perplexity Search API vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-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)
- [SERPHouse vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-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 You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Grep AI vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Liner Search MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [SpecStream vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/specstream-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)
- [NewsCatcher vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/newscatcher-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