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Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Perplexity Search API vs You.com APIs

You.com APIs scores 76.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Perplexity Search API's 70.2 (BB), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do web search. Perplexity Search API is cheaper for web search, $1 against $5 per 1,000 requests.

Best web search APIs for AI agents · All 308 search comparisons

Perplexity Search APIPerplexity · HTTP API BB70.2/100#210 of 1486 You.com APIsYou.com · HTTP API BB76.1/100#48 of 1486

Which one, for what

Perplexity Search API BB

Best for Agents on any model that need raw ranked sources with extracted text at a low per-request price, and teams that want cited answers from the same key through the Agent API.

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for web search, $1 against $5 per 1,000 requests
  • No incidents deducted, where You.com APIs loses 3 points for them

Watch for

The FAQ says uptime and recovery time are not guaranteed, and the terms carry no SLA

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

  • Payments & pricing, 88 against 25

Also in its favour

  • 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 +63

Perplexity Search API 25

No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, pricing page, OpenAPI or llms.txt (0). $5 per 1,000 successful requests, $1 with Fast Search, published without a login, with failed and rate-limited requests not billed (20). Usage is prepaid with a card on the billing page, and no free allowance was found. The console playground needs no key but is a page for a person, not an API allowance (0). A person signs up in the console. The Stripe Projects route provisions a project, key and credits from a terminal, but needs a person's Stripe account with a payment method and a $10 minimum purchase (5 of 20, as on the Decisions API listing). 0 + 20 + 0 + 5 = 25.

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).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runPerplexity Search APIYou.com APIsEdge
Reliability16%208080even
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28992You.com APIs +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.28583Perplexity Search API +2
Security & auth14%17.55659You.com APIs +3
Payments & pricing10%12.52588You.com APIs +63
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88285You.com APIs +3
Transparency & trust7%8.86667You.com APIs +1
Negative events≤150-3
TotalBB 70.2/100BB 76.1/100

Facts side by side

FactPerplexity Search APIYou.com APIs
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorPerplexityYou.com
Hosted endpointhttps://api.perplexity.ai/mcphttps://api.you.com/v1/search
TransportsStreamable HTTP, stdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPay per useFreemium
Price for web search$1 per 1,000 requests$5 per 1,000 requests
x402nopayer tooling only
LicenceProprietary service under the Perplexity API Terms of Service. The MCP server is MIT and the official SDKs Apache-2.0none
Tools exposed46
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryai.perplexity/mcp-serverio.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp
Last release2026-10-232026-10-28
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read2024-08-27
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be read2026-09-22
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readyes
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readyes
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readyes
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readyes
Popularitynone4.4k npm/wk, 92k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.8/5 (8)

How the scores have moved

Perplexity Search API

No score change since it was listed.

You.com APIs

Verdicts

Perplexity Search API

Raw ranked results with token-capped page text from Perplexity's own index, $5 per 1,000 requests or $1 with Fast Search, an OpenAPI description and a hosted MCP server with read-only annotations. Uptime is not guaranteed, there is no free allowance, keys carry no scopes, and no guidance on untrusted page text was found.

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

Perplexity Search API

  1. Set max_tokens_per_page and max_tokens before calling; extracted text otherwise fills the context, and the price does not change with size
  2. Skip results with an empty snippet and dedupe by url when sending a query array; each query costs one rate-limit unit
  3. Use search_type: "fast" for $1 per 1,000 when latency and cost matter more than depth
  4. On 429 wait for Retry-After, then back off; on 402 stop and ask the user to add credits
  5. Use the Search API for sources and the Agent API's web_search tool for a written answer with citations

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, Perplexity Search API or You.com APIs?

You.com APIs scores 76.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Perplexity Search API's 70.2 (BB), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Which is cheaper for web search, Perplexity Search API or You.com APIs?

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

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

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

Can an agent call Perplexity Search API and You.com APIs without installing anything?

Yes. Perplexity Search API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.perplexity.ai/mcp and You.com APIs at https://api.you.com/v1/search.

Other comparisons with Perplexity Search API or You.com APIs

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