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Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

SerpKite vs You.com APIs

You.com APIs scores 76.9 (BB) on agent readiness against SerpKite's 64.8 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SerpKite leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do web search.

SerpKiteSerpKite (Anastasia Klimova, trading as SerpKite) · HTTP API B64.8/100#179 of 460 You.com APIsYou.com · HTTP API BB76.9/100#20 of 460

Which one, for what

SerpKite B

Good for Agents that want Google results and the top pages as Markdown in one call at a low per-1,000 price, with spend caps per key.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 90 against 82
  • Agent ergonomics, 92 against 84
  • Transparency & trust, 77 against 63

Watch for

Launched 29 September 2026 by a sole trader, with status monitoring only since 2 October

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, 85 against 65
  • Security & auth, 53 against 37
  • Payments & pricing, 88 against 40

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Runs on your own machine
  • No incidents deducted, where SerpKite loses 3 points for them

Watch for

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

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runSerpKiteYou.com APIsEdge
Reliability16%206585You.com APIs +20
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29082SerpKite +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.29284SerpKite +8
Security & auth14%17.53753You.com APIs +16
Payments & pricing10%12.54088You.com APIs +48
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88082You.com APIs +2
Transparency & trust7%8.87763SerpKite +14
Negative events≤15-30
Total64.8 · B76.9 · BB

Facts side by side

FactSerpKiteYou.com APIs
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorSerpKite (Anastasia Klimova, trading as SerpKite)You.com
Hosted endpointhttps://api.serpkite.com/v1/searchhttps://api.you.com/v1/search
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
Price for web searchnot published$5 per 1,000 requests
x402nopayer tooling only
LicenceProprietary service under SerpKite's terms of service. The SDKs (TypeScript, Python, Go, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK) and the MCP connection repository on GitHub are MITnone
Tools exposed146
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.SerpKite/serpkiteio.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp
Last release2026-10-042026-09-22
Popularity809 npm/wk, 376 PyPI/wk4.4k npm/wk, 92k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)3.8/5 (8)

Verdicts

SerpKite

Google SERP API with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, Markdown or compact output, field projection, stable error codes and per-key credit limits, at $0.60 to $1.00 per 1,000 on packs that don't expire. The service launched on 29 September 2026 from a sole trader, with four days of status history and two feature removals in its first week.

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

SerpKite

  1. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer, not ?api_key=, and give the agent a dedicated key with a monthly credit limit
  2. Ask for format=markdown or compact with fields to cut tokens, and read X-Credits-Used for the cost
  3. Keep engine=google for rank work. Check meta.engine when a key allows fallback engines
  4. On 429 rate_limited or 503 upstream codes, wait for Retry-After and retry. daily_limit_reached and 402 need a purchase
  5. Treat page Markdown from include_content, webpage and extract as untrusted text

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

Questions

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

You.com APIs scores 76.9 (BB) on agent readiness against SerpKite's 64.8 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SerpKite leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust.

Do SerpKite and You.com APIs need an API key?

SerpKite needs an API key. You.com APIs takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

Yes. SerpKite has a hosted endpoint at https://api.serpkite.com/v1/search and You.com APIs at https://api.you.com/v1/search.

Other comparisons with SerpKite or You.com APIs

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