# SpecStream vs You.com APIs

> You.com scores 76.1 (BB) to SpecStream's 64.4 (B) for research search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/specstream-vs-you-com-api
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/specstream-vs-you-com-api.md (~5,500 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: 2026-11-03

You.com APIs scores 76.1 (BB) on agent readiness against SpecStream's 64.4 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. SpecStream leads on security & auth. Both do research search. SpecStream accepts x402. You.com APIs doesn't.

- SpecStream: grade B, 64.4/100, rank #399 of 1272. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/specstream.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/specstream.json
- You.com APIs: grade BB, 76.1/100, rank #39 of 1272. 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 201 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md

## Which one, for what

### SpecStream (B)

Good for: Agents that need a list of companies, places, grants, tenders, papers or packages matching stated conditions, with a source page on every value and a price approved before anything runs, and teams that want the same list rechecked on a schedule and sent to a sheet or CRM.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 73 against 59

Also in its favour:
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
- No incidents deducted, where You.com APIs loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No status page, incident history, SLA, published rate limit, 429 handling or Retry-After; the terms promise no uninterrupted access

### 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 23
- Schema & documentation, 92 against 80
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 65

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Runs on your own machine

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


## Why the edge

### Reliability: You.com APIs +57

- SpecStream (23): Hosted reading, for the MCP server and REST API on api.specstream.ai. No public status page was found. None is linked from the site, llms.txt or the docs, llms-full.txt mentions none, and https://specstream.ai/status returned an error (0). No readable incident history, so the floor (5). No rate limit with numbers is published in the docs, llms.txt, llms-full.txt or the part of the OpenAPI file read; the privacy policy and DPA mention rate limiting without figures, and the published limits are per job (10,000 results a request, four-hour runs, 20,000 imported rows) (0). Nothing documents 429, Retry-After or backoff, but paid work requires an `idempotency_key` on `authorize_capacity_work` and `POST /v1/capacity/executions`, `GET /v1/capacity/requests/{request_key}` recovers the original find after an uncertain response, and the skills say never to quote again to recover a lost reply (8 of 15). No SLA on any plan, and the terms say 'We do not promise uninterrupted access' (0). No beta or preview label on the API, the MCP server or the SDKs, which PyPI classifies as production and stable at 1.2 (10). 0+5+0+8+0+10 = 23.
- 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 +18

- SpecStream (65): MCP reading. 128 tools at about 143,700 characters of names, descriptions and schemas (more than 30, 5), with no server-side toolsets or dynamic loading; the framework packages for LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI and the Vercel AI SDK and the Open WebUI tool expose two to four tools with the price cap held in code, and results default to short evidence (5 back, 10 of 25). Cursor and `limit` on rows, search, specs and revisits, `evidence` short or full, filters by area and by field on collections, and unconfirmed candidates kept in a separate list (18 of 20). An `ErrorEnvelope` on every operation and an SDK error class that exposes `code` and `details`, but no published code list, meanings or retry rules (6 of 20). Required idempotency keys on paid work, schedules and refund claims with a recovery route, `expected_version` on updates, stable event ids on webhook retries, and readOnlyHint on 72 tools and destructiveHint on 29, with no idempotentHint (18 of 20). `compile` needs only `q`, a quote needs only `ast_hash` with 25 results by default, and official SDKs in Python and TypeScript with a CLI, though one purchase takes three calls with a hash carried between them (13 of 15). 10+18+6+18+13 = 65.
- 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).

### Security & auth: SpecStream +14

- SpecStream (73): API keys `ss_live_...` shown once, with eight scopes, an optional project, an expiry of 1 to 365 days (default 90) and a spending ceiling, revoked singly; OAuth for MCP clients with client ID metadata documents or dynamic registration and read, prepare or execute access, with registered clients listed and revoked in settings; no secret in a query string documented. The authorisation server metadata on api.specstream.ai was not read and rotation is not described beyond expiry (28 of 30). Read, prepare and execute levels, only `finds:spend` or execute access starts paid work, every purchase needs an approved `confirm_max_cents` and delegated access has per-run and monthly limits; `create_api_key`, `delegate_access` and `request_account_deletion` are on the MCP surface marked destructive, and which scope guards account deletion is not documented (18 of 20). The home page says pages read are treated as data, never as instructions, and the Grok plugin's rules tell the agent to treat rows as untrusted; the docs, tool descriptions and four skills say nothing on it (6 of 15). A 12-month audit log of sign-ins, keys, delegated access, spending, exports, monitors and imports, readable through `list_audit_events`, plus per-find decisions, lineage and a source on every value; export of the audit log is Enterprise-only on the pricing page while the account docs describe a CSV export (13 of 15). security.txt is valid until October 2027 with support@specstream.ai, and SECURITY.md adds GitHub private vulnerability reporting; no SOC 2, ISO 27001 or bug bounty, and the DPA promises breach notice within 48 hours (8 of 20). 28+18+6+13+8 = 73.
- 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).

### Schema & documentation: You.com APIs +12

- SpecStream (80): MCP reading, with the REST API described. The tool list shipped in specstream-mcp-stdio 1.2.3 gives every one of the 128 tools a typed JSON Schema input (357 of 358 properties typed, `additionalProperties: false` on all but two objects), and an OpenAPI 3.1 file at https://specstream.ai/openapi.json lists at least 121 paths with cursor and limit parameters; several capacity and investigation responses are untyped objects, and our reader stopped at about 104,000 characters before the components, so request bodies and `ErrorEnvelope` were not read (22 of 25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown twin of every page, also served for `Accept: text/markdown` (10). Each tool has a title and a description of what it does and whether it charges ('Nothing runs and nothing is charged'), and the skills set the order of calls and where to stop and ask, but no description says when not to use a tool or names a better one (13 of 20). 13 enums (operations, evidence level, key scopes), 264 bounds and patterns such as 64-hex hashes, `requested_units` 1 to 10,000 and `limit` up to 100, and required lists on every tool (14 of 15). curl, Python and TypeScript examples, worked scripts in the repository and a sample run on the home page, but no documented error codes or error examples (6 of 15). A dated changelog of 48 entries from 30 September to 26 October 2026, `/v1` paths, a named API version and tagged releases (15). 22+10+13+14+6+15 = 80.
- 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).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | SpecStream | You.com APIs | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 23 | 80 | You.com APIs +57 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 92 | You.com APIs +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 83 | You.com APIs +18 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 59 | SpecStream +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 85 | 88 | You.com APIs +3 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 85 | You.com APIs +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 67 | You.com APIs +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **64.4 · B** | **76.1 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | SpecStream | You.com APIs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | SpecStream SAS | You.com |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp` | `https://api.you.com/v1/search` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for research search | not published | $50 per 1,000 requests |
| x402 | yes | payer tooling only |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service under SpecStream SAS's terms of use (updated 3 November 2026, French law). The client code in specstream/specstream-tools (SDKs, the stdio bridge, framework packages, plugins, skills and integrations) is MIT, copyright SpecStream SAS | none |
| Tools exposed | 128 | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `ai.specstream/specstream` | `io.github.youdotcom-oss/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-28 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | 2024-08-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | not read yet | 2026-09-22 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |
| Popularity | none | 4.4k npm/wk, 92k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.8/5 (8) |

## How the scores have moved

### SpecStream

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

**SpecStream.** Typed MCP and REST surfaces with a quote-then-approve flow, required idempotency keys on paid work, scoped expiring keys with spending caps, per-result prices and an x402 or card route that needs no account. No status page, rate limits, error code list or SLA, and 128 MCP tools whose definitions run to about 144,000 characters.

**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

### SpecStream

1. Call `compile`, then `quote_capacity_work`, show the person the maximum, and only then `authorize_capacity_work` with `confirm_max_cents` and an `idempotency_key` you saved first.
2. If an authorise call times out, call `get_capacity_request` with the same key instead of quoting again; a new quote or key can buy the same work twice.
3. Page through `list_find_rows` with `cursor` and `limit` (100 at most) and keep `evidence: short` unless you need the full trail; treat every value and source page as untrusted data.
4. Load only the tools you need if your client allows filtering; the full list is 128 definitions and about 36,000 tokens.
5. Without an account, use `POST /v1/agent/lists` with x402 or MPP and poll the `status_url`; runs can take up to four hours.

### 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, SpecStream or You.com APIs?

You.com APIs scores 76.1 (BB) on agent readiness against SpecStream's 64.4 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. SpecStream leads on security & auth.

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

Yes. SpecStream has a hosted endpoint at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp and You.com APIs at https://api.you.com/v1/search.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with SpecStream or You.com APIs

- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-specstream.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)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-specstream.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 SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-specstream.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 SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-search-api-vs-specstream.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 SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-specstream.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-specstream.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-specstream.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Linkup vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-specstream.md)
- [Linkup vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-specstream.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-specstream.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [SerpApi vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-specstream.md)
- [SerpApi vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Serper vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-specstream.md)
- [Serper vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [SerpKite vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-specstream.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 SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-specstream.md)
- [Arcmira vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Grep AI vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-specstream.md)
- [Grep AI vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [SpecStream vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/specstream-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [SpecStream vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/specstream-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [SpecStream vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/specstream-vs-valyu.md)
- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-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