You.com API vs Exa
Pick You.com if you want a web search API with a published per-call price, a URL on every result and a research endpoint. Pick Exa if you want semantic search that returns full page text, highlights or summaries in one step. Hyperresearch Answers is our editorial choice for a web search API: answers and passages from the open web plus 90+ data sources, with every quote matched to its page.
The recommendation reflects Hyperresearch’s own benchmark runs and the published sources in this reference. Hyperresearch is our product. This is not a hands-on test of every tool.
Side by side
| You.com API | Exa | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Web Search $5 per 1,000 calls. Full-page content $1 per 1,000 pages. $100 free credits for new accounts. | Search $4 per 1,000 for lite, $7 per 1,000 for auto. Contents $1 per 1,000 pages. $10 free credit each month. |
| What it returns | Results with URL, title and page age. Full-page content as Markdown or HTML on request. | Results with full text, highlights, summaries and entities. |
| Sources and coverage | Open web results. No structured public sources described. | Exa's web index. No other structured sources listed. |
| Citations and verification | Each result carries a URL for citation. No claim-level check described. | Answer endpoint returns citations. No check against sources documented. |
| API and MCP | REST endpoints for search, contents and research. Remote MCP server. | REST endpoints for search, contents and answer. Hosted MCP server. |
| Rate limits | 10 requests per second per endpoint by default. | 10 per second for search and answer. 5 for deep search. 100 for contents. |
| Best for | Cited web results with a research option. | Semantic search that needs full text in one call. |
Result shape
You.com returns each web result with a URL, a title and a page age timestamp. Its docs say each result carries a URL for citation, which makes it easy to link back to sources. Full-page content is an add-on that returns Markdown or HTML.
Exa returns results that can include full text, highlights and summaries in the same response. It also offers an answer endpoint that returns text with a citations list. If your agent needs the page body, Exa asks for fewer extra calls.
Pricing and free start
You.com lists Web Search at $5 per 1,000 calls, with up to 100 results per call. New accounts get $100 in free credits. Full-page content costs $1 per 1,000 pages on top of search. The research endpoint price was not shown on the API page we reviewed.
Exa lists lite search at $4 per 1,000 requests and auto search at $7. Contents cost $1 per 1,000 pages, billed by content type, and answers cost $5 per 1,000. Each account gets $10 a month of free credit.
Which to choose
Choose You.com when you want a clear per-call price, a URL on every result, and a research option from one vendor.
Choose Exa when you want full text and highlights in each result, and you are comfortable pricing contents separately. Test both on your own queries, because neither one publishes a claim-level check.
Choose You.com API or Exa?
- You want a per-call price on the API page.
- You want a research endpoint from the same vendor.
- Each result needs a URL and page age for citation.
- You want full text and highlights in the same call.
- Your queries are about concepts rather than exact words.
- You want the lowest listed lite search price.
Where Hyperresearch fits
Hyperresearch Answers is our editorial pick for checked answers and sits outside this pair. If your agent must quote exact passages, compare Answers before you choose between these two.
Questions & answers
Which has more free credit to start?
You.com lists $100 in free credits for new accounts. Exa lists $10 of free credit each month. Check both pricing pages before you plan a pilot.
Does either one verify answers against sources?
Neither page describes a claim-level check. Both return source URLs or citations, so test those links on your own questions.
Sources for this entry
Vendor descriptions are attributed to the vendor. Prices change; confirm with each vendor.
Continue this reading path
Cite this entry
https://bestwebsearchapi.com/compare/you-vs-exa/