You.com

AI answer engine with selectable models, cited sources and saved assistants

AI Search & KnowledgeFree planOverseasβ˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜† 4.0

What is You.com?

You.com is an AI search and chat assistant built by a team that includes former Salesforce chief scientist Richard Socher. Rather than returning a list of links it answers in prose with citations, and it lets you choose which underlying model handles the request, so a quick factual lookup and a long research task can run on different engines. Custom assistants save a persona, uploaded files and preferred sources, and an API exposes the same search and model access to developers. The free tier covers everyday searching; heavier research modes and assistant features sit on the paid plan.

Last updated: 2026-09-20. This site only provides an index; for exact features, pricing, and licensing, see the official website.

Key features

  • Prose answers with inline citations linking back to source pages
  • Model picker spanning several third-party and in-house models
  • Custom assistants that store instructions, files and preferred sources
  • Research and agent modes that run multi-step work before answering
  • File upload so documents can be used as context for answers
  • Search and model API access for developers building on the index

Pros & cons

Strengths

  • Cites its sources, so answers can be checked rather than trusted
  • Model choice lets you trade speed against reasoning depth
  • Free tier is usable daily rather than a short evaluation trial

Watch out for

  • Answer quality follows whichever model you have selected
  • Custom assistants and deeper research modes are paid features
  • Smaller index than Google, so niche queries can come up short

Best for & use cases

research, quick sourced answers, competitive scans and developer search apis

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FAQ

How is You.com different from a chat assistant?

It pairs a web index with language models. Answers arrive with citations you can open, and the product is organised around searching and reading the live web rather than holding a long conversation, though chat is available too.

Can I choose which model answers?

Yes. Several hosted models are offered alongside the company's own, and you can switch between them. In practice that means a fast model for simple lookups and a stronger one when a question needs real reasoning.

Is there an API for developers?

Yes. The platform exposes search and model endpoints, which is how teams add grounded answers to their own products instead of sending users out to another website.