You.com uses a pay-as-you-go credit system for API access. You only pay for what you use.
All new accounts receive $100 in free API credits to explore and test the APIs. No credit card required.
What’s included:
Livecrawl add-on:
Full page content via livecrawl (HTML or Markdown) is billed separately. Livecrawl is invoked via the livecrawl parameter on the Search API.
Example: A single call with count=10 and livecrawl_formats=["html", "markdown"] returns 10 web results and 10 news results — 20 pages total.
What’s included:
Research effort tiers control the depth of analysis. Higher tiers allocate more compute for deeper reasoning and more sources.
What’s included:
To view your current credit balance and usage:
You can also retrieve your balance programmatically using the Account Balance API.
The response contains a balance field expressed in cents. Divide by 100 to convert to USD (e.g., 744300.0 = $7,443.00):
The billing entity depends on your account type:
To add credits to your account:
You can add and manage payment methods from the billing section of your dashboard. You.com accepts major credit and debit cards.
Auto Top-Up automatically purchases credits when your balance falls below a configured threshold. This is the recommended way to prevent service interruptions on production workloads.
Auto Top-Up requires:
The Enable Auto Top-Up control is disabled in the UI until a default payment method is set.
Fields
Enable flow
Immediate execution on enable. If your current balance is already below the threshold when you enable Auto Top-Up — or if you later raise the threshold above your current balance — a top-up fires immediately. The system charges an amount sufficient to bring the balance up to the threshold (or the top-up amount, whichever is greater), so you are never left below your configured minimum.
Example: Balance $10, threshold $100, top-up amount $50 → charged on enable: $90 (brings balance to exactly $100). Subsequent automatic top-ups, once the balance is above the threshold, charge the configured top-up amount as normal.
Validation
The following validation applies in both the UI and the backend:
top_up_amount >= threshold — if violated, the form shows an error and the API returns a 4xx.Detection. Balance monitoring is real-time. When credit usage causes the balance to cross the threshold, a top-up is scheduled immediately — there is no polling delay.
Payment execution. The charge is attempted off-session against the organization’s default payment method. Successful charges produce:
Failure handling. If a payment fails, the top-up does not complete, no credits are granted, and all organization admins receive a failure notification by email. The system re-attempts the next time the balance crosses the threshold — typically after the payment method is corrected.
Failure reasons reported in the notification:
card_expiredinsufficient_fundscard_declinedauthentication_requiredEmails are sent to all organization admins on the following events:
Success notifications include the amount charged, the new balance, and a link to the receipt.
Attempting to modify the setting without sufficient permissions returns 403 Forbidden.
From Billing → Credit balance, toggle Auto Top-Up off and confirm. No further automatic charges will occur. Your existing credit balance is unaffected.
I don’t see the “Enable Auto Top-Up” button. You likely don’t have a default payment method set. Go to Billing → Payment methods, confirm a card is on file, and set one as the default. The enable button will appear once a default is in place.
My Auto Top-Up failed — what happened? The most common reasons are an expired card, insufficient funds, or a declined charge from your bank. You’ll receive an email when a top-up fails. To resolve:
Auto Top-Up will try again the next time your balance crosses the threshold once your payment method is fixed.
Can I get a refund for an auto top-up I didn’t want? Credits added via Auto Top-Up follow the same policy as manually purchased credits. Contact [email protected] with your receipt and we’ll help.
Can I set a monthly spending cap? Not in the current release. Today, you control spend by setting your top-up amount and threshold. Spending caps are on the roadmap.
Enjoy lower rates as your usage scales, without lengthy negotiations. Contact sales for custom rates based on your volume.
Commit to annual usage for deeper discounts and predictable costs—ideal for production deployments.
Zero Data Retention — All queries and data can be automatically purged, giving you complete control over data storage and retention.
SOC 2 Certified — Our infrastructure is independently audited to ensure best-in-class data security, privacy, and availability.
DPA-Ready — Data Processing Agreements supported for enterprise compliance requirements.
Custom QPS Limits — Enterprise-grade concurrency with performance optimization for high-volume usage.
For billing questions, custom pricing, or enterprise features, contact [email protected].