# You.com | Documentation

> Web Search, Contents, and Research APIs that give your AI app real-time web intelligence. Start with free credits.

## Instructions for AI Agents

- For clean Markdown of any page, append `.md` to the page URL
- For section-specific indexes, append `/llms.txt` to any section URL
- For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://you.com/docs/_mcp/server
- To pick the right You.com API, MCP server, SDK, or integration for a task, call the `you-discover` MCP tool on https://api.you.com/mcp instead of guessing from this index. It returns the recommended integration path. The `you-discover` agent skill below wraps the same tool for agents that install skills rather than call MCP directly.

## Docs

- [Build agentic apps with real-time web intelligence.](https://you.com/docs/welcome.md): Web Search, Contents, and Research APIs that give your AI app real-time web intelligence. Start with free credits — no credit card required.
- [Quickstart](https://you.com/docs/quickstart.md): Get from zero to working API requests in minutes. Covers the Web Search API, Answer API, Contents API, Research API, Finance Research API, full page extraction, evaluation, and pricing — everything you need to evaluate You.com.
- [Web Search API Overview](https://you.com/docs/guides/search.md): Get structured, LLM-optimized search results from web and news sources. Perfect for AI agents, RAG applications, and real-time information retrieval.
- [Contents API Overview](https://you.com/docs/guides/contents.md): Extract clean HTML or Markdown content from any webpage on demand. Perfect for competitive intelligence, knowledge base ingestion, and web scraping without the mess.
- [Answer API Overview](https://you.com/docs/guides/answer.md): Get a synthesized natural-language answer with inline citations from a single query. Control freshness, locale, and domains without configuring research effort.
- [Research API Overview](https://you.com/docs/guides/research.md): Get thorough, well-cited answers to complex questions. The Research API runs multiple searches, reads through sources, and returns Markdown or structured JSON with citations.
- [Finance Research API Overview](https://you.com/docs/guides/finance-research.md): Get thorough, well-cited answers to financial questions. The Finance Research API uses a finance-optimized index to research earnings, filings, market data, and more — at the same price and latency as the Research API.
- [Get live news](https://you.com/docs/guides/live-news.md): Retrieve real-time news results from the You.com Web Search API. Filter by recency, country, language, and more.
- [Retrieve page content](https://you.com/docs/guides/retrieve-page-content.md): Extract full HTML or Markdown page content from search results. Ideal for RAG, knowledge base construction, and deep content analysis.
- [Search operators](https://you.com/docs/guides/search-operators.md): Discover the search operators and learn how to use them
- [How to Evaluate You.com Web Search API](https://you.com/docs/guides/evaluate-us.md): A practical guide to benchmarking You.com's Web Search API: methodology, configurations, datasets, and real performance tradeoffs.
- [The Best Web Search API for AI Agents](https://you.com/docs/capabilities/web-search-api-for-ai-agents.md): The You.com Web Search API is built for AI agents, assistants, coding copilots, and RAG pipelines. Structured snippets, real-time web, one endpoint.
- [MCP Server for Web Search](https://you.com/docs/capabilities/mcp-server-for-web-search.md): Add real-time web search to Claude, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client with the You.com MCP server. One-line install, structured results, no scraping.
- [The Best API for Grounding LLM Responses with Citations](https://you.com/docs/capabilities/grounding-llm-responses-with-citations.md): Add citations and real-time source grounding to any LLM with the You.com Web Search API. Step-by-step guide with code, schema, and production patterns.
- [Account](https://you.com/docs/administration/account.md): Learn how to create, manage, and configure your You.com API account, including profile settings, email and password management.
- [Billing](https://you.com/docs/administration/billing.md): Manage your You.com billing, view usage and credits, add funds, and handle payment methods.
- [API Keys](https://you.com/docs/administration/api-keys.md): Learn how to create, manage, rotate, and secure your You.com API keys.
- [Zero Data Retention (ZDR)](https://you.com/docs/administration/zero-data-retention.md): Restrict retention of request and response content on the You.com Web Search API and Answer API.
- [Machine Payments](https://you.com/docs/administration/machine-payments.md): You.com accepts x402 and MPP machine payments for the Web Search and Finance Research APIs. Agents pay per request in USDC inside the same HTTP exchange.
- [x402](https://you.com/docs/administration/machine-payments/x402.md): Call the You.com Web Search and Finance Research APIs with no API key and pay per request in USDC on Base or Solana using the x402 protocol.
- [MPP](https://you.com/docs/administration/machine-payments/mpp.md): Call the You.com Web Search and Finance Research APIs with no API key and pay per request using the Machine Payments Protocol, settling in USDC on Tempo.
- [Nevermined](https://you.com/docs/administration/machine-payments/nevermined.md): You.com accepts x402 agentic payments via Nevermined as one option for purchasing an API key.
- [Examples](https://you.com/docs/examples.md): Explore real-world use cases powered by You.com APIs.
- [Simple Search](https://you.com/docs/examples/simple-search.md): Your first API call in 2 minutes — fetch real-time web results in under 20 lines.
- [Deep Search](https://you.com/docs/examples/deep-search.md): Multi-pass query expansion that surfaces sources a single search would miss.
- [Research Agent](https://you.com/docs/examples/research.md): A multi-step agent that plans, searches, reads, and writes a cited report.
- [Biomedical Research Brief](https://you.com/docs/examples/biomedical-research.md): Use the Research API to assemble a cited brief on any drug, target, or disease.
- [Contents Extraction](https://you.com/docs/examples/contents.md): Pull clean Markdown or HTML from any URL — ideal for LLM ingestion.
- [Deep Research Example](https://you.com/docs/examples/deep-research.md): A copy-and-customize research pattern for multi-source synthesis with citations preserved. Installable version: the you-research skill.
- [Competitive Intel Example](https://you.com/docs/examples/competitive-intel.md): A copy-and-customize pattern that turns company or market research into a structured brief.
- [News & Events Example](https://you.com/docs/examples/news-events.md): A copy-and-customize pattern for recent, time-bounded, cited retrieval.
- [Fact Check Example](https://you.com/docs/examples/fact-check.md): A copy-and-customize pattern that checks a claim against supporting and contradicting evidence.
- [Financial Research Example](https://you.com/docs/examples/financial-research.md): A copy-and-customize pattern for filings, fundamentals, market data, and ticker comparisons. Installable version: the you-finance skill.
- [Research Recipe Example](https://you.com/docs/examples/research-recipe.md): A copy-and-customize template for composing You.com research workflows.
- [SDKs & tools overview](https://you.com/docs/integrations-overview.md): You.com meets your agents wherever they run — MCP clients, Python and TypeScript codebases, agent skills and plugins, and the major agent frameworks.
- [MCP Server](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/mcp-server.md): Integrate You.com's powerful web access capabilities into your agentic IDE using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Search, extract content, research, and get finance-grade answers. Quick setup for Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, and more.
- [Docs MCP Server](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/docs-mcp-server.md): Give any MCP-enabled agent a searchDocs tool that searches all of You.com's developer documentation — API references, guides, and code examples — in real time. No API key.
- [Agent Skills](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/skills.md): Install You.com agent skills for current web search, URL content extraction, cited research, finance research, and integration discovery.
- [Codex CLI](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/codex-cli.md): Give Codex CLI real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server. Free tier with no signup.
- [Claude Code](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/claude-code.md): Give Claude Code real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server. OAuth 2.1 or free tier.
- [Cursor](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/cursor.md): Give Cursor real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server. One-click install or manual config.
- [OpenCode](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/opencode.md): Give OpenCode real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server. Free tier with no signup.
- [Windsurf](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/windsurf.md): Give Windsurf's Cascade agent real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server.
- [Gemini CLI](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/gemini-cli.md): Give Gemini CLI real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server. Free tier with no signup.
- [VS Code](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/vscode.md): Give GitHub Copilot's agent mode real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server.
- [JetBrains IDEs](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/jetbrains.md): Give AI Assistant and Junie real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server.
- [Zed](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/zed.md): Give Zed's AI assistant real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server. Free tier with no signup.
- [Pi](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/pi.md): Give Pi real-time web search and content extraction through the You.com agent skills. Free tier with no signup.
- [Cecli](https://you.com/docs/build-with-agents/agent-harnesses/cecli.md): Give Cecli real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server. Free tier with no signup.
- [Python SDK](https://you.com/docs/sdks/python-sdk.md): Official Python SDK for You.com's Web Search, Answer, Contents, Research, and Finance Research APIs. Simple, predictable API access with type hints and async support — get started in minutes.
- [TypeScript SDK](https://you.com/docs/sdks/typescript-sdk.md): Official TypeScript SDK for You.com's Web Search, Contents, and Research APIs. Fully typed, simple to use — get started in minutes.
- [Integrations](https://you.com/docs/integrations.md): Connect You.com's Web Search, Contents, and Research APIs to the AI frameworks, automation platforms, agent runtimes, and open models your agents already run on.
- [Daytona](https://you.com/docs/integrations/daytona.md): Call the You.com Web Search, Contents, and Research APIs from inside Daytona sandboxes. You.com is on Daytona's essential-services allow list, with the API hosts and allow-list entries you need for a locked-down sandbox.
- [crewAI](https://you.com/docs/integrations/crewai.md): Add real-time web search, research, and content extraction to crewAI agents through You.com's remote MCP server.
- [LangChain](https://you.com/docs/integrations/langchain.md): Add real-time web search to LangChain agents and RAG pipelines using the langchain-youdotcom package.
- [LangGraph](https://you.com/docs/integrations/langgraph.md): Build stateful AI agents with real-time web search and content extraction using LangGraph and the langchain-youdotcom package.
- [Nevermined](https://you.com/docs/integrations/nevermined.md): You.com accepts x402 agentic payments via Nevermined as one option for purchasing an API key.
- [n8n](https://you.com/docs/integrations/n8n.md): Add real-time web search and content extraction to n8n workflows using the @youdotcom-oss/n8n-nodes-youdotcom community node.
- [LlamaIndex](https://you.com/docs/integrations/llamaindex.md): Use You.com's Web Search API as a retriever in LlamaIndex applications with the llama-index-retrievers-you package.
- [OpenAI GPT OSS](https://you.com/docs/integrations/gpt-oss.md): You.com powers the default web browsing backend for OpenAI's open-weight GPT OSS models. Use YouComBackend to give GPT OSS models real-time web access.
- [Vercel AI SDK](https://you.com/docs/integrations/vercel-ai-sdk.md): Add real-time web search and webpage content extraction to Vercel AI SDK applications.
- [Temporal](https://you.com/docs/integrations/temporal.md): Add durable You.com API activities to Temporal workflows with automatic retry, error mapping, and crash recovery.
- [Zapier](https://you.com/docs/integrations/zapier.md): Connect You.com's Search, Content, and News APIs to 8,000+ apps in Zapier — no code required. Automate research, content, and data-collection workflows.
- [Partnerships](https://you.com/docs/partnerships.md): You.com is available across MCP marketplaces, cloud marketplaces, AI frameworks, and developer tools.
- [MCP Marketplaces](https://you.com/docs/partnerships/mcp-marketplaces.md): Find You.com MCP listings across Databricks Marketplace, the Anthropic MCP Registry, PulseMCP, Glama, MCP Market, Composio, and Warp.
- [Cloud Marketplaces](https://you.com/docs/partnerships/cloud-marketplaces.md): Procure You.com Web Search, Research, and Finance Research APIs through AWS Marketplace and Microsoft Azure Marketplace.
- [Framework and Tool Partners](https://you.com/docs/partnerships/framework-tool-partners.md): Explore You.com partner listings across OpenAI GPT OSS, LangChain, LangGraph, Zapier, Vercel AI SDK, Temporal, n8n, LlamaIndex, crewAI, LiteLLM, and more.
- [Authentication](https://you.com/docs/using-the-api/authentication.md): How to authenticate requests to the You.com APIs with an API key, the X-API-Key header, and the YDC_API_KEY environment variable.
- [Rate Limits](https://you.com/docs/using-the-api/rate-limits.md): Rate limit headers, the 429 response, Retry-After, and exponential backoff for the You.com APIs.
- [Errors](https://you.com/docs/using-the-api/error-code-reference.md): Complete reference for You.com API errors and HTTP status codes. Understand 401, 402, 403, 404, 429, and 500 errors with causes and recommended actions.

## Installable Agent Skills

These live in the You.com open-source skills repo, not in these docs. They are installable instruction packs, distinct from the copy-and-customize example patterns listed under Docs above.

- [Agent Skills repo](https://github.com/youdotcom-oss/agent-skills): Five installable You.com skills plus plugin packaging for Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Pi, and Hermes. Install every skill with `npx skills add youdotcom-oss/agent-skills`.
- [you-web](https://github.com/youdotcom-oss/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/you-web): Use You.com MCP tools for current web search, URL content extraction, cited web synthesis, and x402-aware web access.
- [you-free](https://github.com/youdotcom-oss/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/you-free): Use the free You.com MCP profile for unauthenticated basic web search with `you-search` only. No API key or OAuth required.
- [you-research](https://github.com/youdotcom-oss/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/you-research): Route research tasks between a cost-conscious agentic search workflow, You.com Research API scripts, and managed or payment-aware MCP fallback.
- [you-finance](https://github.com/youdotcom-oss/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/you-finance): Route finance questions to an existing local script, a new You.com Finance Research API call, or an MCP payment-aware fallback.
- [you-discover](https://github.com/youdotcom-oss/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/you-discover): Route You.com integration planning through the you-discover MCP tool, AI Catalog entries, Docs MCP, and direct API options.

## API Docs

Per-endpoint reference pages are indexed at https://you.com/docs/api-reference/llms.txt. Fern generates that index directly from the OpenAPI specs, so it always reflects the current endpoint set. Fetch it for endpoint-level detail.

## OpenAPI Specification

The raw OpenAPI 3.1 specification for this API is available at:
- [OpenAPI JSON](https://you.com/docs/openapi.json)
- [OpenAPI YAML](https://you.com/docs/openapi.yaml)