Exa vs You.com
A side-by-side comparison of Exa and You.com, two Search tools, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.
Compared from listings verified as of
At a glance
The honest brief
Exa
Built for AI/research retrieval: neural embedding search plus find-similar, where general search APIs key off keywords.
- Semantic 'find pages like this' retrieval
- Purpose-built for RAG and agents
- Returns full page content, not just links
- Free tier to test
- Index narrower than Google-scale crawlers
- Keyword queries can lag classic search
- Usage-priced costs scale with volume
You.com
Pivoted to enterprise research: its ARI agent synthesizes cited reports over hundreds of sources, priced per report.
- Multi-model chat (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google)
- ARI agent for deep research reports
- Search and Research APIs for developers
- Per-report pricing
- Consumer focus de-emphasized
- Crowded enterprise-research market
- Smaller brand than Perplexity
- API pricing opacity