You.com

You.com is an AI search engine and research assistant that combines real-time web search with conversational AI, providing sourced answers to research questions alongside traditional search results in a customizable interface. Where Perplexity focuses on research synthesis with cited answers, You.com leans into interface customization and workflow integration: you configure which sources the search prioritizes, enable specialized research modes (Academic, Code, Social, Discussion), and adjust result ranking preferences, personalizing the search experience to your information needs rather than accepting a uniform algorithm. The AI assistant handles follow-up questions conversationally while maintaining citations to web sources, enabling iterative research sessions rather than single-query lookup.

The coding assistant integrates with GitHub for code search and generates runnable code examples with explanations grounded in actual documentation sources rather than training data alone. You.com's privacy controls allow ad-free browsing without account creation, and Private Mode disables search history retention. The platform is available free with an AI Pro upgrade ($20/month) adding GPT-4o and Claude access alongside the search experience, competitive with Perplexity Pro at the same price point.

Commonly used by researchers, analysts, and knowledge workers who need sourced answers and want control over their search experience rather than a fixed algorithm, and developers who want integrated code search alongside general web research.