Arc Search vs You.com
Arc Search
arc.netYou.com
you.comSide by side
| Figure | Arc Search | You.com |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 6 |
| Spec score · AI Search Engines | 8.1 (#9) | 7.9 (#14) |
| Security | The maker says Arc Sync uses end-to-end encryption for sidebar data and names Argon2 and Libsodium sealed boxes in its technical details. | You.com says its infrastructure is SOC 2 certified and independently audited for security, privacy, and availability. |
Plans
You.com
- FreeFree
- Contents API$1, paid once
- Answer API$5, paid once
- Web Search API$5, paid once
- Research API$12, paid once
- Finance Research API$110, paid once
In their own words
Arc Search
Arc Search is a free browser centered on Browse for Me, which searches multiple pages and produces an answer on a custom webpage. Its built-in blocker is described as stopping ads, trackers, pop-ups, and cookie banners. Other features include reader mode, incognito mode, website translation, and voice search. Inactive tabs are archived automatically, with help documentation listing intervals from 12 hours to 30 days. Browse for Me is the default search option; alternatives include Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Perplexity, and Kagi. Arc Sync can share desktop Spaces, pinned tabs, and Today tabs with Arc Search on iOS, but is unavailable on Android, and tabs created in Arc Search do not sync back to desktop. The maker says Browse for Me sends command-bar and search-result content to OpenAI to generate summaries. Arc Search supports iOS 16 or later and Android 10 or later. The maker also says Sync sidebar data uses end-to-end encryption, but the product is not currently SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certified and does not offer account MFA.
You.com
You.com describes its current offering as web search APIs for developers building RAG systems, AI agents, knowledge bases and data-driven applications. The Web Search API returns structured web and news results with metadata, snippets and optional full-page content. The Contents API extracts clean HTML or Markdown from supplied URLs. Answer synthesizes retrieved results into natural-language answers with inline citations, while Research uses multi-step research and synthesis with selectable effort levels. Finance Research returns citation-backed answers to financial questions involving filings, macro data, markets and derived calculations. A hosted MCP server connects search, extraction and research tools to LLMs and agents, with setup guides for several development tools. The free Web Search tier includes 100 queries per day, and the pricing page advertises $100 in free credits. Listed usage rates include $1.00 /1k pages for Contents, $5.00 /1k calls for Web Search and Answer, $12.00 /1k calls for Research, and $110.00 /1k calls for Finance Research. API use is pay-as-you-go with no minimums; paid plans are listed from $15/user/mo (annual). The company says generated output can be inaccurate or incomplete and should be independently reviewed.