Guardian vs You.com Web Search API: pricing and result-depth tradeoffs
Guardian looks much cheaper than You.com when you compare ten-result calls. The picture changes when you ask for many results in one request because You.com includes up to 100 results in its $5-per-1,000-call base price while Guardian meters one credit for each started block of 10 requested results.
Guardian pricing
Guardian charges one credit per started block of 10 requested search results. The effective rates below assume each search requests 10 results or fewer and the included monthly credits are fully used.
| Plan / mode | Price | Included | Effective search price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1,000 credits | $0No card required. |
| Developer | $49/mo | 25,000 credits | $1.96 / 1KUp to 10 results uses 1 credit. |
| Growth | $249/mo | 200,000 credits | $1.245 / 1KUp to 10 results uses 1 credit. |
| Scale | $999/mo | 1,000,000 credits | $0.999 / 1KUp to 10 results uses 1 credit. |
You.com Web Search API pricing
| Plan / mode | Price | Included | Effective search price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web Search API | PAYG | Up to 100 results/call | $5 / 1K callsWeb and news results included. |
| Full-page extraction | Add-on | Pages fetched live | $1 / 1K pagesCached pages can be free depending on extraction source. |
| Answer API | PAYG | Cited answer | $5 / 1K callsSeparate from raw Web Search. |
You.com prices Web Search per call and allows up to 100 results in that call. Guardian's business endpoint allows up to 50 results and bills 1 credit per started block of 10 requested results, so result depth changes the effective Guardian cost per call.
Ten-result calls favor Guardian
A Guardian search requesting up to 10 results costs one credit. That gives effective rates of about $1.96 per 1,000 calls on Developer, $1.245 on Growth, and $0.999 on Scale. You.com Web Search is $5 per 1,000 calls, so Guardian is cheaper at this result depth.
The comparison changes as Guardian's requested result count rises. A 50-result Guardian call consumes 5 credits. At that depth, 1,000 calls consume 5,000 credits: about $9.80 on Developer, $6.225 on Growth, and $4.995 on Scale. You.com remains $5 per 1,000 calls and can return up to 100 results in each call.
You.com includes more result depth in the base call
You.com's Web Search price includes web and news results and supports 1 to 100 results per call. Its documentation also describes knowledge results and LLM-ready snippets. Full-page extraction is a separate $1 per 1,000 live-fetched pages, with cached extraction behavior priced differently depending on the mode.
Guardian caps the business search request at 50 results. It exposes dedicated verticals and lets you choose result count, page, locale, safe-search level, and engine. The product is a better price match when the application usually needs a short ranked result set rather than dozens of URLs per tool call.
Price the result depth you actually use
Do not compare only the vendors' headline price per 1,000 requests. Count how many results your agent or application reads in a normal call. A ten-result workload and a hundred-result workload have different winners under these billing models.
Also include extraction in the test. If your application needs full page text, You.com's live extraction add-on may replace another service. If snippets and URLs are enough, Guardian's lower shallow-search rate can be the simpler bill.
Which one fits your workload?
Choose Guardian when
- Most calls need 10 results or fewer.
- You want dedicated search verticals and multi-engine retrieval.
- You want the same commercial account across REST, TypeScript SDK, and MCP.
- You do not need more than 50 results in a single request.
Choose You.com Web Search API when
- You regularly need 50 to 100 results in one API call.
- Bundled web and news results plus You.com's extraction options match your retrieval pipeline.
- You want pay-as-you-go call pricing instead of committing to a monthly included-credit tier.
Start with 1,000 free search credits.
The business API uses scoped API keys, monthly quotas, usage headers, and the same account across REST, the TypeScript SDK, and MCP.
Frequently asked questions
Is Guardian cheaper than You.com?
For searches requesting up to 10 results, Guardian's paid tiers are cheaper than You.com's $5 per 1,000 calls. At 50 results, Guardian Scale is about $4.995 per 1,000 calls, while Guardian Developer and Growth are more expensive than You.com because Guardian charges five credits for a 50-result call.
How many results can each API return?
Guardian's business search request currently allows 1 to 50 results. You.com says its Web Search API supports up to 100 results per call.
Does You.com charge extra for full-page content?
You.com lists live full-page extraction at $1 per 1,000 pages. Cached extraction can have different billing depending on the extraction source. Guardian search does not bundle whole-page extraction into its base business search credit.
Pricing sources
Vendor prices change. These comparisons use public pricing and documentation available on October 7, 2026. Check the linked vendor page before making a purchase decision.