You.com is an artificial intelligence and search engine startup company founded in 2020 by Richard Socher, former chief scientist at Salesforce, and Bryan McCann, a former NLP researcher at Salesforce. The company develops consumer and enterprise AI tools, including a chat-based search engine and a deep research agent. You.com is headquartered in the United States and has raised significant venture funding, achieving unicorn status in 2025.
The company initially launched as a privacy-focused search engine with customizable app widgets, but pivoted to AI-driven products in 2023. Its core offerings integrate large language models with real-time web results, enabling conversational answers with cited sources. You.com has been recognized by TIME magazine for its innovations in search and research technology.
History
The domain You.com was first purchased in 1996 by Marc Benioff, who later became CEO of Salesforce. The company itself was founded in 2020 by Socher and McCann, with Benioff providing initial funding. You.com opened its public beta on November 9, 2021, offering a search engine that aggregated results from multiple sources into customizable widgets.
In July 2022, You.com raised a Series A round led by Radical Ventures, with participation from Time Ventures, Breyer Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Day One Ventures. The company then pivoted from consumer search to AI tools around January 2023, integrating AI chat into its search engine. In September 2024, You.com completed a Series B round led by Georgian. In September 2025, the company raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Cox Enterprises at a $1.5 billion valuation, achieving unicorn status.
Products
On December 23, 2022, You.com launched YouChat, the first LLM chatbot from a major search engine to include live web results alongside responses. Initially based on GPT-3.5, YouChat could answer questions, suggest ideas, translate text, summarize articles, compose emails, and write code snippets while staying current and citing sources. YouChat 2.0, released on February 7, 2023, added improved conversational AI and community-built applications by blending a language model named C-A-L (Chat, Apps, and Links). This update allowed responses in multiple formats, including charts, photos, videos, tables, graphs, text, or code. YouChat 3.0, unveiled on May 4, 2023, combined chat functionality with results from Reddit, TikTok, Stack Overflow, and Wikipedia.
YouPro
On June 21, 2023, You.com introduced YouPro, a paid subscription tier. Both free and paid versions provide access to large language models connected to the internet with citation capabilities, but YouPro offers additional features such as higher usage limits and priority access to new models.
ARI
In February 2025, You.com launched ARI (Advanced Research and Insights), a deep research agent that scans over 400 sources simultaneously to produce research reports with verified citations and interactive graphs, charts, and visualizations. The platform targets regulated industries where comprehensive source verification is critical, with customers including healthcare publishers and advisory firms. ARI integrates multiple model providers and is designed for tasks requiring thorough, auditable research.
Technology and Approach
You.com differentiates itself by connecting various large language models to real-time web search, allowing for up-to-date answers with citations. The company has partnered with multiple AI model providers, including Anthropic and Google DeepMind, to offer users a choice of models. The platform supports both free and paid usage, with the paid YouPro tier providing access to premium models and faster response times.
The search engine uses a custom architecture that blends chat interfaces with traditional search result layouts, enabling users to view text, images, videos, tables, and code without leaving the page. For enterprise and regulated industries, You.com emphasizes source verification and reproducibility, which distinguishes it from consumer chatbots that do not always provide auditable citations.
Reception
You.com was named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2022, recognizing its early approach to AI-integrated search. In 2025, the ARI deep research feature was also named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2025. The company has been noted for its focus on citation accuracy and its pivot toward AI tools for professional and regulated markets. Financial backing from Cox Enterprises at a $1.5 billion valuation in 2025 reflected investor confidence in its research-focused AI products.