You.com
Website type
Enterprise and Search AI
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California, U.S.
FoundersRichard Socher
Bryan McCann
Websiteyou.com
LaunchedNovember 9, 2021; 4 years ago (2021-11-09)
Current statusLive

You.com is an artificial intelligence and search engine startup company.

The company was founded in 2020 by Richard Socher, the former chief scientist at Salesforce, and Bryan McCann, a former NLP researcher at Salesforce.[1]

History

The domain You.com was initially purchased in 1996 by Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff,[2] 24 years before the company was founded in 2020. You.com opened its public beta on November 9, 2021,[3] funded in part by Benioff.[1][4]

In July 2022, You.com received Series A funding round led by Radical Ventures[5] with participation from Time Ventures, Breyer Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Day One Ventures.[6] In September 2024, You.com received Series B funding led by Georgian.[7] In September 2025, You.com raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Cox Enterprises at a $1.5 billion valuation, achieving unicorn status.[8]

In 2023, You.com pivoted from its consumer focused search engine products to artificial intelligence tools.[8][9] Around January 2023, the company was incorporating AI chats into its search engine.[10]

Products

On December 23, 2022, You.com was the first search engine to launch an LLM chatbot with live web results alongside its responses.[11][12][13] Initially known as YouChat,[14] the chatbot was primarily based on the GPT-3.5 large language model and could answer questions, suggest ideas,[15] translate text,[16] summarize articles, compose emails, and write code snippets, while staying up-to-date with current events [13] and citing sources. Several further versions of YouChat were released. The second version, called YouChat 2.0, was released on February 7, 2023,[17][18] incorporated improved conversational AI[19] and community-built applications by blending a large language model named C-A-L (Chat, Apps, and Links).[19][14] This update enabled YouChat to provide results in various formats, such as charts,[20] photos,[21] videos, tables, graphs, text or code, so users can find answers without leaving the search results page. YouChat 3.0, unveiled on May 4, 2023,[22] combined chat functionality with results from Reddit, TikTok, Stack Overflow and Wikipedia.

YouPro

On June 21, 2023, You.com introduced YouPro, a paid subscription.[23] Both free and paid versions provide access to large language models connected to the internet with citation capabilities.[24]

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.[25] The platform targets regulated industries where comprehensive source verification is critical, with customers including healthcare publishers and advisory firms.[26]

Reception

You.com was named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2022.[27][28]

You.com's ARI (Advanced Research & Insights) feature was named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2025.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiggers, Kyle (November 9, 2021). "AI-driven search engine You.com takes on Google with $20M". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on June 2, 2022. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  2. ^ Pardes, Arielle (March 31, 2023). "Search Has Its Goliath. Could Richard Socher Be Its David?". The Information. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  3. ^ Robertson, Adi (November 9, 2021). "You.com wants to remake the search engine". The Verge. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  4. ^ Baranouski, Artsiom (January 30, 2024). "Top 10 Salesforce SPQ Alternatives for the North American Market". Medium. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  5. ^ Primack, Dan (July 14, 2022). "You.com raises $25 million to challenge Google's search dominance". Axios. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  6. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (July 14, 2022). "You raises $25M to fuel its AI-powered search engine". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  7. ^ Coldewey, Devin (September 4, 2024). "With $50M in new funding, You.com thinks its AI can beat Google on hard questions". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
  8. ^ a b Zaveri, Paayal (September 3, 2025). "You.com Becomes a Unicorn, Shifts Away From Search Engine Plans". Bloomberg News.
  9. ^ Pierce, David (September 25, 2023). "The AI assistant revolution is more than 50 years in the making". The Verge.
  10. ^ Griffith, Erin; Metz, Cade (January 7, 2023). "A New Area of A.I. Booms, Even Amid the Tech Gloom". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 14, 2026.
  11. ^ Kahn, Imad (December 23, 2022). "Search Engine You.com Launches ChatGPT-Style Chatbot, But Don't Trust It Fully Yet". CNET. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  12. ^ Kulp, Patrick (January 24, 2024). "How this early LLM researcher is taking on ChatGPT with his own search engine". Tech Brew.
  13. ^ a b Hachman, Mark. "You.com's AI-infused Google rival provides a tantalizing glimpse of the future". PCWorld.
  14. ^ a b Eliaçık, Eray. "You.com's AI-powered features are already in use, unlike Google". Dataconomy.
  15. ^ You.com (May 10, 2023). "Introducing YouChat — The AI Search Assistant that Lives in Your Search Engine". Medium.
  16. ^ Roth, Emma. "Meet the companies trying to keep up with ChatGPT". The Verge.
  17. ^ You.com (May 10, 2023). "Introducing YouChat 2.0 — Unlock the Power of AI with the Search Assistant that Works for You". Medium.
  18. ^ Nuñez, Michael. "VentureBeat Q&A: Richard Socher, cofounder and CEO of You.com, says Google is facing a classic innovator's dilemma". VentureBeat.
  19. ^ a b Nuñez, Michael. "You.com challenges Google, Microsoft with launch of 'multimodal conversational AI' in search". VentureBeat.
  20. ^ Özergin, Özgürcan. "How to use You.com: YouChat, YouImagine, and more". TechBriefly.
  21. ^ Deutscher, Maria. "You.com debuts multimodal AI chatbot for search". SiliconANGLE.
  22. ^ "YouChat 3.0 is here — Experience the Ultimate Chat Search". You.com. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  23. ^ Press, Gil (June 21, 2023). "You.com Launches Subscription Service For Cutting-Edge Generative AI Search Chatbot". Forbes.
  24. ^ Oritz, Sabrina (March 20, 2024). "YouPro lets me access every popular premium AI chatbot for $20/month - but there's a catch". ZDNET.
  25. ^ Nuñez, Michael (February 27, 2025). "You.com unveils AI research agent that processes 400+ sources at once". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on March 28, 2025. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
  26. ^ Press, Gil. "You.com Launches AI Research Agent, Targeting Regulated Industries". Forbes.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  27. ^ "The Best Inventions of 2022". Time. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  28. ^ Mullich, Joe (November 10, 2022). "Ad-free Search You.com". Time.
  29. ^ Mullich, Joe (October 9, 2025). "The Best Inventions of 2025". TIME.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)