Search & research
Answer engines
AI-native search that returns synthesized answers with citations, plus research agents that browse and summarize.
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#01
Glean
· Glean Recommended FeaturedEnterprise search and AI assistant grounded in your company's tools — Slack, Drive, Confluence, Salesforce, Jira, and 100+ more. The leader in enterprise RAG-as-a-service.
AIMenta — For 1000+ employee enterprises, Glean is often the highest-leverage AI deployment. The connector breadth and permissions model are real moats.
Enterprise · Enterprise — pricing on request · API · Since 2019 -
#02
Perplexity
· Perplexity AI Recommended FeaturedAI answer engine that returns synthesized responses with citations. The most polished alternative to Google for fact-finding and research.
AIMenta — For most knowledge workers, Perplexity replaces 60% of Google searches. Pro tier is worth it for serious research workflows.
Freemium · Free; Pro US$20/mo · API · Free tier · Since 2022 -
#03
Exa
· Exa AI RecommendedSearch API designed for LLMs and agents. Returns clean, content-ready results — better suited for RAG and agentic workflows than scraping Google.
AIMenta — The default search API for any RAG or agent build. Pair with Tavily for redundancy.
Usage-based · US$0.005/search · API · Free tier · Since 2021 -
#04
Tavily
· Tavily RecommendedSearch API purpose-built for LLM agents. Returns search results plus a synthesized answer in one call — used by LangChain, LlamaIndex, and many agent frameworks.
AIMenta — The fastest way to add real web access to an agent. Use alongside Exa for production resilience.
Freemium · Free 1000 searches/mo; pay-as-you-go after · API · Free tier · Since 2023 -
#05
Phind
· Phind Decent fitDeveloper-focused AI search engine. Returns code-aware answers with citations to documentation and Stack Overflow.
AIMenta — Useful supplement for developers. ChatGPT and Claude have largely closed the gap on code-aware search.
Freemium · Free; Pro US$17/mo · Free tier · Since 2022 -
#06
You.com
· You.com Decent fitAI-native search with smart modes for different tasks (Genius for analysis, Research for citations, Create for content). Strong agentic-research capability.
AIMenta — Worth evaluating against Perplexity for advanced research workflows. The agentic capabilities are genuinely useful.
Freemium · Free; Pro US$15/mo · API · Free tier · Since 2020