{"slug": "kagi", "name": "Kagi", "category": "search", "category_name": "Search", "description": "Paid, ad-free web search engine with user-tunable rankings and an AI assistant.", "recommenders": 110, "commenters": 153, "warners": 13, "score": 96.69, "rising": 39.36, "first": "2025-11-14", "latest": "2026-10-31", "why": "Loved for high-quality results that many commenters say beat Google, plus per-domain ranking, custom bangs and an opt-in AI assistant.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 122, "neutral": 24, "compare": 7, "warn": 13}, "spark": [6, 3, 8, 7, 4, 1, 13, 5, 16, 39, 13, 7], "listed": true, "loved": ["Result quality", "Result customization"], "caveat": "Political objections", "short_quote": "Switching to Kagi is how it felt when I first used broadband internet in college , or when I switched from Alta Vista to Google: the internet works like it should.", "icon": true, "domain": "kagi.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://kagi.com", "pricing": "paid", "aliases": ["Kagi", "Kagi Search"], "verdict": [{"text": "Loved for high-quality results that many commenters say beat Google,", "cites": [{"id": 794721824, "item_id": 49670114, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49670114", "by": "ibejoeb", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use kagi exclusively because it works.", "excerpt": "I use kagi exclusively because it works. I get the results I need every time, and it's not annoying. I haven't used Google in years. Simply no need. I really hope people keep paying kagi so they stick around.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 790226160, "item_id": 49389135, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389135", "by": "roblh", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is almost always better now.", "excerpt": "Me too. The longer I use it, the more I like it. Initially I found myself going back to google fairly often, but unless I'm specifically trying to find a product for sale in my region, Kagi is almost always better now. Maybe Kagi got better, or google got worse, or probably both.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 786504192, "item_id": 49156512, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156512", "by": "supersparrow", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Another vote for Kagi from me. Been using it for 3 years now and not looked back.", "excerpt": "Another vote for Kagi from me. Been using it for 3 years now and not looked back. When you accidentally use Google to search, or use a browser with defaults, you will notice really how crap Google/Bing are!", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786503168, "item_id": 49156448, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156448", "by": "chinggis", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it is also genuinely a much better experience than Google or DDG", "excerpt": "Not only is kagi private, but it is also genuinely a much better experience than Google or DDG. However, Brave Search is great if you want something free.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}]}, {"text": " plus per-domain ranking, custom bangs and an opt-in AI assistant.", "cites": [{"id": 786501360, "item_id": 49156335, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156335", "by": "teroshan", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll expand on a few reasons why I personally love Kagi:", "excerpt": "I'll expand on a few reasons why I personally love Kagi: - Ability to block/lower/raise/pin domains. Some examples of commonly tuned domains are here https://kagi.com/stats?stat=insights - Shared custom bangs across my sessions. I can add work-specific bangs (e.g. !bug -> Jira search) and have them available across my devices. - Regexp redirects, to automatically redirect online documentation results of some librarie", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 790406624, "item_id": 49400414, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49400414", "by": "forestrywat", "date": "2026-08-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "kagi is great, love kagi.", "excerpt": "What if it's genuine? I use kagi. The results quality is pretty good, but I probably use the uprank and downrank feature all the time. Being able to report stuff as AI and get little indicators that a site is AI slop is good. As an example, serious eats is my go to recipe site, and I've got it tuned so it returns higher in my results. I also really appreciate I can write my own custom css, and style every box and wid", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 794502944, "item_id": 49656434, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49656434", "by": "vertnerd", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the AI option more often than I thought I would", "excerpt": "\"After trying Kagi/Duck Duck Go, I have gone back to Google for search and I freely grant that I find the \u201cAI Overview\u201d to be useful.\" I feel compelled to point out that Kagi does offer AI-backed answers if you want it to. Just pose your query with a question mark to trigger the AI response in addition to the usual search results. It is not ever the default or only answer, and I pray Kagi keeps it that way! I use the", "context": "", "use_case": "search with optional AI answers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Resist \"AI\""}]}, {"text": " Complaints are scattered: weaker localized shopping results,", "cites": [{"id": 798237664, "item_id": 49889854, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49889854", "by": "psd1", "date": "2026-09-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "At risk of looking like a shill: Kagi.", "excerpt": "At risk of looking like a shill: Kagi. Partly, i find it reassuring to pay for the service with money. That was how we used to do things back in my day. Localisation is moderate for shopping - i have to sift through US results. I'll occasionally use Google product search when i'm metaphorically groping for my wedding ring in the toilet. It's not as good as Google used to be, but then, the web isn't a good as the web ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 790226160, "item_id": 49389135, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389135", "by": "roblh", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is almost always better now.", "excerpt": "Me too. The longer I use it, the more I like it. Initially I found myself going back to google fairly often, but unless I'm specifically trying to find a product for sale in my region, Kagi is almost always better now. Maybe Kagi got better, or google got worse, or probably both.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}]}, {"text": " objections to its use of Russian data,", "cites": [{"id": 790232880, "item_id": 49389555, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389555", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "their stubbornness in using Russian data in their indexing, and paying Russian businesses for the data is what is stopping me", "excerpt": "I used to be a Kagi subscriber and I would so like to be one again \u2014 but their stubbornness in using Russian data in their indexing, and paying Russian businesses for the data is what is stopping me. I wish they stopped doing this. I really, really want to like them and be a subscriber again.", "context": "former Kagi subscriber", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}]}, {"text": " and a few who found it no better than free alternatives.", "cites": [{"id": 790256496, "item_id": 49391031, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391031", "by": "BrokenCogs", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to be a paying member but then dropped it because the results didn't feel more useful", "excerpt": "Honestly I haven't found kagi that useful in the last 12 months. I used to be a paying member but then dropped it because the results didn't feel more useful than just asking the free versions of Gemini, claude, etc", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Just Want to Search"}, {"id": 790222851, "item_id": 49388928, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49388928", "by": "DeepLogin", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "their paywalled search offerings seem to be inferior to other options", "excerpt": "I use Brave Search+ DuckDuckGo+ Google Image search and that seems to sastify my search requirements while keeping my payment info private. I don't think I will ever think of subscribing to Kagi metasearch engine, especially since their paywalled search offerings seem to be inferior to other options.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Result quality", "summary": "Commenters say results are high quality and better than Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo.", "quotes": [{"id": 786500336, "item_id": 49156271, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156271", "by": "dmazin", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This feels like a solved problem entirely: Kagi.", "excerpt": "This feels like a solved problem entirely: Kagi. I don\u2019t know their secret sauce but the results are very high quality.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 790226160, "item_id": 49389135, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389135", "by": "roblh", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is almost always better now.", "excerpt": "Me too. The longer I use it, the more I like it. Initially I found myself going back to google fairly often, but unless I'm specifically trying to find a product for sale in my region, Kagi is almost always better now. Maybe Kagi got better, or google got worse, or probably both.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 786504192, "item_id": 49156512, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156512", "by": "supersparrow", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Another vote for Kagi from me. Been using it for 3 years now and not looked back.", "excerpt": "Another vote for Kagi from me. Been using it for 3 years now and not looked back. When you accidentally use Google to search, or use a browser with defaults, you will notice really how crap Google/Bing are!", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}]}, {"label": "Result customization", "summary": "Users block, lower, raise or pin domains and use lenses and a slop filter to tune results.", "quotes": [{"id": 786501360, "item_id": 49156335, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156335", "by": "teroshan", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll expand on a few reasons why I personally love Kagi:", "excerpt": "I'll expand on a few reasons why I personally love Kagi: - Ability to block/lower/raise/pin domains. Some examples of commonly tuned domains are here https://kagi.com/stats?stat=insights - Shared custom bangs across my sessions. I can add work-specific bangs (e.g. !bug -> Jira search) and have them available across my devices. - Regexp redirects, to automatically redirect online documentation results of some librarie", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 790406624, "item_id": 49400414, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49400414", "by": "forestrywat", "date": "2026-08-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "kagi is great, love kagi.", "excerpt": "What if it's genuine? I use kagi. The results quality is pretty good, but I probably use the uprank and downrank feature all the time. Being able to report stuff as AI and get little indicators that a site is AI slop is good. As an example, serious eats is my go to recipe site, and I've got it tuned so it returns higher in my results. I also really appreciate I can write my own custom css, and style every box and wid", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 790311792, "item_id": 49394487, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49394487", "by": "TeriyakiBomb", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Kagi. I want to see them do well, of all of the search alternatives, this is the only one where I\u2019ve never felt the need to go back to google.", "excerpt": "I love Kagi. I want to see them do well, of all of the search alternatives, this is the only one where I\u2019ve never felt the need to go back to google. I was setting a up a new computer the other day and got confused that the first three links for a search were ads, then I remembered it was google and they hide the things you\u2019re looking for. Site priority, lenses and the slop filter are all icing on the cake.", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}]}, {"label": "Paid, aligned incentives", "summary": "Paying directly is valued because the user is not the product and incentives stay aligned.", "quotes": [{"id": 794825600, "item_id": 49676600, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49676600", "by": "r3trohack3r", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is the stickiest digital subscription I have.", "excerpt": "My time, attention, and \u201cbrain\u201d are valuable. Having aligned incentives with my search provider and control over the results it serves me through weighting is worth substantially more than I pay for unlimited. Kagi is the stickiest digital subscription I have.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794199776, "item_id": 49637486, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49637486", "by": "r3trohack3r", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "When I use Kagi I have a curated search experience that has a relatively high information density", "excerpt": "I also broadly agree with you're sentiment But re: kagi specifically, for me personally, the delta is obvious and isn't trust based. When I use Kagi I have a curated search experience that has a relatively high information density - driven in large part by the alignment of incentives and the ability for me to tune my results. There is a noticeable difference for me when I switch to 'free' alternatives where the conte", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "There's a new \"Google Jail\" for independent wikis"}, {"id": 786502704, "item_id": 49156419, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156419", "by": "bronlund", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Just use Kagi. Not only is it way better, but you are also not the product.", "excerpt": "Just use Kagi. Not only is it way better, but you are also not the product.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}]}, {"label": "Opt-in AI", "summary": "AI answers appear only when a query ends with a question mark, and the assistant is called capable.", "quotes": [{"id": 794502944, "item_id": 49656434, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49656434", "by": "vertnerd", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the AI option more often than I thought I would", "excerpt": "\"After trying Kagi/Duck Duck Go, I have gone back to Google for search and I freely grant that I find the \u201cAI Overview\u201d to be useful.\" I feel compelled to point out that Kagi does offer AI-backed answers if you want it to. Just pose your query with a question mark to trigger the AI response in addition to the usual search results. It is not ever the default or only answer, and I pray Kagi keeps it that way! I use the", "context": "", "use_case": "search with optional AI answers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Resist \"AI\""}, {"id": 788180944, "item_id": 49261309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261309", "by": "Mabusto", "date": "2026-08-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The results are extremely good, especially in the last 4 months.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using Kagi for about a year now and I genuinely get worried that there are no alternatives if it goes out of business. The results are extremely good, especially in the last 4 months. I like their opt in AI summary as well, just add a question mark at the end. I pay for a lot of things that are free from google/big tech, I\u2019m happy to watch the advertisement driven web implode on itself so we can go back to ", "context": "paying user for about a year", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}, {"id": 799102672, "item_id": 49943917, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49943917", "by": "user2722", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll probably renew Kagi because its assistant can answer my questions", "excerpt": "I moved from a densely populated area to a more sparse one. I'll probably renew Kagi because its assistant can answer my questions, such as: \"find me a location where I can be on my computer but also public where I can also be with a group of people\". Google's Gemini hallucinated spots or imagined details -- at one point it included a shed in the middle of a road -- the shed existed, nothing else did. DDG did similar", "context": "", "use_case": "search and assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"}]}, {"label": "Bangs and redirects", "summary": "Custom bangs synced across devices and regex redirects are used for archives, Jira and docs.", "quotes": [{"id": 790236673, "item_id": 49389792, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389792", "by": "kenanfyi", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the Bangs feature to open paywalled links with archive.is with !a.", "excerpt": "I use the Bangs feature to open paywalled links with archive.is with !a. When I write !a before the link in the address bar, it redirects to the archive for that particular page. Most of the time it is already in archive.is. Bang settings: URL Template: https://archive.is/newest/%s Bang shortcut: whatever letter you want. I'm sure a basic browser extension can be developed for that specific action too, but it does no", "context": "", "use_case": "search with Bangs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 786501360, "item_id": 49156335, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156335", "by": "teroshan", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll expand on a few reasons why I personally love Kagi:", "excerpt": "I'll expand on a few reasons why I personally love Kagi: - Ability to block/lower/raise/pin domains. Some examples of commonly tuned domains are here https://kagi.com/stats?stat=insights - Shared custom bangs across my sessions. I can add work-specific bangs (e.g. !bug -> Jira search) and have them available across my devices. - Regexp redirects, to automatically redirect online documentation results of some librarie", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 793293376, "item_id": 49580836, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580836", "by": "the_lucifer", "date": "2026-09-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "for folks using Kagi Search, you can set up a search engine level redirect", "excerpt": "+ for folks using Kagi Search, you can set up a search engine level redirect (which is what I used to use for redirecting Twitter/X links to Xcancel before the takedown)", "context": "", "use_case": "redirecting Twitter/X links", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nitter has more working instances than before the takedowns"}]}, {"label": "Search operators", "summary": "Some switched because Kagi respects quotes, exact strings and time filters.", "quotes": [{"id": 786500064, "item_id": 49156254, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156254", "by": "drcongo", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is the best search experience ever.", "excerpt": "Kagi is the best search experience ever. The only reason I started using it in the first place was because DDG started ignoring my quotes. Never looked back.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "DuckDuckGo", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 790227904, "item_id": 49389244, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389244", "by": "tempest_", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the main ones, which are time and exact strings, are the reason I use the product.", "excerpt": "You mainly get this because honestly I was already happy with the existing product. The main focus of this post is not something I was really looking for and is a nice addition but I would still be using the existing product regardless. Basically I just want search that I can actually filter are returns relevant useful results.. This adds an extra facet that I might filter on from time to time but the main ones, whic", "context": "", "use_case": "web search with filters", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 788713744, "item_id": 49294609, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49294609", "by": "nunez", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Another reason why I use Kagi.", "excerpt": "They've disabled an bunch of useful operators and invested more into natural language search and Gemini answers. Another reason why I use Kagi.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Political objections", "summary": "Some refuse to subscribe for political reasons, including its use of paid Russian data sources.", "quotes": [{"id": 790232880, "item_id": 49389555, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389555", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "their stubbornness in using Russian data in their indexing, and paying Russian businesses for the data is what is stopping me", "excerpt": "I used to be a Kagi subscriber and I would so like to be one again \u2014 but their stubbornness in using Russian data in their indexing, and paying Russian businesses for the data is what is stopping me. I wish they stopped doing this. I really, really want to like them and be a subscriber again.", "context": "former Kagi subscriber", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 786503026, "item_id": 49156439, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156439", "by": "axegon_", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "As for Kagi - they've earned a life-long ban from me for political reasons.", "excerpt": "Annoyingly search was at large solved just a few years ago and sadly someone has to reinvent the wheel soon. Lately I've completely switched to ecosia. It gives really decent results for the time being, hoping it'd improve with their co-op with qwant. I also run searxng behind a tor proxy and while it does a pretty solid job overall, it still relies entirely on other search engines so it's not a question of \"if\" but ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}]}, {"label": "Regional results", "summary": "Shopping localization is moderate, so some still use Google for regional product searches.", "quotes": [{"id": 798237664, "item_id": 49889854, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49889854", "by": "psd1", "date": "2026-09-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "At risk of looking like a shill: Kagi.", "excerpt": "At risk of looking like a shill: Kagi. Partly, i find it reassuring to pay for the service with money. That was how we used to do things back in my day. Localisation is moderate for shopping - i have to sift through US results. I'll occasionally use Google product search when i'm metaphorically groping for my wedding ring in the toilet. It's not as good as Google used to be, but then, the web isn't a good as the web ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 790226160, "item_id": 49389135, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389135", "by": "roblh", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is almost always better now.", "excerpt": "Me too. The longer I use it, the more I like it. Initially I found myself going back to google fairly often, but unless I'm specifically trying to find a product for sale in my region, Kagi is almost always better now. Maybe Kagi got better, or google got worse, or probably both.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}]}, {"label": "Value doubts", "summary": "A few found results no more useful than free AI chatbots or other search engines.", "quotes": [{"id": 790256496, "item_id": 49391031, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391031", "by": "BrokenCogs", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to be a paying member but then dropped it because the results didn't feel more useful", "excerpt": "Honestly I haven't found kagi that useful in the last 12 months. I used to be a paying member but then dropped it because the results didn't feel more useful than just asking the free versions of Gemini, claude, etc", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Just Want to Search"}, {"id": 790222851, "item_id": 49388928, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49388928", "by": "DeepLogin", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "their paywalled search offerings seem to be inferior to other options", "excerpt": "I use Brave Search+ DuckDuckGo+ Google Image search and that seems to sastify my search requirements while keeping my payment info private. I don't think I will ever think of subscribing to Kagi metasearch engine, especially since their paywalled search offerings seem to be inferior to other options.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}]}, {"label": "Plan pricing", "summary": "Ultimate AI credits can't be shared across a family plan, and some dislike subscriptions or add-on charges.", "quotes": [{"id": 786503536, "item_id": 49156471, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156471", "by": "abtinf", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The value of Kagi is hard to overstate.", "excerpt": "The value of Kagi is hard to overstate. You have to actually use it and try out the features. Some things that I wish were different about Kagi: I wish Kagi Ultimate LLM credits could be shared with the whole family, rather than each person having to sign up for an ultimate level account. That costs an additional $162/year per person, which makes no sense for my younger kids (even though their Research Agent and imag", "context": "paying Ultimate subscriber with a family", "use_case": "search and LLM access", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 790329457, "item_id": 49395591, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49395591", "by": "nikolay", "date": "2026-08-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love it.", "excerpt": "I love it. I don't mind paying; I just prefer to tip rather than pay a subscription! I miss Google Contributor [0]! [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Contributor", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 794352160, "item_id": 49647010, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647010", "by": "sudowood0", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Kagi", "excerpt": "I'm happy with this change. I love Kagi but don't use the translate feature enough to warrant being charged extra for it. If usage patterns are such they feel the need to do this I'm glad they made it separate instead of increasing my monthly cost.", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi Translate Is Back"}]}, {"label": "Result changes", "summary": "One customer objected to Kagi silently changing Lake Ontario results in Kagi Maps.", "quotes": [{"id": 792357088, "item_id": 49522318, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49522318", "by": "aprentic", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Currently I'm watching Kagi silently change results. If they're doing it for Lake Ontario, how can I be confident they aren't doing it with other search results?", "excerpt": "Users on the Kagi forum are reporting mixed results. Some US users still see Lake Ontario, some Canadian users see Lake America. They also seem to agree that it should be classified as incorrect behavior. https://kagifeedback.org/d/11381-lake-ontario-showing-up-with-incorrect-name-in-kagi-maps/3 As of this morning I started seeing new results. Now, a search for \"Lake Ontario\" returns both names. As a Kagi customer, I", "context": "Kagi customer", "use_case": "search engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Maps renames \"Lake Ontario\" to \"Lake America\" faster than US Government"}]}, {"label": "Orion browser", "summary": "Kagi's Orion browser is described as buggy and a distraction from search.", "quotes": [{"id": 799150529, "item_id": 49946908, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49946908", "by": "flkiwi", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the thing that makes me a paying customer in the first place", "excerpt": "I used Orion, briefly. The experience on macOS, linux, and iOS was as bad as the Kagi Search experience is good. I hope this is the start of the Kagi team ditching distractions and sidebars and focusing on the thing that makes me a paying customer in the first place.", "context": "paying customer", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"}, {"id": 799086082, "item_id": 49942880, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49942880", "by": "springtimesun", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I ended up staying because the Adblock is good (search remains good).", "excerpt": "The way I remember it marketed, and the way I originally found it, was as a workaround to setting the default search on iOS. This was before I was conscious of AI and before I remember it being in any of Kagi\u2019s products. I ended up staying because the Adblock is good (search remains good). The browser is fine. It does have bugs and needs to be hard closed occasionally. I agree on the assistant. It is very capable. I ", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"}]}], "who": [{"by": "zem", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49962285", "date": "2026-10-05"}, {"by": "flkiwi", "context": "paying customer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49946908", "date": "2026-10-03"}, {"by": "frenchtoast8", "context": "Kagi subscriber", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49944097", "date": "2026-10-03"}, {"by": "frereubu", "context": "Kagi subscriber", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389173", "date": "2026-08-21"}, {"by": "Mabusto", "context": "paying user for about a year", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261309", "date": "2026-08-11"}, {"by": "sph", "context": "paid user since day 1", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49255514", "date": "2026-08-11"}, {"by": "ndom91", "context": "privacy nerd", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49157789", "date": "2026-08-03"}, {"by": "mtlynch", "context": "participated in Kagi crowdfund", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156575", "date": "2026-08-03"}, {"by": "abtinf", "context": "paying Ultimate subscriber with a family", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156471", "date": "2026-08-03"}, {"by": "mrtomservo", "context": "paying user since January 2024", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156296", "date": "2026-08-03"}, {"by": "leoh", "context": "works at Google on and off", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49016290", "date": "2026-07-22"}, {"by": "the_lucifer", "context": "paying subscriber since March 2025", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49008192", "date": "2026-07-22"}], "tags": ["for Google switchers", "for privacy-minded users", "for developers", "for heavy searchers"], "use_cases": ["web search", "search", "search and assistant", "search with optional ai answers", "paid web search", "paid search engine"], "compared": [{"slug": "duckduckgo", "name": "DuckDuckGo", "co": 36, "switched_from": 5, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "google-search", "name": "Google Search", "co": 19, "switched_from": 14, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "brave", "name": "Brave", "co": 16, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "orion", "name": "Orion", "co": 15, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "claude", "name": "Claude", "co": 8, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "uruky", "name": "Uruky", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "searxng", "name": "SearXNG", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [{"id": 790252528, "item_id": 49390783, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390783", "by": "freediver", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We'd rather focus on building great software than on things in the world we can't control.", "excerpt": "(Kagi founder here) I respect that you're making a principled choice, even though we see this differently. Kagi uses products and services from companies around the world, including the USA, Europe, and China, but that does not imply endorsement of the actions, past, present, or future, of the governments where those companies are based. We'd rather focus on building great software than on things in the world we can'", "context": "Kagi founder", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 747371488, "item_id": 46710718, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46710718", "by": "z64", "date": "2026-01-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "That line is simply referring directly to https://kagi.com/smallweb", "excerpt": "There is a practical limit that we can't cache results for too long; Search engine users are particularly sensitive to stale data, especially around current events. Without a holistic and realiable way to know when the cache ought to be invalidated, our caching is mostly focused on mitigating \"abuse\", e.g., someone / bunch of people spamming the same search in a short timespan; no sense in repeating all those upstrea", "context": "works on Kagi search", "use_case": "search engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Waiting for dawn in search: Search index, Google rulings and impact on Kagi"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49155492", "title": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?", "mentions": 21}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49388154", "title": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results", "mentions": 17}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006195", "title": "Back to Kagi", "mentions": 16}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47184288", "title": "Leaving Google has actively improved my life", "mentions": 8}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49668386", "title": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49941447", "title": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows", "mentions": 5}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 2}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 8, "compare": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 7, "neutral": 2, "compare": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 3, "recommend": 4}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 13, "compare": 3, "warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 5, "compare": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 16, "neutral": 4, "warn": 3, "compare": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 39, "neutral": 2, "warn": 5}, "2026-09": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 5, "recommend": 13}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 7, "neutral": 3}}, "quotes": [{"id": 805084737, "item_id": 50317796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50317796", "by": "jasonvorhe", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I rarely touch Kagi anymore because my own hosted model + searxng drops results faster", "excerpt": "Some will, some won't. I prefer some webapps to their native ones and vice versa. I used to run some proprietary apps that I replaced with open source ones, often clients interfacing with already self hosted stuff. I rarely touch Kagi anymore because my own hosted model + searxng drops results faster. I don't expect most of these apps to go away just because of agents/assistants alone. Proprietary apps and services w", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Will apps be going away in favor of personal assistants?"}, {"id": 804770704, "item_id": 50298169, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50298169", "by": "drewbitt", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I may do over 100 (Kagi) searches a day.", "excerpt": "This is drastically different from how I live and work. I may do over 100 (Kagi) searches a day. I use Claude too but I am just faster searching after decades of experience.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Alphabet heads for a $500B drop in market value, biggest in its history"}, {"id": 804709840, "item_id": 50294365, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294365", "by": "JumpCrisscross", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Kagi", "excerpt": "Schindler said, according to Ars\u2019 source, that \u201ceach AI Mode query currently makes less than a traditional search,\u201d coupling \u201cthat with the claim that monetization will improve over time\u201d [1]. Ars speculated that the slowdown to double-digit growth is \u201cdriven by more consumers using AI chatbots to find answers.\u201d But none of that says Google is losing its user base. I use Kagi and am skeptical of the debt-fuelled AI b", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue"}, {"id": 804692000, "item_id": 50293250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50293250", "by": "gonzalohm", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have moved to Kagi myself", "excerpt": "Search numbers are down because Google search has become crap. I know a lot of people which I don't consider tech enthusiasts and they moved from Google to duckduckgo. I have moved to Kagi myself", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue"}, {"id": 804691040, "item_id": 50293190, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50293190", "by": "stephen_cagle", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "have switched to Kagi for search just to avoid having to deal with the bullshit that is the above the fold google search results.", "excerpt": "I (and a non trivial number of people I knok) have switched to Kagi for search just to avoid having to deal with the bullshit that is the above the fold google search results. Course, they win anyway because I also pay for youtube premium to avoid seeing ads.. Feels like the world is becoming a split between people who can afford not to be the product and people who cannot.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue"}, {"id": 799396560, "item_id": 49962285, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49962285", "by": "zem", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pay for kagi", "excerpt": "exactly the same for me, I use linux, pay for kagi, and use firefox as my browser very happily. forgot kagi even had a browser.", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"}, {"id": 799150529, "item_id": 49946908, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49946908", "by": "flkiwi", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the thing that makes me a paying customer in the first place", "excerpt": "I used Orion, briefly. The experience on macOS, linux, and iOS was as bad as the Kagi Search experience is good. I hope this is the start of the Kagi team ditching distractions and sidebars and focusing on the thing that makes me a paying customer in the first place.", "context": "paying customer", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"}, {"id": 799105553, "item_id": 49944097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49944097", "by": "frenchtoast8", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I\u2019d rather the company focus on Kagi development.", "excerpt": "I feel the same way. I like Orion, and I use it on some of my devices. But if I could choose I\u2019d rather the company focus on Kagi development. There are a good number of bugs and feature requests that have been \u201cplanned\u201d for months/years that I would be very happy to finally get fixed.", "context": "Kagi subscriber", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"}, {"id": 799102672, "item_id": 49943917, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49943917", "by": "user2722", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll probably renew Kagi because its assistant can answer my questions", "excerpt": "I moved from a densely populated area to a more sparse one. I'll probably renew Kagi because its assistant can answer my questions, such as: \"find me a location where I can be on my computer but also public where I can also be with a group of people\". Google's Gemini hallucinated spots or imagined details -- at one point it included a shed in the middle of a road -- the shed existed, nothing else did. DDG did similar", "context": "", "use_case": "search and assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"}, {"id": 799086082, "item_id": 49942880, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49942880", "by": "springtimesun", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I ended up staying because the Adblock is good (search remains good).", "excerpt": "The way I remember it marketed, and the way I originally found it, was as a workaround to setting the default search on iOS. This was before I was conscious of AI and before I remember it being in any of Kagi\u2019s products. I ended up staying because the Adblock is good (search remains good). The browser is fine. It does have bugs and needs to be hard closed occasionally. I agree on the assistant. It is very capable. I ", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"}, {"id": 798597440, "item_id": 49912340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49912340", "by": "iteria", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I don't say Google as a verb now that I use Kagi for search.", "excerpt": "Someone tried to make them lose the trademark. They kept it in court because people literally mean search on Google when they say Google. They don't mean search in general. And that's fair, I don't say Google as a verb now that I use Kagi for search.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Let's Ditch Google (Verb)"}, {"id": 798237664, "item_id": 49889854, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49889854", "by": "psd1", "date": "2026-09-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "At risk of looking like a shill: Kagi.", "excerpt": "At risk of looking like a shill: Kagi. Partly, i find it reassuring to pay for the service with money. That was how we used to do things back in my day. Localisation is moderate for shopping - i have to sift through US results. I'll occasionally use Google product search when i'm metaphorically groping for my wedding ring in the toilet. It's not as good as Google used to be, but then, the web isn't a good as the web ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 797989344, "item_id": 49874334, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49874334", "by": "delis-thumbs-7e", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is brilliant.", "excerpt": "Kagi is brilliant. I find the whole Yandex -thing silly (EU spending on liquefied gas etc. from Russia is more than Yandex\u2019s whole annual revenue) and only wish same scrutiny would be put on corporations funding Israel genocides. I use DDG at work on Firefox with all AI blocked. If I would apart from Kagi, I would use SearXNG locally accessing it elsewhere with Tailscale. I think Hister seems promising, but have not ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "When did Google get so weird?"}, {"id": 796015249, "item_id": 49750953, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49750953", "by": "Yehoshaphat", "date": "2026-09-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "it kicks straight to the configured search engine (Kagi in my case)", "excerpt": "I use Hister as my default search engine. I\u2019m quite happy with it. If I know I need to branch out, I use the double-bang before my query \u201c!! Hacker News Fujitsu\u201d and it kicks straight to the configured search engine (Kagi in my case).", "context": "", "use_case": "fallback web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hister: A private search engine for the pages you visit and the files you keep"}, {"id": 795501552, "item_id": 49718847, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49718847", "by": "zelphirkalt", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for search (Kagi), LLM usage (Kagi assistant)", "excerpt": "I don't think it is true, that no one wants to pay a penny for services they use. I know at least one counter example, because I pay for search (Kagi), LLM usage (Kagi assistant), VPN, and support various good causes and content creators. But I think your point is the vast majority, and that point probably stands, and indeed is a huge problem.", "context": "", "use_case": "search and LLM assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's make quality the norm again"}, {"id": 795018272, "item_id": 49688642, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49688642", "by": "brookst", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for Kagi, but that makes me part of a very niche market.", "excerpt": "Sure. I\u2019m not saying you should pay for search just saying it is not economically feasible to monetize it directly. I pay for Kagi, but that makes me part of a very niche market.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794976000, "item_id": 49686000, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49686000", "by": "bitpush", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use kagi, ddg etc.", "excerpt": "> Google has a near-monopoly on search. What does that mean? I use kagi, ddg etc. Nobody is forcing anyone to use Google. Woudl you say HackerNews has a monopoly on tech chatter? Sure seems dominant, but nobody is forcing anyone to use HN. You can use lobsters, or reddit or whatever.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794948192, "item_id": 49684262, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49684262", "by": "detourdog", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for Kagi search because it\u2019s a lot like pre-seo google.", "excerpt": "Probably not a normie but I pay for Kagi search because it\u2019s a lot like pre-seo google. So far haven\u2019t tried any AI since OpenCYC.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nvidia dismisses \"circular financing\", says every $1 it invests brings back $100"}, {"id": 794825600, "item_id": 49676600, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49676600", "by": "r3trohack3r", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is the stickiest digital subscription I have.", "excerpt": "My time, attention, and \u201cbrain\u201d are valuable. Having aligned incentives with my search provider and control over the results it serves me through weighting is worth substantially more than I pay for unlimited. Kagi is the stickiest digital subscription I have.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794806656, "item_id": 49675416, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49675416", "by": "wongarsu", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Kagi as my daily driver.", "excerpt": "Absolutely. Where google is shaping results \"to please corpo-political masters\", Yandex is obviously influenced by the Kreml I use Kagi as my daily driver. But there are some kinds of queries where my interests and Yandex's interests happen to align. Mostly anything corporate America wouldn't like, like evil copyright-infringing websites", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794751041, "item_id": 49671940, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49671940", "by": "scosman", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It hasn\u2019t replaced Kagi as my daily driver but the UX is fun.", "excerpt": "I made https://froogle.fyi out of a desire to get that old school search back. Source: https://github.com/scosman/froogle It hasn\u2019t replaced Kagi as my daily driver but the UX is fun.", "context": "", "use_case": "daily web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794725552, "item_id": 49670347, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49670347", "by": "topato", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "To anyone who didn\u2019t find Kagi useful in the past, I strongly recommend you try it again", "excerpt": "I\u2019m pretty sure Kagi\u2019s entire pitch is that they\u2019re an alternate and original dataset. Theirs is the only search engine whose data isn\u2019t based upon google or bing\u2019s databases. To anyone who didn\u2019t find Kagi useful in the past, I strongly recommend you try it again, as they have made huge strides in usability and quality of surfaced data in just the past year\u2026. Huge strides since even a few months ago too, with more a", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794721824, "item_id": 49670114, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49670114", "by": "ibejoeb", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use kagi exclusively because it works.", "excerpt": "I use kagi exclusively because it works. I get the results I need every time, and it's not annoying. I haven't used Google in years. Simply no need. I really hope people keep paying kagi so they stick around.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google Search", "story": "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"}, {"id": 794502944, "item_id": 49656434, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49656434", "by": "vertnerd", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the AI option more often than I thought I would", "excerpt": "\"After trying Kagi/Duck Duck Go, I have gone back to Google for search and I freely grant that I find the \u201cAI Overview\u201d to be useful.\" I feel compelled to point out that Kagi does offer AI-backed answers if you want it to. Just pose your query with a question mark to trigger the AI response in addition to the usual search results. It is not ever the default or only answer, and I pray Kagi keeps it that way! I use the", "context": "", "use_case": "search with optional AI answers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Resist \"AI\""}, {"id": 794352160, "item_id": 49647010, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647010", "by": "sudowood0", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Kagi", "excerpt": "I'm happy with this change. I love Kagi but don't use the translate feature enough to warrant being charged extra for it. If usage patterns are such they feel the need to do this I'm glad they made it separate instead of increasing my monthly cost.", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi Translate Is Back"}, {"id": 794199776, "item_id": 49637486, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49637486", "by": "r3trohack3r", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "When I use Kagi I have a curated search experience that has a relatively high information density", "excerpt": "I also broadly agree with you're sentiment But re: kagi specifically, for me personally, the delta is obvious and isn't trust based. When I use Kagi I have a curated search experience that has a relatively high information density - driven in large part by the alignment of incentives and the ability for me to tune my results. There is a noticeable difference for me when I switch to 'free' alternatives where the conte", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "There's a new \"Google Jail\" for independent wikis"}, {"id": 793711889, "item_id": 49606993, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49606993", "by": "sersi", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Nowadays, I use Kagi which is better than Google", "excerpt": "Personally I liked it 10 years ago when I searched for something and Google actually delivered useful results that were related to what I was searching. Nowadays, when I search for anything, I mostly get blogspam, ai slop and useless articles or in the very best scenario, good content on a page infested with ads (luckily there's ublock origin). So yeah, when my goal is to search for content that would be in a wiki, I", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "There's a new \"Google Jail\" for independent wikis"}, {"id": 793293376, "item_id": 49580836, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580836", "by": "the_lucifer", "date": "2026-09-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "for folks using Kagi Search, you can set up a search engine level redirect", "excerpt": "+ for folks using Kagi Search, you can set up a search engine level redirect (which is what I used to use for redirecting Twitter/X links to Xcancel before the takedown)", "context": "", "use_case": "redirecting Twitter/X links", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nitter has more working instances than before the takedowns"}, {"id": 793021217, "item_id": 49563826, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49563826", "by": "jamesponddotco", "date": "2026-09-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "search the web with Kagi", "excerpt": "I built an MCP server for my voice assistant. By default, Home Assistant offers a few tools to the models, but I felt like it was missing some, so I built it. It has tools to get real jokes, do math, unit conversion, get stock information, search the web with Kagi, and other things I consider to be essential in a voice assistant. It even got approved by my wife. At work I use our MCP server to debug and troubleshoot ", "context": "", "use_case": "web search for voice assistant", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who is using MCP in production?"}, {"id": 792357088, "item_id": 49522318, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49522318", "by": "aprentic", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Currently I'm watching Kagi silently change results. If they're doing it for Lake Ontario, how can I be confident they aren't doing it with other search results?", "excerpt": "Users on the Kagi forum are reporting mixed results. Some US users still see Lake Ontario, some Canadian users see Lake America. They also seem to agree that it should be classified as incorrect behavior. https://kagifeedback.org/d/11381-lake-ontario-showing-up-with-incorrect-name-in-kagi-maps/3 As of this morning I started seeing new results. Now, a search for \"Lake Ontario\" returns both names. As a Kagi customer, I", "context": "Kagi customer", "use_case": "search engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Maps renames \"Lake Ontario\" to \"Lake America\" faster than US Government"}, {"id": 791766560, "item_id": 49485410, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49485410", "by": "everforward", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Kagi's search and I didn't have that issue", "excerpt": "When I messed with it I used Kagi's search and I didn't have that issue (not claiming they're the best, they're the only one I tried). They filter their results through their AI, though, so you get a sort of meta-summary of the top few results. It did well with geopolitical news stuff, but I've not tried a hard science sort of query.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search for AI model", "switched_from": "", "story": "GLM-5.3 is now open-weight"}, {"id": 791310240, "item_id": 49456890, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49456890", "by": "dcow", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am an avid Kagi user", "excerpt": "Unfortunately for me it went the other way. I was an early Nebula subscriber but in my experience the content got super stale and I found myself struggling to find anything interesting to watch after a few months. After a few years of using it maybe once a quarter, I pulled the plug. I hope it's temporary and I am an avid Kagi user so I am 100% willing to pay for add free content. I wish Nebula had a pay-per-view opt", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nebula Sans"}, {"id": 790406624, "item_id": 49400414, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49400414", "by": "forestrywat", "date": "2026-08-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "kagi is great, love kagi.", "excerpt": "What if it's genuine? I use kagi. The results quality is pretty good, but I probably use the uprank and downrank feature all the time. Being able to report stuff as AI and get little indicators that a site is AI slop is good. As an example, serious eats is my go to recipe site, and I've got it tuned so it returns higher in my results. I also really appreciate I can write my own custom css, and style every box and wid", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 790329457, "item_id": 49395591, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49395591", "by": "nikolay", "date": "2026-08-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love it.", "excerpt": "I love it. I don't mind paying; I just prefer to tip rather than pay a subscription! I miss Google Contributor [0]! [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Contributor", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 790311792, "item_id": 49394487, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49394487", "by": "TeriyakiBomb", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Kagi. I want to see them do well, of all of the search alternatives, this is the only one where I\u2019ve never felt the need to go back to google.", "excerpt": "I love Kagi. I want to see them do well, of all of the search alternatives, this is the only one where I\u2019ve never felt the need to go back to google. I was setting a up a new computer the other day and got confused that the first three links for a search were ads, then I remembered it was google and they hide the things you\u2019re looking for. Site priority, lenses and the slop filter are all icing on the cake.", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 790294512, "item_id": 49393407, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49393407", "by": "__MatrixMan__", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is great, but it's not everything.", "excerpt": "I wish there was some kind of EFF-curated \"privacy/internet freedom\" pass that I could buy. Kagi is great, but it's not everything. Brave is great, but it's not everything. Signal, GrapheneOS, Tor... this is a battle with many fronts and it's kind of labor intensive to manage a whole bunch of subscriptions/recurring donations. I'd love to just buy the pass and rest assured that if one of the recipients of that money ", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 790259904, "item_id": 49391244, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391244", "by": "terminal-bloom", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Kagi so much. What an incredibly thoughtful, fast, powerful, customizable search tool.", "excerpt": "I love Kagi so much. What an incredibly thoughtful, fast, powerful, customizable search tool. I love that I can filter-out / rank / save search tools, and their focus on speed & execution makes it deeply worth a few bucks a month.", "context": "", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 790256496, "item_id": 49391031, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49391031", "by": "BrokenCogs", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to be a paying member but then dropped it because the results didn't feel more useful", "excerpt": "Honestly I haven't found kagi that useful in the last 12 months. I used to be a paying member but then dropped it because the results didn't feel more useful than just asking the free versions of Gemini, claude, etc", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Just Want to Search"}, {"id": 790236673, "item_id": 49389792, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389792", "by": "kenanfyi", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the Bangs feature to open paywalled links with archive.is with !a.", "excerpt": "I use the Bangs feature to open paywalled links with archive.is with !a. When I write !a before the link in the address bar, it redirects to the archive for that particular page. Most of the time it is already in archive.is. Bang settings: URL Template: https://archive.is/newest/%s Bang shortcut: whatever letter you want. I'm sure a basic browser extension can be developed for that specific action too, but it does no", "context": "", "use_case": "search with Bangs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 790232880, "item_id": 49389555, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389555", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "their stubbornness in using Russian data in their indexing, and paying Russian businesses for the data is what is stopping me", "excerpt": "I used to be a Kagi subscriber and I would so like to be one again \u2014 but their stubbornness in using Russian data in their indexing, and paying Russian businesses for the data is what is stopping me. I wish they stopped doing this. I really, really want to like them and be a subscriber again.", "context": "former Kagi subscriber", "use_case": "search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 790226160, "item_id": 49389135, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49389135", "by": "roblh", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Kagi is almost always better now.", "excerpt": "Me too. The longer I use it, the more I like it. Initially I found myself going back to google fairly often, but unless I'm specifically trying to find a product for sale in my region, Kagi is almost always better now. Maybe Kagi got better, or google got worse, or probably both.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "Google", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 790222851, "item_id": 49388928, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49388928", "by": "DeepLogin", "date": "2026-08-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "their paywalled search offerings seem to be inferior to other options", "excerpt": "I use Brave Search+ DuckDuckGo+ Google Image search and that seems to sastify my search requirements while keeping my payment info private. I don't think I will ever think of subscribing to Kagi metasearch engine, especially since their paywalled search offerings seem to be inferior to other options.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kagi added a setting for removing paywalled links from search results"}, {"id": 786504192, "item_id": 49156512, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156512", "by": "supersparrow", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Another vote for Kagi from me. Been using it for 3 years now and not looked back.", "excerpt": "Another vote for Kagi from me. Been using it for 3 years now and not looked back. When you accidentally use Google to search, or use a browser with defaults, you will notice really how crap Google/Bing are!", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786503168, "item_id": 49156448, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156448", "by": "chinggis", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it is also genuinely a much better experience than Google or DDG", "excerpt": "Not only is kagi private, but it is also genuinely a much better experience than Google or DDG. However, Brave Search is great if you want something free.", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 786501360, "item_id": 49156335, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156335", "by": "teroshan", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll expand on a few reasons why I personally love Kagi:", "excerpt": "I'll expand on a few reasons why I personally love Kagi: - Ability to block/lower/raise/pin domains. Some examples of commonly tuned domains are here https://kagi.com/stats?stat=insights - Shared custom bangs across my sessions. I can add work-specific bangs (e.g. !bug -> Jira search) and have them available across my devices. - Regexp redirects, to automatically redirect online documentation results of some librarie", "context": "", "use_case": "web search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}]}