After make the determination toditch Google Searcha few months ago , I ’ve been making it a point to keep an eye out for new products to strain . Amusingly , it took me quite a while to understand there are in reality pay hunt engines out there , but once I knew about them , I was instantly concerned .
I decided to try one out for just a week to see how it feel — I had already improved my search situation a lot by switching my default locomotive engine toQwant , so what I really wanted to bonk was how much excess benefit I could get from a ante up service .
Kagi — an AI-powered paid search engine
The search engine I decide to render is call Kagi , a Public Benefit Corporation base in the United States . Its sales pitch is pretty straightforward : instead of lettingGoogleslurp up all of your data and give you useless results , only bear a subscription to get the results you want . Here ’s that pitch in the company ’s own words :
The name , which means “ key ” in Japanese , set off with a “ k ” but you ’ll notice the company ’s logotype is in reality a “ g-force ” . If this seems like a bit of a declaration of war against Google , I mean that may be because it is .
So , what exactly do you get for your money with Kagi ? The first thing to advert , naturally , is privateness . The reason Google collects so much data from you is because that data point can be turned into cash — Google does n’t take in any money from your sack , so it finds other ways to verify it gets compensated for let you utilize its product .
Kagi
With Kagi , on the other hired man , you are paying for the Cartesian product with your own money , and this mean you ’re paying for privacy . When you spread up the Kagi homepage , you should see a little info box that pops up to order you “ Your searches are always secret and not saved . ” The lookup engine also does n’t dog which results you tap — so you ’ll call for to go back to Google if you want your clicks to count towards Google Trends data .
While there is an integral money - making ecosystem of bear hunting results , advertizement , search locomotive engine optimization , and ranking war going on over at Google , a pay search railway locomotive like Kagi is dissimilar . It ’s just a tool for you to find the things you desire on the internet — nothing more , nothing less .
This difference in approaching is n’t just good for your privateness , however . Whenever you search for something with Google , its priority is to show you a ton of stuff and nonsense that will help it and its advertising partners make money . When you search for something with Kagi , the antecedence is to allow for the help you ’ve already paid for — in other words , get you the serious results for your query . It has a whole caboodle of features to serve with this , so permit me show you a few of the ones I like best .
Kagi
Kagi Lenses
“ Lenses ” is a feature that helps you customize your searches by choosing what kind of results you want to see . There are a few premade ones — for example , you’re able to choose to only see results from online discussions and forums , or you’re able to choose to only see PDF files .
The skilful bit about this feature , however , is that you could make your own lens . If you have a few favorite websites you require to prioritize , you could bring up to 10 to a impost Lens and only look those website . you may also do the paired — if you have a few websites that you never desire to see in your lookup result , you may prefer to exclude up to 10 in each Lens .
If you ’re sick of see result that do n’t match the region you ’re in , you may also lock your search results to a specific part . This is majuscule for me because I live in the EU and most of the time , purchase from the United States or Asia just is n’t worth the merchant marine and deal fee . So it can be really irritating when my search engine present me 10 amazing site that all have exactly what I desire , but they ’re all outside of the EU .
Kagi
Your Lenses populate in a little bead - down box beneath the search barroom , just select the one you want to use and then search as normal . Once you ’ve select a Lens , you may use the on/off switch beside it to turn it on or off without open up the dropdown again . There ’s also a manual realm chooser under the search taproom , so you’re able to adjust the part of individual searches at any time . If you ’re an innovative searcher , there ’s a whole advanced search carte du jour for you to use as well .
And just to point out — if you ’re using Google , you have to inscribe the Advanced configurations carte if you want to change the region of your search , and it does n’t have a search bar , so you have to scroll all the way to the bottom for the U.K. or the U.S. And candidly , the region - based hunt feature film does n’t seem to work that well on Google anyway .
I ’m not implying the stores it leave me are n’t lawful or anything , but if you ’re in the U.K. and what you need is useable at Boots or Superdrug , then those are the easiest places to buy from . Just like it ’s in all likelihood easier in the U.S. to grab something from Walmart ’s site rather than “ superrandomskincare.com ” .
Kagi
Personalization options
you could also individualize your search experience as you go by clicking the little buckler - mold icon next to any search result you see . A popup will appear grant you some information about the situation such as the number of advertizing or tracker it has and what class they fall under , as well as the type of site connection it uses and how tight it incline .
At the top of the popup , you ’ll see a “ ranking readjustment ” section where you’re able to conform how Kagi will treat this website from now on . you may lour its ranking , prove its ranking , block it , or immobilize it . Pinning it will make certain any relevant collision from this internet site go right to the top of the results page . By default , the ranking will be “ normal , ” and you’re able to lead it there or aline it back to normal at any time as well .
You might notice that Kagi often shows much fewer search results than Google ( theNintendosearch in the screenshot above only has 39 results for example . ) Because it ’s reach for relevancy , Kagi generally does n’t bother bringing up thousands of search results that you do n’t ask — we all have a go at it most masses do n’t go past the first page anyway .
Kagi
Another reason is that Kagi use its own internally developed search index . This is n’t that plebeian — search index are a luck of work to make and many search engine simply expend Google or Bing ’s hunt indexes and build on top of them .
take its own indicator means that Kagi has independently search through , analyze , and ordered all of the website it includes in its solution ( this is how hunting engine find their results so quickly ) .
AI-powered search tools
If you think dump Google means you have to say good-by to all the fancy AI tools we have at the instant — you would be wrong . Kagi has a bunch of AI features that can help power up your searches — including admittance to most of the top Large Language Models .
For instance , if you care picture AI sum-up at the top of your results varlet , you’re able to click “ Quick Answer ” in the top right field to get a sum-up . This lineament will be automatically actuate if you end your search query with a question marker . As a shortcut , you’re able to also iron out the Q key after the search results have load to show the Quick Answer .
This is , of course of instruction , moderately similar to howGoogle does thing — and as someone who has been without Google for a few month , it ’s really gracious to have this feature back . It ’s such a time saver when you ’re quickly searching measurement or currentness conversion , for instance , to just have the answer appear without having to click anything .
Kagi
you could also summarize individual web pages by clicking on the three dots next to the connection and penetrate “ summarise page . ” This one is n’t really my kind of thing but I can see how it would be utile . The best AI feature Kagi has , however , is calledAssistant .
As you might guess from the name , it ’s an AI - power assistant you may chat with , just like any of the big AI chatbots out there . The good part , however , is that it can literally be any of the big AI chatbots out there — ChatGPT , Gemini , DeepSeek , Claude — you name it . Just choose the model you want from the dropdown loge and start chatting .
you may also prefer to connect the model to the web and combine it with Kagi Search to do your search right in the New World chat interface . Whenever it answer , it will connect the sites it got its information from so you’re able to fact - turn back it .
Kagi
If you do n’t have much experience with AI - powered searches , they can be quite utilitarian in the right circumstance . The other day , I randomly needed to know the elevation of a sure hotel on Mount Teide in Tenerife . I tried to search for the answer normally and break down , and then I remember to screen out Kagi Assistant . I involve it the question and I got the response right off , along with a link to where it got the information . It was quick , easy , and accurate — everything it aim to be . I do n’t think every interrogation would go that swimmingly , but it can certainly be helpful if you use it the correct means . you could even use your Kagi Lenses while searching via Assistant .
If you ’re already an LLM convert , you ’ll be happy to know that Assistant also has a “ Custom Assistants ” feature that let you create specialized LLM personalities for different occupation .
Pricing
With a serve like Kagi , the features are honestly only as compelling as their price . For $ 50 a month , for representative , very few mass would switch to a yield search engine . Luckily , it does n’t cost that much — in fact , if you fall into the category of an “ median Google drug user , ” you ’ll only need the Starter plan , which costs $ 5 per month plus tax . It give you 300 searches a calendar month ( Google thinks most people apply around 100 per month ) , along with approach to the AI features and AI assistant ( standard example only ) .
If you use computers at workplace and explore a lot , you’re able to bump your searches up to unlimited for $ 10 summation revenue enhancement . If you ’re not certain how often you look for , just try the $ 5 design first and upgrade if you necessitate it .
The Ultimate plan is really just for ultra AI enthusiasts . You get limitless search and you also get access to premium AI role model for Assistant . This includes top - of - the - line reasoning models like Anthropic ’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet , GPT 4o , orGemini 2.5 Pro . If you already expend these or you know you ’re concerned in them — you could think the Ultimate plan ( it cost $ 25 a month ) .
If you do n’t know what those model are or you do n’t really care — there ’s no demand to feel any FOMO here . Just try out the standard models you get access to with the other programme and in a lot of cases , these will meet your want . In other watchword , start small-scale and promote as and if needed .
Top tips
If you do render a pay search locomotive like Kagi and choose a plan with a fixed turn of searches , it can be a practiced idea to check that you ’re not wasting them . This just means get into the mindset of only using the search mapping when you ’re actually searching for something new .
While some masses type “ YouTube ” into Google to reach the YouTube website , it ’s a good estimation here to just typewrite that decent into the address taproom . All of the websites you ’ve visited before will come up as autocomplete suggestions , so you do n’t have to typecast the whole affair — but this will take you directly to any situation you use oft without using up one of your searches .
you could also pioneer a “ hunting ” from the address bar too — the difference to look out for is the icon . If you see an autocomplete suggestion for a website and the ikon for that website , pressing enter will take you correctly there . If the autocomplete suggestion disappears and you see the icon for your search engine , press enter will initiate a search . There should always be a dropdown boxful that usher you all of your option , too .
Some people already know all of this , others wo n’t . My other tip is just to take the time to roleplay around with the new features you ’re paying for . What ’s useful for you and what is n’t will depend on the kind of things you search for , but there ’s bind to be something that will make things quick and easier for you . Online shopper can emphatically do good from the Lenses feature article and Kagi ’s internal search exponent just because it means you’re able to train the search locomotive engine to prioritize all of the brands and memory board you like well . The issue will be choose base on what you need to see , rather than what makes money for Google and its advertisers .
I search a lot for work and outside of work , and with Google , I always find like I was look for a needle in a rick . I did n’t have control over the results it gave me , and this got extremely tiring over time . I was now happier with Kagi just thanks to the seemingly small perks like being able to easily block websites like Temu and Shein from ever appearing in my results . I was never kick the bucket to go back to Google either agency , but so far , Kagi is a secure experience than a lot of the “ gratuitous ” Google alternatives I ’ve tried .
