No Stupid Questions

I use 30--40 searches per day, and I almost never need to bang to google. When I do bang to google, I consistently find worse result.

It is indeed expensive compare to most of the other donations/subscription I have, but there is really no alternative to this experience.

I use nebula, lemmy, mastodon, kagi, jellyfin, signal, thunderbird, fedora, and so on. Oh boy, let me tell you, my digital world is quite, there is nothing in my face pushing anything, and I get every update I need and gets things done. All of them cost money/donation, but I would rather spend money to save time and my mental health now...

I've been using Kagi for the last 2 years.

I use SearXNG for "easy" searches (eg: I know what I'm looking for or simply don't know a URL by heart)

I use Kagi's 300 search / month plan because for "harder" searches (eg: I have a problem I want to solve). I used to have the unlimited plan but it was not that worth for me and I dislike paying for AI features that I won't use.

I use it, I like it, though there is something in the back of my mind about the company that sets off alarm bells that I can't quite put my finger on so I'm cautious. But I don't mind the model of paying for online services in principle. I would say it's about as good as DuckDuckGo was 10 years ago when it was still good (DDG has gone downhill like a lot of things in my opinion), and Kagi is the best search I can find now. I do research for work so I need the unlimited (middle) tier since I use a lot of search, I consider it reasonable value for money. I suggest doing the free trial and see how long it takes to run out before deciding which tier to choose.

I can never go back to google. The noise reduction is insane

I have been using Kagi for over two years and I love it. Worth it IMHO.

You search and there’s no ad based front loading. No AI bot at the top getting it wrong 51% of the time.

I'm on the bottom plan. It works fine for me.

AI stuff is available, but you can also just turn it off and never see it.

The search results seem to have less garbage in them than DDG. I'm not sure if Kagi is putting more effort into their index or if they're just not being targeted as much by junk websites. Likely both.

Just adding my two cents as a happy user of several years: I vastly prefer its results to ddg/google, I kinda forgot the AI stuff existed since I turned it off and it’s stayed off, and I never hit the quota when I was on the limited plan.

The real killer feature is the ability to downrank or block spammy sites IME (pinterest, fandom, etc.).

I'm in IT so my searches are primarily geared towards solving technical issues. I've no complaints. The summarizer is also nice if you don't want to read four paragraphs for two sentences of information.

Kagi is definitely worth it.

Being able to down/up rank results to curate better sources is awesome.

As far as AI goes, it’s easily ignored. However they also rank their AI models privacy policies, so if you ever DO wan to use th AI you can make an informed decision.

It's totally worth it. And you hit the major reason for me also. "Ranking" results is fantastic. And lenses, narrowing down results to academic sources is too useful anytime you want real info.

I started with the 300mo. I was able to keep under the limit without too much effort. But eventually I upgraded and it's nice to not think about it anymore.

It's great in my opinion! I do need the unlimited search plan but that's because I search so much. The AI stuff is pretty unobstructive too, and can pretty much be disabled if you want to. I like the way you can search lemmy with it especially.

I do not regret it.

I don’t really use the bangs to use Google instead like I did on duck duck go. I think I’ve used them a few times in a year, and heat when I was deep into not finding something which I continued to not find on google.

I haven’t had to rerank sites in a while

You can get the AI answers if you append a question mark to your query, or you can use !ki to use the AI researcher tool. It’s all opt in. They’ll also tell you how much of your AI budget you’ve used.

Under the good Kagi is an “AI” search engine using BERT architecture, which is similar to Google (it takes your natural language question and searches that, instead of classical keyword based search). That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work or doesn’t respect keywords, but sometimes you do have to quote keyword groups to enforce them.

I’m pretty sure their index is built at a higher quality than Google who are trying to answer every low quality query and maximize metrics.

I had to do the unlimited plan tbh.

It offers AI search, but you have to click it or ask a question - I think it's similar to DDG in terms of including it.

It really works as a complete search solution with maps, images, video, translation (actually the best translation site out there).

I find that I get good results, without much AI slop, SEO garbage, etc. When I use Google, DDG, or Quant on devices that are not logged in, I definitely notice it takes more effort to get to get to the results I want.

For me, it's worth it.

I use Kagi! I average about 1,000 searches/month, so well in excess of the lower tier, but I started with 300 and there's nothing inherently wrong with it as long as you only use it that often. I've grown accustomed to using search instead of bookmarks, and doing simple things like math in the browser instead of a dedicated app, which could help prune some of that usage.

You can use the 100 free searches to gauge how long it will last you.

I personally don't have any gripes with it, between the ability to rank sites and their new initiative allowing folks to report slop sites, it seems to consistently keep me satisfied.

They do have a feedback site (https://kagifeedback.org/) where you can request new features and file bug reports. The advantage of a paid service is they are very attentive to user requests (within reason). Between their blog and changelog you can gauge how things are developing.

My budget has the flexibility that I'm happy to pay for a service that I use every day, which is aligned with my priorities. For those who don't have that flexibility, Brave functionally (but perhaps not ethically) is a strong second best option. They've been copying Kagi's homework for a while now and can do some of the same page ranking, etc.

I really love Kagi. Search lenses and results customization are worth the $10 and Privacy Pass is, to me, like an invaluable insurance plan.

But if you're happy with DDG, then I'd say just try Kagi for a month or two. You're going from good to great (IMO), and not dogshit to great like a Google user would be.

Yes.

I have used Kagi quite a bit, and while I love it, I stopped using it.

1. It's expensive.
2. They don't contribute to the open internet in any way. Its a closed product.

If either of these things weren't true I'd probably still be paying for it.

Had the family account for half a year or so… Ended up cancelling because I was the only one using it. And I find the personal unlimited tier too expensive for my use. I’ve been trotting around using all kinds of different search engines nowadays. Kagi is okay. But as you said they’re so heavily gearing into the AI stuff that it’s meh. Give me an AI free tier with unlimited searches and I’m back on board. I need the unlimited plan for my work, maybe I should trigger my boss again on this one.

If you can split the family plan with friends/family, the pricepoint suddenly becomes much more interesting. But all my friends laughed when I told them if they would join me on paying for search.

i got 3 free months in november and i grew very fond of it. now i have a family with 3 other people and they all really enjoy it.

idk how to describe it, using other search engines like ddg just feels wrong and like a lesser, more corporate internet experience.

i turned off the ai features and it's not bothering me anymore.

just try the free trial or just get the lowest plan for a month and decide from there.

in my opinion it's a really good product and even my non-tech-savvy friends prefer to pay for it than use other search engines.

the orion browser by kagi on ios is also great in combination.

I paid for the lower plan for a while. It didn't have nearly enough searches included for my use, and the higher plan was too expensive. Especially since I just wanted search, none of the other products they were busy developing.

Search results were good. Recently I'm using Qwant and I'm happy with that as well, so right now I don't miss having access to Kagi at all. With the limited number of searches it was more of an inconvenience than a benefit the period I was using it.

There are some questionable things about Kagi. A few years ago the CEO reeked out this tweet showcasing how their AI could call out the BBC for being too mean to Elon Musk, which is honestly enough of a red flag for me to steer clear.