Kagi is live · pricing from $5/mo · last verified 23 Oct 2026 · viability healthy
Kagi
Kagi is the ad-free private search engine you pay for with money, not personal data
Ad blockers hide the ads; Kagi changes what ranks, and that difference is why people stay subscribed. Assistant being grounded in Kagi's own index rather than bolted onto a chatbot is the part most rivals still haven't copied. Budget for Ultimate if Research mode matters, and keep a free engine around for local business lookups.
Verdict generatedVerified 7d ago · liveness 90/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/kagi
- Privacy-minded searchers willing to pay $5-$25/mo for ad-free results
- Power users who build custom lenses with bangs, '@' scoping and regex filters
- Teams wanting private search and AI without employee activity tracking
- Libraries and schools needing distraction-free, untracked search for patrons
- Casual searchers happy with free, ad-supported engines
- Anyone whose workflow depends on deep Google Workspace or Maps integration
- People who need Google-level local business depth and map reviews
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Skip Kagi if you need Google-grade local business and Maps results, or if you're not willing to pay $5–$25/mo plus sales tax once the 100-search free trial runs out.
Sales tax is added on top of every listed price, so the $5, $10, and $25 monthly figures are not what your card is charged.
Kagi is priced for individuals and small teams who will trade a monthly fee for ad-free, tracked-free search: $5/mo Starter for 300 searches, $10/mo Professional for unlimited search, $25/mo Ultimate for Research mode and the flagship model roster — monthly, plus sales tax, with 10% off annual billing. That's cheaper than a stack of separate AI subscriptions, but more than the $0 you pay Google or Bing with your attention instead.
In short
Kagi — Kagi is the ad-free private search engine you pay for with money, not personal data. Best for Privacy-minded searchers willing to pay $5-$25/mo for ad-free results, Power users who build custom lenses with bangs, '@' scoping and regex filters, Teams wanting private search and AI without employee activity tracking. Plans from $5/mo.
What is Kagi?
Kagi — Kagi is the ad-free private search engine you pay for with money, not personal data. Best for Privacy-minded searchers willing to pay $5-$25/mo for ad-free results, Power users who build custom lenses with bangs, '@' scoping and regex filters, Teams wanting private search and AI without employee activity tracking. Plans from $5/mo.
Kagi is a subscription search engine that replaces ad-supported results with a results page you actually fund. No ads, no sponsored placements, no profile of your clicks. Kagi says it stores only what's needed to run your account — an email address and payment details — and Privacy Pass tokens let you verify that subscription without tying individual searches to your identity. Most of Kagi's character comes from the controls around the results. Bangs ('!') jump you straight to a site or a curated lens, '@' scopes a query to one domain, and regex filters trim what you don't want to see. Built-in lenses such as !forums, !fediverse, !programming, !small_web, !academic and !usenet_archive each have a shareable URL, so a tuned result set becomes something you can hand to a colleague. A toggle keeps AI-assisted results off until you ask for them, and a setting strips paywalled links. The wider ecosystem is where the subscription earns its keep. Kagi Assistant runs multiple AI models behind one private interface, grounded by Kagi search results, split between Quick mode on Starter/Professional and Research mode on Ultimate. Translate covers 240+ languages, News and Summarize cut clickbait and long articles down to size, and Small Web surfaces non-commercial sites submitted by real people. Orion Browser continues on macOS and iOS. Solo searchers and privacy-conscious teams are the core audience; libraries get a distraction-free plan of their own. Compared with Google you lose local-business depth and Maps, and compared with a free chatbot you gain answers anchored in a real index. The trade is straightforward: a monthly fee buys results that answer to you instead of an advertiser.
Key features
- Ad-free search results with no sponsored placements
- Anti-tracking search that avoids building user profiles
- Privacy Pass tokens to verify subscription without linking searches
- Bangs ('!') for instant jumps to a site or lens
- Built-in lens bangs: !forums, !fediverse, !programming, !small_web, !academic, !usenet_archive
- Site-specific search ('@') and regex filters
- Shareable lens URLs for custom result sets
- Safe Search that blocks scam and phishing sites outright
- AI toggle to opt in or out of AI-assisted results
- Setting to automatically remove paywalled links
- Kagi Assistant grounded by Kagi search results
- Quick mode and Research mode Assistant tiers
- Flagship models including Claude 4.8 Opus, GPT 5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview)
- Assistant Markdown and LaTeX support with thread search and folder filtering
- Stocks and weather search widgets covering stocks, ETFs, price charts and 40+ weather languages
Behind the verdict
Kagi asks a fair question up front: what would you pay to stop being the product? If the answer is a small monthly fee, the search itself holds up. Bangs and lenses turn a search box into something closer to a personal query language, and once you've built a lens for academic papers or small independent sites, going back to a generic results page feels like typing with gloves on. We'd reach for the Professional plan almost every time. Unlimited searches at $10/mo covers the search experience completely, and Starter's 300 searches runs out faster than you'd expect if Kagi becomes your default engine. The jump to Ultimate at $25/mo is really a purchase of Research mode and the flagship model roster; if you only occasionally want a long grounded answer, Quick mode is enough and you can skip it. Where it bites: local queries. If your week involves finding a dentist, checking opening hours, or reading reviews on a map, you'll keep a second tab open. Teams that live inside Google Workspace or depend on Maps data should treat Kagi as an addition, not a swap. And on privacy, the honest framing is that Kagi collects less and doesn't profile you — it isn't a Tor-grade anonymity tool, and it says so itself. The closest alternative isn't another search engine, it's a free engine plus an ad blocker. That combination hides the ads but leaves the ranking incentives untouched, which is the whole argument for paying. Against AI chatbots, the difference is grounding: Assistant answers against Kagi's index instead of whatever the model memorized. Recent housekeeping matters to buyers. Kagi ended development of Orion for Linux and Windows in October 2026 and open-sourced both builds, so anyone who wanted a single cross-platform Kagi browser needs to plan around macOS and iOS. On the
Models under the hood
as of 2026-10-22
Limitations
- Assistant access is tiered: the $5/mo Starter plan includes only Quick mode with a limited interaction allowance, while Research mode and the full flagship model roster (including Claude 4.8 Opus, GPT 5.5, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview) require the $25/mo Ultimate plan.
- Search allowances scale by plan: 100 searches on the free trial, 300 on Starter, and unlimited on Professional and Ultimate.
- Sales tax is added on top of listed prices, and Kagi credits unused months to the next billing cycle rather than refunding them.
as of 2026-10-13
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Is Kagi still active?
Kagi is live · pricing from $5/mo · last verified 23 Oct 2026 · viability healthy.
Viability score
How well maintained and how widely used is Kagi? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →What's new in Kagi
Checked 9 days agoAcross the latest 6 updates: 1 pricing change, 4 changelog entries and 1 news mention.
Smarter search widgets, Privacy Pass upgrades, and a calmer Assistant
Quick Bangs and Quick Snaps limits raised from 20 to 50; scam and phishing sites now blocked outright under Safe Search instead of downranked; weather widget triggers support 40+ languages.
An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows
Kagi ends development of Orion for Linux and Windows and open-sources both; the team refocuses on Orion for macOS and iOS.
One login for all of Kagi, and Translate reopens to everyone
Kagi unifies sign-in across its products and restores general access to Translate.
Kagi Translate is Back (Updated)
After user feedback, Kagi confirms Translate stays included in Starter, Professional, Family, Team and Ultimate plans under the Fair Use Policy.
A new Stocks widget and a better everyday Assistant experience
Adds a Stocks search widget and reworks the Assistant's everyday use.
Kagi Assistant on the go and design refinements for Search
Assistant gains mobile access; Search gets design refinements.
What do users say about Kagi?
What people actually say about Kagi — is it worth it?
Our community sentiment research written Jul 25, 2026 is more than 90 days old, so it is being re-reviewed against current data and is not shown.
How we verified this
Every listed fact about Kagi— pricing, features, links, status — is re-read from the vendor's own pages by our verification pipeline and each change is logged with a date; the last pass ran on 23 Oct 2026. Pages mix model-assisted synthesis with human review; see how we verify.
Verification history
We have re-verified Kagi 23 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — changed who should skip it, who it suits, summary, features, our verdict, description, pricing tiers
- — changed limitations, pricing page
- — changed SSL certificate
- — changed who it suits, pricing tiers, description, our verdict, summary, who should skip it, features
- — changed models, limitations, pricing page
- — changed who should skip it, pricing tiers, use cases, description, who it suits, summary, our verdict, features, hidden costs, limitations, setup time, pricing fit, switching in, switching out, models
Showing the 6 most recent of 23 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
How much does Kagi cost in 2026?
Kagi: Plans from $5/mo. Pricing last verified 23 Oct 2026.
Plans compared
Every published Kagi tier, its price as the vendor publishes it, who it fits, and what it adds over the tier below. The 12-month cost projection follows.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trial | Free trialVendor: “$0” | trial | Anyone evaluating Kagi before paying — 100 searches is enough to test ad-free results and Assistant on your own queries.Adds: Starting tier: 100 free searches and 100 Assistant interactions, with your custom settings synced across devices so the trial reflects your real setup. |
| Starter | $5/moVendor: “$5/mo (+ Sales Tax)” | monthly | Light individual searcher with under 300 queries a month who still wants Assistant and Translate.Adds: Adds Assistant with Quick mode and Kagi Translate under the Fair Use Policy, capped at 300 searches per month. |
| Professional | $10/moVendor: “$10/mo (+ Sales Tax)” | monthly | Daily driver who wants Kagi as the default engine on every device and doesn't want to count searches.Adds: Removes the 300-search cap with unlimited Kagi Search and raises the monthly Assistant usage allowance over Starter. |
| Ultimate | $25/moVendor: “$25/mo (+ Sales Tax)” | monthly | Research-heavy user, developer, or power user who needs top-tier models and multi-step Research mode runs.Adds: Everything in Professional plus Assistant Research mode and the flagship model roster including Claude 4.8 Opus, GPT 5.5, and Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview). |
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Kagi's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Kagi is priced for individuals and small teams who will trade a monthly fee for ad-free, tracked-free search: $5/mo Starter for 300 searches, $10/mo Professional for unlimited search, $25/mo Ultimate for Research mode and the flagship model roster — monthly, plus sales tax, with 10% off annual billing. That's cheaper than a stack of separate AI subscriptions, but more than the $0 you pay Google or Bing with your attention instead.
Has Kagi's pricing changed?
No plan price for Kagi has moved since we began logging in Aug 2026; the pricing page is re-read on every verification pass.
Who should pick Kagi?
Pick Kagi if you are Privacy-minded searchers willing to pay $5-$25/mo for ad-free results, Power users who build custom lenses with bangs, '@' scoping and regex filters, Teams wanting private search and AI without employee activity tracking, Libraries and schools needing distraction-free, untracked search for patrons.
Look elsewhere if you are Casual searchers happy with free, ad-supported engines, Anyone whose workflow depends on deep Google Workspace or Maps integration, People who need Google-level local business depth and map reviews, Users who won't pay a monthly fee after the 100-search free trial.
Skip it if Skip Kagi if you need Google-grade local business and Maps results, or if you're not willing to pay $5–$25/mo plus sales tax once the 100-search free trial runs out.
GeneratedReal-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Kagi actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Set Kagi as your default engine, sign in to the single account at account.kagi.com with a passkey, and turn the AI toggle off so results stay plain links. Use bangs like !forums and !academic for research-heavy queries and bookmark a lens URL for repeat topics.
Outcome: Daily search with no ads, no click tracking, and no profile built about you, on the $10/mo Professional plan with unlimited searches.
Run a hard query through Kagi Assistant in Research mode on the $25/mo Ultimate plan, letting it pull from Kagi search results. Drop the answer into a thread, use Markdown and LaTeX formatting, and tag and folder-filter the thread so it's findable later.
Outcome: One private workspace holding several models including Claude 4.8 Opus and GPT 5.5, with the thread retained for reuse.
Roll out Kagi for Teams so colleagues get ad-free search and access to leading models without employees' queries being logged, then add the free trial's 100 searches for anyone evaluating before seats are bought.
Outcome: Private, productive search across the team with no employee surveillance and a single billing relationship.
Use cases
- Replace Google as your daily search engine for ad-free, private results
- Do deep research on SEO-spammed topics using lenses like !academic and !forums plus site rankings
- Use Kagi Assistant as one subscription for several models including Claude 4.8 Opus and GPT 5.5
- Summarize long articles or YouTube videos with Kagi Summarize
- Build a privacy-focused search experience on the Kagi Search API preview
- Follow private, clickbait-free news briefs with Kagi News
- Translate text, pages, and chats across 240+ languages with Kagi Translate
- Browse with built-in ad-blocking and anti-tracking via Orion Browser on macOS or iOS
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Kagi — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Individual: about five minutes — create an account, set Kagi as your default search engine, and optionally add bangs or a lens; the 100-search trial needs no payment details. Teams and Libraries: expect a day or two, since seats and a plan are set up through Kagi rather than self-serve checkout. Assistant on mobile is another few minutes if you want iOS or Android access.
Switching to or from Kagi
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Google or Bing: set Kagi as your default search engine, then rebuild the queries you relied on as bangs, lenses, and site-specific searches.
- →From another paid search or AI subscription: consolidate models onto Kagi Assistant so Claude 4.8 Opus, GPT 5.5, and Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview) live behind one private account.
- →From a free chatbot: move prompts into Kagi Assistant, which Kagi states does not use your personal data or prompts to train AI models.
- →From Google Chrome: install Orion Browser, which supports Safari, Chrome, and Firefox extensions, so you keep your existing add-ons.
- ↗To Google or Bing: revert your browser's default search engine and accept ads and tracking in exchange for free, deeper local results.
- ↗To free AI chatbots: move Assistant threads out, trading grounded Kagi search results and prompt privacy for a $0 subscription.
- ↗To a self-hosted meta-search tool: replace lenses and bangs with a SearXNG-style instance, giving up Kagi's own index and Assistant integration.
- ↗To Orion alternatives: since Kagi ended Orion for Linux and Windows in October 2026 and open-sourced both, Linux and Windows users should plan to run the community builds or switch browsers.
Integrations
Resources & guides
- Resourcekagi.com
Changelog
Better search results with no ads. Welcome to Kagi (pronounced kah-gee), a paid search engine that gives power back to the user.
- Resourcekagi.com
Kagi Blog
Kagi Blog - Tales from Kagi
- Resourcekagi.com
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Kagi Search Help
- Resourcekagi.com
Kagi Specials
Better search results with no ads. Welcome to Kagi (pronounced kah-gee), a paid search engine that gives power back to the user.
- Resourcekagi.com
Assets
Better search results with no ads. Welcome to Kagi (pronounced kah-gee), a paid search engine that gives power back to the user.
- Resourcekagi.com
Kagi Search Pricing and Plans
Better search results with no ads. Welcome to Kagi (pronounced kah-gee), a paid search engine that gives power back to the user.
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Kagi”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Kagi” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Kagi.
Official links
What are the best Kagi alternatives?
The closest alternatives to Kagi we list are Felo, Perplexity and Microsoft Bing. Ranked by direct product-type match, not category overlap.
| Alternative | Pricing | Starts at | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Felo | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Perplexity | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Microsoft Bing | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
Alternatives to Kagi
View all
Felo
Multilingual AI search that cites its sources, then turns the answer into a doc, a deck, or a clip
Perplexity
Perplexity AI answer engine delivers cited, footnoted web search answers you can verify line by line
Microsoft Bing
Microsoft Bing: AI search with cited Copilot answers, free AI image generation and text-to-video clips built in
Tools that pair well with Kagi
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Kagi, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Felo
Multilingual AI search that cites its sources, then turns the answer into a doc, a deck, or a clip
Perplexity
Perplexity AI answer engine delivers cited, footnoted web search answers you can verify line by line
Microsoft Bing
Microsoft Bing: AI search with cited Copilot answers, free AI image generation and text-to-video clips built in
Kagi vs its closest rival
Kagi's closest head-to-head is with Ai Pdf Summarizer By Pdf Guru — Choose AI PDF Summarizer if your core need is extracting key points from PDFs quickly with interactive chat, and you want basic PDF editing for occasional use. Choose Kagi if you prioritize privacy in search and want an ecosystem that includes AI summaries of web articles, translate, and a private browser — but note Kagi's summarization works on web pages, not arbitrary PDFs you upload. Verdict generated
Head-to-head comparisons
Ai Pdf Summarizer By Pdf Guru vs Kagi
Choose AI PDF Summarizer if your core need is extracting key points from PDFs quickly with interactive chat, and you want basic PDF editing for occasional use. Choose Kagi if you prioritize privacy in search and want an ecosystem that includes AI summaries of web articles, translate, and a private browser — but note Kagi's summarization works on web pages, not arbitrary PDFs you upload.
GeneratedJobright Ai vs Kagi
Kagi and Jobright.ai serve completely different needs: Kagi is a privacy-focused search engine with an AI assistant, while Jobright is a specialized job search tool. If you want ad-free, private web searching with optional AI help, pick Kagi. If you're actively job hunting and want AI to match you to openings, autofill applications, and get referrals, Jobright is the clear choice.
GeneratedKagi vs Readtube
If you're a privacy-focused searcher who hates ads and wants deep search controls plus an AI assistant, choose Kagi. If you're drowning in YouTube subscriptions and prefer reading over watching, choose ReadTube. They solve completely different problems — pick based on your primary need.
GeneratedHermespet vs Kagi
If you need a full privacy-first search ecosystem with AI, choose Kagi. If you want a native, local, always-on AI companion on your desktop that lets you run multiple models in parallel without subscription, go with HermesPet. They solve different problems—search vs. on-device AI assistant.
GeneratedFolo vs Kagi
If your primary need is to efficiently consume and summarize RSS feeds, Folo's AI-native design excels. For a private, ad-free search ecosystem with versatile AI tools and browser integration, Kagi is the better choice. Your decision hinges on whether you manage information inflow (Folo) or prefer a privacy-first search experience (Kagi).
GeneratedKagi vs Swiftscan Ai Document Scanner
Pick Kagi if you need a private, ad-free search engine with powerful AI models and ecosystem tools (translate, news, summaries). Choose SwiftScan AI Document Scanner if you're on iOS and need intelligent document scanning with AI translation/summarization. They serve completely different needs, so your choice depends on whether you're searching or scanning.
GeneratedHyperwrite vs Kagi
If you need a private search engine with ad-free browsing, news, translation, and grounded AI across models, Kagi is the clear choice. If instead you want an AI writing copilot that speeds up email, content, and academic research inside Chrome, HyperWrite wins. The overlap is minimal: Kagi redefines search; HyperWrite redefines writing. Pick by your primary pain point — data privacy and search quality vs. faster typing and citation-backed drafting.
GeneratedArky vs Kagi
Choose Arky if you need a visual, AI-powered workspace to gather and structure complex ideas, ideal for research and project planning. Choose Kagi if you prioritize privacy and a superior search experience with AI assistance, but don't need a spatial canvas. For most buyers seeking a blend of structured note-taking and AI, Arky offers more specialized value; Kagi is purely a search/utility tool.
GeneratedAi Perfect Assistant vs Kagi
If you need a private, ad-free search engine with a powerful AI assistant and value zero tracking, Kagi is the clear winner. If your daily work is deeply embedded in Microsoft 365 and you want AI help directly inside Word, Excel, or Outlook, AI Perfect Assistant is the practical choice. Kagi has broader AI model access (GPT-5.5, Claude 4.8) and a richer ecosystem, while AI Perfect Assistant offers deep Office integration and over 60 templates.
GeneratedInterachat vs Kagi
If you want an AI companion that remembers everything and cares about your privacy in a chat app, Interachat is unique but very early-stage. If you need a private, ad-free search engine with powerful AI summarization and translation, Kagi is mature and ready to use today. Choose Interachat for emotional depth and long-term conversation memory; choose Kagi for a complete private web ecosystem with leading LLMs.
GeneratedKagi vs Ready To Send
If your daily bottleneck is a flooded inbox and you need AI-generated replies that sound like you, Ready to Send is the clear pick—it integrates directly into Gmail/Outlook/Apple Mail and adapts to your tone. If instead you prioritize privacy and an ad-free web experience, with bonus AI search features, Kagi delivers a superior search ecosystem. They solve completely different problems, so your choice hinges on whether email or search is the bigger pain point.
GeneratedKagi vs Mailopoly
Mailopoly is for inbox chaos – it unifies email, Slack, WhatsApp, and more into one AI-powered hub. Kagi is for search privacy – it delivers ad-free results with powerful AI summarization. Choose Mailopoly if you need to consolidate communications; choose Kagi if you want a clean, private search experience. They solve completely different problems – no direct overlap.
GeneratedFrequently asked questions
Best-of guides
Used Kagi? Help shape our editorial sentiment research.