this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
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I understand that running services costs money, and I've heard nothing but good things about Kagi. Can anyone here convince me to switch?
You are paying for search, just differently.
https://proton.me/blog/what-is-your-data-worth
https://wallethub.com/blog/bad-google-results-for-0-apr/157511
Eh, not really. I don't use google and I block trackers anyway.
Its a good start but you're probably being tracked by your credit card, supermarket loyalty card, TV, operating systems and any ring camera you happen to walk past.
Also I think a lot of supermarkets are trying out facial recognition for "security" reasons. But probably they're watching how you walk and shop etc.
Thinking you can avoid it completely is bold. Data data poisoning is (maybe) the only way to break even with the data companies.
Not sure how Kagi will help with my supermarket loyalty card but thanks anyway
I wasn't talking about kagi, I was saying staying "off google" doesn't mean you aren't being tracked.
Maybe Cory Doctorow can? https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/
Your money, or your personal data, used for whatever damned purpose they choose.
That’s really the choice.
Running services costs money.
Does it really cost what Kagi is charging? I would love to see some research on this if people happen to know where to find such articles.
Like, in theory to pay for Kagi or a similar service but it's just extrotionately expensive.
I pay for other service which are offered for free (like email hosting), but those are reasonably priced.
Depends on what you want from them and your financial situation.
For me, yeah, it is. I want to pay a service fee and not deal with ads or someone logging, profiling, and trying to figure out how to monetize my searches. For me, the $10/mo for unlimited searches tier is what I want. I'm principally concerned about privacy.
I don't really take much advantage of most of the extra stuff they do other than the Threadiverse (they call it "Fediverse Forums") search lens and sometimes their Usenet search engine. Maybe this effort to suppress AI-generated spam websites will be nice, but have to see what happens, as I expect that the SEO crowd creating spam websites will also aim to adapt if it becomes sufficiently impactful to their bottom line.
If one of their extra features particularly fits your use case (say, the ability to fiddle with website priorities or blacklist or pin them in your search results) that might be valuable to you, but I can't speak as to that. I've seen people on here say that they really like that, but I don't use that functionality. Or the ability to easily download images in results from their image search if you're on mobile and are hitting something like pinterest, which is obnoxious on Google Images. Search bangs. Depends on what features you use and what each is worth to you.
Yeah, all of the above, but also: blacklisting Pinterest from all my searches is almost worth the ten bucks a month on its own, lmao.
They have a free trial. Convince yourself
Tried and couldn't! Was hoping someone here could highlight something I missed but seems no.
Did you go through settings and really personalize it? To me, that was gold.
Search is essential to my job, so Kagi is well worth it. Better rankings than Google, clean results, no ads, kind of a no-brainer for me.
Which is perfectly fine. Not everybody needs to search for things day to day. There are some professions where search is important; law and software are two which are more relevant to me. Getting accurate, non hallucinating results is really important.
Just try it. You’ll probably like it. I did.
I've got a bit of cash for services I want to support, and I only use it as a good search engine. None of the customisation stuff. No AI.
And I find it worth it.