this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2026
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Are you suggesting all search engines require payment before returning results? π§
Most don't and those that do won't allow SearXNG to get results. So I'm not sure what you're saying here.
Companies like DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and StartPage pay Bing and Google to use their search index/API to get search results.
DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and StartPage fund themselves through search advertising.
Brave Search uses its own search index, which they also sell access to, and they fund themselves through search advertising or an optional ad-free premium subscription.
SearXNG scrapes the search results without providing any monetary value to the search engine providers who are offering the service.
How dare we take what Google has rightfully stolen! That could cause Google to lose money and even go out of business!
I think you confuse search engines with AI. Search engines are supposed to index, not βstealβ. I also questioned the legality, not what your moral compass is saying.