Is Kagi Worth It?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

Hey sorry if this has been asked before. I checked and didn’t see any posts, but basically is the kagi search engine worth it? I’m gearing up to cancel Hulu/spotify so I’ll have a little more money in the monthly budget and Kagi is one of the things I’m considering

Currently I use DuckDuckGo and it’s pretty good for me, but the main thing that makes me interested in Kagi is the ability to rank websites so they appear more or less often and the filter by type like academic sources or Reddit only.

I don’t really like ai stuff (not inherently, it’s just shoved into everything so I’ve come to hate it) but it seems pretty unobtrusive in Kagi?

I want to hear from people who actually pay for and use Kagi. Is the 300 searches a month enough for you or do most of you need the unlimited search plan? I know about the free trial but I want to know about the long term user experience

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JoMiran@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I have been using Kagi for over two years and I love it. Worth it IMHO.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you for the response! Is there anything you’ve been dissatisfied with or wish they would change/add?
  
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  - JoMiran@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Not really. The platform is easily extendible/customizable, so even if there was something I wanted that it didn’t do, odds are some user has created an agent to do it.
    
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  - jagermo@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I second it, i will.get the family plan once the kids go online. No need for them to ever have shitty search.
    
    I get really annoyed if i have to use standard google now, its crazy
    
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  - lepinkainen@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    The search engine integration in Safari is a bit janky, but otherwise everything is peachy
    
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truthfultemporarily@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I can never go back to google. The noise reduction is insane

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you
  
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- bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  People using google (and amazon for that matter) severely anger and depress me. Please make it stop.
  
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Steve@communick.news ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It’s totally worth it. And you hit the major reason for me also. “Ranking” results is fantastic. And lenses to narrow down results 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.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you!
  
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Zephorah@discuss.online ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You search and there’s no ad based front loading. No AI bot at the top getting it wrong 51% of the time.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Honestly this is the best way to advertise it to me. Thank you!
  
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  - Zephorah@discuss.online ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    The bot is so bad. I correct the bot and it always responds with. “You are so right, and now I’m going to repeat back what you just said to me.”
    
    What is horrific is I know there are people, far too many people, who glance at it and accept it as the answer.
    
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Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Kagi is definitely worth it.

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

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I didn’t know they rank the privacy policies. That’s pretty nice. Thank you!
  
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gabe@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It’s great! 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.

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- CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Oh for real? Is there a shortcut like r!
  
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  - panda_abyss@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    You can make shortcuts/bangs, and you can create “lenses”, which allow you to create filter presets on your queries.
    
    There’s a default fediverse one available.
    
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  - gabe@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    No, but you can go into settings and disable Auto Quick Answer
    
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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you!
  
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jif@piefed.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- Steve@communick.news ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It’s not expensive. For the price of a single cheap lunch. Your main gateway to the internet is no longer trying to use you to make money from advertisers. It has the largest most capable feature set of any search provider. Again for the price of a single cheap lunch. It would be the last subscription I cancel.
  
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  - jif@piefed.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I suppose “expensive” is a relative term. It’s expensive for me, especially when the alternative is free.
    
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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you for the response! I agree that the $10 plan is too expensive for me currently but since I’m planning on cancelling another subscription the $5 plan is something I could make work, if it’s worth it
  
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panda_abyss@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  That’s good to know about how the search engine actually works! Having the ai stuff be opt-in instead of opt-out is also a huge plus. Thank you!
  
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dgdft@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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 spammy sites IME (pinterest, fandom, etc.).

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeah I have a browser add on that lets me block sites but being able to say “I want to see more of this” instead of just “never show me this again” sounds very nice. Thank you for the response!
  
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bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
yes!!!

It made me enjoy the internet again. Back in the peak years, 2010 babayy!!

Pay the unlimited. Youll love it. My friends using hallucinating idiot chat bots are like woah how are you finding this (really cool, accurate , documented) information? And I’m like, the fucking internet we’ve had for 20 years that THEY are trying to destroy and tame away from us.

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spectrums_coherence@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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. I am beyond delight in how quite my world is, there is nothing in my face pushing anything, and I get everything and every update I need. All of them cost money/donation, but I would rather spend money to save time and my mental health now…

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you for the response! I use nebula and have been getting into the fediverse little by little since I discovered lemmy. I even got Linux on a laptop a few months ago. Every time I switch to a more open source or consumer focused service I just find it so much better, which has led me here to trying out new browsers and search engines
  
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- Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Quite what?
  
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  - spectrums_coherence@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Sorry, quiet
    
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timestatic@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Honestly I liked it when I used it. But for privacy (and since I prefer european based providers) I choose a free provider and went with Qwant in the end. I think you should go for it and try it. I don’t think they necessarily track their users, but I prefer not having my searches attached to an account

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  That makes sense. I like privacy but I don’t mind having an account if it means I have a genuinely better experience on the internet. Thank you!
  
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  - timestatic@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    They do seem to have options to mitigate these privacy concerns, I just checked. I personally have chosen to try to limit my usage of american services and even if they align with me this is also a reason I don’t use it. I’m european so they’re like building a new european search index. This was also pretty important since from a political perspective european tech sovereignity is important to me. If I was american myself I would’ve maybe kept using it tho.
    
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anothermember@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Quite a few people have suggested that so I think I’ll end up doing the free trial then a month on the lowest tier and see how things go. Thank you!
  
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schwim@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I absolutely love kagi. At some point I moved to their $25 tier as I use more than just their search now.

I can’t tell you if the search limit is large enough for your use but I can say that they are very generous with what they consider an individual search so you’ll get much more than the stated limit.

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mellow@lemmy.wtf ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeah my brother already laughs at me for trying Linux and switching from Reddit to lemmy so I don’t think he’d be on board :/
  
  Thank you for the response!
  
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metalsd@eviltoast.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I love kagi and I’m questioning if my level of commitment is to renew for another year and year after that. I find pricey but worth it. The Internet is better without ads being pushed down your throat. The only thing that’d make it perfect is having map service to Google level. Open street maps is not there yet but is a fun time mapping my surroundings, however the level of usefulness of Google maps is still unmatched for me. Otherwise, Kagi has been amazing and I recommend them, I hope they trigger true competition in the search markets became when the search engines work for ads instead of people the Internet is so much worse

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Yeahboy92@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you!
  
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Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This is really helpful! Thank you! I didn’t realize people could report slop sites. That’s a huge plus in my book
  
  Do you know, if I type in a website in the search bar and go directly there, does that count as a search bc it uses the search bar, or does it only count if you actually load a page of results? Like if I go directly to YouTube.com or I just search YouTube and then click on the result, are those both considered a search, or just the latter? I would assume only the latter, but I’m not certain. If they both are considered a search then I’d definitely be concerned about having enough searches
  
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  - Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Going directly there does not count as a search - you should be fine on that count. Again, you can test for free with their 100 free searches if you’re concerned :)
    
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Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Haha yeah the step up from google to ddg was very noticeable. But then I saw people on here talking about Kagi and that got me wondering if things can be even better
  
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gedaliyah@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you for the response! I think the first time I heard of Kagi was actually about their LinkedIn translations lol
  
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JigglySackles@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I wish they had an AI-free plan that was a touch cheaper. Really don’t want AI anything.

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- Jankatarch@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeah I just don’t want part of my money going to AI token costs or such.
  
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W3dd1e@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I love Kagi. It’s worth the cost to me, but I didn’t really love DuckDuckGo personally so maybe you would have a different experience?

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5PACEBAR@piefed.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you! SearXNG is like a self hosted thing right? I’ve only vaguely heard about it.
  
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  - flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    There’s a bunch of frontends out there you can play with, too
    
    Have a read of this for an idea (it covers more than just SearXNG / search, however)
    
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cabbage@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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 Kagi 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.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Ew yeah that tweet does not encourage me to give them money… this gives me some good stuff to think about and I’ll check out qwant too. Thank you!
  
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Reyali@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
My partner loves it; I have not been willing to change my habits to use it.

One thing that I appreciate about them as a business is that if you don’t use it for a month, they don’t charge you. The subscription stays active, but doesn’t cost you anything until you start using it again. Makes it a low-risk subscription to get! (Please confirm they still do this, but it is how it worked when he signed up!)

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I did see something about that but I thought I misunderstood bc it sounded too good to be true! Thank you for the reply!
  
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camilobotero@feddit.dk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
This won’t answer your question; however, I would recommend using Ecosia. Good results, and you help to plant trees. I think is quite fair. Plus, you won’t pay a monthly fee.

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- TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Just a disclaimer about Ecosia: Due the fact they source their search results from Bing and Google, as per their agreement with them they do share some of your information with Google and Microslop. If privacy is a concern or if you just want to avoid those companies then I would give Ecosia a miss.
  
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  - FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yeah I used to use ecosia but stopped for this reason. I’m not like 100% I need everything private, but I’d prefer to not have my info going to google and microslop. I still use ecosia if I’m like on my work computer though and need to search something
    
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Twongo@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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 on ios is also great!

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I looked into the Orion browser a bit but it looked like it had a lot of ai stuff. Currently I use Firefox on mobile but I’m open to changing it. Thank you for the response!
  
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_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yes.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Short and sweet lol. Thank you!
  
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ripcord@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
For me, yes.

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lepinkainen@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
100%

Been using it well over a year, maybe two?

It’s in my top5 of subscriptions I’ll cancel last if money is tight.

It’s what Google used to be - at least for the stuff I look for. YMMV, get the cheapest version and try it out.

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- FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you!
  
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