I sincerely hope this works as advertised. People are quite sick of all the AI slop floating around ...
this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
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It shows up for me in the UI. I imagine that it works, and if it doesn't, it'll be debugged.
I think that the bigger question is whether the rate of spam website creation will outpace the rate of human flagging of them.
Kagi's process involves humans. I bet that the spam website stuff runs autonomously.
It runs autonomously to a degree, but a lot of these sites operate via posting a wide variety of content on the same domains, after those domains have previously gained status in search engines.
So for example, you'll have a site like epiccoolcarnews[.]info hosting stuff like "How to get FREE GEMS in Clash of Clans" just because previously they posted an article about cars that Google thought was good so they ranked up the domain in their ranking algorithm.
Permanently downrank the domain, and eventually they have to start with a new domain that, as is the key part here, has no prior reputation, and thus has to work to actually get ranked up in search again.
They're also going to be making this a public database, and have said they'll use it to train AI-generated content detection tools that will probably be better at detecting "AI generated articles meant to appear legitimate by using common keywords and phrases", rather than just "any text of any form that has been generated by AI" like other AI detection tools do, which would make them capable of automating the process a bit with regard to specifically search engines.
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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 it's worth the price?
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.
Your money, or your personal data, used for whatever damned purpose they choose.
That’s really the choice.
Running services costs money.
Can anyone here convince me it's worth the price?
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.
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.
Is Kagi worth it? I mostly use DDG but every search engine I’ve tried is terrible now and rapidly getting worse by the day.
Absolutely. I've been using it for a month and it feels like Google, but before they enshittified. DDG was my previous goto search engine, but it's gotten really bad as well. Especially the aggressive keyword replacements drove me almost insane.
Yes
I enjoy it. They have a 100-search free trial so you can test it out for yourself. Between them down ranking sites full of trackers and allowing you to put your own preferential ratings on sites, I find myself getting the results I'm after so much quicker.
I think so. I’ve been using it for over a year, as another poster said Kagi feels like Google did 15 years ago, before it destroyed itself.
Every time I use a search on another machine, my first reaction is “oh my god what is all of this shit everywhere? ads, spam, AI slop, shopping garbage, etc”, then I quickly realize it’s not my computer and that’s just what Google looks like now.
Startpage is OK
I don't have a problem paying for a good service. I do have a problem having all my searches, video or article views linked to an account (with my payment data i.e. real name no less).
Then I have great news for you! Kagi accept bitcoin, does not validate email addresses (so you can register as fhhdsbgwg@hrjesbgwgw.com if that appeals to you), and they implemented privacy pass tokens that fully anonymize your searches. They also allows searching through tor!
You still need to log in and link all your searches to each other. Those are trivial to de-anonymize you from.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/privacy/privacy-pass.html
When you enable Privacy Pass, instead of logging in with your Kagi account for each search, you use special cryptographic tokens. These tokens prove you have the right to use Kagi's services without revealing who you are. This means your searches can't be linked back to your account or to each other, providing an additional layer of privacy.
Obviously you lose some of the customization, but otherwise still a great service.
Just use their third party crypto payment service. It doesnt transmit any of this. Perhaps look this kind of thing up prior to insinuating these things are required for Kagi.
You still link all your searches together which deanonymizes you within a couole of days.
They have a no-log, no-profile policy, which is why I use them.
I don't trust companies to not log my data. Not ever.
That's fair -- it necessarily extends trust, and at the least you'd want them to be liable for false advertising.
I did go digging directly as a result of your comment, and I did find that it looks like Kagi operates at least in part, if not in whole, from Serbia. They have a San Francisco mailing address...but it's just basically a mailbox.
For me, at least, that's a concern; I've posted here on the matter to make others aware. I don't know if it'd be enough to stop me from using them, but it certainly does make me reconsider how much weight I'd be willing to place on statements the company makes about its privacy policy, and what their practical legal liability is if they're making inaccurate statements about their privacy practices.
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I stopped using Kagi because I felt their base tier didn’t include enough searches but if they keep adding good features like this I may go back.
It's sucks not knowing anybody IRL interested in Kagi, I would love to try the 2-person account.
Wait, 2-person
Edit: oh, my dad and I both subscribe. I might even do the family plan and bring my wife into it.
This is much needed.
I wish there was a way to buy a Kagi subscription without AI assistant bundled in. I never plan to use it and it adds no value to me. I'd rather save the money and get a cheaper subscription.
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