Kagi is this mellow search engine that you actually have to pay for. No aggravating ads. No trackers breathing down your back. It aligns with how humans want search to be.
It is fast and private. You sign up and pay a reasonable cost, and you get much better results compared to all that SEO garbage other engines give you.
You get to define “lenses” to filter results the way you want. Only want Reddit threads or academic results? Go. Want to block Pinterest, or blogs that are too narrow? You can.
That freedom makes search feel like it is yours. There is also a handy “quick answer” AI option. You click it when you feel like it, and it gives you a short answer and sources just below it.
It’s low key and helpful. Here is a good stat: as of mid-June 2025, Kagi has about 50,000 members, more than 1 million searches each day, about 7,400 members in their Discord community, tight, and I’ve seen numero uno million downloads of their Orion browser.
Monthly Visitors & Social Reach
The website received about 2.65 million visits in July 2025, which is an increase of over 22% from the previous month. On average, visitors are on the website over 18 minutes, which shows people like the process.
In terms of social media and community, Discord has 7,400 members and Instagram has a measly 204 followers. So overall, they are still boutique community focused not mega reach.
Pricing (not listed, but discussed)
You can start with a free trial 100 searches and limited AI access at no cost. Then, the Starter account is $5 per month (+sales tax) and allows you 300 searches and standard AI.
If you are a big user in searches there is a $10/month with unlimited usage. For teams, there is a plan for $25 monthly that allows a few users to share one account. It is simple, easy, and fair.
Pros
Ad blocker, no tracker no sense of being sold out.
Custom lenses and control of experience you are in charge.
Respects your AI snippets keep it optional, don’t throw it at me.
Staunch privacy no IP logging, no third-party tracking or ads.
Good for search contexts when you want to focus on one area Blogs, forums, academic, etc.
Cons
Subscription model some people still can’t let go of the need to pay for search.
Search limits at low tier 300 searches probably won’t last long if you are a heavy user.
Small people still not mainstream. They have significantly fewer social followers than multiple other brands.
Still building tools like Orion for Linux are still brand new, and features are still being released.
Human Touch Wrap Up
Kagi feels like a search performed by a real person who actually respects you not as a data point but as a genuinely curious human. Honest pricing. Clean search.
You can even modify what you see anyway. Kagi’s journey over 50 K members, plenty of queries each day, an active Discord community is evidence that this way of searching resonates with those who simply want to search for things without all the noise.
In a nutshell, Kagi is worth exploring. It is not perfect, but it felt deeply personal. And after lots of Google SEO sludge, seeing everything so clearly feels brilliant.
