Kagi

KEEP IT

The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying.

A paid search engine with no advertising: results you can rank and block per domain, with the business model being the subscription rather than attention.

Promptfree, for everyone, and the only version there is

You cannot build a search engine. You can build a filter.

WHAT IS OFF THE TABLE
- Crawling and indexing the web. There is no small version of this

WHAT YOU CAN DO

STACK
- SearXNG, a self-hosted metasearch front end over public engines

WHAT IT GIVES YOU
- Results from several engines with no tracking and no advertising in your own interface
- Your own domain block list, applied to every result

WHAT IT DOES NOT GIVE YOU
- Result quality equal to a paid engine. Metasearch inherits whatever the sources return
- Rate limits from those sources, which you must handle politely

RUNNING IT
- One container, behind your own address, for you and perhaps a household
- Do not run a public instance unless you understand the abuse you will attract

Include the compose file, the block list and the rate limiting.

What you lose

A search index and licensed access to others, which is the product and cannot be built
Personalised domain ranking and blocking that persists across searches
No advertising, which is what you are actually paying for

If you would rather not build

Any engine with tracking disabled
Kagi itself, which is the honest answer here

The escape hatch

open source · no votes, no paid placement

SearXNG

Self-hosted metasearch with no tracking and your own filters.

searxng/searxngfree · open source

YaCy

A peer-to-peer search engine that crawls; slow, but genuinely yours.

yacy/yacy_search_serverfree · open source

Why this verdict

our own opinion · changed only by a person

14/100

Verdict no at 14. Search is an index, and there is no weekend version. SearXNG gives you the filtering without the index.

History

tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten

Interest · last 30 days

Nothing recorded yet. This chart fills in once the page has visitors, votes or prompt copies — it will not draw a flat line to look busy.

Questions about Kagi

answered from the record above

Is Kagi free?

No — the plan we track is $10 a month. Professional at $10/month billed monthly for unlimited searches.

Can you replace Kagi by building your own?

KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 14 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.

How much does Kagi cost?

$10 a month on Professional — $120 a year. Recorded 10 Aug 2026.

What do you lose by replacing Kagi?

A search index and licensed access to others, which is the product and cannot be built; Personalised domain ranking and blocking that persists across searches; No advertising, which is what you are actually paying for. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to Kagi?

Yes: SearXNG, YaCy. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.

Related entries

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