Kagi Blog

> Kagi
This seems to be true, but more indirectly. From Kagi’s blog [0] which is a follow up to a Kagi blog post from last year [1].

[0]> Google: Google does not offer a public search API. The only available path is an ad-syndication bundle with no changes to result presentation - the model Startpage uses. Ad syndication is a non-starter for Kagi’s ad-free subscription model.[^1]

[0]> The current interim approach
(current as of Jan 21, 2026)

[0]> Because direct licensing isn’t available to us on compatible terms, we - like many others - use third-party API providers for SERP-style results (SERP meaning search engine results page). These providers serve major enterprises (according to their websites) including Nvidia, Adobe, Samsung, Stanford, DeepMind, Uber, and the United Nations.

I’m an avid Kagi user, and it seems like Kagi and some other notable interested parties have _already_ been unable to do get what they want/need with Google’s index.

[0]> The fact that we - and companies like Stanford, Nvidia, Adobe, and the United Nations - have had to rely on third-party vendors is a symptom of the closed ecosystem, not a preference.

Hopefully someone here can clarify for me, or enumerate some of these “third-party vendors” who seem like they will/might/could be directly affected by this.

[0] antibabelic > relevant https://blog.kagi.com/waiting-dawn-search
[1] https://blog.kagi.com/dawn-new-era-search
> [^1]: A note on Google’s existing APIs: Google offers PSE, designed…

sure

> You like the service but don't agree with the company spending money on... t-shirts [...] It smells a bit like you want to control what they spend on?

i like the service, but spending money on t-shirts seems unreasonable to me. I'm sure there are a dozen things which would benefit from the money and time which were spent on manufacturing clothes. From their own blog post [1]:

> The process from here involves setting up a business entity in Germany, so we can import the t-shirts, store them in a warehouse, connect inventory logistics and ship them all over the world. This includes building a website and connecting it to a back-end database

which sounds to me like not the best way to spend the company's time

also:

> why did we go through all this trouble and allocate nearly a third of our investor-raised funds to produce and freely distribute 20,000 t-shirts

all their answers to that question they asked themselves in the same blog post seem silly to me. Go give bonuses to your employees, upgrade devices, make a company event, etc

> On AI - I think they have no choice tbh, they need to bring something to the table there

absolutely not! If i want an AI search result, i go to an AI provider of choice. Again, i don't think that should be their focus

> I cancelled my chatgpt sub because I can use kagi for many models

replace chatgpt with claude and reverse the statement and it will be true for me — i cancelled Kagi subscription because i use claude as a search…

Same, love Kagi. I think the biggest surprise for me was that it is getting frequent improvements.

I'm so used to Subscriptions being just a drain. You "buy" the product, and then you pay just to keep using it. Which can feel, emotionally, a bit unappetizing because i'd rather just purchase it fully. The subscription just feels like a money sink with no added value.

Conversely i've not had that opinion with Kagi. Not only am i happy with the product, but i the frequent[1] improvements[2] make me feel like i'm buying something newer and better each month.

Developments on FastGPT, increasing what i get for my dollar, integration of more features in general. I frankly assume i just joined at a good time, because this pace can't keep up.. right lol? Regardless my Kagi subscription has felt like i'm getting more value each month. From other companies i'd feel lucky to get these advancements, and if i did i'd expect it to cost me more. "5 new features? Welp, i guess i get to buy a Pro subscription tier to access it" or w/e, is what i'd expect.

Really can't praise Kagi enough.

[1]: within the last couple months, at least, as i'm new to the product and have only been subscribed for 2 months.

[2]: You can see some here: https://blog.kagi.com/blog

How many of those companies are profitable? How many do you think you will see a blog post about in a year or two - “Our Amazing Journey” where they won’t either go out of business or get acquired and their product gets shut down”?

From Kagi’s website

https://blog.kagi.com/status-update-first-three-months#:~:text=We%20are%20currently%20serving%20around%202.1M%20queries%20a%20month,current%20API%20and%20infrastructure%20costs.

We are currently serving around 2.1M queries a month, costing us around $26,250 USD/month.

Between Kagi and Orion, we are currently generating around $26,500 USD in monthly recurring revenue, which incidentally about exactly covers our current API and infrastructure costs.

That means that salaries and all other operating costs (order of magnitude of $100K USD/month) remain a challenge and are still paid out of the founders’ pocket (Kagi remains completely bootstrapped).

I was on the $10 a month plan for a while, but I canceled. Overall the experience of using Kagi was great but not "$10 per month" great compared to free alternatives. On top of that I got the feeling that Kagi is not a super "professional" company; for example by spending huge amounts of money on self-printing useless t-shirts (https://blog.kagi.com/celebrating-20k) or haphazardly suddenly charging tax on subscriptions.

What I want most of all from a search engine is to be "internet plumbing" and mainly stay out of my way, and with Kagi I always had the feeling they would suddenly remove/change/add things because of some strong opinion their founder holds. In which case I don't want to be $108 committed for a year.

> it combines some "greater good" principles with the ability to build products and run businesses in a modern competitive market

There's also the PBC (Public Benefit Corporation), which in addition to profit / shareholder value explicitly defines positive impact on society as a goal, and exists since 2010 in some states, while in others only since 2022 [1]. But as far as I understand there are no legal requirements or audits that ensure those goals are followed.

Kagi (the search engine, popular in the HN community and I'm a happy customer myself) is one example of a PBC [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_corporation

[2] https://blog.kagi.com/what-is-next-for-kagi#4