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Update to Kagi Search Pricing

blog.kagi.com

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Re: Update to Kagi Search Pricing

#91

Post by SebastianKra »

Grandfathered subscriptions will receive 1000 free searches instead of 700, so I'm unaffected by this change.

But it sours me how much money they need to throw at this. They are too dependent on external services.

In my searches, nearly all results come from external indexes. Either they can't or they don't want to improve their own crawlers. Before increasing the prices, they considered disabling their most expensive search provider (I'm guessing it's Google) with catastrophic results on search quality.

I was hoping that AI would level the playing field against their big competitors, but looking at their pricing chart, that won't happen either. Summarizing an article can cost up to three cents per question.

I will stick around, but I don't have much hope that this business model is scalable.

Re: Update to Kagi Search Pricing

#92

Post by rq1 »

I just cancelled my plan. I found myself quoting every single keyword over the last month ala google and now the price increase?

You gotta be kidding. No one asked you for your new costly features btw.

People wanted a decent search engine, not a Swiss army knife.

Re: Update to Kagi Search Pricing

#93

Post by dns_snek »

thrdbndndn wrote: post #87
sph wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are not a hivemind, I'll have you know. And it is much better than Google Search. I don't get bombarded with ads and the results are actually relevant. Google is noticeably worse for me unless I'm searching info on local businesses.

I just use adblock.

That's not really a fair comparison, ad blockers don't help with rankings. You might not see literal ads, but Google will still serve you more SEO garbage than Kagi, which is IMO better out of the box and also allows you to uprank, downrank or block certain domains from results.

Re: Update to Kagi Search Pricing

#95

Post by tome »

neoberg wrote: post #94

I am a happy user but just checked my usage and I'll need the 25$ package - which I think is too much for search. I'm cancelling unfortunately.

If you switch to annual billing now then you'll get a year of the old rates for $120. That's what I just did.

Re: Update to Kagi Search Pricing

#96

Post by version_five »

shepherdjerred wrote: post #48

I cancelled by Kagi subscription because of this. I don't want to have to pause before I search and think "do I need to search for this? should I look through my bookmarks, notes, etc? is this worth one of the 7 searches my $5 plan will cover for the day?". I've been a frequent user of Kagi for the past ~9 months. Last month I made 1600 searches. I've even 'tipped the difference' (~$70) in the past to support Kagi. I…

I find the pricing more annoying than anything. I'm a paid user and I've never come close to using more searches than their claimed cost (which admittedly I don't understand fully, is it just the marginal cost?) So I could probably pick a lower usage plan, it's just one more thing to think about, like back in the days of having to decide which phone minutes plan is better. It sows confusion and doesn't benefit the customer. Maybe they should add a "my five" top searches that are free.

I know people will say it's not a big deal, but it's more friction.

Also as I've said before, I have no interest in paying for any of the "AI" features. I haven't looked closely enough to understand if these costs are baked into search query costs now, but any suggestion I have to pay to have Eliza read me my search results is a dealbreaker for me.

Re: Update to Kagi Search Pricing

#97

Post by nchie »

shepherdjerred wrote: post #48

I cancelled by Kagi subscription because of this. I don't want to have to pause before I search and think "do I need to search for this? should I look through my bookmarks, notes, etc? is this worth one of the 7 searches my $5 plan will cover for the day?". I've been a frequent user of Kagi for the past ~9 months. Last month I made 1600 searches. I've even 'tipped the difference' (~$70) in the past to support Kagi. I…

I won't be cancelling now as I seem to be averaging a bit more than 1000, meaning pricing will stay about the same since I should get the early adopter subscription.

However, the "average amount of searches" they're stating really can't be accurate for any tech savvy user who is using it professionally and privately. It really has to become cheaper, if it doesn't I sadly don't see myself using it long-term.

Re: Update to Kagi Search Pricing

#98

Post by threatofrain »

soco wrote: post #85
threatofrain wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alignment of incentives is not as tightly aligned as I'd like. Because Kagi has this data, they could be bought out by another company and release blog posts about how this merger is actually a harmonious union of privacy. A sinking ship with the livelihoods of many families on the line can easily convince leadership to sell. Having a distressed company bought out is not some special story, and things like this e…

Your concerns are valid indeed, and on top of them one must also think about what's the alternative. Because if you leave service A you'll necessarily use service B - I assume nobody leaves Kagi to give up searching. So the choice is between a possible bad outcome (Kagi) versus a known bad outcome (Google).

The difference in privacy I see between Kagi and Google is that Kagi requires me to have a signed-in account to search, and Kagi accurately associates more valuable information with a signed-in account.

Re: Update to Kagi Search Pricing

#99

Post by dns_snek »

microtonal wrote: post #44
microtonal wrote: post #29

I am a Kagi subscriber and I like it a lot, but I will probably cancel after the current month. 1000 searches per month is probably enough for me, but I hate services that change the model and pricing all the time. It's just not for me. Also, I don't really care for the AI integration. I wish they'd just have kept the unlimited searches for 10 per month plan (which I don't use up anyway, so they'd make a nice profit…

Also, they broke their promise from last year, saying that they'd grandfather-in all early adopters, as long as they don't cancel: If such change to Individual plans is to occur, we plan to grandfather-in all early adopters (meaning all current and future paid customers, up until this change) allowing them to keep their existing subscription price as long as they don’t cancel it. https://blog.kagi.com/status-update-f…

Oh. I didn't realize that they would not be grandfathering-in existing users until I read your comment, believing their earlier statements. Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug, but it made sense after I read it again. Thanks for that.

> Every existing subscriber will have their current subscription honored until expiration. That means if you are a subscriber at the time of the new plan rollout, you will still get unlimited searches as a part of your original plan until your existing subscription expires or is set to renew.

Re: Update to Kagi Search Pricing

#100

Post by benoliver999 »

palata wrote: post #81
benoliver999 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's been clear since at least the early 2000s

Not really fair. I think one could argue that people don't really realise the extent and impact of surveillance capitalism.

My experience is that once people do find out, they continue regardless.
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