My 3-month assessment of Kagi
I just wanted to share my thoughts about Kagi's service as an active new user, and perhaps maybe others will find it insightful (and I seek to learn from others too.)ContextI demo'd Kagi last December, decided to subscribe to Ultimate and have effectively moved away from both Google to Perplexity to Kagi.My primary reasons for subbing is really a service that works reliably, both in search and assistant use. I favor good experiences on mobile and just a system that answers my questions fast and at depth when needed. I just want a GOOD knowledge-seeking system that works and when I don't have the time nor the effort to set things up myself.Here's my current usage:| Date (UTC) | Searches | AI Cost (USD) || ---------- | -------- | ------------- || Mar 2026 | 808 | 9.496 || Feb 2026 | 762 | 7.088 || Jan 2026 | 948 | 7.913 || Dec 2025 | 349 | 2.030 |I primarily use a Mac and Android, which also steers some of my expectations in product use.ReviewI'm sticking to Kagi and I love every use of it. It's really replaced Google Search for me and is my daily driver for any research and knowledge-seeking.My favoritesDistraction-free and reliable search, on my computers and on mobile.AI assistance that actually does perform better from where I'm coming from.Complementary services like Translate and News, which has been pleasant to use.I find it all worth it because:I ultimately save valuable time from distractions (which compounds a lot when you search thoroughly).Their take on AI has been tasteful so far. It shows up only when prompted (e.g., you click to see it, or search with a question mark), and when you do need it, it's actually quite powerful with the right prompts. Research (experimental) is a joy to use, and it's a killer feature imho if you know how to use it.While the mobile apps are basic web wrappers, they DO work very well and is sufficient for moderate-heavy infoseeking.When I share stuff from it, it doesn't annoy my friends and family with mandatory sign-up. There's still a reminder to do so, but they actually get answers I ask about, which I love a lot.Issues?Mobile experience is "okay but meh". It's basically the web page wrapped in mobile but it does have the additions I care about, like intents to Search, Translate, etc. Still could be better though because the UI generally needs a reload when you switch off of it while an active query is up in Assistant. Search works fine though, and that's great.There's some minor UX complaints I have, mostly on switching between Search -> Assistant and back and when I need Translate. Not a problem on Android since I can have shortcuts to each, but I've had to write my own customizations just to address this.Is it worth the moneyYep. Even if I can self-host my own stuff and rebuild my workflows elsewhere (which I can) or even if services elsewhere do improve, the gap is substantial enough that I don't see any reasons to leave anytime soon.The time-save alone to just open my phone, hit the Kagi button and ask random stuff and see what it's about is a godsend. I also tied it to shortcuts on my Mac, like on an Alfred prompt or my browser's default search, etc.SearchSearch in general is "good enough and has tasteful customizations that are nice to have".It's hard to say in an objective sense and especially in comparison to Google Search if Kagi is truly effective, but all I'll say is that they mostly meet the vibes that I was hoping for and if it ever fails it's usually on either extremely obscure topics or topics that are far too fresh to be indexed.But it makes up for it in minor customizations. I like being able to nuke results into orbit, and downrank ones that are okay-ish but not. I also like that they surface a lot of small details in the results page, like the dates (relatively new ones in a light tinge of blue), reddit threads and paywalled sites (a dollar sign). It's also handy to toggle between their Lens feature/s for a particular focus in results and regional search.I wish I can use more of the Lenses. I'm still getting there.Assistant and the Research PresetsI'll discuss about AI beyond this point. Skip this section if you're not a fan of it.This one is a big thing for me. In the age of services trying to sell Deep Research with AI or some other means to thoroughly dive deeper than a search, I like the way Kagi does it and others usually either just generate wordslop that's hard to verify.The research presets are basically "do an AI query but exert more effort and searches and actually follow instructions", and it turns out that's what I really wanted from a "Deep Research" feature. The others that do this always produces dense research reports that I don't care to read, but Kagi's Research modes aren't like that and I like it.And I can share the results with people, which is a killer feature for me.Sharing some of my favorite example results:2025 LLM and Generative AI Timeline - I wanted a "rewind-style" timeline of this topic, and I like it because it gets it mostly right and while there are misses, it gets sufficiently right.Sakura Season Timings in Tokyo 2026 - I like searches in depth that produces tables. Others can produce similar results too, but I like the chain of thought that Kagi gives me on theirs.What Happens in a Sleep Study - This was a query I pulled while on a phone and was moderately curious about a topic, and it happens often and sometimes I do want a deeper answer.Apple's Container Project vs. Docker and Others - Another casual query I pulled off that I do want substantial answers on and if it dives on links and a more technical angle. Suffice to say, I'm impressed.Water Filtration Options Comparison - I tried my own prompts on top of Research (Experimental) and basically wanted a quick but in-depth look whenever I wanted to shop for a product and its alternatives. I like this a lot because not only does it give me an in-between to deep research-style queries but also following my prompts to tabulate and assess.It works, and it's reliable. Best of it is that I can actually validate it easier compared to its counterparts.I am aware that AI will never be free from hallucinations and is gullible and honestly, so am I for topics I'm uninformed at. But it does solve the "I want a quick answer that's actually not terribly mistaken and gives enough info to both check and validate" problem for me. It also solves the "let me actually share what I saw to friends and not annoy the hell out of them to register" problem that Perplexity terribly fails at.Why does sharing matter so much?It's honestly an underrated feature. Everyone else sucks at it and the reigning king of shit sharing is Perplexity because it pesters you with so many sign-in prompts. Maybe they've improved since December, but I'm convinced they'll never deviate from that. (Sorry if I'm repeating this too much, it's a pet peeve of mine)I just want to search a single result to a person, usually friends or family, and not be pestered in the process! I don't need "team" signups or logins or similar and just tell folks who might be on their phone to a result I felt they needed at the moment and not for a prolonged session or anything complex. Kagi solves that.ChatGPT works but also fails here, because they never disclose what my prompts are, and what model was used. When someone "uses ChatGPT" for an answer, I'm convinced it's shit because they either use the free one that uses a much weaker mini model, or I don't see the prompts that led them to the answers it produces.Claude and Gemini to some extent looks like it does it right too, but at the time I subscribed, I wasn't convinced. Gemini shows the mode but not the model (Gemini 3? 3.1? 2.5?) and the thinking. Claude shows the thinking but not the model and also shows the name of the user who prompted it.The only thing that passes for me here was t3.chat, which was my top candidate before I discovered Kagi. A shame, because their service is also promising but Kagi's simply better since they have their own search baked in.TranslateKagi Translate is also something I appreciate a lot from Kagi. It's an LLM-powered translation engine and honestly, Google Translate nowadays also does something of the sort.My barrier to beat here was DeepL since I deal with Japanese and Filipino a lot even before this AI stuff. I'm learning on one and native with the other and I use Translate both as a lazy crutch, an effective translation and a thesaurus all-in-one.I like Kagi Translate for showing not only results that are adequate, but alternative translations and explanations.It's also got a Proofread option which is in some ways like a Grammarly / AI-driven proofreader, which is welcome and looks helpful but I don't use it because I try not to let AI get in the way of reviews (that's on me to do as the human, but hey, it's a learning tool)Dictionary is both definition lookup and thesaurus, but I'm still on the habit of just powerthesaurusing a word when I need something else, or macOS' built-in dictionary.NewsKagi News is an infrequent but cool place I visit from time to time. It's nice to get a news daily digest and I do love the way Kagi presents this feature.But I don't really use it often because I just tune out of news in general (I literally have a preset in Assistant to keep me informed for this). But during downtime and when I feel like it, it delivers a good perspective on world news and the categories they provide.Not much to say though, I'm afraid.Conclusion?To no one's surprise, I love the service.My honest assessment of Kagi is that if you take search and research seriously and found Google annoying as all hell, then go for it. Take the trial and see how well it works for you.This is mostly praise and while I wish a proper review would be more balanced with issues, I'm honestly thinking a lot of my current issues aren't that bad. But I would like improve
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