Kagi Assistant is now available to all users

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Mobile accessibility and zoom blocking

  • Several commenters complain that the Kagi blog disabled pinch‑to‑zoom via maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=0, making screenshots unreadable and harming accessibility.
  • Others note some browsers (Safari, some Firefox configs) ignore this, or can override via “zoom on all sites,” but these are seen as workarounds users shouldn’t need.
  • Kagi staff respond in-thread, acknowledge the issue, and say it has been fixed and upstream PR submitted.

Plan tiers, models, and pricing

  • Some users want all AI models on every plan, others argue this would undermine differentiation of higher tiers and is economically unrealistic given API costs.
  • There’s interest in pay‑as‑you‑go pricing for models, but concern that it might reposition Kagi as “budget” or confuse consumers.

Fair‑use limits and “Unlimited Assistant” controversy

  • A major thread debates Kagi’s “fair use” AI policy and the “Unlimited Kagi Assistant” marketing.
  • Kagi says a small number of heavy users (top 10–100) consumed a large share (≈48%) of AI costs, with some doing ~50M tokens/week, forcing enforcement of existing fair‑use limits.
  • Some users feel they are now getting more for the same price (search + assistant) and see limits as reasonable; they emphasize that 95% of users supposedly won’t be affected.
  • Others on the Ultimate plan feel misled: they explicitly paid for “Unlimited Assistant” and now face undisclosed caps, with no clear per‑user meter or overage option. Debate ensues over whether “unlimited” can ever be taken literally and whether relying on T&Cs is fair.

Assistant vs Perplexity and other AI tools

  • Multiple users have tried both Kagi Assistant and Perplexity.
  • Kagi is praised as “Google but good again,” with strong search, lenses, bangs, redirects, and the ability to wire custom lenses into assistants.
  • Perplexity is viewed as strong for AI‑first search and some contextual tasks (e.g., route planning) but weaker on conversation continuity, customization, and sometimes prone to confident fabrication.
  • Some dropped Perplexity and kept Kagi because Kagi combines high‑quality traditional search with flexible assistant access to many models.

Privacy model and anonymous use

  • One concern: requiring email and tying all searches to an account feels “opposite of privacy.”
  • Others counter that Kagi’s incentives differ from ad‑funded engines, and point to an anonymous mode based on IETF Privacy Pass, though it’s noted Assistant doesn’t (yet) work with it.
  • Suggestions include using email aliases; skeptics argue this still requires trusting the provider.

Non‑AI features and product gaps

  • Critiques of Kagi search vs Google include weaker maps (Mapbox), fewer rich info boxes, missing or weaker timezone and translation boxes, and no search history.
  • Some see lack of history as a privacy benefit; others see it as a productivity loss.
  • There’s a sense that non‑AI features are improving but AI is getting most attention.

Rollout, availability, and no‑AI environments

  • Rollout is phased by region (starting with US), causing confusion when /assistant redirects to docs; some users only get access via VPN early on.
  • People with strict “no AI” work policies ask for a way to disable Assistant entirely; others note Kagi already had AI summarization and suggest toggles for AI features in settings.

Usage transparency and BYO models

  • Several users want clear per‑request cost display and an easy usage meter tied to the fair‑use pool; Kagi says this is planned.
  • There is strong interest in “bring your own API key” (e.g., to reuse existing Gemini/OpenAI subscriptions across services), but commenters note complex incentives for both model providers and aggregators.

Perceived value and subscription economics

  • Many consider $10/month for Kagi search (plus bundled Assistant credits) excellent value and one of their few “must‑keep” subscriptions.
  • Others say they won’t pay more than $5/month or dislike search quotas (300 searches), suggesting rate‑limits instead of monthly caps.
  • Several argue that ad‑free, non‑surveillance search likely does cost on the order of Kagi’s pricing without VC subsidy; unused searches/AI credits probably subsidize heavier users.