The best search API is the smallest layer you can verify
Compare Tavily, Exa, You.com, Brave, Kagi and Perplexity APIs by retrieval layer, cost, freshness, citations and data handling.
Continue →Source-led profile · Evidence checked 2026-09-02
Verified profile
AI Search software
Kagi
Evaluate Kagi's paid search, privacy model, plan limits and separate Search API through a repeatable result-quality benchmark.
Decision first. Use the compact answer below before opening the complete research record.
Decision summary
The answer in one scan.
Decision-critical facts remain separate from the deeper editorial analysis.
| Best fit | Subscription search engine with privacy controls, ranking customization and a separately billed API. |
|---|---|
| Pricing | Confirm the current plan, allowance and renewal terms for the exact workflow. |
| Evidence boundary | Official-source research; no invented hands-on winner. |
| Confirm before buying | Run the product-specific evaluation described in the full profile. |
Continue your research
Move from profile to a sharper decision.
These links are explicit editorial relationships, not keyword matches or sponsored placements.
A cheap search call can produce an expensive answer
Calculate AI search cost across queries, extraction, tokens, retries, caching and human verification using cost per accepted answer.
Continue →Freshness and coverage fail in different ways
Build a repeatable benchmark for AI search freshness, known-source recall, authority, duplication and claim support without trusting citations alone.
Continue →Good fit if
The documented workflow matches the real job
- Subscription search engine with privacy controls, ranking customization and a separately billed API.
- The buyer can run the profile's bounded evaluation.
- Approval quality and total operating cost can be measured.
Look elsewhere if
The workflow cannot be validated
- The decision depends on unsupported output-quality claims.
- Current commercial or governance terms remain unacceptable.
- A narrower product completes the same job with less overhead.
Price, plan and risks
Confirm before you buy
Unknown, conflicted and stale facts stay visible before checkout.
Pricing observation
The retained evidence does not establish this field yet.
Commercial context
Compare the closest documented workflows.
Alternatives stay within the same vertical and use current internal profile routes.
Perplexity
Answer engine with cited web research, enterprise plans and separate APIs.
View evidence profile →Elicit
Research assistant for scholarly search, extraction and review workflows.
View evidence profile →Consensus
Question-led scholarly search and synthesis across research papers.
View evidence profile →Open the complete Kagi buying analysisSubscription search engine with privacy controls, ranking customization and a separately billed API.
Kagi asks users to pay directly for search instead of funding it with advertising. That changes incentives, but it does not automatically prove better coverage for a particular job. The purchase should be tested against the result sets a user actually needs.
> Distinctive strength: Ad-free subscription search with domain controls, Lenses and a privacy-first account model. > > Where it stops being an advantage: The Search API is a separate pay-as-you-go product; an individual subscription is not an API allowance.
Plans in practical terms
| Plan | Public boundary | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| Trial | 100 total searches and 100 standard-model AI interactions | Small relevance test |
| Starter | $5/month, 300 searches and 300 interactions | Light search use with a hard monthly count |
| Professional | $10/month, unlimited search and Summarizer | Frequent professional search |
| Ultimate | $25/month, premium-model Assistant access | Buyers who value the additional AI layer |
| Search API | $12 per 1,000 queries | Application retrieval, budgeted separately |
Run 100 queries from the user's last month of work. Blind-score useful result in top three, missing known source, freshness, spam/domain concentration and time to a defensible answer. Test raised/lowered domains and a Lens separately so personalization does not contaminate the baseline.
Kagi says searches are not associated with the account and offers Privacy Pass. Buyers still need to distinguish privacy from complete anonymity and review billing/account requirements.
Avoid Kagi when free search is a hard constraint, local coverage is essential but weak in the target region, or the intended use is API-heavy. Compare Brave Search, ChatGPT Search and You.com.
Primary action: Review Kagi's plans ↗, use the trial on a real query set, then choose the smallest plan that clears the benchmark.
Official sources checked
Full evidence record5 fields · official links · dates · states
Product name
Verified factChecked 2026-09-02Kagi
Official sources (4)
Vendor
Verified factChecked 2026-09-02Kagi
Official sources (4)
Official website
Verified factChecked 2026-09-02https://help.kagi.com/kagi/plans/plan-types.html
Official sources (4)
Best-fit workflow
Verified factChecked 2026-09-02Subscription search engine with privacy controls, ranking customization and a separately billed API.
Official sources (4)
Pricing observation
UnknownChecked 2026-09-02The retained official evidence does not answer this yet.