Kagi opened web search to visitors without an account on November 5, offering the first 50 searches before registration. Its dated changelog says signing up provides another 100. For anyone curious about paying for a search engine, that removes the registration step before trying a query.
Kagi says the change responds to customers who found it hard to recommend a service their friends couldn't try without creating an account. The company describes word of mouth as part of how it reaches users and says it doesn't run ads. This is a change to how people first encounter the product, while its documentation continues to list paid subscriptions.
The visitor experience has limits
The announcement also warns existing subscribers about accidentally landing in the discovery flow after a browser logs them out. Kagi describes that flow as a degraded experience compared with a paid plan and says it has added a warning banner. A subscriber seeing different behavior should check whether they're still signed in before treating it as a change to their subscription.
MrKeyoor has not tested the visitor flow or compared its results with a paid account. The changelog establishes the allowance and warns of a difference between the experiences; it doesn't establish that the first 50 searches reproduce every paid feature.
What continued use costs
Kagi's plan documentation lists Starter at US$5 per month plus tax for 300 searches, and Professional at US$10 per month plus tax for unlimited searches. The documented registered trial has 100 total searches. Those limits give a prospective subscriber a clearer decision after sampling the service.
For Starter users, the same documentation says loading more results counts as another search, as does using a different content type or lens. Search suggestions and bangs don't count. The allowance therefore needs to be read against how you search, rather than simply how many questions you type.
The next useful check is how closely the visitor experience represents the subscription a reader would buy. Kagi's own warning leaves that comparison open. Its new entry point makes an initial trial easier, but evaluating the paid service still requires checking its features and search allowance against your usual work.