Kagi
Kagi is one of the most privacy-respecting services available, with a subscription model that eliminates ad-based data monetization, strong anonymity options (Tor, crypto, Privacy Pass), minimal data retention, a warrant canary, and self-service account deletion. However, its Terms of Service contain two standard-but-harmful clauses: a $500 total liability cap regardless of harm, and a consent-by-continued-use mechanism for policy changes. These legal boilerplate issues lower the overall grade despite the genuinely strong privacy posture.
Last analyzed
Heads up: this analysis is AI-generated, can be incomplete or wrong, and is not legal advice. Use it as a starting point and read the original document before you agree — see our Terms.
Clause-by-clause breakdown
Every clause we flagged in Kagi's agreement, with what it means for you.
Using Kagi after a policy update means you accept the new terms.
“Modifications to these Terms Kagi may update these Terms from time to time to address a new feature of the Services or to clarify a provision. The updated Terms will be posted online. If the changes are substantive, we will announce the update through Kagi's usual channels for such announcements such as blog posts and forums. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date of such changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Kagi can change its Terms of Service at any time, and simply continuing to use the service after the change takes effect counts as your agreement to the new terms. While Kagi promises to announce substantive changes through blogs and forums, you are not asked to actively consent — passive use is treated as acceptance.
What you can do: Follow Kagi's blog or changelog to catch any term changes, and stop using the service before the effective date if you disagree with new terms.
Kagi's maximum payout to you for any harm is $500.
“THE COLLECTIVE LIABILITY OF KAGI AND THE INDEMNIFIED PARTIES UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT EXCEED $500 (FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS).”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: No matter what goes wrong — data loss, service failure, security breach — Kagi's total financial liability to you is capped at $500. For a paid subscription service handling your searches and AI queries, this cap could be far lower than actual harm suffered, especially for business users.
What you can do: Be aware that if Kagi's service causes you significant harm, your legal recovery is limited to $500 regardless of the damage.
You must pay Kagi's legal costs if your use causes a lawsuit.
“Indemnification You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Kagi, its contractors, contributors, licensors, and partners, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents ("Indemnified Parties") from and against any and all third party claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising out of or related to your use of the Services (including, but not limited to, from any content uploaded by you).”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: If a third party sues Kagi because of something you did while using the service, you are required to pay Kagi's legal costs and any damages. This is a broad clause — it covers 'any and all' claims related to your use, not just clear-cut violations of the terms.
What you can do: Use the service only for its intended purposes and avoid uploading content that could create legal exposure for you or Kagi.
Kagi can cancel your account anytime, including for business reasons.
“Termination These Terms will continue to apply until ended by either you or Kagi. You can choose to end them at any time for any reason by deleting your Kagi account, discontinuing your use of the Services, and if applicable, unsubscribing from our emails. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Services at any time for any reason, including, but not limited to, if we reasonably believe: (i) you have violated these Terms, (ii) you create risk or possible legal exposure for us; or (iii) our provision of the Services to you is no longer commercially viable.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Kagi can terminate your account at any time for broad reasons, including if continuing to serve you is no longer 'commercially viable' — a vague standard that could apply in many situations. There is no mention of refunds for unused subscription time upon termination.
What you can do: Keep your account in good standing and be aware that termination for commercial reasons is possible with limited recourse.
Kagi guarantees nothing about service quality or reliability.
“THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITH ALL FAULTS. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, KAGI AND THE INDEMNIFIED PARTIES HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES THAT THE SERVICES ARE FREE OF DEFECTS, MERCHANTABLE, FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGING. YOU BEAR THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO SELECTING THE SERVICES FOR YOUR PURPOSES AND AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE RISK THAT YOUR CONTENT IS DELETED OR CORRUPTED OR THAT SOMEONE ELSE ACCESSES YOUR ONLINE ACCOUNTS.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Kagi makes no guarantees about the quality, reliability, or fitness of its services. If the service is buggy, goes down, or your data is lost or corrupted, Kagi accepts no responsibility. This is a standard clause but means you have no contractual recourse for service failures.
What you can do: Don't rely solely on Kagi for critical tasks where service interruption would cause significant harm.
Request logs may be kept up to 90 days for debugging.
“We may store web requests made by user browser temporarily, with strict retention periods, for debugging purposes, and in a manner that they are not linked to an account. Debugging retention periods: Internet Activity: Temporary debugging logs (7-90 days retention)”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Web request logs are kept for debugging for between 7 and 90 days. While Kagi states these are not linked to your account, the upper end of 90 days is a fairly long window for temporary logs. The policy does not specify what determines whether logs are kept for 7 days versus 90 days.
What you can do: If minimizing any data retention is important to you, consider using Kagi via Tor with a pseudonymous account to further reduce linkability.
Third-party services like Google and Stripe may track you when loaded.
“Kagi uses Apple Maps, Mapbox, Yelp and TripAdvisor, as on-demand third party providers that may be loaded as a part of consuming Maps. Kagi uses Stripe, Reach, PayPal, and OpenNode as on-demand third party payment processors that may be loaded for billing reasons. Customers who choose to login using Apple, Google, or Microsoft account authentication will load the corresponding service. These services may save additional resources on your client not documented in the table above.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: When you use maps, make payments, or log in via a third-party account, external services like Google, Apple, Stripe, and others are loaded in your browser. These third parties may set their own cookies or collect data under their own privacy policies, which Kagi does not fully control or document.
What you can do: Avoid using third-party login options (Google, Apple, Microsoft) if you want to minimize data shared with those companies, and use a dedicated payment method rather than a linked account.
Kagi publicly confirms zero government data requests ever received.
“Warrant Canary We, Kagi, are committed to being transparent and taking full control of our service. Private information of our customers has never been disclosed or seized, nor have we been compromised or suffered a data breach. Kagi has received: 0 National Security letters 0 Gag orders 0 Warrants from any government organization”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Kagi publicly states it has never received national security letters, gag orders, or government warrants, and has never suffered a data breach. This 'warrant canary' is a transparency mechanism: if it disappears or changes, users know something has changed. It's a meaningful commitment to government-request transparency that goes beyond what most services offer.
What you can do: Periodically check this section of Kagi's privacy page; if the canary is removed or the counts change, treat it as a signal to reassess your use of the service.
Kagi never sells your data or uses it for ads.
“Do We Sell Your Data? No. We don't sell your personal information. We don't share your information for behavioral advertising. This is fundamental to our business model - you're our customer, not the product being sold.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Kagi explicitly commits to never selling your personal data and never using it for behavioral advertising. This is backed by their subscription-based business model, where revenue comes from users paying directly rather than from advertisers.
Search clicks and AI queries are not stored or linked to you.
“Unlike most search engines, we do not track which search result you choose to click. Unless stated below, and in a similar vein as Search, requests to AI tools are not saved or associated with a customer account (they may be retained for a short period of time as a part of request debugging, explained above). By default and unless otherwise stated, Kagi Assistant automatically deletes conversation threads after one day. After this period, they are permanently removed.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Kagi does not log which search results you click, does not associate AI queries with your account, and automatically deletes AI conversation threads after one day. This is a strong privacy commitment that most search engines and AI services do not make.
What you can do: You can also manually delete AI threads immediately via the Assistant UI if you don't want to wait for the automatic deletion.
You can delete your account yourself and export your data.
“Portability You can request your personal data in a machine-readable format (JSON or CSV) to transfer to another service provider. You'll receive your account details, subscription information, and preferences. As noted above, we don't store search history or behavioral data. Delete Your Account Log in to your Kagi account Go to kagi.com/settings/user_details Select the option to delete your account Confirm deletion Your data is permanently removed within 30 days, except where we're legally required to retain certain records (such as billing information for tax purposes).”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Kagi offers self-service account deletion directly in account settings, with data permanently removed within 30 days. They also provide data portability in JSON or CSV format on request. Both rights are extended to all users globally, not just those in jurisdictions that legally require it.
What you can do: You can delete your account at kagi.com/settings/user_details at any time, or request a data export by emailing [email protected].
Kagi supports Tor, crypto payments, and pseudonymous accounts.
“Maximizing anonymity with Kagi We strive to give our customers the possibility to maximize their anonymity. Users who want provable anonymity guarantees may access our service by: Creating an account with a pseudonymous email address Paying for their plan using cryptocurrency Accessing our services via Tor service Anonymously authenticating using the Privacy Pass protocol”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Kagi supports Tor access, cryptocurrency payments, pseudonymous email sign-up, and the Privacy Pass protocol, allowing users to use the service with very little identifying information. This is an unusually strong set of anonymity options for a paid subscription service.
What you can do: If anonymity is important to you, sign up with a pseudonymous email, pay with cryptocurrency, and access Kagi over Tor.
Kagi ignores browser Do Not Track signals.
“Do Not Track Signals We don't respond to browser "Do Not Track" signals, as there's no consistent industry standard for compliance. However, this isn't relevant to your privacy at Kagi because we don't track you in the first place.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Kagi does not honor browser Do Not Track signals, though it argues this is irrelevant because it doesn't track users anyway. The explanation is reasonable given their stated privacy model, but the technical non-compliance is worth noting.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kagi's Terms & Conditions agreement fair?
- BeforeYouClick grades Kagi C on an A–E scale, where A is the fairest. Its agreement contains 2 critical clauses, 5 warnings and 6 good practices.
What are the biggest problems with Kagi's terms?
- The most serious clauses we flagged are: Policy Changes Accepted by Continued Use and Total Liability Capped at $500.
How long does it take to read Kagi's terms?
- Kagi's agreement takes about 21 minutes to read in full, across 13 clauses we reviewed. The summary on this page covers the same ground in under a minute.
When was Kagi's agreement last analyzed?
- We last read Kagi's Terms & Conditions on July 4, 2026. Companies change their terms without notice, so check the original document for the current version.
Is this analysis legal advice?
- No. This analysis is AI-generated, can be incomplete or wrong, and is not legal advice. Use it as a starting point and read the original agreement before you agree to it.
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