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Comment by microtonal | Hacker News Reader

I am a Kagi subscriber and I like it a lot, but I will probably cancel after the current month. 1000 searches per month is probably enough for me, but I hate services that change the model and pricing all the time. It's just not for me. Also, I don't really care for the AI integration. I wish they'd just have kept the unlimited searches for 10 per month plan (which I don't use up anyway, so they'd make a nice profit on me) without the AI stuff.

These changes also make Kagi a touch sell for friends and family. Most of them would probably do such a small number of searches that they'd be a large net profit, but the idea of having only a limited number of searches would be too off-putting for most.

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Also, they broke their promise from last year, saying that they'd grandfather-in all early adopters, as long as they don't cancel:

If such change to Individual plans is to occur, we plan to grandfather-in all early adopters (meaning all current and future paid customers, up until this change) allowing them to keep their existing subscription price as long as they don’t cancel it.

https://blog.kagi.com/status-update-first-three-months#futur...

Now they changed it to only the current billing period.

Exactly. That exact statement encouraged me to subscribe. This change is disappointing.

Same. I haven't used Kagi that much yet. But one of the reasons of subscribing was to opt in to the then-current terms.

Oh. I didn't realize that they would not be grandfathering-in existing users until I read your comment, believing their earlier statements. Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug, but it made sense after I read it again. Thanks for that.

> Every existing subscriber will have their current subscription honored until expiration. That means if you are a subscriber at the time of the new plan rollout, you will still get unlimited searches as a part of your original plan until your existing subscription expires or is set to renew.

> I hate services that change the model and pricing all the time

It's hardly "all the time"; this is their first pricing change, no? I was a part of the free private beta, and then started paying when they started charging, and I don't recall any changes until now.

It seems unsurprising that a paid search company (something that is pretty new, business-model-wise), might not get their pricing correct the first time.

In September they said:

https://blog.kagi.com/status-update-first-three-months#futur...

So they changed the pricing terms.

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