K 
Kagi
Paid, ad-free search engine.
NOT REALLY
why this verdict
Keep paying — OpenAI has not replaced it
OpenAI's version overlaps, but does not finish the search job, so this one still earns its $10/mo.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- ChatGPT Search and AI answers. OpenAI, October 31, 2024 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers not the job editorial call
- Parts of it. The job still needs the tool to get finished.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 3 of 3 listed replacements have a usable free tier: Perplexity, DuckDuckGo and Brave Search.
- What the call is worth $120/yr
- $10/mo at the entry paid tier — $120 a year per seat.
Reason composed from the fields above missing: announcement linked recorded: free replacement listed recorded: two or more escape hatches
- Threatened by
- OpenAI
- Since
- October 31, 2024
- List price
- $10/mo
- Per year
- $120
The backstory
Kagi is a paid, ad-free search engine that returns clean links with no tracking and no ads. Rather than being threatened by ChatGPT Search and AI answer boxes, Kagi sells the deliberate opposite: fast, uncluttered results you can trust, with AI available on demand instead of forced on you. That anti-slop, privacy-first position is exactly why paying users stick with it, so it survived the shift to AI answers.
Escape hatches
P 
Perplexity AI answer engine with cited sources
perplexity.ai open_in_new D 
DuckDuckGo Free, privacy-focused search
duckduckgo.com open_in_new B 
Brave Search Independent index with optional AI summaries
search.brave.com open_in_new3 of 3 replacements have a usable free tier.