DuckDuckGo’s No AI search tool reports huge traffic growth as Google pushes AI results

DuckDuckGo has reported significant traffic growth for its no-AI search dedicated tool, a version of its search engine designed to remove AI-generated elements from results, following Google’s latest Search announcements at I/O. Google’s changes put more emphasis on AI Overviews, follow-up prompts, and visual AI features, pushing traditional web links further down the page. In response, DuckDuckGo is launching new Chrome and Firefox extensions that let users set noai.duckduckgo.com as their default search engine, directing queries to results without AI-assisted answers, chat prompts, and most AI-generated images.

DuckDuckGo says visits to its no-AI search page tripled on May 28, with traffic averaging 84% above previous baselines. U.S. app installs also increased, while iOS installs peaked at nearly 70% week-over-week growth. The company will also update its Privacy Essentials extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera with broader controls for AI search settings. Despite the no-AI push, DuckDuckGo is not fully moving away from AI, as it still offers an AI chatbot and a paid plan with access to newer models and privacy tools.

Other search alternatives are also positioning themselves as options for users who want to avoid AI slop in their searches, with services like Kagi, which offers a paid search engine with optional AI features, and more notably Uruky, AlternativeTo’s newest official partner and supporter, which takes a stricter private search approach with fully anonymous accounts, no tracking, and of course, no AI results harvesting personal searches for model training.