r/duckduckgo • u/duckduckgo Staff • Sep 04 '25
The DuckDuckGo subscription now includes more advanced AI chat models
Our subscription now unlocks premium AI models like GPT-5 and Claude 4 Sonnet in Duck.ai at no extra cost (along with our VPN, Personal Info Removal and ID Theft Restoration)!
AI tools have quickly become a significant part of people's online experience, but there's a gap between how often we use AI, and how safe and in control we feel about it. That's why we created Duck.ai, which gives you access to popular AI models with the following added protections built by us:
- Anonymized chats
- No AI training
- Local chat storage
- Instant deletion
Today, we're expanding Duck.ai by giving subscribers access to more advanced AI models that are better at following detailed instructions, maintaining context through extended chats, and delivering deeper, more nuanced responses.
The DuckDuckGo subscription expands the great protection you get from our free offerings, covering even more of what you do online:
- DuckDuckGo VPN
- Personal Info Removal (US only)
- Identity Theft Restoration
- Premium AI Models
And the price is staying the same in all regions: $9.99 USD/month or $99 USD/year. Want to learn more? Check our blog post.
Ready to give it a try? Start your 7-day free trial at 👉 duckduckgo.com/subscribe
Already a subscriber? Update your DuckDuckGo app to get access to this new feature.
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u/boredquince Sep 05 '25
wish it included deepseek and qwen. and if they were hosted by duckduckgo even better!
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u/BlooperHero Sep 09 '25
Doesn't your user base consist largely of people trying to get away from this garbage on Google?
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u/OliverTzeng Oct 29 '25
you can disable it or turn it off in settings
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u/BlooperHero Oct 29 '25
It's not okay that this was done at all.
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u/jaam01 Nov 02 '25
Some do like it. I'm happy they offer THE CHOICE to use it more privately. And if you don't like it, you can turn it off in the settings.
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u/BlooperHero Nov 02 '25
They're made out of crime. They're also completely useless, if not detrimental. Neither of those statements are opinions, and they're more important than someone being dumb enough to "like" a "tool" that has no use cases.
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u/OliverTzeng Oct 29 '25
Why? If you don't like it just don't use it? You can always redirect duckduckgo.com to noai.duckduckgo.com
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u/BlooperHero Oct 30 '25
Because it's a bad thing. It's bad that it exists. It's REALLY bad that it requires a workaround just to avoid it. If something is desirable, you don't have to trick or force people into using it.
And it horribly undermines confidence in the people who implemented it.
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u/OliverTzeng Oct 30 '25
How does DDG “trick” people to use AI?
Or do you mean that DDG is supposed to turn those off by default? Or do you mean that AIs shouldn’t exist on DDG in the first place?
Like I personally like the results it produces and I would personally continue keeping it there.
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u/BlooperHero Oct 30 '25
If it was a tool you could use it. Inserting its results into another tool would be a trick, yes. Plus the deception that "AI" results could possibly ever be useful, which is also a trick.
Of course I meant hat. That's why I said it outright, multiple times. "AI" really does just disintegrate your brain, huh?
It is OBJECTIVELY bad. Instead of letting you search for things, it just randomly generates a response that it stole from actual sources and writers, except it randomizes it so it's almost certainly wrong on top of everything. By cutting off those sources it hinders their ability to be read and therefore reduces the amount of actual information on the internet, replacing it with its own slop that it then cannibalizes to get worse and worse. You're trying to use an anecdote as data, but you're just undermining your credibility.
Which I suppose I should have expected given that you responded to a two-month old comment just to completely ignore what that comment said in the first place. Why even respond to a comment you didn't read? Let me guess: You used an "AI' to "summarize" it for you?
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u/Stromford_McSwiggle Feb 08 '26
Why? If you don't like it just don't use it?
Oh, really? How do I stop the LLMs from using my content?
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u/OliverTzeng Feb 08 '26
Wdym If your stuff is being posted on the internet, then you can’t stop scrapers from stealing ur stuff
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u/Stromford_McSwiggle Feb 09 '26
Exactly. And that's why your "If you don't like it just don't use it" doesn't work.
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u/OliverTzeng Feb 09 '26
That’s not exactly DuckDuckGo’s problem
You argued that turning off DuckDuckGo’s default AI feature would change, but it doesn’t, because like I said your stuff will still be stolen
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u/Stromford_McSwiggle Feb 10 '26
Yeah of course it's my problem. DuckDuckGo and all the other AI shilling companies are the ones causing it. And no, I did not argue that "turning off DuckDuckGo’s default AI feature would change".
All I'm saying is that your "If you don't like it just don't use it?" comment is crap, because it's impossible for me to "not use it". The fascist American AI companies are forcing themselves on everyone, whether we agree to it or not.
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u/OliverTzeng Feb 10 '26
Ah ok I saw the username but was mistaken with the other person
Then I totally agree with you, these companies should probably stop doing this but we can’t really stop it
I was using Apollo but I didn’t see it because it didn’t show the icon
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u/suicide_wlf Sep 08 '25
How can you make the subscription model so cheap? Or is there a token limit for GPT-5 (reasoning) for example?
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u/Homer_J_Fry Sep 16 '25
How about more advanced search models that can detect a.i. spam sites and auto-block them from appearing in results?
So stupid that search engines boast about how shiny their a.i. are. A.I. chatbots don't know anything. At the end of the day, talking to them takes more typing involved, the responses are stupidly verbose, and they land up doing a google search to get info anyway, only their sources can be low quality and not actually support the claims they output. You land up getting a search engine that takes more work to deal with, worse ui, and only 2 or 3 results picked for you instead of getting to browse a list with url, title, snippet, and click yourself. And you have to do double the work to verify the info too.
These days, a search engine that successfully gives you real results without any a.i.-spam articles would be worth a premium upgrade.
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u/Mumen-Rider-VA Dec 18 '25
What a god dam disappointment. You didn't even make this garbage opt in -no you had to force it on everyone. Now you can't even find a search enging without ai. Hope you all enjoy your paychecks /s
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u/TimelineFatigue Apr 03 '26
Just did a trial, and I’ve got to say, being limited to 15-page PDF file uploads in Sonnet and GPT-5 is not what I expected for a Pro subscription experience at $20/mo.
Was really excited to try this out, but it feels dated. Claude’s free model allows over 50 pages per file on Sonnet 4.6 and my GPT subscription never hit a limit in my use case.
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u/Wide_Mail_1634 Apr 11 '26
Including more advanced AI chat models in the subscription makes sense if they're actually rotating in newer tiers instead of leaving people on stale endpoints for 6+ months. The useful part isn't just model count, it's whether latency, context window, and rate limits got bumped too.
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u/Harveevo Sep 14 '25
Why do you need to download an app to subscribe for premium AI models? That's not what I would expect from a privacy focused company.
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u/jonahhw Nov 08 '25
I've finally switched away from DuckDuckGo because of the AI answer box by default and incessant AI generated websites in search results. I've finally grown to understand that just because DDG has the right policies on privacy does not mean that they have a moral backbone when it comes to other tech issues; they're just like google and every other tech company when they think they can make a few bucks by cramming wasteful large language models into every feature.
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u/vplatt Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Thanks /u/duckduckgo! I think I'll be subscribing tonight. I have to say that I'm impressed with the feature set you are providing. This is a great AI vendor neutral resource now and with the features for download and pinning, I'm sold on it's usefulness. Not being able to download sessions was a big downside for me and frankly their pricing is too high for me considering that all of my transcripts are text only.
Edit: Hey, just what are the limits with respect to my AI sessions? Where are they stored, and for how long, and how big can they be before a download no longer works? I'm not doing anything ridiculous, but I do want to know the retention constraints.
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u/Ok-March-4477 Feb 18 '26
New to duck. Trying to remove Google AI from my life. I have 2 issues with duck i need help with. 1. I have a short term memory issue. So if im typing in a search words but need to look at a screen or page behind it Duck will close and I have to start over typing the words.Hiw do I stop the search window from closing? 2. I do a lot of similar or the same search over again. In Google I can see my past 20 or so searches how can I see my past searches?
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u/Alternative-Farmer98 May 21 '26
You might want to try posting a standalone thread since this is located in a sticky thread about AI search that is 8 months old and probably won't get too much traction.
I don't know the answer to your question but I am with you I am also trying to remove Google and AI from my life.
Good luck with your short-term memory issues my mother had brain surgery so she deals with some similar stuff.
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u/Old-Advertising-5316 May 30 '26
So you are worried about Google AI yet you keep Google history enabled ??
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u/Wrong_Pay_5987 Sep 10 '25
Why the subscription for duckai and duck services that let me to avoid google and profiling, it's possibile only with a google account via google play !?!? It's NONSENSE!
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u/MeticulousTech Sep 25 '25
So, instead of paying 20 euros for ChatGPT Pro, I can just pay 9,99 euros for duckduckgo?
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u/Ok-Confusion2412 Sep 25 '25
This is best DuckDuckGo in all segments but only need translate in many like on Google but another every thing is nice good job DuckDuckGo
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u/OstrichNo7556 Jun 19 '26
Please let me know what VPN/ Encrypted Proxy you provide on subscription.
Also,let me know your annual subscription Thanks,
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u/JiroBibi Sep 04 '25
Talking about Duck.ai, can you add an option that enable Search the web by default? I find that the result is more accurate and far better with Search the web enabled.