DuckDuckGo noai search
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 22 of 38 search engines by recommenders
People recommend it as a search engine that leaves out AI-generated answers, citing decent results, real sources, no hallucination risk and lower energy use.
People recommend it as a search engine that leaves out AI-generated answers, citing decent results, real sources, no hallucination risk and lower energy use.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 11 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Used as default or fallback search
“I've been using DuckDuckGo's NoAI version as a fallback, and I've had great results so far”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet’s revenue” “I've started to go low-tech and ask noai.duckduckgo.com first”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “I'm Tired of Talking to AI” “For now I'm sticking to noai.duckduckgo.com”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Rob Pike Goes Nuclear over GenAI” - Comment from 19 May 2026 in “Eric Schmidt booed during graduation speech about AI”
Good search results
“I've been using DuckDuckGo's NoAI version as a fallback, and I've had great results so far”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet’s revenue” “Decent search results, actual sources, no risk of hallucination, no extreme energy cost.”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “A new way to reflect on how you use Claude” AI-free option offered
“they even do us the courtesy to still maintain an AI-free version”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Google officially announces that ads will be included in AI Mode search results” “I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo” Easy to add to browsers
“I just added this as a search engine in Firefox, thanks for the heads-up.”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?” “you could set it yourself as default search”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “Eric Schmidt booed during graduation speech about AI”
Other search engines people recommend
The four most recommended other search engines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kagi | 732 | 234 | 76% | 13 | 2 yrs106 owners | Approved |
| Google Search | 315 | 1,039 | 23% | 12 | 20 yrs25 owners | — |
| DuckDuckGo | 286 | 204 | 58% | 12 | 3.5 yrs47 owners | — |
| Hister | 81 | 9 | 90% | 9 | 2 mo17 owners | Approved |
| DuckDuckGo noai searchThis page | 11 | 1 | 92% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
9 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I've been using DuckDuckGo's NoAI version as a fallback, and I've had great results so far”
“I just added this as a search engine in Firefox, thanks for the heads-up.”
“Decent search results, actual sources, no risk of hallucination, no extreme energy cost.”
“Just use http://noai.duckduckgo.com/ , which is mentioned in TFA.”
“I've started to go low-tech and ask noai.duckduckgo.com first”
“they even do us the courtesy to still maintain an AI-free version”
“you could set it yourself as default search”
“For now I'm sticking to noai.duckduckgo.com”
“I love that they offer noai.duckduckgo.com”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.