The search engine DuckDuckGo is recording a remarkable growth in the US in the context that more and more users are dissatisfied with the dense appearance of artificial intelligence (AI) on online search platforms.
According to data released by DuckDuckGo, the number of application installs in the US in the period from May 20 to 25 increased by an average of 18.1% compared to the previous week. This increase lasted continuously for six days and peaked at 30.5% on May 25.
On Apple's iOS operating system, the growth rate is even stronger when installs increase by an average of 33% per week, reaching nearly 70% at times.
DuckDuckGo said that access to its non-AI search site, noai.duckduckgo.com, also increased sharply.
This is a default search version for all AI features such as answers created by AI or AI images. According to the company, the number of visits to this page increased by an average of 22.7% per week and reached a peak of 27.7% on May 24.
Mr. Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, said that many users are feeling forced to use AI in online search experiences.
Google is forcing users to use artificial intelligence without allowing them to refuse. As a result, search quality is getting worse instead of better," Mr. Weinberg declared.
The head of DuckDuckGo emphasized that the company wants to give users the right to choose, allowing them to decide the level of AI use in the information search process.
These statements were made in the context that Google is promoting the integration of AI into search engines, including automatic content synthesis features and AI answers displayed right at the top of search results.
DuckDuckGo is also currently developing its own AI products but on an optional basis instead of a mandatory default. The company's Duck.AI platform allows users to access many different AI models for free without creating an account.
Supported models include Anthropic's Claude 4.5 Haiku, Meta's Llama 4 Scout, Mistral AI's Small 3 24B, and OpenAI's GPT-5 mini.
DuckDuckGo said that AI conversations on the platform are secured by removing the user's IP address before sending a request to the model provider.
The company also deleted chat content within 30 days and did not use user data to train AI.
We not only respect users' choices but also respect their privacy," Mr. Weinberg said.
“DuckDuckGo does not store search history or chat content and does not use that data to train AI”.
In addition to the non-AI search mode, DuckDuckGo still provides some AI application features such as Search Support and AI Image Filter to help users remove images created by AI from search results.
Mr. Kamyl Bazbaz said that both of these AI features are currently in the company's most used product group.
According to Mr. Bazbaz, what users really want is not to completely eliminate AI, but to have the right to decide how they use this technology.
