Google’s recent Search overhaul is driving renewed interest in DuckDuckGo, as some users react against Google’s expanding use of AI in search results. After Google announced at I/O that its classic blue-link format is being replaced by AI-powered search features, critics argued the changes could reduce control, produce inaccurate answers, and make simple searches more complicated. In response, some users have begun moving to DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine that has long remained far behind Google in market share.
DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg said Google is “force-feeding AI with no way to opt out,” arguing that this approach makes search results worse rather than better and that DuckDuckGo offers users more control over how much AI they want to use. The company says that trend is now showing up in its traffic and app growth. According to DuckDuckGo, U.S. app installs rose 18.1% week over week on average from May 20 to May 25 compared with May 13 to May 18. Growth was sustained for six straight days and peaked at 30.5% on May 25. On iOS, the increase was even stronger, averaging 33% week over week and reaching a peak of 69.9%.
DuckDuckGo also said visits to its AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com, averaged 22.7% week-over-week growth during the same period, peaking at 27.7% on May 24. That page disables AI-assisted answers, AI-generated images, and other AI features by default. The company said the gains were especially strong in the U.S. and continued through the Memorial Day weekend, when traffic typically dips.
The company does offer its own AI product, Duck.ai, but presents it differently from Google’s approach. Duck.ai is free, does not require an account, and gives access to multiple models, including Anthropic’s Claude 4.5 Haiku, Meta’s Llama 4 Scout, Mistral’s Small 3 24B, and OpenAI’s GPT-5 mini. DuckDuckGo says chats are private because it strips IP addresses before sending requests to model providers, deletes conversations after 30 days, and does not allow chats to be used for training.
Weinberg said DuckDuckGo’s focus is both user choice and privacy, emphasizing that the company does not collect search histories or chats and does not use user data for AI training. DuckDuckGo also offers Search Assist, which provides AI-generated answer summaries similar to Google’s AI overviews, and an AI Image Filter that removes AI-created images from search results. Chief communications and policy officer Kamyl Bazbaz said both features are among the company’s most popular, suggesting users want AI tools as long as they can control whether and how they appear. DuckDuckGo says the surge shows growing demand for search that gives users choice rather than forcing AI on them.
