Kagi Pricing and Subscription: How to Pay with Bitcoin or Lightning
Kagi Starter is $5 a month, Professional $10 and Ultimate $25. How to pay for a Kagi subscription with Bitcoin or Lightning, PayPal or a card.
Kagi accepts crypto on its own checkout, so we don’t resell it or add a fee. Pay on its site with your own account.
Go to kagi.com ↗Kagi pricing starts at $5 a month, and Kagi takes Bitcoin itself. You pay on-chain or over Lightning through OpenNode, a Bitcoin payment processor, and the money lands as prepaid credit in your Kagi account. You then pick a plan, and renewals draw from that balance until it runs out. OpenNode payments can’t be refunded.
These are the plans and payment options on kagi.com on October 7, 2026. We found no change to Kagi’s search prices this year. The main billing news of 2026 is a separate $8-a-month Kagi Translate plan, while Translate stays included in the main plans. We don’t sell Kagi and take no cut.
Kagi pricing: plans and subscription costs
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trial | Free | — | 100 searches to try Kagi |
| Starter | $5 | $54 ($4.50 a month) | 300 searches a month, Kagi Assistant in Quick mode |
| Professional | $10 | $108 ($9.00 a month) | Unlimited searches and a larger Assistant allowance |
| Ultimate | $25 | $270 ($22.50 a month) | Adds Assistant’s Research mode and flagship models |
| Duo | $14 | $151.20 | Two Professional accounts for a couple |
| Family | $20 | $216 | Professional for up to 6 family members |
| Team | $10 per user | — | Professional level, or $25 per user for Ultimate |
Prices are in US dollars everywhere, and sales tax or VAT is added for your billing country. Yearly billing saves 10%. Kagi uses Reach as its merchant of record, so receipts say “Kagi by Reach US” and card statements show “RCH-KAGI.COM”.
Ultimate’s flagship models include Claude, GPT, Gemini and DeepSeek. On Duo and Family you can upgrade a member to Ultimate for $15 a month ($162 a year) each.
Two billing rules work in your favor. If you don’t use your plan in a month, Kagi says it “will automatically apply a full credit to your account for that month.” And on Team plans you’re only charged for active users. There’s no student discount.
How to pay for Kagi with Bitcoin
- Go to Settings → Billing → “Add pre-paid credit” (kagi.com/settings/account_topup).
- Select OpenNode and choose the amount in US dollars.
- Pay the OpenNode invoice in Bitcoin, on-chain or over Lightning.
- Go to kagi.com/settings/billing_plan and pick your plan. You’re sent to Stripe to confirm, but your credit pays and you don’t need a card.
Coins. Bitcoin and Lightning only. No official Kagi page lists Monero, Ether or stablecoins.
Fees. A user on Kagi’s feedback forum asked for Lightning to be the default because on-chain fees are high on small top-ups. Sales tax or VAT may be added when the plan is charged.
KYC. None. Kagi says it partnered with OpenNode “to facilitate privacy-preserving payments without the need for KYC,” and its privacy page lists paying in crypto as a way to stay more anonymous. Our guide to paying for AI privately goes further.
Refunds. “Payments made through OpenNode are not refundable.”
Renewals. Crypto credit doesn’t set up a subscription on its own. Stripe uses your credit first, and when the balance runs out your renewals stop, so top up before it does.
Common snags. The top-up page needs JavaScript turned on, and it may be blocked until you’ve entered a billing country. If your credit doesn’t show in Stripe, open the billing plan page (kagi.com/settings/billing_plan), the fix given on Kagi’s forum after a user’s $12 Lightning top-up showed as a $0 balance.
Other ways to pay
| Payment method | Accepted? |
|---|---|
| Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay (Stripe) | Yes, Kagi’s recommended option |
| PayPal, including Venmo and iDEAL | Yes, as prepaid credit, with PayPal’s fees added |
| Bitcoin and Lightning (OpenNode) | Yes, as prepaid credit |
| Monero, Ether, USDT or USDC | No |
| Gift from another subscriber | Yes, paid by card |
| App Store and Google Play | Kagi Assistant app only, Ultimate Monthly at $28.99 |
In-app, Kagi sells its Ultimate plan through the Kagi Assistant app. On iPhone, Ultimate Monthly costs $28.99 against $25 on the web. Apple charges your Apple Account balance before your card, though it notes that some subscriptions can’t be paid from balance. The Kagi search app for Android and Kagi for Safari don’t sell plans.
Things to know
Gifts. Kagi has a Gift Kagi option under Settings → Gifts, but “Purchasing gifts is currently limited to users with an active subscription,” and you pay by card. You then get a gift link to send. There are no retail Kagi gift cards, so a “Kagi gift card” on another site isn’t a Kagi product.
Paying for others. Besides gifts, Duo, Family and Team plans let one person pay for others. Kagi lets you use one membership on many devices “as long as you don’t share your account.”
Changing plans. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time, and your unused balance is pro-rated onto the new plan. If you cancel, the plan runs to the end of the cycle, or you can email [email protected] for a prorated refund, “no questions asked.” That doesn’t apply to OpenNode payments.
Alternatives you can pay for with crypto
Kagi’s Bitcoin route has no middleman, so pay Kagi directly if it’s what you want. If you’d rather pay with Monero or USDT, which Kagi doesn’t take, these plans are sold here for those coins and others, with our fee on top:
- Perplexity Pro is AI search with a choice of top models, the nearest thing we sell to Kagi plus its Assistant.
- Poe gives you many AI models in one app, much like Kagi Assistant’s model choice.
- ChatGPT Plus if you want an all-round assistant. ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini compares the big three.
Perplexity Pro
Perplexity
Poe
Quora
ChatGPT
OpenAIQuestions people ask
How much does Kagi cost?
Kagi Starter is $5 a month, Professional $10 and Ultimate $25, plus sales tax or VAT. Paying yearly saves 10%, so Starter is $54 a year.
Does Kagi accept crypto?
Yes. Kagi takes Bitcoin on-chain and over Lightning through OpenNode. The payment becomes prepaid credit that pays for your plan.
Can I pay for Kagi without a credit card?
Yes. You can add prepaid credit with PayPal or with Bitcoin through OpenNode, then pick a plan. Stripe confirms the subscription but uses your credit, so you don’t enter a card.
Does Kagi accept Monero?
No. Kagi’s official pages list only Bitcoin and Lightning through OpenNode, with no Monero, Ether or stablecoins.
Does Kagi have a student discount?
No. Kagi’s FAQ answers the question directly: “We do not.”
Can I get a refund from Kagi?
After cancelling, you can email [email protected] for a prorated refund. Bitcoin payments through OpenNode aren’t refundable.
Sources
- Kagi: Pricing and Privacy
- Kagi Help: Payment methods, Billing settings, Gift Kagi, Plan management, Sales tax and VAT and FAQ
- Kagi Blog: Kagi now accepts PayPal, EUR and Bitcoin (Lightning) payments, August 31, 2023, and Kagi Translate is back, September 2026
- Kagi Feedback: Balance added via OpenNode but can’t use it and Lightning as default for Bitcoin payments
- Apple App Store: Kagi Assistant for iPhone
- Apple Support: How apps, content and subscriptions are billed
What you can pay for with crypto here
Official plans on your own account. Pick your plan and your account’s country, then pay in USDT, Bitcoin, Monero or another coin.
ChatGPT
OpenAIPerplexity Pro
Perplexity