Users fed up with having AI pressed upon them switch to DuckDuckGo as installs surge and visits to its 'No AI 'page triple, as challenger search engine plans more 'No-ai' settings.

Just days after Google unveiled sweeping changes to its search engine at its annual I/O developer’s conference, DuckDuckGo said US app installs jumped by an average of 18% week over week between May 20th and May 25th.

It noted that growth sustained for six consecutive days, peaking at 30% on Monday – a Memorial Day bank holiday in the US.

On Apple devices, the increase was even more dramatic, with weekly install growth at 33%, reaching a peak of almost 70% during the same period.

Rebellion against mandatory AI

Traffic to the company’s AI-free search page, noai.duckduckgo.com, which disables AI-generated answers, also saw a rise in visitor numbers, averaging 23% week over week and peaking at 28% on Sunday.

The surge comes days after Google revealed plans to replace its traditional list of blue links with AI-powered tools capable of answering questions directly, completing tasks and running background monitoring for agents.

The overhaul triggered concerns from some users who feared that AI-generated summaries could surface inaccurate information while limiting user control on how search results are curated and presented.

DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg said the company believes frustrated users are actively seeking alternatives.

More 'No AI' settings planned

DuckDuckGo says that visits to its No AI search page have tripled since Google announced its latest AI-focused search changes.

The company is highlighting that users can make this AI-free experience their default search option in Chrome and Firefox using new browser extensions.

Although DuckDuckGo can be set as the default search engine on Apple devices, users cannot currently set the dedicated No AI page as their default search experience.

Given the clear appetite for AI-free search, it has been reported that the search engine plans to add ‘No AI’ search settings to its original extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera sometime in the near future.

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“Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out. As a result their results are getting worse, not better,” Weinberg said in a statement, referring to Google’s Search overhaul.

The exodus comes as it was revealed earlier this month that Google Chrome is installing a 4GB AI model called Gemini Nano on user devices without explicit permission or notification.

"Pro-choice, not anti-AI"

Google’s challenger brand, however, added that it is not positioning itself as anti-AI.

“We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want."

Gabriel Weinberg, DuckDuckGo CEO

The search engine, which launched in 2008, offers its own AI service, duck.ai, which provides access to models from companies including Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI and OpenAI, while promising private conversations that are not used to train AI models.

DuckDuckGo partly relies on search results supplied by Microsoft’s Bing search index, alongside its own web crawler and other data sources, causing some Google refuseniks to regard the site with suspicion too.

According to the search engine, Bing powers much of the underlying search infrastructure while DuckDuckgo adds its own privacy protections and ranking systems on top.

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