DuckDuckGo's user base surges following AI-related announcements at Google I/O.



Following Google's enhancements to its AI search, DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search service, is seeing an increase in app installs and visits to its AI-free search page. This growth is particularly noticeable among iOS users in the United States, indicating a growing demand for a traditional search experience.

DuckDuckGo sees iPhone installs spike following AI-heavy Google I/O - 9to5Mac
https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/26/duckduckgo-sees-iphone-installs-spike-in-the-us-following-ai-announcements-at-google-io/

DuckDuckGo installs are up 30% as users reject being 'force-fed' Google's AI Search | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/26/duckduckgo-installs-are-up-30-as-users-reject-being-force-fed-googles-ai-search/

At its annual developer conference, Google I/O, the company outlined its plans to further integrate AI into search. This overhaul also introduces a new AI-powered intelligent search box, which Google says is the biggest upgrade in over 25 years.

Google Search undergoes a major overhaul with AI, now supporting multimodal input and adding agent functionality - GIGAZINE



Concerns have been raised about the impact of this overhaul on the open web, the inaccuracies in the AI overview, and the fact that it takes away the choice of users who do not want to use AI. There are also voices that perceive the Google search experience as more complex, which is believed to be contributing to the shift to DuckDuckGo.



According to DuckDuckGo, app installs in the US increased by an average of 18.1% week-on-week from May 20 to May 25, marking six consecutive days of growth. On May 25, the growth rate reached 30.5%, with an average increase of 33% on iOS and a peak increase of 69.9%.

Additionally, visits to DuckDuckGo's AI-free search page have increased, with an average week-on-week growth rate of 22.7%, peaking at 27.7% on May 24th. On this page, AI features such as AI-assisted answers and AI-generated images are turned off by default.

DuckDuckGo suggests that this growth may not be a uniform global trend, but rather a reaction to Google's US-centric announcement. They reported that user growth accelerated in the US, even during the weekend when usage typically tends to decline.



DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg criticized Google for forcing AI on users and not providing an opt-out option. He added that DuckDuckGo aims to be a place where users can decide how much AI they want to use.

DuckDuckGo itself also offers AI functionality. Duck.ai, which is free and requires no account, allows users to access AI models such as Anthropic's Claude 4.5 Haiku, Meta's Llama 4 Scout, Mistral's Small 3 24B, and OpenAI's GPT-5 mini. On the other hand, DuckDuckGo also emphasizes privacy protection when using AI. They explain that they remove the user's IP address before requests reach the model providers, and that conversations are deleted within 30 days and not used for AI training.

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in AI,   Web Service, Posted by log1i_yk