Kagi Adds AI Toggle, Orion 1.1 Ships with Containers

Kagi's July 2nd changelog is a mixed bag of user-requested controls, browser upgrades, and a candid admission that free AI-powered services don't scale. Here's what matters for engineers.

AI Toggle: Finally, a Kill Switch

Kagi added an option under settings/ai to completely disable AI-based search features. This is a direct response to community feedback — some users want a search engine that does exactly one thing well, without LLM summaries, quick answers, or assistant overlays. The company plans to surface this toggle during onboarding so new users can opt out before they even start searching.

The move is notable because Kagi has been investing heavily in AI (Kagi Assistant, summarization, translation). Adding an off-ramp without muddying their product narrative took careful messaging. The result is refreshingly honest: “we want to stay true to putting you in control of your search engine.”

Orion 1.1: Containers, LiquidGlass UI, and a Customizable Border

The Orion browser for macOS gets a major bump to version 1.1. Three headline features:

Containers — borrowed from Firefox, each tab is fully isolated. Log into multiple Google or GitHub accounts in the same window without cross-contamination. This is a privacy win for devs who juggle work and personal accounts.
LiquidGlass interface — Kagi built their own take on Apple's translucent window style, keeping compact tabs that Safari dropped. It's optional, of course.
Personalized browser border — transparency, solid colors, gradients, or auto-matching the website's dominant color. Exclusive to Orion+ subscribers.

Orion+ is the paid support plan that keeps the browser independent. The free tier remains, but the fancy border costs money.

The Cost of Free AI: Kagi Translate Goes Subscription

Kagi News and Kagi Translate were surprise hits — users loved reading news in their language and getting high-quality contextual translations. But the free tier burned through budget faster than expected. Kagi temporarily pulled translations, leaving only original language and English. Translate will return as a subscription service “in the coming days.”

This is a textbook lesson in AI economics: inference costs scale with usage, and free tiers are a liability unless you have VC funding or a clear upsell path. Kagi chose the latter.

Bug Fixes and Minor Updates

The changelog also lists routine fixes: dice rolling widget now supports any number of sides (d7, anyone?), coin flips, and a settings page to disable widgets individually. On the Assistant side, Kimi k2.6 was retired in favor of k2.6 Code, and several UI bugs were squashed (stop button not working, export to Markdown dropping the first half of threads, etc.).

None of these are earth-shattering, but they show a team that listens to its community and iterates fast.