DuckDuckGo launches AI free search extensions as Google users bail

DuckDuckGo dropped browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox on Sunday. They let users set their AI free search page as their default. The timing is perfect, given that Google just overhauled search to put AI front and center, and many people aren’t happy about it.

The extensions send all searches to noai.duckduckgo.com, a stripped down version of DuckDuckGo with no AI answers, no chat prompts, and almost no AI generated images in the results.

AI preferences carry over between sessions for users of DuckDuckGo’s own browser. Extensions bring the same choice to anyone who wants to keep using other browsers like Chrome or Firefox.

Users are leaving Google search

Google’s search engine is getting rebuilt around conversational AI. The company announced the change at its I/O developer conference in May 2026.

Instead of a list of links, the user now gets AI Overviews that try to answer their question directly. Follow ups get funneled into an AI Mode chat. The classic 10 blue links sit below all that AI-generated stuff now.

People responded by leaving Google. Traffic to DuckDuckGo’s no AI search page hit three times the normal levels on May 28, 2026. That’s a record since Google’s announcement. Visits have been running about 84% above baseline since then, according to DuckDuckGo.

DuckDuckGo’s app downloads have spiked, too. U.S. installs jumped 18.1% week over week from May 20 to May 25, peaking at 30.5% on May 25. iOS installs climbed even faster, averaging 33% week over week growth and hitting 69.9% at the peak.

Apptopia, an app analytics firm, found a 29% increase in average daily U.S. downloads and 12% globally over the same period.

DuckDuckGo says users want a choice

“Google is force-feeding AI with no way to opt out,” DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg said in a statement. “Their results are getting worse, not better. We want to be the place that puts users in charge and allows them to decide how much or how little AI they want.”

DuckDuckGo also plans to roll out AI search controls to its existing Privacy Essentials extensions, which already run on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera. The company still holds a tiny slice of ~2% the U.S. search market.

Google’s AI Mode, meanwhile, has crossed one billion monthly users, according to a blog post by Elizabeth Reid, Google’s VP of search. But the surge in DuckDuckGo’s AI free traffic suggests there’s a real segment of users who don’t want AI anywhere near their search results and that segment is growing.

DuckDuckGo runs AI tools

DuckDuckGo isn’t anti AI. The company runs Duck.ai, a free chatbot that pulls in models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, and OpenAI. It strips IP addresses before requests hit the providers, so users’ queries stay private. DuckDuckGo also offers Search Assist, its own version of AI generated summaries.

Kamyl Bazbaz, DuckDuckGo’s chief communications and policy officer, said both AI features rank among the company’s most popular products, even though they pull in opposite directions from the no AI search page.

“People just want a choice,” Bazbaz said.