When I was using a search engine to find resources for a class, I noticed that I was taking a lot more vision breaks and struggling with visual fatigue more often than before. A major reason for this was the visually cluttered search results page, which was filled with AI summaries, low-quality content, ads, auto-play content that ignored my device settings, and a condensed visual layout that made it more challenging to read individual results. I was using so much of my energy to look at useless content that it made it challenging to focus on the things that I actually needed. Strategies like text-to-speech help with reading, but I was still encountering issues with browsing search results.
I noticed a huge improvement when I switched to using Kagi, a paid search engine that offers ad-free search and a wide variety of customizations and accessibility features as part of their user-focused search experience. I hadn’t realized how much the visual clutter from search engine pages was weighing on me until it was eliminated, and I have been mentioning Kagi to almost everyone I know since then. Here is an overview of my experience using Kagi Search with low vision, including tips for using Kagi search tools and information about Kagi accessibility for low vision.
Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by Kagi and I have no affiliation with the company; Kagi does not have referral links or affiliate links. I personally pay for my own Kagi subscription and discovered while writing this post that someone else had included Veroniiiica in Kagi’s Small Web list of curated links, which was a lovely surprise!
Overview of Kagi and pricing
Kagi is a paid, ad-free search engine funded entirely by user subscriptions rather than advertisers, which means results are ranked on quality instead of spamming SEO keywords or paid link placements. Because there are no ads and no tracking-based monetization, the results page is dramatically less cluttered compared to free search engines, making it easier to find relevant information and providing users with control over their browsing experience. Kagi is often shared as a Google search alternative or Bing search alternative.
Kagi offers a free trial and several paid plan tiers, including:
- Trial (free): 100 total searches and standard AI access.
- Starter ($5/month): 300 searches per month and Kagi Assistant with Quick mode.
- Professional ($10/month): Unlimited searches and a larger monthly Kagi Assistant allowance with Quick mode.
- Ultimate ($25/month): Everything in Professional, plus Kagi Assistant with Research mode and access to flagship AI models.
- Family and Team plans are also available for households and organizations respectively.
In addition to offering discounted annual plans, Kagi has a “Fair Pricing” policy. If a user doesn’t use Kagi searches or AI tools during a given month, the cost of the plan will be credited back to their account so that they are not charged for a service that was not used. Users can also downgrade plans (such as going from Professional to Starter) and have their account credited with the pricing difference.
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Kagi Search tools and customizing search results
The Kagi search bar functions in a similar way to other search engines, but the results page itself is much easier to navigate. There are no display ads, no auto playing media, no sponsored results, and no misleading AI summaries pushed to the top; just ranked links with clean spacing. Kagi does have an optional Quick Answer feature for generating summaries of results, but this is hidden by default. Users can customize Kagi Search results to match their own preferences and access needs.
Some of my favorite tools for customizing search results include:
- Lenses are saved filters that narrow results to certain types of sources. Built-in lenses include Forums (results from online communities and Reddit), Academic (results from academic institutions), Programming (coding sites and forums), and more. Custom lenses can also be created with specific included websites, regions, and other parameters; I created lenses for various topics related to low vision and assistive technology. Lenses can be created in Settings > Search > Lenses.
- Block, lower, raise, and pin domains. Each result has a shield icon that opens controls to block a site entirely, lower its ranking, raise it, or pin it to the top of future searches. These personalization choices exist inside the Kagi account, are not shared across the web, and can be configured in Settings > Search > Personalized Results.
- Kagi offers several options for searching websites with Bangs; typing !w redirects the search to Wikipedia. Custom bangs can also be created as shortcuts to favorite sites, and I use bangs to quickly search information on Veroniiiica, on my university’s website, and on other websites I visit frequently. Bangs are configured in Settings > Search, and custom Bangs can be created in Settings > Search > Advanced.
- Users can configure the visibility of widgets in search results, including inline images, videos, listicles, news headlines, and more in Settings > Search > Search Widgets.
Something else that I really like about Kagi search results is that they often integrate blogs and non-commercial “small web” results, which is especially helpful when researching information about accessibility and assistive technology. Instead of reading ten websites that share the same low-quality GenAI posts, Kagi displays results that include a mix of developer documentation, user perspectives, posts on forums/social media, and other articles that might be hard to find on other search engines or may not be included on the first few pages of results. Plus, I can block websites with low-quality results or unwanted content from appearing in future searches, or highlight specific websites I would like to have prioritized in the future.
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How to set Kagi Search as default search engine
Kagi can be set as the default search engine in every major browser, including on desktop, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android devices; the Kagi extension may be required for some browsers like Safari. I personally have enabled Kagi for myself or for other users on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Brave across multiple platforms. The Kagi help documentation provides step-by-step instructions for each browser; I typically use the manual configurations option.
For browsers that allow manually adding a custom search engine, use the following URLs:
A helpful in-search shortcut to know is the !help bang, which opens Kagi’s documentation directly. Searching !help setting default search engine automatically opens the relevant help page.
Setting Kagi as the default search engine for Google Chrome
Browser extension for Google Chrome
- Launch Google Chrome.
- Install the Kagi Search extension from the Chrome Web Store by selecting Add to Chrome.
- When prompted to confirm, select Add extension.
- Select the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome’s toolbar (the Extensions menu), then select the Pin icon next to Kagi Search for Chrome.
- Select the Kagi icon in the toolbar. If a message appears saying No Kagi session found, select Let’s go! and log into Kagi if prompted
Manual configuration for Google Chrome
- Right-click the Chrome address bar and choose Manage Search Engines and Site Search.
- In the Site Search section, click Add and fill in the following:
- Name: Kagi
- Shortcut: k
- URL: `https://kagi.com/search?q=%s`
- Find Kagi in the Site Search list (click Additional sites if it is not immediately visible).
- Select the three dots next to the Kagi entry.
- Select Make default.
Setting Kagi as the default search engine for Microsoft Edge
Browser extension for Microsoft Edge
- Launch Microsoft Edge.
- Install the Kagi Search extension from Edge Add-Ons
- When prompted to confirm, select Add extension.
- Select the puzzle-piece icon in Edge’s toolbar, then pin the Kagi extension.
- Select the Kagi icon in the toolbar and log in if prompted.
Manual configuration for Microsoft Edge
- First, perform a search on kagi.com from the Edge address bar. This registers Kagi as a known search engine.
- Go to Settings (the three-dot menu) > Privacy, search, and services > scroll down to Address bar and search > select Manage search engines.
- Find Kagi in the list, select the three dots next to it, and select Make default.
Note: Edge has been known to revert the default search engine back to Bing after browser updates. If Kagi stops working as the default after an Edge update, the steps above may need to be repeated; I mostly notice this on my Android phone.
Setting Kagi as the default search engine for Firefox
Browser extension for Firefox
- Launch Firefox.
- Install the Kagi Search extension from Firefox Add-ons and select Add to Firefox.
- When prompted, check Allow this extension to run in Private Windows, then select Add.
- In the next dialog, check Pin extension to toolbar and select OK.
- When asked “Kagi Search for Firefox would like to change your default search engine from Google to Kagi. Is that OK?”, select Yes.
- Select the Kagi icon in the toolbar. When Kagi’s Privacy Notice appears, select Allow access.
- If a message appears saying No Kagi session found, select Let’s go! and log in if prompted.
Manual configuration for Firefox
- Open kagi.com in Firefox, then right-click the address bar and select Add Kagi Search.
- Type `about:preferences#search` in the address bar and press Enter.
- Scroll to Default Search Engine and select Kagi from the dropdown.
Using Kagi in private/incognito mode in any browser.
For Kagi to work in private/incognito windows, a private session link (which embeds an authentication token in the search URL) is needed instead of the standard URL. The token can be found in Settings > Account > Private Link.
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Kagi for low vision: Accessibility settings and visual customizations
The Appearance section of Settings offers several options for configuring Kagi Search for low vision and setting display customizations to reduce visual clutter. The available options include:
- Theme: System Default, Light, or Dark. The setting is stored separately for mobile and desktop, which is useful when different environments call for different contrast.
- Default Light theme: Choose between Kagi Light (default) and Old School Light.
- Default Dark theme: Choose between Kagi Dark (default) and Old School Dark.
- Font sizes. Small, Medium, Normal, Large, or Larger, also stored separately for mobile and desktop.
- Show Results. Align results to the left or to the center of the screen, which can help reduce eye movement when paired with screen magnification.
- Show URL Favicons. Display a favicon next to the result title, next to the URL, or not at all.
- URL Display Style. Show the full URL or a shorter breadcrumb view (for example, help.kagi.com > kagi > index.html).
- URL Placement. Place the URL above or below the result title, which can affect scanning order.
For my own setup, I use the Larger font size, a dark theme, left-aligned results, and breadcrumb URLs placed below the result title; in full transparency, I haven’t decided which URL display style I like the best, so I’ve been alternating between options every few days. The combination produces a results page that is predictable and far easier to read with a screen magnifier or browser zoom than a standard search engine. Kagi also includes an option that attempts to remove AI-generated photos from image results, which is another feature that helps with reducing visual fatigue from filtering low-quality results.
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Kagi for low vision: Custom CSS
My absolute favorite Kagi feature is the Custom CSS editor, which is located within Appearance settings and is available across all Kagi plans. Custom CSS allows full visual customization of Kagi’s search and landing pages, with a limit of 40,000 characters including whitespace. Custom CSS does not apply to the Settings pages themselves.
For anyone unfamiliar with CSS, Cascading Style Sheets is a scripting language used to style web pages, controlling things like font sizes, colors, spacing, and whether an element is shown or hidden. A small CSS snippet can hide or restyle individual pieces of the results page without affecting anything else.
The Kagi help documentation gives a simple starter example for hiding the AI summary boxes that sometimes appear at the top of search results. Pasting the following snippet into the Custom CSS editor and clicking Apply Custom CSS, then refreshing the page, removes those boxes entirely:
.searchResultAnswers { display: none; }
The same pattern of .classname { display: none; } can be used to hide other elements that are not helpful for a particular workflow. Beyond hiding elements, CSS can also be used to increase line spacing between results, raise font weight, change link colors for higher contrast, or enlarge spacing around clickable areas. For students with CVI, Custom CSS can make a profound difference in improving visual accessibility, decreasing visual clutter, and providing several options for incorporating preferred colors and display customizations.
Kagi theme for low vision created by Veroniiiica
While it is not perfect, I linked my current Kagi custom CSS configuration for low vision below, which mimics my high contrast preferences and can be copy and pasted into the custom CSS field on Kagi. This is not the only option for accessing Kagi Search with low vision, and may not reflect the access needs or preferences of all users with low vision; that said, users can use this as a template to modify their own custom CSS.
It is worth noting that I intentionally did not set the text at a fixed size (e.g. 32px) because I have different default browser zooms configured on my phone, iPad, and both of my computers. Another setting I considered was setting a maximum character length (e.g. max-width: 40ch;) for the result title links and snippet text, which can be helpful for some people with double vision or visual field neglect, but I ultimately removed this from my personal configuration.
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Kagi keyboard shortcuts
Kagi also offers several keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys that make it easier to navigate search results. Users can also press ? (Shift + /) at any time on a Kagi search results page to view shortcuts directly in Kagi.
- ?: Toggle open/close the keyboard shortcut help screen
- J or Down Arrow: Move highlight down a result
- K or Up Arrow: Move highlight up a result
- H or Left Arrow: Move left within horizontal inline content, or change boost/ban status in site info modal
- L or Right Arrow: Move right within horizontal inline content, or change boost/ban status in site info modal
- Enter: Go to highlighted result (or open first result)
- /: Focus the search bar
- Escape: Reset highlight scroll state to first result, or close site info modal
- Shift + ~: Open Control Center
- S: Open site info modal on the currently highlighted result (or close it if already open)
- W: Open web search tab
- I: Open images tab
- V: Open videos tab
- M: Open maps tab
- N: Open news tab
- ]: Cycle forward between navigation tabs
- [: Cycle backwards between navigation tabs
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More tips for using Kagi Search with low vision
Published May 20, 2026. Updated May 2026