Why the backtracking on this?
Kagi publicly committed to supporting anonymous payment methods. This wasn't speculation it was on their roadmap, discussed by their team, and became part of the value proposition privacy-conscious users factored into their decision to subscribe and evangelize the service.
The current position: "It's difficult, show us interest in this forum thread, and maybe we'll prioritize it."
This is problematic on multiple fronts.
Difficulty Is Not What It Used to Be
We're in 2026. LLMs can put together complex payment integrations in hours. BTCPay Server exists. Monero payment gateways are mature. The "technical difficulty" argument would have been more credible in 2019. Today, it reads as prioritization, not capability-which is fine to admit, but should be stated plainly rather than dressed up as an engineering constraint.
The Feedback Loop Is Broken by Design
Directing users to an obscure forum thread to "show interest" is a self-defeating mechanism:
- The thread doesn't surface on Kagi's own search engine for queries like "kagi anonymous payments" or "kagi privacy pass"
- Most users who care about anonymous payments are precisely the users least likely to create yet another account to post in a forum
-This creates a selection bias where measured "interest" systematically undercounts actual demand
If you're going to gate a feature on demonstrated interest, the interest mechanism needs to be discoverable and low-friction. Otherwise you're measuring your forum's SEO, not user demand.
The Brand Integrity Problem
Kagi's entire identity is built on a few core premises:
- We don't sell your data
- We exist for users, not advertisers
- Privacy matters
- We do things because they're right, not just profitable
Privacy Pass exists. Kagi built an entire system so users can search without Kagi knowing who they are. This is genuinely impressive and rare.
But here's the contradiction: You can search anonymously, but you cannot pay anonymously.
The privacy chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If I must attach my identity to payment, the anonymous search is security theater for anyone with subpoena power or a data breach. The threat model Privacy Pass addresses is undermined at the payment layer.
This isn't about whether 5% or 0.5% of users want this. It's about whether Kagi's privacy claims are architecturally coherent or marketing copy.
The Gather "Enough Interest" Framing Misses the Entire Point
Some features aren't about volume-they're about credibility. A privacy-focused service offering anonymous payments isn't primarily a user acquisition play. It's proof of concept. It's the answer to "do you actually believe what you say?"
Every privacy-focused company gets asked: "If you really don't need my data, why do you need my identity?" The companies that can answer "you're right, here's how to pay anonymously" occupy a different tier of trust than those who say "we'd like to, but it's hard."
The Advocacy Tax
Your most passionate advocates.. the ones posting about Kagi on forums, convincing friends to switch, answering the inevitable "but can I pay anonymously?" questions-are now in an awkward position. The answer used to be "not yet, but it's coming." Now it's "post in this thread no one can find so we dismiss you in a publicly acceptable way.”
That's not an answer. That's a deflection. And it makes advocates look naive for having repeated Kagi's earlier commitments.
The Interest Measurement Is Doomed
Let's face it.. the user journey Kagi is offering here in order to gauge interest sucks:
Step 1: User wants anonymous payments, searches "kagi anonymous payments" on Kagi.
- The feedback thread doesn't appear. Kagi's own search engine doesn't surface the mechanism Kagi says demonstrates interest.
Step 2: User somehow finds the forum anyway (email support reply, luck, third-party search).
- Their Kagi credentials don't work. The forum is on a separate domain (
kagifeedback.org) with its own auth system.
Step 3: User must create a new account to post in a dead forum thread just to prove they want it.
- This account isn't tied to their paying customer status. A non-customer's vote counts the same as a multi-year subscriber's. Users do not feel valued.
Step 4: User posts in thread, hoping others will navigate this same maze, stick around through the end, and somehow properly express themselves beyond "yes I want it too." The whole process feels worse and worse at every turn.
This isn't measuring interest. It's measuring a person’s willingness to overcome arbitrary friction. It's designed to fail from the start. It feels like something google or Microsoft designed, not kagi.
The population most likely to complete this journey is the intersection of {people who care about anonymous payments} ∩ {people who don't mind creating yet another tracked account to ask for anonymity} ∩ {people persistent enough to find something Kagi's own search doesn't show them}.
Do you see how tiny that segment is? That's not a real sample. It’s just a filter designed to minimize engagement. It comes across like Kagi created this merely to have a way to say that they tried.
If Kagi genuinely wanted to measure interest, they could:
Add a toggle in account settings: "I would use anonymous payments if available"
Include it in their email blasts
Surface the feedback thread when users search for it on their own product
A million other ways to more easily engage with users
The current approach has the structure of a decision that's already been made, with a justification that masquerades as user research but in practice functions as user dismissal.
Ship anonymous payments. Not because the volume justifies it. Because:
- You said you would?
- Its technically a lot easier in 2026
- It completes the privacy story you're already telling
The cost of not doing it is measured in credibility, not subscriptions
If the honest answer is "we've deprioritized this and it's not coming," just say that and let me tell people I don’t have an answer but they should email ya’ll instead. Users can make informed decisions. But the current "show us interest in a place we've made hard to find" approach satisfies no one and erodes trust in a company that has worked hard to earn it.
Signed:
Multi-year paying subscriber who has actively promoted Kagi and would like to continue doing so with a clear
