Automatically redirect search query to other search engine when run out of credit
There is a large number of search engines out there so instead of stuffing them all on the page we have selected the two largest. We are doing this as a courtesy to the free user and is not something I would spend more time building (our resources should go building features that paid users want).
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ajimix Assuming your browser multibar is your main entry into the search engine, the best solution i have found so far is to define a custom bang that in the normal use-case simply points to https://kagi.com/search?q=%s call it e.g. "!fallback"
You can create the bang here:
https://kagi.com/settings?p=custom_bangs_form
Make your kagi search engine configuration point to "https://kagi.com/search?q=!fallback %s", which basically means you will always use this bang for every single query. Because the custom bang is pointed to kagi.com, it will redirect to kagi.com without the search query and search as normal. This will not count double towards your query count (bangs generally don't).
Now, when you finally reach your search limit, simply change the !fallback bang to something like "https://duckduckgo.com?q=%s".
Because every single query done from your multibar always uses this !fallback bang, you will now automatically always search duckduckgo in an account-wide manner. Unfortunately, the switch back to kagi will not be automatic, so you will need to add a calendar reminder to do this at the beginning of your new period.
Note that because bangs are resolved recursively, this does not break compatibility with other bangs. E.g. "!fallback !ddg !bing test" will resolve just fine and end up searching "test" in bing. Bing will not resolve it further, so in !bing the bangs still go boom 
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We are doing this as a courtesy to the free user and is not something I would spend more time building (our resources should go building features that paid users want).
Vlad The post starts with "It will be quite annoying for users testing the service with $5", which would be the "standard" plan, right? I don't see how you concluded from there that this is a feature request for free users 
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This said, I am a paid user and I agree with the request: I have seen many people online saying "I am ready to pay for my search engine, but not $25". You can try to convince them that they probably won't have to pay $25, or you can offer them this feature: "Just set your limit to $10 (or whatever you are willing to pay) and a fallback. After your monthly credit is used, Kagi will automatically redirect all your searches to your fallback until the end of the month".
Maybe that would help people get started, and for those who would need the "ultimate" plan but can't afford it, it allows them to support you up to the amount of their choice. I am maybe naive, but I believe that quite a few users try Kagi not because it's the best, but because they want to support your model (at least it is my case). Maybe you should not under-estimate that.
I agree with jason. I'm a paid user and found this because I was looking for a fallback after my $10 of searches is up for the month. I think Kagi's search results are the best out there and I support the model of paying explicitly instead of implicitly with my privacy for my searches, but I can't bring myself to spend more than $10 a month for search still right now. My hope is that by continuing to pay, eventually you'll be able to bring the cost of search down to the point that I can always use Kagi.
In the meantime though I'd love to fallback automatically to another better-than-Google engine of my choice once I run out of credit. I keep slamming bug queries and other random things at work into my browser's search/address bar out of habit. I'd rather that does something useful I've configured in Kagi vs needing to change browser settings on each device twice a month to default to something else until the next billing cycle.
Vlad A setting in either settings/search or settings/billing to specify a fallback search engine if credits are exhausted. I probably would look for it in settings/billing, and expect it on the splash screen that shows up currently when you try to do a search, have no credits, and don't have a fallback set.
Vlad Rather than listing all possible options, perhaps there could be a small list of the most "popular" fallback search engines, followed by a box which would allow users to enter their own search string, like when defining custom bangs.
Vlad In general a select with 20+ items in it is not normally seen as a hard problem. How you solve it depends on your chosen design language. Personally I'd probably like a filterable select box with all 20+ of the common options alongside an option to define a custom search string for an option not covered (as MagicMouse suggested).
To me the minimum viable would be to allow this "fallback bang". Then people can just learn to setup their favourite fallback.
If you want to add a list of popular search engines, why not. It may help some users, but on the other hand it is more work on your side to implement. Anyway I think that the custom bang is necessary. Users can learn to use it, or get help from the community.
Now that we have hard limit spending, it would be interesting to set this fallback for when this limit is reached.
Vlad I think he means automatically adding a user-defined prefix like "!g " to each query.
Browsing6853 We'd like to work on getting towards a future where we do not have a notion of included searches and pay per use. It seems that just adding !g if the user wants is easy enough if they do not want to pay for the searches on Kagi at the time. But automatically changing user queries or sending users to another search engine somehow does not feel right.
Vlad I mean, there is already the hard limit. If the user reached it, they will just be stuck with the Kagi's website on every single search even though they don't want to give more money? It's not a good UX at all. If one day Kagi is unlimited for every plan, the hard limit spending won't make sense, which means you can remove it and the redirection bangs.
My suggestion now is for redirections to be an improvement and appendices of the hard limit spending.
Browsing6853 How big of a problem is this in practice currently?
Vlad Well, there's much less reason for a "search anxiety" if your searches will work completely even after spending all your search credits.
In the meantime though I'd love to fallback automatically to another better-than-Google engine of my choice once I run out of credit. I keep slamming bug queries and other random things at work into my browser's search/address bar out of habit. I'd rather that does something useful I've configured in Kagi vs needing to change browser settings on each device twice a month to default to something else until the next billing cycle.
I'm not sure what you're looking for on how big of a problem is. As a paying user, it's quite annoying. I'm not about to collapse from consternation over it, but it's annoying and I frequently forget to use a bang when I'm out of searches, hit the wall of needing to pay more, and have to search again with a bang. If it happens enough in a given pay period I'm likely to switch my browser default to not have to deal with it. If that happens too many times I'm likely to stop giving money to Kagi because the eventual annoyance of my searches not "just working" when I want them to will override my desire to continue supporting a product with good values that shows a lot of promise.
Are there significant technical challenges to allowing users to configure some sort of fallback bang? Or is there a strong desire to force people to be confronted with the "you're out of searches, pay more" message many times a pay period once they're already paying users? I'm not following the resistance to the basic form of the feature that would satisfy (it seems like) most of the people who have come through this discussion, but I'd love to understand.