As many know, sometimes the newer model in a series isn't necessarily better than the model it replaces. A great recent example is Opus 4.7, which is in many ways a downgrade from Opus 4.6, yet as soon as it came out, Opus 4.6 was completely removed from the Assistant interface.
And it's not like it was removed from the API, the experimental Research Assistant still uses Opus 4.5!
I guessed that the reasoning for this was in an attempt to keep the model list clean, and sure enough I found this quote from a Kagi staff member:
Rehan we're generally careful about the models we offer, as we do not want to clutter the interface with unlimited options.
This is very understandable, but at the same time, it's extremely frustrating when I can't use the model I like even though it's perfectly available in the API because it was simply removed from the interface. Obviously, once it is actually removed from the API, there's nothing Kagi can do. But that's still a long ways off, it's extremely frustrating that I'm limited in what model I can use specifically because I chose to pay Kagi instead of paying Anthropic directly! I can't even select Opus 4.5 for a custom assistant even though Research Assistant is already using it!
I've thought of three possible solutions to this issue.
- Add a toggle that displays hidden deprecated models. That way the majority of users won't have them cluttering up their UI, but if someone wants to see them they can still access them. If someone does enable the toggle though, their model list is going to get very long... so what if:
- Make deprecated models only show up in the search results but not show in the model list. I think this is a cleaner solution. The model list isn't cluttered, but if someone searches specifically for a model that they want, it's still possible to access it.
- Similar to option 2, add a dedicated button for manually selecting a model, which opens a input box where you have to enter the exact name, e.g. "claude-opus-4-5-thinking". This way neither the model list or the search results are cluttered, but if someone like me (and I'm pretty sure there are plenty of other Kagi users who would appreciate this) really wants to access a specific model, or if they had a conversation where they were already using that model and they want to keep using it, it's still possible to access it.
