DuckDuckGo adds AI chatbot access to its subscription plan
Privacy-focused tech company DuckDuckGo is broadening its subscription offering to include access to cutting-edge AI models through its chatbot, Duck.ai, at no additional cost.
Free and Paid AI Access
Duck.ai is free for all users, giving access to models such as:
- Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Haiku
- Meta’s Llama 4 Scout
- Mistral AI’s Mistral Small 3 24B
- OpenAI’s GPT-4o mini
For subscribers on the company’s $9.99/month plan, DuckDuckGo is unlocking more advanced models, including:
- OpenAI’s GPT-4o and GPT-5
- Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4
- Meta’s Llama Maverick
These premium models are designed to handle more complex tasks, offering better long-form context, detailed instruction following, and nuanced responses.
A Privacy-Centric Alternative
DuckDuckGo launched its subscription service last year, initially bundling a VPN, personal information removal, and identity theft restoration. The company says its AI integrations build on that mission:
“These bigger models are better at following detailed instructions, maintaining context through extended chats, and delivering deeper, more nuanced responses. The DuckDuckGo subscription offers a way to use some of these models, but with more privacy,” the company noted in a post.
Competition and Roadmap
DuckDuckGo’s move highlights growing competition in the multi-model access space. Rivals like Quora’s Poe already let users tap into several AI models under one subscription, starting at $5 per month.
The company also said it plans to roll out higher-tier plans in the future, which will offer “larger and more highly advanced models.” However, DuckDuckGo has not yet disclosed whether the current plan includes usage limits.
