I’m looking at the pricing tiers and I think it’s fine. But what would probably make me adopt it instantly is if I could set a max tier and it would just ramp up the tier each month if I hit it. Ie. I set it to Professional and at 101 searches I’m upgraded to Starter and then at 301 upgraded to Professional. If I forget about it or stop using it or use it far less, I’m not just shoveling money into yet another subscription I have to manage.
This is because I don’t have consistent usage habits, and the price isn’t stopping me, the psychology of a monthly subscription I don’t use is.
Kagi automatically credits you for any month you don’t use it [1] [2]. They also charge only the price difference on upgrade [3], though personally I care about this less now that unlimited is $10/mo.
> Unfortunately this is next to no benefit. You're still paying monthly even if you don't use it. You just get a credit for a future month.
This is not true, you don’t pay if you don’t use it. I think you’re assuming “credit” means some sort of redeemable voucher, but it’s account balance that automatically covers your next bill. Then at the end of the second unused month you get a credit that covers the third month, and so on.
So if I don’t use it for six months I’ve still paid for six months. If I close my account and they send that money back to me, yeah that’s probably fine.
The thing I’m mainly on about is the UX of not having to babysit another subscription. I once had a newsgroups sub that was exactly like this and it was amazing. You’d say “I want to spend at most X” and it would just ramp up towards X tier as needed.
This is because I don’t have consistent usage habits, and the price isn’t stopping me, the psychology of a monthly subscription I don’t use is.