Perplexity alternatives: AI search compared on who sees your searches

The Morse teamPublished October 25, 2026Facts checked October 22, 202611 min read

The Perplexity alternatives that keep the least of your searches, as of October 2026, are Morse, Duck.ai, Brave Search with Ask Brave, and Kagi, while ChatGPT search and Google AI Mode keep your questions in your account the way Perplexity does. All of them can search the web for an answer. They differ in who reads your question, what travels with it, and where the history ends up.

We read each company's own privacy policy, help pages, and pricing on October 22, 2026, and every fact below links to the page it came from. Perplexity's and OpenAI's sites refused our requests that day, so for those two we read archived copies made between September 14 and October 16, 2026, and we give each page's own date. Perplexity deserves credit for saying plainly in its help center that its training switch can't pull back data already collected.

Perplexity alternatives at a glance

As of October 22, 2026. Every cell for another app comes from the pages linked on this page.

What does Perplexity keep of your searches?

Perplexity trains on your searches by default on Free, Pro, and Max, and its help center says "previously collected training data cannot be deleted or removed" (Perplexity). It keeps your threads with no fixed end date, "for only as long as necessary," under a privacy notice last updated July 8, 2026 (Perplexity), and we take the rest apart in is Perplexity private.

Who sees your question in each app?

In every app here the question passes through the company that runs it first, and only an end-to-end encrypted chat keeps that company from reading it. After that, your question may go to a model maker or a search engine, and what travels with it differs by app. Each row gives the company's own description of where one question goes.

1. Morse: web search with no history on our servers

Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google keep your search history on their servers, attached to an account, where a training default or a court order can reach it. Morse keeps your history in your own browser, encrypted, so there's no Library or Search history on our servers to delete or to train on. Morse doesn't train AI on your content, sell your data, or show ads (privacy policy). Because we don't store chats, we usually have very little to give authorities.

The Free plan includes web search, 15 messages a day, and models like GPT-6 Luna, Claude Haiku 5.5, and GLM 5.3 Flash, with no card. Pick a mode per chat:

• Private, for everyday questions you don't want kept. Private is the default for a new chat. Morse has zero data retention agreements with its inference, search, and other providers, so they keep nothing. Where a provider confirms zero retention on each reply, Morse checks it and refuses a reply that doesn't. Our explainer on zero data retention covers what that promise means.
• Anonymous, for deep research and for GPT, Claude, and Gemini. Deep research comes with Pro, $19 a month ($17 billed yearly), and runs in Anonymous mode for now. Morse's proxy strips your account, email, and IP address, so the provider sees the question without knowing it's you. The provider may keep it for a limited time to check for abuse, under its own policy, so leave out names you'd rather keep to yourself.
• E2EE, for questions you'd ask a model rather than the web. Your browser checks the secure enclave's proof that it's genuine, then encrypts the message so only that enclave can read it, and Morse's servers relay text they can't read. E2EE runs open-weight models with no web search, comes with Pro, and rests on the enclave hardware and attestation working as designed.

Your history is locked when you sign out and takes two keys to open, one of which never leaves your device. Clearing your browser deletes it for good, and Morse can't restore it, so save any answer you'll need later.

2. ChatGPT search

ChatGPT search is open to everyone. OpenAI says web search is available on Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu, and "people who are not signed in can also use web search" (OpenAI).

OpenAI's help page also describes where the question goes next. It says ChatGPT search "sometimes partners with other search providers" and "typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries that it sends those providers," and it may share "general location" from your IP address with them. It doesn't share "the IP address itself, or any of your ChatGPT account information." If memory is on, saved memories can shape the rewritten query: OpenAI's example turns "nearby restaurants" into "good vegan restaurants San Francisco" for someone who said they're vegan. The page sends you to Microsoft's and Shopify's privacy policies for what those providers do with queries. For local answers, ChatGPT "may share your location with trusted third-party providers" of business listings and weather, and device location sharing is "optional and off by default."

Your searches stay in your chat history. OpenAI's privacy policy, updated September 10, 2026, says deleted chats are removed "within 30 days," unless they were already de-identified for training or OpenAI must keep them, for instance after "a lawful subpoena" (OpenAI). New chats train OpenAI's models unless you turn off "Improve the model for everyone" (OpenAI). The same policy describes ads "shown to Free and Go users," while OpenAI's Go help page, as archived on October 16, 2026, says it "may start testing ads in ChatGPT Go in the future" (OpenAI). We cover the settings in how to turn off ChatGPT ads. Plus is "$20/month" (OpenAI).

3. Google AI Mode

AI Mode is "Google's most powerful AI search experience," and it's built into Google Search (Google). It can draw on the rest of your Google account. Its Personal Intelligence feature "references previous searches and activity saved in your Search Services History," and can use Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Photos if you connect them. Google says it uses interactions with Search's AI features to improve them, and that "data that reviewers see and annotate are disconnected from users' accounts."

You can use AI Mode with history off, but then you "can't pick up where you left off." Deleting takes several steps. Searches deleted from AI Mode history "may still appear in My Activity for some time" and are "auto-deleted in less than 24 hours." A search that starts as an AI Overview and moves into AI Mode leaves two entries, and deleting it from AI Mode history leaves the other in your Search history, so delete it there too. Google's newest model in AI Mode, Gemini 4 Argon, is for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers 18 and over, with daily limits.

4. Kagi Assistant and Quick Answer

Kagi is a paid search engine with "no telemetry, ads, or collection of private information," and it "requires an account only because it is a paid service" (Kagi). Its privacy policy says "search queries themselves are only logged temporarily for debugging purposes," that "requests to AI tools are not saved or associated with a customer account," and that Kagi Assistant "automatically deletes conversation threads after one day" by default (Kagi). End a search with a question mark and Quick Answer summarizes the results with links to its sources (Kagi).

Kagi's Privacy Pass lets you search with cryptographic tokens instead of your login, so searches "can't be linked back to your account or to each other." It needs the Professional plan or higher, and "at launch, Privacy Pass will only be used to authenticate Kagi Search," so Assistant still runs under your account (Kagi). For Assistant, Kagi says "your data is never used to train AI models (not by us or by the LLM providers)" and "no account information is shared with the LLM providers" (Kagi). A free trial covers 100 searches and 100 Assistant interactions. Starter is $5 a month for 300 searches, Professional $10 for unlimited searches, and Ultimate $25 with flagship models such as Claude 4.8 Opus, GPT 5.5, and Gemini 3.1 Pro (Kagi). Kagi publishes how long each model provider keeps Assistant requests, which we set out in T3 Chat alternatives.

5. Brave Search and Ask Brave

Brave Search answers from "its own, built-from-scratch index," and Ask Brave adds AI chat on top of the results page, with sources "always cited" (Brave). Its privacy policy says Brave stores "de-identified search query data which includes the plain text of the search query itself," but "search queries are not grouped based on the user, device or IP address," and "we do not retain IP addresses" (Brave). If you turn on its Google fallback, Brave "will anonymously check Google search and mix the results."

An Ask Brave conversation is kept while it lasts and "automatically erased after 24 hours of inactivity," or up to 7 days if you share it publicly. The model runs on Nebius Token Factory with zero data retention, and Brave says the data "is never used for model training or any other purpose." Brave Search shows ads, which Brave says follow "the principle of privacy-first," and Search Premium removes them for $3 a month or $29.99 a year (Brave). For Brave's chat assistant, Leo, see Duck.ai vs Lumo vs Brave Leo.

6. Duck.ai and Search Assist

DuckDuckGo gives you two pieces: Search Assist, a short AI answer on the results page that cites one or two sources, and Duck.ai for follow-up questions. Search Assist shows up "often, sometimes (the default setting), on-demand, or never," as you choose (DuckDuckGo). You can change that from the gear icon on any answer or in Search Settings. DuckDuckGo says both are free "with no account required," and that its AI features "don't track how you use them or train on your data" (DuckDuckGo).

Its privacy policy, last updated June 3, 2026, says "we don't save or share your search, chat, or browsing history," and that for legal requests "it's not possible for us to provide search, chat, or browsing histories linked to you" (DuckDuckGo). Ads are "based on the search results page you're viewing." In Duck.ai, DuckDuckGo removes "all metadata that contains personal information (for example, your IP address)" before your prompt reaches the model provider, which deletes it within 30 days at most, "with limited exceptions for safety and legal compliance," and "your recent chats are saved locally on your device" (DuckDuckGo). The providers also agree not to use prompts and outputs "to develop or improve their models." The model provider still reads the prompt, so the protection rests on DuckDuckGo's agreements with it. GPT-6 Luna, Claude 4.5 Haiku, and four other models are free; GPT-5.6 Terra and Claude Sonnet 4.6 come with a Plus subscription, and Pro adds Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.6 Sol (DuckDuckGo).

How we compared them

We read every page linked above on October 22, 2026, and took each company at its written word. Perplexity's and OpenAI's sites returned errors to every request that day, so we read their pages from archived copies and give the date each page shows. Google's AI Mode page doesn't say whether AI Mode shows ads, so the table says so. We didn't run tests of any app.

Choose Perplexity or Morse

Perplexity Max costs "$200/monthly or $2000/annually" (Perplexity), and the help pages we could read don't list Pro's price. Choose Perplexity if you want Pro Search, Research mode, and its Create files and apps tools in one subscription, and you're willing to turn off AI data retention yourself. Choose Morse if you'd rather your questions never build up in an account tied to you, and want GPT, Claude, and Gemini to answer without knowing it's you.

Ask your next question from the Morse home page without an account, or start free: web search is on the Free plan.

Morse publishes this comparison. We've tried to keep it fair; if something's wrong or out of date, email hello@trymorse.ai.

Perplexity is a trademark of Perplexity AI, Inc. Morse is not affiliated with or endorsed by Perplexity AI, Inc.