Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo just made the AI subscription wars more interesting. The company announced Thursday that its $9.99 monthly plan now includes access to premium AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta through its Duck.ai chatbot — positioning itself as a privacy-first alternative to individual AI subscriptions that can cost $20+ per month each.
DuckDuckGo just dropped a bombshell in the AI subscription market. The privacy-focused search company announced Thursday that subscribers to its $9.99 monthly plan can now access premium AI models from the industry's biggest players — all without paying extra fees that would typically cost users $60+ monthly across individual providers.
The move transforms DuckDuckGo's existing subscription, originally launched to bundle VPN services and identity protection, into a comprehensive AI access hub. According to the company's announcement, subscribers now get unrestricted access to OpenAI's GPT-4o and the newly released GPT-5, Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4, and Meta's Llama Maverick through the Duck.ai interface.
The timing couldn't be more strategic. While OpenAI charges $20 monthly for ChatGPT Plus access to GPT-4o, and Anthropic prices Claude Pro at $20 for Claude 3.5 Sonnet, DuckDuckGo is betting users will pay half that for multi-model access wrapped in privacy protections.
"These bigger models are better at following detailed instructions, maintaining context through extended chats, and delivering deeper, more nuanced responses," the company explained in its blog post. "The DuckDuckGo subscription offers a way to use some of these models, but with more privacy."
The company's Duck.ai chatbot launched earlier this year as a free service offering access to older models like Claude 3.5 Haiku, Meta's Llama 4 Scout, Mistral AI's Mistral Small 3 24B, and OpenAI's GPT-4o mini. The premium tier now unlocks the latest flagship models that typically require separate subscriptions.
Industry analysts see this as DuckDuckGo leveraging its privacy brand to grab market share in the crowded AI subscription space. The company faces competition from Quora's Poe platform, which offers multi-model access starting at $5 monthly, though without DuckDuckGo's privacy positioning.
