DuckDuckGo subscription adds advanced AI models while keeping privacy

DuckDuckGo has reoriented its paid tier (formerly Privacy Pro) into the DuckDuckGo subscription, keeping the same pricing — $10/month or $100/year — while adding access to more advanced AI models from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta for subscribers.

Key points

• Price and perks: Subscription price and existing perks (VPN, personal info removal, identity protection) remain unchanged.
• AI access: Subscribers gain access to additional, more advanced AI models through Duck.ai. Third-party reporting lists models such as GPT-4o and others, but official confirmations vary by source.
• Privacy: DuckDuckGo says Duck.ai conversations are anonymized and not used to train future systems. The base Duck.ai remains free and does not require an account.
• Opt-out: Users can hide AI buttons in desktop and mobile browser settings if they don’t want to see or use the AI features.

Models and verification

News coverage has mentioned models like GPT-4o, GPT-5, Sonnet 4.0 and Llama 4 Maverick as part of the expanded roster for subscribers. Independent checks show Duck.ai officially offers several low-cost and privacy-focused models (for example, GPT-4o mini, Anthropic’s Claude variants and Meta Llama releases), but some of the specific advanced model listings reported in news articles are not clearly confirmed on DuckDuckGo’s public pages. We recommend checking DuckDuckGo’s official blog or help pages for the latest confirmed list.

Official links

Official details and privacy notes can be found on DuckDuckGo’s resources:
DuckDuckGo Blog
DuckDuckGo Help Center

Will you try it?

DuckDuckGo is positioning itself as a private alternative for AI chat by combining multiple providers under one privacy-first umbrella. Are you likely to subscribe for the AI access, keep using the free base Duck.ai, or skip the feature entirely? Share your thoughts below.