DuckDuckGo said its iOS app saw a sharp lift in the United States after Google’s I/O introduced new AI Search tools. installs rose an average 18.1% over six days, hitting a 30.5% spike on May 25. The surge was confined to the U.S., suggesting a reaction to Google’s US‑centric rollout rather than a global shift. internal metrics confirmed the trend across platforms.

Most of the new users were iPhone owners, with weekly growth of 33% and a peak of 69.9% on May 25. Visits to the no‑AI site noai.duckduckgo.com also climbed, averaging 22.7% and reaching 27.7% on May 24. The boost held through Memorial Day, a period that typically dampens traffic. Analysts say this reflects fatigue with AI‑laden results during the same period overall.

DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg framed the uptick as users fleeing Google’s forced AI integration, which he claims degrades results. While DuckDuckGo offers its own AI features, they can be disabled or accessed via the no‑AI domain. The episode underscores growing consumer appetite for privacy‑first search options amid AI‑heavy competition in today's market for search.