They could do the SaaS model and give you an API key or unique URL allowing up to 10000 searches per month which you could share with friends/your company
That's probably a worse business model, but it would be really interesting to hear what other monetization ideas Kagi considered or is considering.
Works at an enterprise level (e.g. exchange rate providers) but would be a bad fit for a B2C product.
Managing customer expectations on api key usage (esp. if that key is publicly visible e.g. URL parameter vs. HTTP header) is not worth it unless you have higher-priced products.
Also api keys would mean you might have to prevent re-selling, etc. Furthermore, they could still analyze api key usage to get the same historical data on you as if you logged in.
That's missing the point. If the same API key is used by 1000 people at a company, you don't have the expected 1:1 mapping of search terms to individuals with an account.
An individual account which isn't permitted to be shared is different.
That's probably a worse business model, but it would be really interesting to hear what other monetization ideas Kagi considered or is considering.