Orion 1.0 ✴︎ Browse Beyond
After six years of relentless development, Orion for MacOS 1.0 is here.
What started as a vision initiated by our founder, Vladimir Prelovac, has now come to fruition on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Today, Orion for macOS officially leaves its beta phase behind and joins our iOS and iPadOS apps as a fully‑fledged, production‑ready browser.
While doing so, it expands Kagi ecosystem of privacy-respecting, user-centric products (that we have begun fondly naming “Kagiverse”) to now include: Search, Assistant, Browser, Translate, News with more to come.
We built Orion for people who feel that modern browsing has drifted too far from serving the user. This is our invitation to browse beyond ✴︎ the status quo.
Why a new browser?
The obvious question is: why the heck do we need a new browser? The world already has Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, and a growing list of “AI browsers.” Why add yet another?
Because something fundamental has been lost.
Zero telemetry, privacy‑first access to the internet: a basic human right.
Your browser is the most intimate tool you have on your computer. It sees everything you read, everything you search, everything you type. Do you want that relationship funded by advertisers, or by you?
With ad‑funded browsers and AI overlays, your activity is a gold mine. Every click becomes a way to track, every page another opportunity to profile you a little more deeply. We believe there needs to be a different path: a browser that answers only to its user.
Orion is our attempt at that browser. No trade-offs between features and privacy. It’s fast, customizable, and uncompromising on both fronts.
A bold technical choice: WebKit, not another Chromium clone
In a world dominated by Chromium, choosing a rendering engine is an act of resistance.
From day one, we made the deliberate choice to build Orion on WebKit, the open‑source engine at the heart of Safari and the broader Apple ecosystem. It gives us:
- A high‑performance engine that is deeply optimized for macOS and iOS.
- An alternative to the growing Chromium monoculture.
- A foundation that is not controlled by an advertising giant.
Orion may feel familiar if you’re used to Safari – respecting your muscle memory and the aesthetics of macOS and iOS – but it is an entirely different beast under the hood. We combined native WebKit speed with a completely new approach to extensions, privacy, and customization.
Speed by nature, privacy by default
Most people switch browsers for one reason: speed.
Orion is designed to be fast by nature, not just in benchmarks, but in how it feels every day:
- A lean, native codebase without ad‑tech bloat.
- Optimized startup, tab switching, and page rendering.
- A UI that gets out of your way and gives you more screen real estate for content.
Alongside speed, we treat privacy as a first‑class feature:
- Zero Telemetry: We don’t collect usage data. No analytics, no identifiers, no tracking.
- No ad or tracking technology baked in: Orion is not funded by ads, so there is no incentive to follow you around the web.
- Built‑in protections: Strong content blocking and privacy defaults from the first launch.
Speed. Extensions. Privacy. Pick all three.
Thoughtful AI, security first
We are excited about what AI can do for search, browsing, and productivity. Kagi, the company behind Orion, has been experimenting with AI‑powered tools for years while staying true to our AI integration philosophy.
But we are also watching a worrying trend: AI agents are being rushed directly into the browser core, with deep access to everything you do online – and sometimes even to your local machine.
Security researchers have already documented serious issues in early AI browsers and “agentic” browser features:
- Hidden or undocumented APIs that allowed embedded AI components to execute arbitrary local commands on users’ devices.
- Prompt‑injection attacks that trick AI agents into ignoring safety rules, visiting malicious sites, or leaking sensitive information beyond what traditional browser sandboxes were designed to protect.
- Broader concerns that some implementations are effectively “lighting everything on fire” by expanding the browser’s attack surface and data flows in ways users don’t fully understand.
Our stance is simple:
- We are not against AI, and we are conscious of its limitations. We already integrate with AI‑powered services wherever it makes functional sense and will continue to expand those capabilities.
- We are against rushing insecure, always‑on agents into the browser core. Your browser should be a secure gateway, not an unvetted co‑pilot wired into everything you do.
So today:
- Orion ships with no built‑in AI code in its core.
- We focus on providing a clean, predictable environment, especially for enterprises and privacy‑conscious professionals.
- Orion is designed to connect seamlessly to the AI tools you choose – soon including Kagi’s intelligent features – while keeping a clear separation between your browser and any external AI agents.
As AI matures and security models improve, we’ll continue to evaluate thoughtful, user‑controlled ways to bring AI into your workflow without compromising safety, privacy or user choice.
Simple for everyone, limitless for experts
We designed Orion to bridge the gap between simplicity and power. Out of the box, it’s a clean, intuitive browser for anyone. Under the hood, it’s a deep toolbox for people who live in their browser all day.
Some of the unique features you’ll find in Orion 1.0:
Focus Mode: Instantly transform any website into a distraction‑free web app. Perfect for documentation, writing, or web apps you run all day.
Link Preview: Peek at content from any app – email, notes, chat – without fully committing to opening a tab, keeping your workspace tidy.
Mini Toolbar, Overflow Menu, and Page Tweak: Fine‑tune each page’s appearance and controls, so the web adapts to you, not the other way around.
Profiles as Apps: Isolate your work, personal, and hobby browsing into completely separate profiles, each with its own extensions, cookies, and settings.
For power users, we’ve added granular options throughout the browser. These are there when you want them, and out of your way when you don’t.
Orion 1.0 also reflects six years of feedback from early adopters. Many invisible improvements – tab stability, memory behavior, complex web app compatibility – are a direct result of people pushing Orion hard in their daily workflows and telling us what broke.
Browse Beyond ✴︎: our new signature
With this release, we are introducing our new signature: Browse Beyond ✴︎.
We originally started with the browser name ‘Kagi.’ On February 3, 2020, Vlad suggested a shortlist for rebranding: Comet, Core, Blaze, and Orion. We chose Orion not just for the name itself, but because it perfectly captured our drive for exploration and curiosity. It was a natural fit that set the stage for everything that followed.
You’ll see this reflected in our refreshed visual identity:
- A star (✴︎) motif throughout our communication.
- A refined logo that now uses the same typeface as Kagi, creating a clear visual bond between our browser and our search engine.
Orion is part of the broader Kagi ecosystem, united by a simple idea: the internet should be built for people, not advertisers or any other third parties.
Small team, sustainable model
Orion is built by a team of just six developers.
To put that in perspective:
- That’s roughly 10% of the size of the “small” browser teams at larger companies.
- And a rounding error compared to the teams behind Chrome or Edge.
Yet, the impact is real: over 1 million downloads to date, and a dedicated community of 2480 paid subscribers who make this independence possible.
For the first two years, development was carried out by a single developer. Today, we are a tight knit group operating close to our users. We listen, debate, and implement fixes proposed directly by our community on OrionFeedback.org.
This is our only source of decision making, rather than any usage analytics or patterns, because remember, Orion is zero-telemetry!
This small team approach lets us move quickly, stay focused, and avoid the bloat or hype that often comes with scale.
Free, yet self‑funded
Orion is free for everyone.
Every user also receives 200 free Kagi searches, with no account or sign‑up required. It’s our way of introducing you to fast, ad‑free, privacy‑respecting search from day one.
But we are also 100% self‑funded. We don’t sell your data and we don’t take money from advertisers, which means we rely directly on our users to sustain the project.
There are three ways to contribute to Orion’s future:
- Tip Jar (from the app): A simple way to say “thank you” without any commitment.
- Supporter Subscription: $5/month or $50/year.
- Lifetime Access: A one‑time payment of $150 for life.
Supporters (via subscription or lifetime purchase) unlock a set of Orion+ perks available today, including:
- Floating windows: Keep a video or window on top of other apps.
- Customization: Programmable buttons and custom application icons.
- Early access to new, supporter‑exclusive features we’re already building for next year.
By supporting Orion, you’re not just funding a browser – you are co‑funding a better web with humans at the center.
Orion everywhere you are
Orion 1.0 is just the beginning. Our goal is simple: Browse Beyond, everywhere.
Orion for macOS
Our flagship browser, six years in the making. Built natively for Mac, with performance and detail that only come from living on the platform for a long time. Download it now.Orion for iOS and iPadOS
Trusted daily by users who want features no other mobile browser offers. Native iOS performance with capabilities that redefine what’s possible on mobile. Download it now.Orion for Linux (Alpha)
Currently in alpha for users who value choice and independence. Native Linux performance, with the same privacy‑first approach as on macOS.
Sign up for our newsletter to follow development and join the early testing wave.Orion for Windows (in development)
We have officially started development on Orion for Windows, with a target release scheduled for late 2026. Our goal is full parity with Orion 1.0 for macOS, including synchronized profiles and Orion+ benefits across platforms. Sign up for our newsletter to follow development and join the early testing wave.
Synchronization will work seamlessly across devices, so your browsing experience follows you, not the other way around.
What people say
From early testers to privacy advocates and power users, Orion has grown through the voices of its community.
We’ll continue to surface community stories and feedback as Orion evolves. If you share your experience publicly, there’s a good chance we’ll see it.
The road ahead
Hitting v1.0 is a big milestone, but we’re just getting started.
Over the next year, our roadmap is densely packed with:
- Deeper customization options for power users.
- Further improvements to stability and complex web app performance.
- New Orion+ features that push what a browser can do while keeping it simple for everyone else.
- Tighter integrations with Kagi’s intelligent tools – always under your control, never forced into your workflow.
We’re also working on expanding and improving our website to better showcase everything Orion can do, including better documentation and onboarding for teams that want to standardize on Orion.
Meanwhile, follow our X account where we’ll be dropping little freebies on the regular (and don’t worry, we’ll be posting these elsewhere on socials as well!)
Thank you for choosing to Browse Beyond with us.