SearXNG
searxng · Privacy
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What is SearXNG?
SearXNG lets people search the web without handing their queries and habits to a single search company. It asks several search services at once, removes identifying data from those requests and shows the combined results without ads or tracking. Running your own instance also puts you in control of the logs, the settings and who can use it.
SearXNG is a free metasearch engine that sends your query to many search services and combines their results on one page. It does not track or profile users, and it strips private data such as cookies from the requests it makes to those services. You can use a public instance or run your own, and it does not require JavaScript or cookies in the browser.
Core capabilities
- Combine results from many search services, or pick engines and categories per search with bangs.
- No tracking or profiling, with no cookies sent to search services and a random browser profile per request.
- Add your instance to the browser search bar through OpenSearch and make it the default.
One search across many services
SearXNG is a metasearch engine: it forwards each query to a set of search services and merges what they return. It began in mid-2021 as a fork of the searx project. Bangs such as !wp or !map pick specific engines or categories for one search, and a prefix such as :fr sets the language. The project designed it so administrators can add new search engines without much effort.
- Metasearch
- Bangs
- Search engines
- OpenSearch
Privacy and choosing an instance
SearXNG does not build a profile of the people who use it. Any instance, public or private, removes private data from its requests to search services, sends no cookies to them and uses a random browser profile for each request. It also hides your search query from the sites you open from the results. The search services still see the instance's IP address, which can be routed through a proxy or Tor. On a public instance you have to trust whoever runs it, while on your own instance you control the code, the logging and the default settings.
- Privacy
- No tracking
- Public instances
- Tor
Install with a container or a script
SearXNG is licensed under AGPL-3.0. It does not publish numbered releases; the project updates continuously and ships container images on Docker Hub as searxng/searxng, mirrored on GitHub Container Registry. The documentation recommends the container or the installation script, and offers a step-by-step guide for manual setups using uWSGI or Granian with NGINX or Apache. With Docker Compose you update by pulling the new image, and the docs advise reading the migration notes first because the project changes quickly.
- AGPL-3.0
- Docker
- Docker Compose
- Self-hosted
Where it fits
Use cases
- 01
Run a private search engine for your team
Download the docker-compose.yml and .env.example files from the SearXNG repository, copy the example to .env, adjust it and start the service with docker compose up -d. Edit settings.yml to set the defaults everyone gets, and reach the instance only through your own network or VPN.
- 02
Make it the default search in the browser
Open your instance in Firefox or Microsoft Edge and add it as a search engine through OpenSearch, then set it as the default. Searches typed in the address bar then go through your instance instead of straight to a commercial search engine.
- 03
Search one source or category directly
Type a bang before your query, such as !wp for Wikipedia or !map for the map category, and chain several to combine them. Add a language prefix such as :fr to filter results. External bangs that start with !! send you straight to another site, and the project notes those searches are not privacy protected.