Kagi, the paid search engine behind the Orion browser, announced on October 2, 2026, that it is ending development of Orion for Linux and Windows and intends to open-source both so the community can carry them forward. The decision, published on the Kagi blog, reflects the limits of building a cross-platform browser with a team of "just a handful of developers" funded entirely by Kagi subscribers.
Orion is Kagi's own browser, built on the WebKit rendering engine rather than a fork of Chromium. It was first announced for macOS and iOS, then extended to Linux, where it was pitched as a privacy-respecting, WebKit-based option in a market dominated by Chromium-derived browsers. Kagi says the Linux launch was met with an overwhelming response: early testers filed bug reports and advocated for a WebKit browser on the platform. That community work, the company writes, "will soon belong to everyone."
Why Kagi is pulling back
The company frames the retreat as a strategic choice rather than a failure. Building a browser across three operating systems, Kagi writes, is "something usually done by companies backed by venture capital or by large open-source communities. Kagi is neither." The firm has repeatedly heard from members that they want it focused, and it agrees: rather than spread a small team across macOS, iOS, Linux, and Windows, it is putting its energy where it can do its best work.
The move also preserves the independence that Kagi has long emphasized. Orion does not fork Chromium, and the company argues the web needs more than one rendering engine and more than one company deciding what a browser should be. That argument now applies mainly to the Apple platforms.
What changes for users
For macOS and iOS, Kagi says nothing is changing except that Orion should get better. The team and resources previously split across platforms are now focused on making the Apple versions faster, more stable, and more capable, with steady improvements expected in the coming months.
For Linux, the current beta will keep working but will stop receiving updates from Kagi after October 2, 2026. Kagi does not recommend using it as a main browser going forward.
For Windows, the plan was to launch Orion in late 2026. That release "won't come from Kagi." The code will instead be made available for the community to build on, and the Windows newsletter list will receive this as its final update.
What open-sourcing looks like
Kagi says it will release the source code for Orion for Linux and Orion for Windows, and that "a lot of good work went into it." Details are promised within the next 30 days. The company has also reached out to open-source foundations and organizations about long-term stewardship, and is explicit that Kagi "won't be the core maintainer." It describes the next phase as one in which "these projects need people who want to own them," and invites developers, maintainers, and organizations to contact support@kagi.com.
What is not yet known
The announcement leaves several questions open. No license, release date, or repository location has been published; the only commitment is a 30-day window for details. It is also unclear whether the Linux and Windows codebases will stay in sync with the macOS and iOS versions over time, since the Apple releases will continue to evolve under Kagi while the other two become community-maintained. Whether any foundation or organization steps in to steward the projects is unknown.
This is a single-company announcement, and everything above is what Kagi says it will do. Independent confirmation of the plans, the quality of the released code, or the appetite for community maintenance is not available from the sources at hand.