Generative AI on Ecosia Search

Ecosia Search includes two generative AI features: AI Overviews and AI Chat. They are designed to help you explore complex questions, brainstorm ideas, or dig deeper into a topic. As always, we’re doing it our way: putting people and the planet first.

In this article you can find answers to common questions, how to control or disable AI features, and how we handle your privacy and the environment. For more information on our general approach on AI, please have a look at our blog article. 

AI Overviews

Overview and Availability 

AI Overviews use generative AI to summarize the most relevant information from search results and link reliable sources above the Ecosia search results. The feature is powered by Staan through EUSP. It uses a Mistral-small-3.2 model. 

Deactivate AI Overviews 

AI Overviews are activated on Ecosia by default. You can switch them off in your Ecosia search settings > AI Overviews > uncheck the box. 

Or directly in the feature 

AI Chat

Overview and Availability

AI Search is a conversational AI feature on Ecosia that delivers full-text answers to your questions instead of a search results page of links. It allows you to explore topics in more depth, get explanations, compare concepts, or generate ideas — all through a natural conversation. AI Search is currently powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4.1 mini.

Using AI Search 

If available to you, you’ll find AI Chat as a separate option on Ecosia. It’s designed to assist when you need more than a quick link. 

You can access AI Chat when you start a new search on ecosia.org, from your navigation bar at the top of the page  or through your search results.

AI Chat works like any other AI assistant: you can plan trips, organize your thoughts, and research a topic in a conversational format. It’s designed to give you clear, helpful answers and support deeper exploration of your questions.

What it cannot do:

• Generate images or videos
• Share conversations with other people
• Analyse uploaded documentation (planned feature)
• Does not have a deep research mode

Enhanced AI Chat features with an Ecosia Account

We are progressively integrating AI Chat with Ecosia accounts to make the experience more consistent across devices, while maintaining strong privacy standards.

Depending on the current rollout stage, this means:

• If you’re signed in to an Ecosia account: You are able to use specific features of AI Chat to enhance the functionality such as:
  • AI Chat history
• If you are not signed in: You can still use AI Chat, but the experience may be more limited and less personalized.

Chat history

Chat history lets you  save your AI conversations. They are stored securely (encrypted in transit and at rest). Saving your chat history is optional:

• Opt in: Activate Chat history in your AI Search settings to save your chats.
• Opt out: You can turn off Chat history anytime in your AI Chat settings. When turned off, no new chats will be stored and any history you had previously saved will be permanently deleted.
• Control: You can request a copy of all your conversations or ask us to delete them. Please submit your request via privacy[at]ecosia.org

Deactivate AI Chat

Ecosia AI Chat is an optional feature to use, it is not possible to remove the button, but if you're not searching with it, you're not using it. It runs separately from Ecosia’s regular search. The standard search results on Ecosia Search are provided by our search partners.

General AI Principles at Ecosia

We want AI on Ecosia to serve people and the planet, not the other way around. That means:

• Clear principles: We design AI features to align with our core values of privacy, climate impact, and user benefit.
• Safety and compliance: We implement safeguards and moderation, and we comply with GDPR, the EU AI Act, and other relevant regulations.
• Evidence‑based changes: We evaluate performance, environmental impact, and user feedback before rolling out major changes.

As AI technology and regulations evolve, we will keep updating this page and our policies to reflect how we use these technologies.

Environmental impact of AI Search

Our AI Search is built using smaller, more efficient models which use less energy than larger ones, according to a recent study. We assessed the model’s impact using tools like EcoLogits, CodeCarbon or Hugging Face AI Energy Score. Additionally, we avoid energy-intensive functionalities like video generation or deep research. 

We generate more clean energy from solar and wind than our AI features consume. The surplus goes into the electricity grid, helping to replace fossil fuels. While we can’t yet account for the emissions generated during the AI model’s training, using our AI Search features helps accelerate the energy transition towards renewables.

Model, training and adjustments

We use OpenAI’s GPT-4.1 mini because it strikes a strong balance between performance and efficiency. By choosing a smaller, mainstream model, we aim to deliver a high-quality experience while keeping our energy and water footprint low. We believe there is a need for greater transparency around AI’s environmental impact and continue to push for change across the tech industry.

Given our business model (directing 100% of our profits toward climate action) we don’t have (and don’t want to divert) the vast funds required to train a new model from scratch. Beyond cost, training a bespoke model would also consume significantly more energy than using an existing, already-trained model.

We're also continuously exploring alternative models to ensure the experience we offer aligns with our values, including efficiency, affordability, and sustainability, while maintaining a high standard for quality. As part of our development process, we’ve implemented safeguards and moderation systems, and carefully evaluated outputs to help ensure trustworthy and responsible results.

Privacy and data use

Ecosia’s approach to privacy remains the same with AI:

• We only collect the minimum data necessary to provide and improve our services.
• We do not run services like email, maps, or payment platforms, which means we have no way to build a personal profile of you across different platforms. That’s not our business, and it never will be.
• We do not sell your personal data.

As a European company, we:

• Operate under strict privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Comply with the EU AI Act and carefully monitor new developments.

When you use AI Search:

• Ecosia forwards your chat requests to our external chat provider, OpenAI.
• Your conversations are stored in your browser’s local storage for the chat interface and, if you opt in to save Chat history, on our servers in encrypted form.
• AI is not designed to handle sensitive data. We strongly recommend you never share personal, financial, health, or other sensitive information in the chat.

Accuracy, safety, and sensitive topics

Like all generative AI, Ecosia’s AI Search and AI Overviews can:

• Be factually wrong or outdated (“hallucinate” information)
• Be incomplete or biased
• Misinterpret your question or provide confusing answers

We have implemented safeguards and moderation systems, and carefully evaluate outputs to reduce harmful or misleading content, but we cannot guarantee perfection. We recommend double checking important information and encourage users to be aware of the limitations of generative AI. 

If you see harmful or clearly wrong content, please use the feedback controls in the interface or contact us via the Help Center so we can investigate.

Support 

Why don’t I see AI Chat or AI Overviews?

There are several reasons why you might not see AI features yet:

• Gradual rollout: AI Chat is a beta feature and is only available to some users so we can test and improve it before a wider launch.
• Region: AI features may not yet be available in your country or region.
• Platform or version: Older browsers, devices, or app versions may not fully support the feature.
• Privacy tools or extensions: Ad‑blockers, script‑blockers, or strict privacy extensions can sometimes interfere with the scripts needed to load AI features.
• Network environment: Corporate networks, VPNs, or strict firewalls can sometimes block AI services.

If AI Chat or AI Overviews are not available where you are, you can continue using Ecosia’s regular search as usual.

Which AI model does Ecosia use?

For AI Overviews we use Mistral-small-3.2

For AI Chat we currently use OpenAI’s GPT‑4.1 mini

We chose our models because they:

• Strike a strong balance between performance and efficiency.
• Use less energy and water than many larger models (according to independent studies).
• Let us provide a high‑quality experience while keeping our footprint lower.

We do not train our own large AI model from scratch because:

• Training a bespoke model requires enormous amounts of energy and money.
• Our business model directs 100% of our profits toward climate action, and we don’t want to divert those resources into large‑scale model training.
• Training new large models would also consume significantly more energy than using an existing, already‑trained model.

We continuously explore alternative models to ensure the experience we offer aligns with our values: efficiency, affordability, sustainability, and quality.

How to remove or turn off AI features?

You have control over how much you interact with AI on Ecosia. Our AI features are optional to use and our generative AI is not running unless you actively use it or allow it.

Avoid AI Chat

AI Chat is separate from regular search. To avoid it:

• Don’t click the AI Chat tab or entry points.
• Use only the regular search results page, just as you always have.

Turn off Chat history

If you don’t want your AI Search chat history to be saved:

1. Open AI Chat.
2. Go to AI Chat settings.
3. Find the Chat history option.
4. Turn off saving Chat history.

When turned off:

• No new chats will be stored.
• Your existing saved chats will be permanently deleted

To delete an individual saved chat, click on the 3 dots besides the chat name and select delete. 

Turn off Overviews

You can turn of Overviews in your Ecosia Search settings.

Troubleshooting issues with AI Chat

If AI Chat appears but isn’t working properly (e.g. slow loading, error messages, or empty responses), you can try:

1. Refreshing the page and retrying your query.
2. Turning off your extensions temporarily (ad‑blockers, script‑blockers, privacy tools) and reloading Ecosia to see if they were interfering.
3. Updating your browser to the latest version.
4. Using Ecosia AI Chat on a different browser or device to see if the issue is environment‑specific.
5. Checking your internet connection and VPN/proxy settings.

If problems persist, you can contact us via our Help Center and include:

• Your browser and operating system
• A brief description of what you were doing
• Screenshots of any error messages (if possible)

Give feedback or help improve AI Chat

AI Chat is currently only available to some users. We’re actively improving our AI features and value your input. You can:

• Use the feedback option directly inside AI Search or AI Overviews.
  • Answers and reports are reviewed by our team.

• Email us at AI.feedback@ecosia.org to share:
  • Bugs or issues you’ve encountered
  • Ideas for how AI can better serve people and the planet

We can’t respond to every message individually, but we read every one and genuinely value your input.