Ecosia

Ecosia turns your web searches into trees. This Berlin-based search engine puts 100% of its profits toward climate projects, mostly reforestation. The count so far: over 230 million trees across 35 countries.

Search results come from Microsoft Bing and Google, which means solid coverage for most queries. Ecosia layers its own results on top for web, image, video, and news. Roughly 45 searches fund one tree, and a personal counter tracks your contribution.

Privacy is decent. Ecosia anonymizes your IP address within 7 days and does not build personal profiles from your search history. The company runs on 100% renewable energy, operates carbon negative, and publishes monthly financial reports showing exactly where the money goes.

The company is steward-owned, which means it cannot be sold and no owner can pocket the profits. Together with French search engine Qwant, Ecosia is building an independent European search index to reduce its dependence on US infrastructure.

Worth knowing

Search quality works well for day-to-day use but falls short of Google on complex or niche queries. Many users keep a backup search engine for those moments. Your search queries also pass through Microsoft Bing, which retains IP addresses for up to 6 months. The joint European search index with Qwant should reduce that dependency, but it is still in early rollout.