Search engines
Type words in the address field and Acira searches with your default engine. Type a shortcut such as !d before your words to use another engine once. You can add engines of your own.
Search from the address field
Press Ctrl+L (Cmd+L on a Mac) to focus the address field. Ctrl+K and F6 do the same on both systems. Ctrl+E and Alt+D also work on Windows. The field reads Search or enter address.
- Type a web address and press Enter to open it.
- Type anything else and press Enter to search with your default engine.
As you type, suggestions appear. A row can be:
| Row | What it means |
|---|---|
| Search {engine} | Search for what you typed. |
| Open address | Go to what you typed as an address. |
| Already open | A tab that is already open. Choose Switch to tab or press Shift+Enter. |
| Bookmark | A page you saved. |
| From your history | A page you visited in this profile. Press Shift+Delete to remove it from history. |
Some rows are not pages. They only appear for certain text, and a web address or an ordinary search adds none of them, so Enter does what it did.
Answers
Acira works out these on this computer from what you type. Nothing is sent anywhere. The answer is the first row.
- A sum, such as
12*8or15% of 80. It understands+ - * / ^ %and brackets. - A unit conversion, such as
5 km in miles. It covers length, weight, volume, speed and temperature. It does not convert currencies. - The time in a city, such as
time in Tokyo. The row reads Time in followed by the city.
Choose the answer, or press Enter on it, to copy it. Acira says Copied and the value. A date, a phone number, a version number or a lone number is not treated as a sum.
Commands
Type the name of an Acira command, or its initials, and up to two matching commands appear after the row for what you typed. For example, pip finds Picture in picture, and settings finds the command that opens Settings. Each row is marked Command and shows the command's key if it has one. Choose it to run it. If a command cannot run where you are, Acira says {command} isn't available here. See Command search and all tabs for the full list of commands.
The same search box is on the new tab page.
Choose your default engine
- Open Settings › Search.
- Next to Address-bar search engine, choose Google, DuckDuckGo or Bing.
The default is Google. With two or more regular profiles an Applies to row appears: All profiles or This profile. With This profile, that profile keeps the choice. See Profiles.
If you have added engines of your own, the Address-bar search engine row is replaced by a Default search engine row that lists them all. It is used for anything typed in the address bar that is not a web address.
Search with another engine
Type an exclamation mark, a shortcut and a space, then your words. For example !d private browsers searches DuckDuckGo once. Your default engine does not change.
| Shortcut | Engine | Shortcut | Engine |
|---|---|---|---|
!g | !so | Stack Overflow | |
!d | DuckDuckGo | !mdn | MDN Web Docs |
!b | Bing | !npm | npm |
!yt | YouTube | !r | |
!gm | Gmail | !a | Amazon |
!w | Wikipedia | !maps | Google Maps |
!wiki | Wikipedia (full text) | !img | Google Images |
!gh | GitHub | !news | Google News |
!tw | X | !ecosia | Ecosia |
!imdb | IMDb | !translate | Google Translate |
If a shortcut is not found, the whole text is searched with your default engine. A shortcut with no words after it asks you to enter text.
Add, remove and restore engines
Open Settings › Search › Search engines. The group shows the engine in use. Choose More engines… to list all of them, and Show only the one in use to fold the list.
- Type an Engine name.
- Type a Shortcut keyword, for example
!wk. The leading exclamation mark is optional. - Type the Search address with %s, for example
https://example.com/search?q=%s. - Choose Add.
| Rule | Limit |
|---|---|
| Address | Must start with https, contain %s exactly once where the search text goes, and have no spaces or sign-in details. Up to 2,048 characters. |
| Name | Up to 80 characters. |
| Shortcut | Letters, numbers, underscores and hyphens, up to 24 characters. Each shortcut must differ from every other one. A shortcut is optional. |
| Number of engines | Up to 30. |
Choose Remove on a row to delete an engine. It is dimmed when one engine is left. Restore default engines brings back the built-in list of 20 and your own list is dropped. It is dimmed when you are already using the built-in list.
Address suggestions
Settings › Search › Local address suggestions is on by default. It suggests tabs, bookmarks and history from this profile. The text you type stays on your computer until you search. Turn it off and Acira stops using your tabs, bookmarks and history for suggestions.
Other ways to search
- Select text on a page, right-click and choose Search {engine} for “{text}”.
- On Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, Startpage and Ecosia results, a Preview chip opens a link in a floating preview. See Link previews.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+K to search your tabs, history and commands. See Command search and all tabs.
- AI-free mode hides AI answers on supported search pages. See AI-free mode.
Limits
- The engine you search with receives your query and your connection details, as it would in any browser. Acira does not add its own search service.
- The engine list is local. It is not synced.
- A private window keeps its engine choice until the window closes.
- If the search provider is unavailable, the context menu says Search provider unavailable.
Last updated November 7, 2026