Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Pelorus doesn't have them. Each search opens a stack of cards, one per engine, and those cards live only until you tap Erase or start a new search. There is no history to clear and no tab list to tidy, because nothing is written down. If you want a page later, share it, send it to Notes, or export it before you erase.

If you turned on Erase When Switching or Closing Apps, your cards also vanish after the delay you chose when you leave the app. Your settings, engines, and presets are never touched by Erase.

Yes, for sites you choose. Erase signs you out of everything by default, which is the point. If there is a site you would rather not log in to every time, open the shield on its card and turn on Keep Me Signed In (the same switch is in Tracking Details). A kept site holds on to its cookies and local storage across Erase so you stay logged in; its cached files are still cleared, and every other site is still wiped. Keeping a site means it can still recognize you between sessions and its own analytics stay until you remove it or clear its data, so it is a deliberate exception, and the list ships empty. Manage it, inspect what each site has stored, or clear one site at a time under Settings > Privacy & Security > Site Data. Managing Site Logins has the full account.

Both, and neither in the usual sense. Pelorus has no index of its own; it sends your query to real search engines and shows you their actual results pages, side by side. It is also a full browser: tap a result and the page opens right there, links work, back works. What it adds is the comparison, and the ranking by how many independent engines agreed.

No. Pelorus has no backend that sees what you search, and there is no account, no analytics, and no crash reporting. The one thing the app ever fetches from us is the optional Pelorus Voices download, which tells us nothing about you. Your query goes to the engines you turned on, exactly as it would from any browser, and to nobody else. Settings stay on your device, and API keys, if you add any, live in the iOS Keychain.

Two things are worth knowing. Search suggestions are off by default because they send what you type as you type it. And on-device AI never sends anything anywhere, while using your own API key sends the query and results to the provider you chose. The privacy policy lists every case in which anything leaves your phone, and Privacy and Security has the same list as a table.

Pelorus reads each engine's real results page, and engines differ in how much they show and how readable they make it. Some hide where links go, some answer with a human check, and some turn embedded browsers away entirely. The Engine Status page says what to expect from each one right now, and the info button on the Unified card says which engines counted in this search.

The engine served a check instead of results. Pelorus never retries these on its own and never passes them for you. Pass the check on the card, or tap Open in Safari, pass it there, and search again. Some engines ask every time they see a new device, and a few ask on every visit.

Firefox Focus gives you one engine, one page, and an erase button; Pelorus keeps that shape and adds every engine at once, plus a list of where they agree. The DuckDuckGo app is a single engine. Safari's private mode stops history being saved but keeps tabs open until you close them, and it has no button that destroys everything in the app at once. Pelorus is built around that button.

Unified Search takes every result the engines returned and merges them into one list. The same page found by several engines becomes a single entry, and its place in the list depends mostly on how many engines found it on their own, with each engine's own ranking counting for a little, and a result found deep in an engine's results counting for less than one it put near the top. A page four engines put in their top five finishes above a page one engine ranked first, because agreement is stronger evidence than placement. Tap Explain on the card for the full account.

Not every engine has its own index of the web. DuckDuckGo shows Bing's results, and Startpage shows Google's. When two engines share an index, their agreeing is one opinion twice, so Pelorus groups them and counts the index once. The agreement counts you see are counts of indexes, not of engines, which is why they can be smaller than the number of engines you turned on.

No. Each card is the engine's own results in the engine's own order, and you can page through it freely. Doing that never changes the Unified list, its counts, or anything computed from them, because every engine has to be asked for the same number of pages for the counts to mean anything. Search Deeper, at the foot of the Unified card, asks every engine for its next page at once. Advanced Searching explains it.

Duplicates collapse into one entry, and only engines whose pages Pelorus can read are ranked. The info button on the Unified card lists which engines counted, which contributed without counting, and which couldn't be read.

Yes. Touch and hold any result in the Unified list and choose Boost, Bury, or Block for that site. The rule applies to every search from then on and lives under Settings > Search > Unified Search. Boost and bury move a site within its agreement group only, so a boosted page one index found never outranks a page three indexes found. Domain rules are part of Pelorus Unlimited.

Only if you turn it on. AI features are off on a fresh install, and nothing is sent to any model until you turn on Enable AI Features under Settings > Search > AI Provider. With AI on, the answer is written on the device or by a provider you supply a key for, from the results of your own search and nothing else, with its sources under it. Using (or Not Using) AI Synthesis covers both choices.

Yes. Open any article, choose Reader from the Pelorus button, and tap play. Read Aloud uses the voices already on your device or the Pelorus Voices, a free download that runs on the device. Playback continues when you lock the phone, with controls on the Lock Screen. Reading and Listening covers it.

Everything about privacy is free: ephemeral browsing, Erase, tracker blocking, Face ID lock, app-switcher shielding. So is Unified Search in full, with no result cap and no degradation, along with Reader, export, send to, the time filter, and presets. The free tier fans a search out to a limited number of engines at once; a shortcut or Search Using still reaches any single engine.

Pelorus Unlimited removes the engine limit and adds custom engines, domain boost, bury, and block, per-engine weights, the consensus and disagreement filters, site-scoped Unified Search, Pelorus Insights, every AI feature (AI Synthesis with Pelorus Cross-Check and formal citations, at the length you choose, through ten providers on device or with your own API key, or your own OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and page summaries), custom app icons, and color personalization: extra accent colors or a custom accent color, and your own Titles, Body, Details, and Link Color text colors set per theme.

No. Pelorus Unlimited is a one-time purchase. There is no subscription, no recurring charge, no ads, and no account. The free tier never expires and never degrades: use Pelorus free for as long as you like. The purchase screen in the app shows the current price.

You don't need to log in to anything, because Pelorus has no accounts. The purchase belongs to your Apple ID, so on a new device that is signed into the same Apple ID, open Settings in Pelorus, go to About, and tap Restore Purchase. Apple confirms the purchase and everything unlocks. The same button is on the unlock screen. If it says no purchase was found, check that the device is signed into the Apple ID that bought it.

Through Apple. Pelorus never handles payment and holds no record of your purchase, so we can't issue or see refunds. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with the Apple ID that bought it, and request a refund for Pelorus Unlimited.

Pelorus is for iPhone and iPad today. The homepage says what is planned for the Mac.

Each tip shows once. Settings > General has a control that resets them so they show again the next time you use each feature.