Is Ecosia European?

Verified European

Yes. Ecosia is under verified European control.

Ecosia is steward-owned: it cannot be sold for profit and no one can take profits out. In 2018 the Swiss Purpose Foundation received most of the capital but only a 1 percent veto share, and the votes stayed with founder Christian Kroll and co-owner Tim Schumacher. Everyone involved is in Germany or Switzerland.

Latest

Nothing new on file since the check on 30 October 2026. Seen news about Ecosia? Send it with a source.

Controlled by: Steward owners, founder Christian Kroll and co-owner Tim Schumacher, with a veto share held by the Swiss Purpose Foundation
Control sits in: Germany
Legal entity: Ecosia GmbH
Company register: Handelsregister, Amtsgericht Charlottenburg (Berlin) · HRB 170873 B
Seat: Berlin, Germany
Founded: 2009
Last checked: 30 October 2026

About Ecosia

Ecosia is a search engine that uses its profits to fund tree planting and climate projects. Ecosia GmbH is based in Berlin, Germany, and was founded in 2009. It also makes the Ecosia Browser.

ecosia.org

Ownership

Ecosia GmbH (Berlin) is steward-owned. In 2018 the Purpose Foundation, based in Switzerland, received about 99 percent of the capital and 1 percent of the votes, with a veto over changes to Ecosia's purpose; voting control stayed with Christian Kroll and Tim Schumacher, who cannot sell their shares for profit or take out profits.

Evidence 5

Sources were opened and read on the date of the check. Registers and websites change; if one of these no longer says what we cite it for, tell us.

Products 2

Ecosia

ecosia.org ↗

Search engine from Germany that funds conservation

Ecosia is a search engine from Germany built around sustainability. The company donates 80 percent of the surplus revenue it earns from advertising to conservation projects, and its servers are run CO2 neutral.

Instead of: Google Search and Bing
Suits: Everyday searching that funds conservation projects

Free plan

Ecosia Browser

ecosia.org ↗

Chromium browser from Germany with a green focus

Ecosia Browser is a web browser made by Ecosia, the German search engine provider. It is based on Chromium, so it behaves much like the browsers most people already use, and it is built to be more energy efficient.

Instead of: Google Chrome
Suits: Ecosia users who want a matching browser

Free plan

Operations

Who runs the parts of the service we could observe from outside, checked 4 September 2026. A provider's control can differ from where its servers stand.

Part	Provider	Provider control	What we saw
Public website	Cloudflare	Not European	A 172.64.150.71, 104.18.37.185 · CNAME www.ecosia.org.cdn.cloudflare.net · AS13335 [1] [2]
Incoming email	Google Workspace	Not European	MX 10 aspmx.l.google.com · 20 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com · 30 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com · 40 aspmx2.googlemail.com · 50 aspmx3.googlemail.com [1]
Search results	Microsoft Bing	Not European	Ecosia says Bing can supply results depending on location, device, consent and query [1]
Search results	Google Search	Not European	Ecosia says Google can supply results depending on location, device, consent and query [1]
Search results	Staan / European Search Perspective · Europe	European	Ecosia and Qwant co-develop Staan, currently one source in Ecosia's provider mix [1]

Ecosia shows which provider supplied an individual result. Its August 2026 documentation says Bing, Google and the European Staan index all remain in the mix.

Badge

Ecosia can show its verified European ownership with a badge that links back to this page. If the verdict ever changes, the badge stops working.

Embed code

<a href="https://eu-alt.eu/company/ecosia"><img src="https://eu-alt.eu/badges/ecosia/ownership-blue.svg" alt="Ecosia: European owned, verified by eu-alt.eu" width="360" height="96" loading="lazy"></a>

Also available in black and white, and as a compact badge: change blue to black or white, or ownership to ownership-compact.