OpenAI has released a search engine for ChatGPT that’s available right now on the web and mobile.
You can even add it to the Search bar in Google Chrome to use as your default search engine, effectively replacing Google Search.
Here’s what you need to know about the AI chatbot’s massive new feature.
What is ChatGPT Search?
OpenAI has essentially integrated a search engine into ChatGPT, which scours the web (primarily using Microsoft Bing) to dish up answers to your queries.
The update means the AI model is no longer hindered by its limited knowledge base, which only contains information up to a specific cut-off date (October 2023 in the case of GPT-4).
search is my favorite feature we have launched in chatgpt since the original the launch!
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 31, 2024
it has probably doubled my usage over the past few weeks. https://t.co/alD11AwUUb
By plugging into the web to complete real-time searches, ChatGPT can now surface the latest information, from live scores to share prices to the weather and more.
When you use ChatGPT Search, you’ll see citations for the information the bot uses so you can verify the sources and check for any misinformation.
As usual, the AI summarises this info in a conversational tone with blocks of text, though it may also produce images depending on the query, and you can ask it follow-up questions.
How to use ChatGPT Search for free
While ChatGPT Search is technically limited to paying users, we discovered a way to use it for free.
Despite not having a subscription to ChatGPT Plus, we managed to get it working on the web and mobile.
Firstly, on the ChatGPT app for iPhone, there’s now a new globe icon that activates the search feature when typing to the bot.
OpenAI has also released a Google Chrome extension for the feature, which sees it take over your search bar. By downloading and installing it, we wrangled access to ChatGPT Search for free.
However, be warned: doing this will direct all of your searches to the ChatGPT website. Fortunately, you can turn off the extension at any time and type the following input ahead of your query to use Google instead: "!g [your query]" (e.g. !g foobar).
If those hacks don’t work, you’ll have to fork out $24 (£18.60) per month for ChatGPT Plus. Alongside search, the subscription also gets you access to the latest AI models and higher usage caps.
How does ChatGPT Search work?
OpenAI first revealed that it was testing a prototype of an AI-driven search engine (dubbed SearchGPT) in July.
The feature is partly built on the back of partnerships with several news publishers, whose content will appear within ChatGPT. They include Condé Nast, The Atlantic, Axel Springer, and Vox Media, as well as Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp.
The deals were designed to address concerns that ChatGPT would gobble up all their traffic and consequently tank their ad revenues.
During a recent Reddit AMA, OpenAI’s VP of Engineering, Srinivas Narayanan, said the search feature relies on a “set of services and Bing is an important one” in reference to OpenAI investor Microsoft’s proprietary search engine.
More broadly, the release is a shot across the bows of Perplexity, a rival start-up that offers a free AI search engine that works in the same way as ChatGPT.
