OpenAI has announced the release of ChatGPT’s latest feature: real-time web search, available now for Plus and Team subscribers, with a broader rollout to follow for free, enterprise, and educational users in the coming weeks.
This launch moves ChatGPT even closer towards a full-fledged AI-powered search engine — without the clutter of ads. The AI model will offer direct answers, including visuals and curated web sources in an upgrade that promises faster and more accurate information retrieval than similar search tools such as Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Bing-integrated Copilot.
With this new functionality, ChatGPT can search the internet to deliver live, contextual answers to users in a more personalized way.
Real-time updates
ChatGPT search was developed with a blend of proprietary technologies and Microsoft’s Bing infrastructure, further confirming a solid relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft. The search model itself is a refined version of GPT-4, specifically tuned for internet navigation, enabling ChatGPT to pull fresh data while providing clear citations and sources for each query.
Aiming to responsibly manage copyrighted content within ChatGPT, OpenAI has established partnerships with publishers, including Hearst, Condé Nast, Axel Springer and News Corp.
These partnerships grant media companies more control over how their content appears, though no automatic priority is given. Out of respect to paywalls and user privacy, publishers can opt out of OpenAI’s web crawling if they choose.
Ad-free search
Perhaps the greatest standout feature for the latest search feature is ChatGPT’s ad-free environment, a decision OpenAI intends to keep in place for now, though have acknowledged that running real-time AI search is costly. Limits will be set for free-tier users, but OpenAI has yet to specify the exact parameters.
Another standout feature is the integration of interactive visuals. Stock information, for instance, is now presented in clickable graphs with real-time updates, while the sources sidebar allows users to scroll through verified web links, offering a more transparent approach to information sourcing.
In a landscape where AI-powered search is rapidly evolving, ChatGPT’s new real-time search feature aims to meet user demands for reliable, timely and ad-free information access across desktop, iOS, and Android platforms.
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