OpenAI brings its AI-powered web search tool to more ChatGPT users

ChatGPT SearchOpenAI’s AI-powered web search experience is now live for everyone ChatGPT users — with several new features.

By default, ChatGPT will automatically determine which questions to route via ChatGPT Search, or users can tap the new “Search the web” icon in the ChatGPT interface. ChatGPT Search displays aggregated responses from various online sources, as well as “rich” content such as embedded photos and YouTube videos.

ChatGPT Search launched in October as an evolution of OpenAI’s SearchGPT prototype, opened this summer. Powered by a finely tuned version of OpenAI GPT-4o model, ChatGPT Search sports scores, news, stock quotes, etc. provides information on the Internet with links to relevant sources, where users can ask additional questions to refine their search.

ChatGPT Search was initially only available to premium ChatGPT subscribers. Now non-paying users can also access it.

During OpenAI’s Monday livestream, ChatGPT Search was also made “faster” and can now be set as the default search engine for any web browser. Additionally, there is an improved ChatGPT Search experience for mobile. On mobile devices, users can see better organized business information, including, for example, addresses (in Apple Maps in the iOS ChatGPT app) and phone numbers.

Finally, ChatGPT Search is now available Advanced Sound modeOpenAI’s real-time chat feature for ChatGPT. In the coming days, users will be able to access the latest internet information while using Advanced Audio Mode on mobile or desktop.

My colleague Max Zeff found ChatGPT Search to be a mixed bag tested earlier this year. OpenAI intends to improve the feature, which it sees as a key path for growth.

Some publishers have objected to AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT Search. Confusionand Google AI Reviewsthey say they threaten to cannibalize the traffic of the sites whose data they obtained. One study found that AI Insights can stand alone negatively impacting approximately 25% of publisher traffic due to reduced attention to links to web pages.

OpenAI says it incorporated feedback from partners to help ChatGPT Search decide which articles are most relevant to a query, as well as determine abstract length and citations for articles.