Anybody in the world can now search the internet with ChatGPT Search, after the AI chatbot’s parent company announced that the paywall was coming down for the tool.
OpenAI’s move into internet search has been one of the ongoing tech stories of the year, starting in the spring with a telltale domain name before ChatGPT Search’s official launch to paid subscribers in October.
Now a newly improved iteration is available globally and for free on OpenAI’s mobile and desktop apps for all logged-in users.
ChatGPT Search is Free to All
OpenAI has been using the run up to Christmas – it’s calling it the “12 Days of OpenAI” – to announce new products and updates, with the roll out of the Sora video generator and ChatGPT Canvas collaboration tool already featured.
The latest door of the advent calendar (in the form of an X post and a 13 minute YouTube stream) reveals that ChatGPT Search is now available to everybody, effective immediately.
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:globe_with_meridians:ChatGPT search :globe_with_meridians:is starting to roll out to all Free users today.
Search the web in a faster, better way—available globally on https://t.co/nYW5KO1aIg and our mobile and desktop apps for all logged-in users. pic.twitter.com/yf6GJGAm8b
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) December 16, 2024
It proposes to let you “search the web in a faster, better way”, with the original product launch announcement explaining that ChatGPT Search works differently to traditional search engines.
It encourage its users to ask questions in a more natural, conversational way and propose follow-up questions that ChatGPT will then use to improve and nuance its answer.
How to Use ChatGPT Search
ChatGPT Search is available on the web at chatgpt.com (the same home as the AI chatbot) or through its Android and iOS mobile apps.
On entering your query, you can either let the chatbot work out that it needs to hunt around webpages for answers, or you can specifically hit a new ‘Search the web’ button to ensure that the tool uses only up-to-date information from the web. Results are then listed in a not dissimilar way to Google, Bing and other search engines.
The launch video also demonstrates that ChatGPT Search can be set as the default search engine in your web browser and how searches can be subsequently made directly from the browser bar.
“We’re optimizing the mobile phone experience for ChatGPT search based on user feedback… we’ve seen so many users using it on our iPhone apps and Android apps.” – Adam Fry, Product Lead for Search at OpenAI
One example of the tool’s application shown in the video is nuancing a search for local Mexican restaurants with requirements for outdoor heating, using a conversational style to focus the results.
While another demonstrates using voice mode to find out about cultural events in New York City and Zurich over the holidays.
Is Google’s Domination Coming to an End?
The announcement also discusses other improvements made to the AI search tool for the universal roll out, including speed and better maps experiences. This may reassure some existing users, with ChatGPT Search’s accuracy being called into question since it launch.
It will inevitably leave Google, a company synonymous with internet search, seriously wondering about what the new few years holds and how it will retain its place as the dominant force in the field.
Its own Gemini chatbot appears to be an increasingly greater presence to give a complimentary AI overview to results produced in the traditional Google search engine.
But Google’s future is a trepidatious one, with the US Department of Justice currently weighing up its next steps in its pursuit to break up the Google Monopoly.
