# What is ChatGPT search, and how is it different from a search engine?

Date: 2024-11-01 · Author: Robert Scales · https://guidetoartificialintelligence.com/en/learn/what-is-chatgpt-search/

**Answer:** ChatGPT search, launched by OpenAI on October 31, 2024, lets ChatGPT look things up on the web while you chat and answer with fresh information and links to the pages it used. Unlike a search engine's list of links, it gives a written answer you can question further, starting with Plus and Team subscribers.

Yesterday, October 31, 2024, OpenAI added a full web search feature to ChatGPT. Ask about last night's game, this weekend's weather or a company's share price, and ChatGPT can now go to the web, collect current information and write you an answer with links to where it came from.

This matters because a language model on its own only knows what was in its training data, the large body of text it learned from, which stops at a fixed date. Search gives it a way to reach today's information and to show its sources, so you can check them.

## What OpenAI launched

ChatGPT search grows out of **SearchGPT**, a prototype OpenAI unveiled this summer. The lessons from that prototype are now built into ChatGPT itself, on chatgpt.com and in the desktop and mobile apps.

The main pieces:

- **Automatic or manual.** ChatGPT decides when a question needs the web, or you can click the new web search icon to make it search.
- **Linked sources.** Answers include links. A Sources button below a reply opens a side panel listing every page used.
- **Live panels.** Through deals with news and data providers, some topics get their own layouts: weather, stocks, sports, news and maps.
- **Follow-ups.** You can keep asking, and ChatGPT remembers the conversation, so the second question builds on the first.
- **A Chrome extension** that makes ChatGPT search your default search engine in Google's browser.

Access starts with paying customers. Plus and Team subscribers, plus people from the SearchGPT waitlist, have it now. Enterprise and Edu customers get it in the next few weeks, and free users over the coming months.

## How it works

Behind the scenes, three things happen.

First, the question goes to a special version of **GPT-4o**, the model that already runs much of ChatGPT. OpenAI **fine-tuned** this version, meaning it gave the model extra training for one job: searching and summarizing. Part of that training used examples produced by o1-preview, OpenAI's newer model designed to reason step by step, a technique called distillation, where a stronger model's outputs help teach another one.

Second, ChatGPT gathers material. It draws on outside search providers, the services that index the web, and on content sent directly by partner publishers.

Third, the model reads what it found and writes a short answer, citing the pages it relied on. A comparison helps:

| Step | Traditional search engine | ChatGPT search |
|---|---|---|
| You type | Keywords: "weekend events San Francisco" | A full question: "What's happening in San Francisco this weekend for a family with kids?" |
| You get | A ranked list of links | A written summary with links |
| Next | Open pages and read them yourself | Ask a follow-up, such as "Which of these are free?" |
| Checking | You judge each page | You open the cited sources to confirm |

TechCrunch describes this kind of example: a question about weekend events might bring a summary drawn from local news sites, and a follow-up about restaurants a list of nearby options.

## The publishers' side

News organizations are part of this launch. OpenAI lists partners such as the Associated Press, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, the Financial Times, Le Monde, News Corp, Reuters, The Atlantic, Time and Vox Media, and says any website can choose to appear. Questions about election results, TechCrunch reports, are directed to sources like AP and Reuters.

The arrangement is not settled for everyone. Some publishers worry that AI summaries, Google's AI Overviews among them, keep readers from clicking through to the original articles. TechCrunch cites one study estimating that AI Overviews could hurt around a quarter of publisher traffic. OpenAI says it shaped how it chooses articles, how long summaries run and how it quotes them based on publisher feedback.

## Why it matters

For years, the routine has been simple: you search, you click, you read. ChatGPT search adds a second option, where you ask, read a summary, and click only to verify or go deeper. For quick facts and comparisons, that can save time.

It also puts OpenAI in direct competition with Google. TechCrunch calls it OpenAI's "Google challenger." OpenAI says it plans to improve shopping and travel results, use its o1 models for deeper research, and bring search to voice conversations and to people who use ChatGPT without logging in.

The usual caution still applies. A summary can misread a page or miss what matters most. The links are there so you can check, and they work only if you use them.

> **Try it:** Ask ChatGPT search a question with a current answer, such as "What is the weather forecast for my city this weekend?" Then click Sources, open two of the links and compare them with the summary. Note one detail the summary got exactly right and one it left out.

## How do you get good, checkable answers from ChatGPT search?

Ask full questions with context, the way you'd ask a well-read friend. "Best laptop" gets a generic list; a question with your budget, use and country gets a more useful one. Here is a prompt pattern that works well:

```prompt
Search the web: what are the main changes in this year's tax filing rules for self-employed people in Canada? List the three most important, give one sentence on each, and cite the official source for each point.
```

Asking for the **official** source pushes the answer toward primary pages, such as government or company sites, rather than commentary. When a topic is fast-moving, add "from the past week" to your question.

Then do the check. Open the cited pages for any number, date or claim you plan to act on. If an answer has no link for an important point, ask "Which source says this?" A good habit is to treat ChatGPT search as a quick first draft of your research: helpful for orienting yourself, never the final word on something that matters.

## Sources

- Introducing ChatGPT search: https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-search/
- OpenAI launches its Google challenger, ChatGPT Search: https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/31/openai-launches-its-google-challenger-chatgpt-search/