ChatGPT search
ChatGPT search allows ChatGPT to pull in the latest information from the internet directly into your conversations. This means you can go beyond the assistant’s built-in knowledge and get up-to-date answers on things like current events, market trends, competitor activity, or niche details not included in its training data.
Why it’s useful at work
Many workplace questions depend on the latest facts—things that change daily, monthly, or annually. Instead of toggling between multiple browser tabs and summarizing information yourself, web search brings those updates directly into ChatGPT, streamlining your research and saving you time. It also makes it easy to combine fresh web data with the reasoning and summarization power of ChatGPT models.
Try it out
- Open a new chat in ChatGPT.
- Ask a question that requires current or detailed information (e.g., “What are the top three AI trends in healthcare in 2025?”), or click Web Search from your tools menu.
- Look for the small globe icon 🌐 next to the model’s response—this indicates that Web Search was used.
- Click the citation links in the response to review the original sources.
- Follow-up with clarifying prompts, like “Summarize this in 3 bullet points for executives” or “Turn this into a customer-facing email draft.”
Use cases for your role
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| Research the latest social media algorithms and adapt campaign strategies. |
| Track competitor launches and industry announcements to inform roadmap planning. |
| Stay on top of new compliance requirements or vendor policy updates. |
| Pull the most recent market data, interest rates, or quarterly earnings to feed into models. |
| Research evolving workplace regulations (e.g., remote work laws, benefits requirements) and share summaries with leadership. |
Additional Considerations
- Citations: Always review linked sources before making decisions, since search results reflect what’s available on the web.
- Scope: Web Search won’t replace specialized databases (e.g., subscription research tools or proprietary data).
- Admin settings: In enterprise environments, Workspace Owners may choose to enable or disable Web Search.
Search vs. deep research
You may choose to use deep research instead of search for more complex tasks. Check out a quick comparison of the two features below: | | |
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| Quickly retrieve specific facts, documents, or recent information from the web or connected sources. | Conduct multi-step, in-depth analysis on complex or ambiguous questions that require reasoning and synthesis across multiple sources. |
| Finding the latest company press release, a product spec sheet, a news article, or a single data point (e.g., “What was the attendance at last year’s summer Olympics?”). | Exploring broad topics like “What factors influence attendance at large international sporting events?” or “How do different countries prepare for hosting the Olympics?” |
| Returns concise results, direct answers, or links—similar to a smart web search. | Produces long-form, evidence-backed summaries, often with citations, pros/cons, and reasoning steps. |
| Fast—usually a few seconds. | Slower—may take minutes or more due to multi-step reasoning. |
| Prioritizes the latest available information. Ideal for breaking news or time-sensitive data. | Uses fresh sources when relevant but focuses on contextual understanding rather than just recency. |
| Best for well-defined, specific queries. | Best for open-ended, exploratory or strategic questions with no single right answer. |
Related resources
