AI glossary
Web search (in AI assistants)
A tool that lets a model search the internet and read pages during a conversation, so it can answer with current information and sources.
A model’s knowledge stops at its knowledge cutoff. With web search, the assistant runs queries, reads the results and writes an answer that cites them. Chat apps usually decide on their own when to search; in the API it is a tool you enable.
Results are only as good as the pages found, and the model may summarise them imperfectly. For anything important, open the sources.
Example: You ask “how much does Claude Pro cost today?”. Without search, the model may give you an old price; with search, it checks the pricing page and gives you the current figure with a link.
In practice
- Turn it on for anything recent: news, prices, versions or laws.
- Ask it to prefer official sources.
- Check that the link says what the summary claims.
More on when to trust answers: hallucinations and privacy.
