one year on
OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Search, Taking Direct Aim at Google and Perplexity
The feature, built on GPT-4o and integrated into ChatGPT, provides real-time web answers with citations from licensed publishers and sources such as Reuters and AP.
OpenAI today launched ChatGPT Search, a full search engine built directly into its chatbot, marking its most direct challenge yet to Google’s dominance in web search. The feature, powered by a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, serves up real-time information including sports scores, stock quotes, and news, with citations displayed both inline and in a sidebar. Responses draw on content from publishers with which OpenAI has licensing agreements, such as The Associated Press, Reuters, and Vox Media.
ChatGPT Search rolls out immediately to Plus and Team users on mobile and web, with Enterprise and Edu customers gaining access in the coming weeks and free users expected to receive the feature later. OpenAI has also released a Chrome browser extension to set ChatGPT Search as the default search engine. The company says it plans to expand search into shopping and travel over time, and eventually integrate reasoning models from the o1 series for deeper research.
The launch arrives amid growing tension between AI companies and publishers over AI-generated summaries that some argue cannibalize traffic. OpenAI says it incorporated publisher feedback on relevance and attribution. On Reddit Thursday, engineering VP Srinivas Narayanan confirmed that Bing serves as one of the underlying search services, while Sam Altman called the feature his favorite since ChatGPT’s debut. Shares of Alphabet slipped roughly 1% on the news, as investors weighed OpenAI’s latest foray into Google’s core territory.
The record
Said in a post on X that search is his favorite feature launched in ChatGPT since the chatbot's original debut, and during a Reddit AMA he described it as a faster and easier way to get information, especially for complex research queries.
In a Reddit AMA, wrote that ChatGPT search uses Bing as an important service among others, confirming the use of Microsoft's search engine.
One year later — open only if you can handle spoilers
ChatGPT Search rolled out to free users in December 2024 as planned, but early reports noted occasional broken links, and some publishers continued to express concern over traffic cannibalization. The feature has since become a regularly used tool for users who prefer conversational search, though Google remains the dominant search engine by a wide margin.