Anthropic's Claude AI Chatbot Gains Web Search Capabilities, Catching Up to Competitors

Anthropic's new AI search feature digs through the web for answers

On Thursday, Anthropic introduced web search capabilities for its AI assistant Claude, enabling the assistant to access current information online. Previously, the latest AI model that powers Claude could only rely on data absorbed during its neural network training process, having a "knowledge cutoff" of October 2024. Claude's web search is currently available in feature preview for paid users in the United States, with plans to expand to free users and additional countries in the future. After users enable the feature in their profile settings, Claude will automatically determine when to use web search to answer a query or find more recent information. The new feature works with Claude 3.7 Sonnet and requires a paid subscription. The addition brings Claude in line with competitors like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT, which already offer similar functionality. ChatGPT first added the ability to grab web search results as a plugin in March 2023, so this new feature is a long time coming. "This was sorely needed," wrote independent AI researcher Simon Willison on his blog. "ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok all had this ability already, and despite Anthropic's excellent model quality it was one of the big remaining reasons to keep other models in daily rotation." Interestingly, the web search feature seems somewhat "agentic" in the sense that it can autonomously loop through several attempts at searching the web to drill down for an answer -- you might call it a very simplified version of the "Deep Research" agent trend that recently came to Google Gemini and ChatGPT. Anthropic positions the web search feature as potentially good for various use cases, including for "sales teams" doing account planning, "financial analysts" assessing market data, "researchers" building grant proposals, and "shoppers" comparing prices and features of products. Anthropic's blog mentions, "Sales teams can transform account planning and drive higher win rates through informed conversations with prospects by analyzing industry trends to learn key initiatives and pain points," which sounds like Claude may have had a hand in writing about itself.

Anthropic appears to be using Brave to power web search for its Claude chatbot | TechCrunch

Earlier this week, Anthropic rolled out a web search feature for its AI-powered chatbot platform, Claude, bringing the bot in line with many of its rivals. It wasn't immediately clear which search index might be powering the feature -- one possibility was that Anthropic had developed its own. But evidence suggests it's Brave Search, the search engine maintained by browser developer Brave. As spotted by software engineer Antonio Zugaldia on Friday, Anthropic added "Brave Seach" to the "subprocessor list" in its documentation this week -- the list of Anthropic partners who process Claude data. British programmer Simon Willison reports that at least one search in Claude and Brave returned identical citations. Willison also found that Claude's web search function contains a parameter called "BraveSearchParams." We've reached out to Anthropic and will update this post if we hear back. Brave underpins at least one other chatbot's search functionality: Mistral's Le Chat. In February, Brave and Mistral announced that Le Chat, Mistral's chatbot platform, would use Brave's search API for live web results. Some AI companies keep info about their search index partnerships close to the chest, possibly for competitive reasons. OpenAI has a partnership with Bing, but uses other undisclosed sources to power the search experience in ChatGPT, as well.

Anthropic's chatbot now has web search

Kylie Robison is a senior AI reporter working with The Verge's policy and tech teams. She previously worked at Fortune Magazine and Business Insider. Anthropic just gave its chatbot, Claude, a long-awaited upgrade: web search. The company announced Wednesday that web search is now available for paid US users in a "feature preview," and to enable it, users need to toggle web search on in their profile. Anthropic's product lead for Claude, Scott White, told The Verge the the company plans to expand to free users and more countries in the "next couple of weeks." With web search integration, Claude can now pull in current data from across the internet, making it more useful for tasks that require up-to-date information. The system also adds citations to sources so you can verify where its information is coming from. In a video demo provided by Anthropic, an example query about building a web app triggers the model's "search the web" feature. (White says you can toggle search on and off too.) It then highlights sources alongside the answer. This feature has been a long-time coming, at least in AI years. ChatGPT launched search capabilities last July as a "prototype" before rolling it out more broadly over the course of the next few months. The demand for web search in Claude became so intense that some users created their own workarounds to give the AI internet access. Last month in an interview, White asked what feature I wanted most in Claude. My answer was obvious: web search. It's feels strange for chatbots to have knowledge cutoffs when competitors like Perplexity are already using the same models to search the web. Just before today's announcement, I chatted with White again, and he explained why Anthropic took so long to implement this seemingly essential feature. "We're doing a lot of these things in parallel," White said. It's a complex problem to work out, he added, thanks to how deeply integrated these features are with the model. When asked if these kinds of features (which are more expensive to operate than traditional search engines) would wind up costing users more money, White said no, but the company "might have different ways of pricing" for new features "in the future." What makes AI search tricky is the combination of two complex systems: probabilistic language models and web search. Unlike deterministic systems (like calculators) that always produce identical outputs for identical inputs, large language models generate different responses based on statistical probabilities -- which means accuracy can vary wildly. When you combine this with web search, things get messy fast. We've already seen the spectacular failures this can produce, like when Google's AI Overviews confidently recommended putting glue on pizza after scraping some troll Reddit comments. The consequence of failing can range from funny headlines to copyright lawsuits. White emphasized Claude's use of citations -- so even if Claude gets it wrong, "we make it extremely easy for you to verify the content through that citation, to jump off and go directly to the source where we took that content from." In other words, if it tells you to eat rocks, you can check if that came from WebMD or The Onion.

Anthropic adds web search to its Claude chatbot - here's how to try it

Finally, Anthropic's AI joins the search engine bandwagon. Here's who gets to board first. With AI chatbots gaining ground as search tools, their ability to scour the internet will become a key factor in determining their success. Finally, Anthropic's Claude has joined its competitors. On Thursday, the company announced that its chatbot can now search the web. This makes Claude one of the last AI chatbots to add a web search capability, after OpenAI's ChatGPT Search and Perplexity. Even Google is experimenting with a fully AI-first approach to the future. Also: The best AI search engines: Google, Perplexity, and more As with all major chatbots, Claude's search responses include inline citations so you can double-check sources -- and, based on recent research, these tools really need a reality check. "Instead of finding search results yourself, Claude processes and delivers relevant sources in a conversational format," Anthropic said in its announcement. "This enhancement expands Claude's extensive knowledge base with real-time insights, providing answers based on more current information." The update builds on Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Anthropic's latest release and most intelligent model, which has a knowledge cutoff of November 2024. While Google (and its traditional interface) still leads in terms of web search market share, AI chatbot search has been steadily growing. Also: The best free AI courses and certificates in 2025 Anthropic noted that web search is available today in preview for paid Claude users within the US, with access for free users and other countries "coming soon." To try it, go to your settings, switch the web search toggle to "on," and start chatting with Claude 3.7 Sonnet. It will access the web when needed based on your query.

Anthropic's Claude expands its knowledge with real-time web search

Summary Claude, Anthropic's AI chatbot, now integrates web search, allowing it to provide up-to-date responses, addressing its previous knowledge cutoff. The web search feature is currently in preview for paid US users, with plans to expand to free users and other countries, and is designed to enhance Claude's utility in fields like sales, finance, research, shopping, and more. Claude's implementation includes direct source citations and is triggered contextually, offering real-time information access to its users. Anthropic's Claude, an AI chatbot that first burst upon the scene in 2023, is a powerful and versatile AI assistant -- one that is touted as "safe, accurate, and secure." Developed by former OpenAI employees, Claude leverages its reasoning and problem-solving abilities to answer user queries, with support for writing, coding, data analysis, and more. The tool can also generate images, charts, and diagrams, and its latest Claude 3.7 Sonnet has a knowledge cutoff of October 2024. The latter can be a cause of concern in today's ever-changing landscape -- a concern that Anthropic is now tackling. Related What is Anthropic? Flash in the pan, or the future of artificial intelligence? Posts The San Francisco-based company announced that Claude 3.7 Sonnet can now search the web to provide more up-to-date and relevant responses. "With web search, Claude has access to the latest events and information, boosting its accuracy on tasks that benefit from the most recent data," wrote Anthropic in an update post announcing the new capability. Claude's web search capabilities are now available to try out feature preview for paid Claude users in the US. The functionality will extend to free users and more countries "soon." This comes roughly five months after OpenAI rolled out similar functionality for ChatGPT. Related ChatGPT's answer to Google Search is now available It's been months in the making Posts 1 Web search isn't enabled by default. Users can toggle it on through their profile settings on the web client or on Claude's mobile apps. The company added that the AI tool will only scour the web when "applicable," and when it does, it will provide direct citations to help you fact-check. This enhancement expands Claude's extensive knowledge base with real-time insights, providing answers based on more current information. I don't have a paid Claude plan, so I'm unable to check how exactly the new integration works. However, as highlighted by TechCrunch after playing around with the new feature, web search doesn't always trigger for queries related to current events. When it does, the response includes several citations and sources, even quoting X (Twitter) if it finds relevant information on the platform. Source: Anthropic Web search expands Claude's functionality across several domains, but according to Anthropic, these are some of the most popular ones: Sales teams: To leverage real-time industry trends. Financial analysts: To access and assess real-time market data and earnings reports. Researchers: To spot emerging trends and identify gaps in the current literature. Shoppers: To compare product features, prices, and reviews.

Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude can now search for web results

Anthropic announced this week a major update for Claude, its AI chatbot. The platform can now search for results on the web in real time to provide up-to-date information, making it even more useful for research. As detailed in a blog post, Claude now has access "to the latest events and information," which improves the accuracy of tasks that benefit from more recent data. Until now, Claude relied on large language models that were updated from time to time, so the chatbot had no knowledge of recent events. The platform will show direct quotes attributed to their respective sources, so that users can check whether the information is true. "When Claude incorporates information from the web into its responses, it provides direct citations so you can easily fact check sources. Instead of finding search results yourself, Claude processes and delivers relevant sources in a conversational format. This enhancement expands Claude's extensive knowledge base with real-time insights, providing answers based on more current information," the company says. Anthropic notes that Claude's web search can be especially useful for researchers, financial analysts with current market data, and even buyers who want to compare product features and prices across multiple sources. Users can choose whether or not to search the web when using Claude, similar to ChatGPT Search - which is also optional. Web search is now available in beta for all paid Claude users in the US. Anthropic says it plans to expand the feature to more countries and also to free users in the future. If you're a subscriber in the US, all you need to do is enable web search in your profile settings and start a conversation with the Claude 3.7 model.

Claude 3.7 Sonnet now supports real-time web searching -- but there's a catch

The line between "AI Chatbot" and "Search Engine" gets thinner each day as Google rolls out new tools to Gemini and ChatGPT's Deep Research continues to get more helpful at finding what you need. Now, Anthropic's excellent Claude model will work similarly, letting the relatively minimal-looking chatbot search the web via an in-window update that brings external results closer than ever without needing to go outside. Announced via a blog post last week, Claude will now have access to "the latest events and information, boosting its accuracy on tasks that benefit from the most recent data". If you've spent any time with Claude, you'll know that its reliance on LLMs that are sometimes not up to date can cause issues with accuracy. This latest update should mean its content is more useful and timely, while Anthopic is keen to stress the source of its information is easy to surface, speeding up fact checking. "When Claude incorporates information from the web into its responses, it provides direct citations so you can easily fact check sources. Instead of finding search results yourself, Claude processes and delivers relevant sources in a conversational format." "This enhancement expands Claude's extensive knowledge base with real-time insights, providing answers based on more current information," the blog post explains. You can find web search in the prompt box when submitting a Claude query, but you can also choose not to use it if you're happy your question can be answered via an internal LLM solution. Web search is in beta, and is currently only available to paid Claude users in the US, with the feature expected to eventually make its way to other markets and eventually free users.

Anthropic's Claude Finally Gets Web Search, Months After ChatGPT

Anthropic has finally added web search capabilities to Claude 3.7 Sonnet, allowing the AI chatbot to access up-to-date information beyond its knowledge cutoff date of October 2024. Announced on Thursday, the new feature enables Claude to search the internet for current events and information, so its accuracy should be significantly better when answering questions about recent developments. When Claude uses web search to inform its responses, the interface provides clickable citations that allow you to verify sources and fact-check information, meaning you won't have to conduct separate searches. The feature is currently available only to paying subscribers in the United States. Anthropic says it plans to roll out web search to free users and additional countries "soon," but the company gave no specific timeline. Web search functionality has become a standard feature among leading AI chatbots. OpenAI began introducing ChatGPT Search to paying subscribers last fall and eventually made the feature available to all users - including those without a ChatGPT account - early last month. Anthropic is pitching the web search function as particularly valuable for professionals across various fields. The company suggests sales teams can use it to analyze industry trends, financial analysts can assess current market data, and researchers can build stronger literature reviews by searching across primary sources. Paying Claude users in the US can access web search by enabling the feature through their profile settings menu. The functionality is currently limited to Claude 3.7 Sonnet, which is Anthropic's first "hybrid reasoning model" capable of both quick responses and step-by-step problem solving.

Anthropic just gave Claude a superpower: real-time web search. Here's why it changes everything

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Anthropic announced today that its AI assistant Claude can now search and process information from the internet in real time, addressing one of users' most requested features and closing a critical competitive gap with OpenAI's ChatGPT. The new web search capability, available immediately for paid Claude users in the United States, transforms the AI assistant from a tool limited by its training data cutoff to one that can access and synthesize the latest information across the web. "With web search, Claude has access to the latest events and information, boosting its accuracy on tasks that benefit from the most recent data," Anthropic said in its announcement. The company emphasized that Claude will provide direct citations to sources, allowing users to fact-check information -- a direct response to growing concerns about AI hallucinations and misinformation. AI arms race intensifies as Anthropic secures billions in funding This launch comes at an important moment in the rapidly evolving AI sector. Just three weeks ago, Anthropic secured $3.5 billion in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of $61.5 billion, underscoring the high stakes in the AI race. Major backers include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Google (which holds a 14% stake), and Amazon, which has integrated Claude into its Alexa+ service. The web search rollout also follows Anthropic's recent release of Claude 3.7 Sonnet, which the company claims has set "a new high-water mark in coding abilities." This focus on programming proficiency appears strategic, especially in light of CEO Dario Amodei's recent prediction at a Council on Foreign Relations event that "in three to six months, AI will be writing 90% of the code" that software developers currently produce. The timing of this feature launch reveals Anthropic's determination to challenge OpenAI's dominance in the consumer AI assistant market. While Claude has gained popularity among technical users for its nuanced reasoning and longer context window, the lack of real-time information access has been a significant handicap in head-to-head comparisons with ChatGPT. This update effectively neutralizes that disadvantage. How Claude's web search transforms enterprise decision-making Unlike traditional search engines that return a list of links, Claude processes search results and delivers them in a conversational format. Users simply toggle on web search in their profile settings, and Claude will automatically search the internet when needed to inform its responses. Anthropic highlighted several business use cases for the web-enabled Claude: sales teams analyzing industry trends, financial analysts assessing current market data, researchers building grant proposals, and shoppers comparing products across multiple sources. This feature fundamentally changes how enterprise users can interact with AI assistants. Previously, professionals needed to toggle between search engines and AI tools, manually feeding information from one to the other. Claude's integrated approach streamlines this workflow dramatically, potentially saving hours of research time for knowledge workers. For financial services firms in particular, the ability to combine historical training data with breaking news creates a powerful analysis tool that could provide genuine competitive advantages. Investment decisions often hinge on connecting disparate pieces of information quickly -- exactly the kind of task this integration aims to solve. Behind the scenes: The technical infrastructure powering Claude's new capabilities Behind this seemingly straightforward feature lies considerable technical complexity. Anthropic has likely spent months fine-tuning Claude's ability to search effectively, understand context, and determine when web search would improve its responses. The update integrates with other recent technical improvements to the Anthropic API, including cache-aware rate limits, simpler prompt caching, and token-efficient tool use -- all aimed at helping developers process more requests while reducing costs. These enhancements, announced earlier this month, can reduce token usage by up to 90% for certain applications. Anthropic has also upgraded its developer console to enable collaboration among teams working on AI implementations. The revised console allows developers to share prompts, collaborate on refinements, and control extended thinking budgets -- features particularly valuable for enterprise customers integrating Claude into their workflows. The investment in these backend capabilities suggests Anthropic is building for scale, anticipating rapid adoption as more companies integrate AI into their operations. By focusing on developer experience alongside user-facing features, Anthropic is creating an ecosystem rather than just a product -- a strategy that has served companies like Microsoft well in enterprise markets. Voice mode: Anthropic's next frontier in natural AI interaction Web search may be just the beginning of Anthropic's feature expansion. According to a recent report in the Financial Times, the company is developing voice capabilities for Claude, potentially transforming how users interact with the AI assistant. Mike Krieger, Anthropic's chief product officer, told the Financial Times that the company is working on experiences that would allow users to speak directly to Claude. "We are doing some work around how Claude for desktop evolves... if it is going to be operating your computer, a more natural user interface might be to [speak to it]," Krieger said. The company has reportedly held discussions with Amazon and voice-focused AI startup ElevenLabs about potential partnerships, though no deals have been finalized. Voice interaction would represent a significant leap forward in making AI assistants more accessible and intuitive. The current text-based interaction model creates friction that voice could eliminate, potentially expanding Claude's appeal beyond tech-savvy early adopters to a much broader user base. How Anthropic's safety-first approach shapes regulatory conversations As Anthropic expands Claude's capabilities, the company continues to emphasize its commitment to responsible AI development. In response to California Governor Gavin Newsom's Working Group on AI Frontier Models draft report released earlier this week, Anthropic expressed support for "objective standards and evidence-based policy guidance," particularly highlighting transparency as "a low-cost, high-impact means of growing the evidence base around a new technology." "Many of the report's recommendations already reflect industry best practices which Anthropic adheres to," the company stated, noting its Responsible Scaling Policy that outlines how it assesses models for misuse and autonomy risks. This focus on responsible development represents a core differentiator in Anthropic's brand positioning since its founding in 2021, when Amodei and six colleagues left OpenAI to create an AI company with greater emphasis on safety. Anthropic's approach to regulation appears more collaborative than defensive, positioning the company favorably with policymakers who are increasingly focused on AI oversight. By proactively addressing safety concerns and contributing constructively to regulatory frameworks, Anthropic may be able to shape rules in ways that align with its existing practices while potentially creating compliance hurdles for less cautious competitors. The future of AI assistants: From chatbots to indispensable digital partners The addition of web search to Claude represents more than just feature parity with competitors -- it signals Anthropic's ambition to create AI systems that can function as comprehensive digital assistants rather than specialized tools. This development marks a significant evolution in AI assistants. First-generation large language models were essentially sophisticated autocomplete systems with impressive but limited capabilities. The integration of real-time information access, combined with Claude's existing reasoning abilities, creates something qualitatively different: a system that can actively help solve complex problems using up-to-date information. For businesses investing in AI integration, Claude's new capabilities offer compelling advantages. Cognition, maker of the AI software developer assistant Devin, has already leveraged Anthropic's prompt caching to provide more context about codebases while reducing costs and latency, according to the company's leadership. The real potential of these systems goes far beyond simple information retrieval. By combining current data with deep contextual understanding, AI assistants like Claude could transform knowledge work by handling substantial portions of research, analysis, and content creation -- freeing humans to focus on judgment, creativity, and interpersonal aspects of their roles. What web search means for Claude users today and tomorrow Web search is available now for all paid Claude users in the United States, with support for free users and international expansion planned "soon," according to the announcement. Users can activate the feature through their profile settings. As competition in the AI assistant space intensifies, Anthropic's deliberate approach to expanding Claude's capabilities while maintaining its focus on safety and transparency suggests a long-term strategy focused on building user trust alongside technical advancement. The race between AI companies is increasingly about balancing capability with reliability and trust. Features like web search with source citations serve both goals simultaneously, providing users with more powerful tools while maintaining transparency about information sources. With Claude now able to tap into the internet's vast resources while maintaining its characteristic nuanced reasoning, Anthropic has eliminated a key competitive disadvantage. More importantly, the company has taken a significant step toward creating AI systems that don't just respond to queries but actively help users navigate an increasingly complex information landscape.

Claude AI catches up with ChatGPT by offering a new search tool

If you're looking for a new search tool, Claude may help. The AI assistant now features a new web search tool that allows users to access current events and information to enhance their results. The new search feature provides direct citations, allowing you to verify sources easily. Furthermore, Claude organizes and presents relevant sources in a conversational format, making the results easier to digest. Anthropic states that the new search feature is handy for various users and use cases. These include sales teams seeking to analyze industry trends, financial analysts looking for up-to-date market data, and researchers who need content for grant proposals and literature reviews. Additionally, everyday shoppers can benefit from the tool as it helps them compare product features and prices. Recommended Videos At launch, Claude's web search capabilities were only available to premium customers based in the U.S. Additionally, they only worked with Claude 3.7 Sonnet. This model is the company's first that can provide quick responses and step-by-step problem-solving. Claude Pro is priced at $20 per month or $214.99 per year. The new search tool was hinted at about a month ago. Incorporating web search capabilities for real-time information gathering is a significant advancement in AI. OpenAI introduced this feature in ChatGPT late last year, initially making it available only to paying subscribers. Now, it is accessible to everyone at no cost. While there are no guarantees, it would not be surprising if Claude eventually offered web search for free as well. Claude can be accessed from its website, iOS and Android apps, and desktop versions. Claude first went online in December 2022 when Anthropic released it as a limited beta product for a small group of users. This initial release was part of a closed beta that showcased Claude's capabilities to early testers. Claude's first widely available version was launched in March 2023, when Anthropic released it to a broader audience through an API and partnerships with companies such as Quora's Poe and other platforms.

Anthropic Claude is evolving into a web search tool

Anthropic has thrown its hat in the race to establish an AI-based web search feature, which it announced on Thursday. The feature is based on Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet model and integrates web search into the chatbot tool. You can enable the feature in your profile settings. With an AI prompt, you will receive contextual results with search engine sources included, instead of just the link options you would receive in a standard search result. The web search feature will be available, first to paid U.S. customers and will roll out to additional users. Recommended Videos Anthropic has launched its web search feature to stay in pace with other AI-forward brands such as OpenAI, which introduced a similar ChatGPT search tool in the fall of 2024. OpenAI's feature similarly began as a more exclusive tool for paid subscribers but has since been made available to all users. While Anthropic notably has Google as one of its venture partners, the brand has also recently rolled out a feature called AI mode as a preview to Google One premium customers. While Anthropic has noted several enterprise use cases, including analyzing industry trends and research for grant proposals, the company has also determined that the web search feature could be ideal for comparison shipping, according to Venture Beat. Before Anthropic and other brands began integrating web search into AI tools, users had to utilize search engines and chatbots in tandems to complete various research- inserting information into different mediums where necessary. Now, web search features can simplify the steps for users to get the information they need. However, Android Headlines noted the downside to the rapidly developing AI technologies that are trying to keep up with one another. Initially, OpenAI developed its ChatGPT search to keep up with Google Search, then Google developed its AI model to keep up with ChatGPT. Now Anthropic has developed its web search to keep up with both competitors. Meanwhile, all of these options stand to cannibalize the already-standing web results as search engines begin to favor results from AI tools such as Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, and AI Overviews over traditional websites. According to a recent study, AI search engines send 96% less traffic to news sites than Google search. This is likely due to the AI options using links as annotations instead of the primary source for users to do the research themselves, so users are less likely to navigate away from the AI tool page.

Anthropic Introduces Web Search for Claude Chatbot

This update brings Claude in line with rivals like ChatGPT, Gemini, Le Chat, and Grok. Anthropic, the AI startup behind the Claude family of models, has added web search to its AI chatbot Claude, a long-missing feature now available in preview for paid users in the US. According to their blog, free users and more regions will gain access soon. Users can enable web search in the Claude web app's settings, allowing the chatbot to pull information from the internet when needed. Currently, the feature works only with Anthropic's latest model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet. This update puts Claude on par with competitors like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, Mistral's Le Chat, and xAI's Grok. In a story by Verge, the challenges of AI search include combining probabilistic language models and web search, making accuracy unpredictable. Unlike deterministic systems, language models can vary in their responses, sometimes leading to serious errors. Anthropic has also listed down use cases. Claude's web search helps sales teams follow industry trends, analysts find market data, researchers access sources and spot gaps, and shoppers compare products and prices. The company also plans to release voice-based conversational features soon, the Financial Times reported. Mike Krieger, Anthropic's CPO, said the company already has prototypes for the same and added that if Claude is autonomously operating a computer, the natural user interface is to speak to it. A few weeks ago, Anthropic announced a $3.5 billion Series E funding round, bringing its post-money valuation to $61.5 billion. The company also announced its newest Claude 3.7 Sonnet model, which earned widespread praise for its capabilities in tasks involving generating code.

Claude AI can now surf the web -- yes, finally

Anthropic announced on Thursday that its Claude chatbot can now search the web, making it one of the last AI chatbots to acquire a web search capability, following competitors such as OpenAI's ChatGPT Search and Perplexity. This update enhances Claude's functionality, allowing it to provide answers in a conversational format by delivering relevant sources along with inline citations, enabling users to verify the information. "Instead of finding search results yourself, Claude processes and delivers relevant sources in a conversational format," said Anthropic in its announcement. The new web search capability expands Claude's knowledge base with real-time insights and answers based on current information. This update builds on Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Anthropic's most advanced model, which has a knowledge cutoff set for November 2024. Video: Anthropic While Google retains the lead in web search market share with its traditional interface, the adoption of AI chatbot search functionalities has been steadily increasing. Currently, the web search feature is available in preview for paid Claude users in the United States, with plans to extend access to free users and other countries in the near future. Users can activate the web search by navigating to settings, toggling the web search option to "on," and then starting a conversation with Claude 3.7 Sonnet.

Claude Can Finally Search the Web to Answer Your Queries

Anthropic said the feature will be expanded to free users soon Anthropic announced the rollout of the web search functionality for Claude on Thursday. The San Francisco-based AI firm released the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot in March 2023, but so far, it could not access the Internet to find real-time information, and only had to rely on its internal knowledge database. This is now set to change as the company is finally adding the capability across web, mobile, and desktop apps. At present, the functionality is available in preview and is used only when Claude deems it necessary. In a newsroom post, the AI firm announced the addition of the new functionality. Interestingly, Claude is the only major AI chatbot that cannot access the Internet. Other rivals, including Gemini, ChatGPT, Meta AI, Copilot, and DeepSeek, have had this feature for quite some time now. Earlier, the company justified the decision by stating that Claude is "designed to be self-contained." With the web search capability, Claude will now be able to access the Internet to look for information about the latest events. Anthropic claimed that the new feature will boost "its accuracy on tasks that benefit from the most recent data." The feature is currently available in preview to the paid subscribers of the platform in the US. The AI firm stated that it plans to expand web search to more countries and the free tier in the future. To use the feature, users will have to pick the Claude 3.7 Sonnet AI model from the model picker menu in the text box. They will also have to navigate to profile settings and toggle on the web search option. After this, making a query about a topic that requires real-time information will trigger the web search functionality. Notably, users cannot manually trigger the feature, and Claude will decide whether accessing the Internet is necessary or not. When Claude shows responses that include information from the web, it will show inline citations to let users verify the source and deep dive into the topic. The sources are also displayed on top of the response in a dropdown menu as well as a new box that shows the searched query as well as large boxes that show both the URL and page headline.

Anthropic Just Gave Claude Web Search Powers -- Here's What It Means For AI Chatbot Wars Against ChatGPT, Gemini, And Mistral - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

On Thursday, Anthropic, backed by Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google, announced that its Claude chatbot can now search the internet, bringing it in line with competitors like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Mistral's Le Chat. What Happened: The feature, currently in preview for paid users in the U.S., is available via Claude 3.7 Sonnet -- the company's most advanced model. Users can enable web search through profile settings in the Claude web app. See Also: Elon Musk Says 'Hang On To Your Stock' In Surprise Late-Evening Tesla All-Hands Meeting -- Touts 7 Million EVs, Optimus Robot, And AI Supercomputer Dojo "When Claude incorporates information from the web into its responses, it provides direct citations so you can easily fact-check sources," Anthropic said in a blog post. "Instead of finding search results yourself, Claude processes and delivers relevant sources in a conversational format." Why It's Important: The move marks a shift from Anthropic's earlier stance that Claude should be "self-contained." While web results were previously off-limits, competitive pressure appears to have changed that. Anthropic's challenge now is to offer relevance without sacrificing accuracy. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. A study published earlier this month by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism found that AI chatbots, including ChatGPT and Gemini, gave incorrect responses to over 60% of queries involving news. In March 2025, Anthropic raised $3.5 billion in a Series E funding round, elevating its valuation to $61.5 billion. Last month, the company also filed a plea with a federal court to challenge a U.S. government proposal that aimed to restrict Google's investments in AI startups. Image Courtesy: Shutterstock.com Read Next: Apple Reportedly Fights UK Government's 'Unacceptable' Encryption Order Behind Closed Doors -- No Press Or Public Allowed Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. AMZNAmazon.com Inc$194.90-0.33%OverviewGOOGAlphabet Inc$164.95-0.80%GOOGLAlphabet Inc$162.79-0.67%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Anthropic's Claude AI Can Now Search the Internet for You

The best chatbot on the market can now search links for you, courtesy of it's new web search preview function. The problem with working in a hyper-competitive industry is that there's maximum motivation to roll out new features, even when those features aren't ready yet or adequately tested. OpenAI received a lot of praise for its Deep Research function through its $ 200-a-month model, but my experience with it found it to hallucinate heavily -- i.e., make a lot of stuff up. And the ability to write a Ph.D.-level research paper becomes a lot less valuable if you can't trust what it's saying to be real. A similar issue has existed with AI search tools, which use large-language models to search the web and bring back links for you. In theory, this is a fantastic function, but, as the Columbia Journalism Review recently noted, these tools don't cite well, speculate frequently, invent links, and often summarise badly. OpenAI, Perplexity, and XAI know this -- this article wasn't news to them. But, rather than wait and make the product work well, they are incentivized to release quickly and early and then fix issue later. Anthropic has been the one major outlier here. Their model, Claude, has not simply been among the most powerful and useful on the market but also built more conservatively, with Anthropic ensuring that it works well and can't be easily jailbroken before releasing its features. For months, Claude has had a developer preview version of a web search function, but they put no priority on bringing it to market. But this week, it finally went live -- at least for American users -- and the results seem pretty impressive. The most interesting point is that this isn't a separate interface or system from regular Claude. Instead, when enabled in the settings menu, Claude can search the web but only does so when addressing more complex queries than it thinks it can answer or when searching for more up-to-date information. When I asked Claude about improving the scrolling speed on my camera, it made some helpful suggestions for improving it through an upgraded SD card, doing so from its existing training data without taking the time to search the internet. However, when I provided it with a link to the SD card I'm using, it could open that link and give me information specifically based on it in a way it couldn't before. Similarly, when I asked it whether there was a Windows app for transferring pictures from my camera to my computer over WiFi, it replied quickly without searching the web, saying it didn't know for sure, and asked if I would like it to search the web to see if there was more updated information. When it did, it provided a list of links and citations; and, unlike some other tools, it defaulted to being concise, relevant, and giving me a quick range of options. It also hasn't hallucinated any links. This is a unique way of handling web searches for an LLM -- which, it should be noted, seemed to be powered by Brave Search's API -- and though some won't like it, it should help both to increase the speed of average responses and minimize hallucination. At the top of the result, Claude lists all the pages it searched but doesn't clutter the screen like Perplexity, but instead keeps them in a fold-down menu. The one problem is that it can require more encouragement than necessary. When I told Claude that I was "looking to buy a slim, stylish, premium 13'' laptop," it produced a list of options based on its training data -- which ran until October 2024 -- and it was only when I explicitly asked it to search for all options for me that it went online. By comparison, the leading AI search engine, Perplexity -- which can use Claude as it's AI model -- just instantly started searching for options. I preferred the search straight out of Claude -- it summarised the information better and was more concise -- but having to nudge it to do what you want is frustrating. Claude's Web search is now available for all paid Claude users through the feature preview function, which will be available to free and international users in the near future.