ChatGPT Search is trying to replace Google as your go-to search tool

It has been months since OpenAI revealed that ChatGPT’s plans involve a lot more than writing you emails for your boss and creating images of your strangest ideas. After testing its own AI-powered search engine called SearchGPT since July, ChatGPT is now finally ready to be more than a chatbot – a true search engine.

Coming as an extension to the GPT-4o model and as a premium feature for paid members, the search feature will also soon be available to free users, enterprise users and education users.

ChatGPT Search could finally bring back ad-free searching

We haven’t had a chance to test ChatGPT Search just yet, but if it works as expected, as is not limited by ChatGPT’s knowledge-bank cutoff, one clear advantage the AI-powered search engine will offer over Google is the absence of ads – something that has become a bit of a problem with Google recently.

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As outlined in detail in a recent MrWhoseTheBoss video, Google’s search results pages have been littered with not just product ads on the top but also sponsored results, which are annoyingly made to look exactly like real ones. Multiple sponsored results also sometimes mean users have to go an entire scroll before they land on the organic results.

Whether ChatGPT Search stays free of advertisements remains to be seen, but the experience in its current form is a lot cleaner than Google. However, there are some other downsides to this right now. These include slower loading of results compared to Google, and the requirement of a prompt instead of abstract words.

How to use ChatGPT Search

On the ChatGPT website, or the app for iPhones and Android phones, and simply type whatever it is that you want to search about in the typing window as you usually would. If you’re eligible for the Search feature, you should also see a new blue ‘Search’ button on the bottom of the text.

Tap on this button and you will get results instead of responses. These could be simply text, text with links, or even text with infographics. As questions like when will my iPhone 15 get iOS 18.2, and the results should also source data from multiple outlets before giving you a response.

That is how you can use ChatGPT as a search engine. You can also check out how to use ChatGPT’s Canvas Mode when you want to try something new.