OpenAI launches ChatGPT search

Background

ChatGPT search grew out of SearchGPT, a prototype OpenAI showed in summer 2024 ^[1]. The feature was built to let ChatGPT answer questions with current information from the web, rather than only from what the model learned in training.

What happened

On 31 October 2024 OpenAI launched ChatGPT search for all Plus and Team users and for people on the SearchGPT waitlist. Enterprise and Edu users were to follow ^[1]. The launch came out of the SearchGPT prototype shown in summer 2024 ^[1].

OpenAI said the search feature used a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, post-trained with synthetic data techniques that included distilling outputs from o1-preview ^[1]. The feature drew on third-party search providers and on content from news partners including the Associated Press, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Financial Times, Hearst, Le Monde, News Corp, Reuters, The Atlantic, Time and Vox Media ^[1].

Key details

Search was rolled out in steps. It became available to all logged-in users on 16 December 2024 ^[1]. In February 2025 it was made free to use without an OpenAI account ^[2].

Distilling outputs from o1-preview means training a model with the answers produced by another model. The approach lets a faster model take on some of the behaviour of a reasoning model, and it is one of the techniques OpenAI named for building this feature ^[1].

Impact

ChatGPT search made web search a built-in part of the chatbot. Answers could draw on live sources from publishers and search providers, which changed the assistant from a system that answered only from training data into one that could check and cite current web content. Its path from a waitlist to all logged-in users, and then to people without accounts, shows how OpenAI widened access over several months.