Web Search

What it is

Documentation update — 7 October 2026. In the unified experience, web search is automatic with no toggle. Start Research with /deep-research or + → Research. The toggle instructions below apply to the older interface.

Web search lets Claude pull real-time information off the open internet into its answer. With it on, Claude runs searches, reads pages and cites the sources in its reply.

It also unlocks web fetch: paste a URL with your question and Claude retrieves the page itself. The whole article goes into the context window, which is worth knowing if you’re near a usage limit.

Where to find it

On desktop

Ask in the unified composer. The inspected + menu has no Web search switch; Claude searches when useful. Accounts on the older interface can still have + → Web search.

On the web

The same applies on claude.ai: no Web search item was present in the inspected unified + menu.

On Team and Enterprise plans, an Owner or Primary Owner controls organization-wide web search in Organization settings → Capabilities. That admin surface was not inspected.

How to use it

Ask for current information; say “search the web for…” when you want an explicit search.
Claude searches and cites relevant sources when the tool is available.
Open the citations to check the answer.

No search was executed during this menu inspection. If your account still has the older Web search checkbox, turn it on before asking.

Fetch a specific page

Paste the link into the composer alongside your question. Claude retrieves the page and reads it.

Good to know

Supported models change over time. See the current model menu and official web-search guide.
Every response cites sources. Cross-reference anything that matters.
Images come with it. Claude can search for and display images in the conversation; you don’t enable that separately.
The older interface has a per-chat switch. The unified experience does not offer that toggle.
Search and fetch both count towards your limits, and a long article eats into them quickly. On a free account limits reset every five hours, so this is more noticeable there.

What’s changed recently

2026-09-13 — Web search is a tick-box in the composer’s + menu, not a toggle under a tools slider. It sits in the bottom group with Research and the new Memory tick-box, and it is absent from the Cowork-mode menu on both platforms. The supported-model list now covers every model in the picker except Opus 3. Verified on desktop build 1.52386.3.
2026-09-13 — Workspace enablement for Team and Enterprise is Organization settings → Capabilities, per Anthropic’s web-search article; the page previously said Admin → Capabilities.
2026-04-18 — Page created from the official help-centre article.