User can now browse the internet with Claude.
In a significant development announced in March 2025, AI model Claude, developed by Anthropic, has introduced a real-time web search feature. This update allows the AI to access and process current internet data, increasing its versatility for various tasks.
To utilize this feature, users must be subscribed to Claude Pro, Teams, or Enterprise plans and based in the United States. Free users and those outside the country will have to wait for support, which is expected soon. To enable the feature, individual users can toggle it on in their profile settings under "feature preview." For Team or Enterprise plans, a Primary Owner must first enable it at the workspace level for individual users to activate.
This versatile feature supports tasks like checking current prices, compiling news, and conducting research. Examples of its use include:
- Asking for the current price of Bitcoin
- Compiling the top AI news of the day
- Researching investment opportunities in leading AI companies
- Finding product recommendations for budget headphones
- Gathering information for a blog post about the latest advancements in generative AI tools
While the feature typically provides 10 sources per query, it links product searches like headphones to informational sites, which may not suit shoppers ready to buy. However, the artifacts feature can be combined with the web search feature for visual representations, enhancing user experience.
Compared to competitors like ChatGPT, Claude's real-time web search feature provides an edge, especially for real-time data access. The feature is exclusive to paid subscribers in the US, with plans for free users and other countries in the future.
The following use cases demonstrate the feature's practicality:
- Checking Current Prices: Querying the current price of Bitcoin yielded a range of prices as of March 19-20, 2025, with source links, demonstrating real-time capability.
- Compiling News: The top AI news of the day, compiled on March 20, 2025, included news from NVIDIA, TechCrunch, and others, with source links, showcasing research utility.
- Investment Research: Researching recent performance trends for leading AI companies took 15-20 seconds, providing 10 results each time, with detailed summaries.
- Product Recommendations: The best headphones under $100 were linked to sites like Headphone Addict and SoundGuys, but not direct product pages, a potential area for improvement.
- Research for Content Creation: This allowed for follow-up for SEO-optimized blog posts, leveraging Claude's content creation strengths.
While consistent observations, such as always providing 10 results per query, are notable, the lack of direct links to purchase pages was disappointing. This shortcoming may be addressed in the future, especially compared to platforms like Perplexity Shopping or Google's shopping interface, announced late 2024.
In conclusion, Claude's real-time web search feature offers significant advantages for users needing up-to-date information. It positions Claude competitively against models like ChatGPT, especially for real-time data access.
Technology enhancement in the AI model Claude, developed by Anthropic, allows users to access real-time web search results for various tasks such as checking current prices, compiling news, conducting research, and gathering information for content creation. This feature is available exclusively to paid subscribers based in the United States, with plans for expansion to free users and other countries in the near future.
