OpenAI makes ChatGPT Search free for all users as it challenges Google

OpenAI stepped up its entry into the search engine arena as it announced today it has made ChatGPT Search free for all users.

Although ChatGPT Search was initially released in late October, it was only available for paid subscribers of Plus and Team accounts.

“We rolled it out for paid users about two months ago,” said Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer, during a livestream on Monday. “I can’t imagine ChatGPT without Search now. I use it so often. I’m so excited to bring it to all of you for free starting today.”

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) has dominated the search engine market. As of November, Google held 89.98% of the global market share, according to Oberlo. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing holds about 4%.

Weil said OpenAI has listened to feedback, and they’ve been working to make Search faster and available on mobile devices.

“We are making it possible to search in Advanced Voice Mode while you are in ChatGPT,” Weil said. “We are also bringing Search to all logged-in users of ChatGPT for free. It is now available to all users around the globe on any platform.”

The announcement was Day 8 of the “12 Days of OpenAI” event by the Microsoft-backed startup.

Additional announcements included Projects with ChatGPT, the launch of Sora, an artificial intelligence-powered video generator that can create videos with as little as a few words of text; ChatGPT Canvas; Advanced Voice with video and screen sharing; and the integration of ChatGPT into Apple’s (AAPL) latest operating system update.