ChatGPT's web browsing feature just got a whole lot easier to use
ChatGPT has proven itself to be a versatile chatbot, capable of assisting with tasks such as writing, coding, researching, planning vacations, and more. However, it's had one major limitation since it launched, and now that flaw is finally fixed -- for those willing to pay the price.
At the end of September, OpenAI announced via an X (formerly Twitter) post that its chatbot could access the internet in real-time and provide direct links to its sources via a Web Browsing feature. The added functionality was made available to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise subscribers in beta.
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This means that when paying customers toggled to the beta mode on ChatGPT, they were no longer limited to information before 2021, opening the floodgates for new capabilities and increasing the reliability of the chatbot.
On Tuesday, via OpenAI's release notes, the company announced that Browsing was moved out of beta, making subscribers' lives easier by no longer needing to switch the beta toggle to use browse.
Instead, all subscribers need to do now is choose "Browse with Bing" from the GPT-4 model selector, according to the notes.
ChatGPT is able to access the internet through Microsoft's Bing web browser. The Browsing feature powered by Bing was initially announced at Microsoft Build back in May and rolled out to ChatGPT Plus users. However, after a couple of months, it was removed by OpenAI because users were leveraging the feature to hop paywalls.
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In the September announcement, OpenAI shared that since the initial rollout in May, the company received helpful feedback from users that has been incorporated into the new update, including "following robots.txt" and "identifying user agents so sites can control how ChatGPT interacts with them.
A ChatGPT Plus membership costs $20/month; however, for users who require the latest information, the added accuracy and dependability might be worth the investment.
For all other users who are itching to have their hands on this feature, OpenAI shared in the original announcement that it plans to expand to all users soon. Until then, Bing Chat is a solid alternative as it is supported by GPT-4, has access to the internet, provides sources, and is free.