Anthropic announced that its AI assistant Claude's web search feature is now fully available to users on the free plan. Previously, this feature was only accessible to paying users in the United States. This update marks the democratization of Claude's capabilities on a global scale. According to official announcements, users no longer need an additional subscription to access real-time web information through Claude, significantly enhancing their ability to query information.
The web search function allows Claude to retrieve the latest data from the internet, covering industry trends, market dynamics, academic literature, and more, while providing inline citations for each response to ensure verifiability. Users can enable this feature with simple settings: log into your Claude account, turn on the "web search" switch in the profile settings, and interact with Claude3.7Sonnet, which will automatically trigger real-time searches.
This feature supports various scenarios, such as sales teams analyzing customer needs, researchers retrieving the latest literature, and consumers comparing product information. Claude provides search results via Brave Search, ensuring transparency and reliability of citations. The inclusion of free users not only lowers the barrier to entry but also reflects Anthropic's commitment to making AI accessible to all.
Industry insiders believe that this move is a key step for Anthropic in competing with OpenAI and Google Gemini. The expansion of search functionality to free plan users significantly enhances Claude's appeal in the AI assistant market. In the future, Anthropic plans to further optimize search performance and expand multilingual support to provide smarter and more convenient experiences for users worldwide.
