Anthropic has launched a new API enabling its Claude AI models to perform web searches, allowing developers to build applications powered by real-time information. The company announced the release on Wednesday, highlighting the potential for creating AI-powered software without requiring developers to maintain their own web search infrastructure.
This update comes as AI companies increasingly seek innovative ways to enhance their models and attract new clients. Anthropic recently introduced tools that let users integrate Claude with external apps, as well as more robust “deep research” functionality that searches enterprise systems, websites, and additional data sources.
According to Anthropic, the web-based search functionality leverages the reasoning capacities of Claude to decide when real-time information or specific expertise would markedly improve responses. In such cases, Claude autonomously generates search queries, retrieves and analyzes relevant results, and provides answers with clear citations. These AI-driven searches can be refined further, enabling Claude to conduct multiple, successive queries while building upon earlier findings.
Developers maintain full control over this new feature, with customizable settings for permitted or restricted web domains and options to enable or disable search capabilities at the organizational level.
Additionally, Anthropic announced that web search has also extended to Claude Code, its beta-phase coding assistant. Now, Claude Code can access up-to-date resources such as API documentation, technical guides, and in-depth articles concerning software libraries and development tools.
