Anthropic has introduced a new API that will allow Claude to perform real-time web searches and provide relevant information to applications and agents built on these models.
When Claude receives a query, he will use his thinking skills to determine whether a web search would provide a more accurate answer. If a web search is useful, Claude will generate a targeted search query, check the result for information, and provide a detailed answer.
Anthropic notes that Claude will be able to perform multiple progressive searches, using previous results to generate subsequent queries. This will be useful for light research or to get more comprehensive answers, among other things.
The company notes several key uses for the new API. The first is in finance, for gathering up-to-date information about stock prices, market trends, etc. Web search will also help with legal issues, finding up-to-date court documents. In development, the API can be used to search for documentation, releases on GitHub, or other information.
Each web search response will cite the sources used to gather the information. Companies and developers using this API will be able to customize which sites and sources Claude uses, or restrict access to certain resources.
Anthropic is bringing web search to Claude Code, helping developers quickly access API documentation, technical articles and materials, and other information they need to write code or fix bugs.
Web search is available on the Anthropic API for the Claude 3.7 Sonnet, the updated Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and the Claude 3.5 Haiku models at a cost of $10 per 1000 searches plus standard token cost.