AI · ChatGPT web, desktop, and mobile apps

Show Sources in ChatGPT Search Answers

Source-checked 16 August 2026About 2 minutes

Answer

Open a new ChatGPT chat, select View all tools > Search, and ask your question. When the response arrives, open an inline citation or select Sources beneath the response to inspect its links. Confirm that Search actually ran and read the original page before relying on a cited claim.

Start a web search

Open a new chat at chatgpt.com or in the official ChatGPT app. In the composer, select View all tools > Search, enter a current or detailed question, and send it; you can also type / and choose Search, while ChatGPT may search automatically when a question needs web information.

Confirm Search ran

Wait for the response and look for the search indicator beside it, such as the small globe documented by OpenAI. Do not treat an ordinary uncited ChatGPT answer as a searched answer merely because you asked for sources.

Open an inline citation

Select a citation beside the claim you want to check; on desktop web, hover over it first if you want a source preview. Open the original page and confirm that it says what the ChatGPT sentence claims, for the relevant date, product, and region.

Review the Sources panel

Select Sources beneath the response or action bar when inline citations are absent or you want the complete panel. Open the relevant original links rather than assuming every listed item supports every sentence; OpenAI says this panel can include cited sources and other relevant links.

If it does not work

If Search is missing from View all tools, type / and look for Search, then try chatgpt.com or update the official app. OpenAI makes Search broadly available, but searches remain subject to usage limits and a Workspace Owner can disable it in an enterprise environment.
If the response has no search indicator, citation, or Sources control, select Search explicitly and send the question again. Do not accept a generated list of references as proof that the web was searched.
If a citation opens but does not support the nearby claim, do not use that claim. Narrow the question, request an original or first-party source, and check the new link directly.
For medical, legal, financial, security, or purchase decisions, use ChatGPT Search to locate current material, then rely on the original authority or a qualified professional rather than the summary alone.

Sources and verification

Checked against official documentation on 16 August 2026. Scope: ChatGPT web, desktop, and mobile apps.

Source-checked against OpenAI's current Search documentation. The page is deliberately image-free because the decisive evidence is the search indicator and citations on the reader's own response; a static screenshot cannot prove Search ran for that answer. Three frozen WebChatGPT-extension screenshots were rejected as obsolete, and the old extension video is provenance only.