How to Add Real-Time Web Search to Open WebUI

Hello everyone! It’s Amish from DigitalBrainBase.com, and welcome to today’s in-depth tutorial on how to enable real-time web search functionality in OpenWebUI. This guide is perfect if you want your AI models to go beyond their training data and fetch the latest news, weather, and information directly from the web in real-time. With this feature enabled, your OpenWebUI model can answer questions like, "What’s the weather in New York?" or "What’s today’s news update?" by pulling current information directly from the internet!
🔍 Why Enable Real-Time Web Search? AI models, including OpenWebUI, have limitations on accessing the latest data since their training data is often capped at a specific date (usually December 2023 in many cases). By enabling real-time search, you give your model the ability to fetch live data and provide up-to-date information from the internet. In this tutorial, I’ll guide you step-by-step on configuring Google Programmable Search Engine (PSE) with OpenWebUI for the most reliable real-time results.
📖 What You’ll Learn:
Navigating the OpenWebUI Admin Panel - We’ll start by accessing the Admin Panel in OpenWebUI. I’ll show you how to locate the settings and web search configuration options.
Choosing the Best Web Search Option - OpenWebUI offers several search options, including Gina, DuckDuckGo, and Google PSE. We’ll discuss why Google PSE is often the best choice for high-quality and reliable search results.
Setting Up Google Programmable Search Engine (PSE) - I’ll guide you through every step of setting up Google PSE, including:
Creating a Google PSE Account - How to navigate to Google PSE and set up a new search engine.
Configuring the Search Engine - We’ll create a new search engine for OpenWebUI, naming it, enabling web search, and setting the relevant parameters.
Obtaining Your Search Engine ID and API Key - I’ll show you how to generate and copy the search engine ID and API key, which are essential for connecting Google PSE with OpenWebUI.
Integrating Google PSE API Key and Search Engine ID with OpenWebUI - Once we have the necessary credentials, I’ll walk you through entering these into OpenWebUI’s web search settings to enable real-time search.
Testing the Real-Time Search Feature - With everything configured, we’ll test the feature by asking the model live questions like "What’s the weather in New York?" I’ll show you how OpenWebUI fetches data directly from the web, providing relevant search results and even showing the sources.
Customizing Search Parameters in OpenWebUI - Finally, I’ll explore some additional customization options:
Adjusting the search result count to specify how many websites OpenWebUI should search.
Changing language preferences and other optional search settings to fine-tune the experience.
📎 Useful Links & Resources:
Google Programmable Search Engine (PSE) - To create your search engine and generate an API key, go to Google Programmable Search Engine.
Google Cloud Console - For generating the API key needed for OpenWebUI integration, visit the Google Cloud Console.
OpenWebUI Documentation - Review the official OpenWebUI documentation for any additional information on web search configuration.

[@tanayarya2217]

Helpful!
Is api completely free or have any limitations on searches?

[@DigitalBrainBase]

Hi! The free version is limited. You'd see ads, but I believe 10,000 searches or so.