Yes! When ChatGPT looks things up online, it uses a web search API to fetch the latest information. This is not the same as OpenAI's standard API—instead, it queries the web in real time.
🔍 How Web Search Works in ChatGPT

It sends a search query to a web search API.
It retrieves relevant results from websites.
It summarizes the information and provides a response.

This is similar to Google Search API, Bing Search API, or DuckDuckGo Instant Answers API.

🚀 Can You Use This API for Your Own Scripts?
Not directly inside ChatGPT, but you can use public web search APIs in your Python scripts:
1️⃣ Bing Search API (by Microsoft)

Requires an API key from Azure.
Example:

import requests

API_KEY = "your_bing_api_key"
search_query = "latest SEO best practices"

url = f"https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/search?q={search_query}"
headers = {"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key": API_KEY}
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

print(response.json()) # Returns search results

2️⃣ SerpAPI (Google Search API)

Uses Google results but requires a SerpAPI key.
Example:

from serpapi import GoogleSearch

params = {"q": "latest WordPress SEO tips", "api_key": "your_serpapi_key"}
search = GoogleSearch(params)
results = search.get_dict()
print(results)

3️⃣ Scraping Directly (If Allowed)

If no API exists, use BeautifulSoup to scrape a website.
However, many sites block automated scraping in their robots.txt.


🌍 Can You Use ChatGPT's Built-in Web Search in Your Own Code?
🔸 No, OpenAI’s web search is not publicly available via API.🔸 Yes, you can replicate it using Bing, SerpAPI, or scraping.