How can I implement real‐time internet search using APIs or plugins?

Below is a summary of the current situation regarding using APIs for real‑time information or plugins:

Real‑Time Web Information

• OpenAI API Models:
  The OpenAI API (e.g., through endpoints like chat completions with models such as GPT‑4 or GPT‑3.5‑turbo) uses models trained on data with fixed cutoffs. They do not pull in real‑time or up‑to‑date internet information.
• Alternative Solutions:
  To search for the latest information on the web, you would need to integrate a separate search API (for example, Microsoft’s Bing Search API or Google’s Custom Search API) into your application. You can then combine the results from such services with responses from an OpenAI model if needed.

Plugins Within the API

• ChatGPT Plugins:
  While ChatGPT in its user interface can integrate browsing or third‑party plugins, these functionalities are not available via the public OpenAI API. The API endpoints remain focused on generating text based on the provided context and do not support invoking external plugins.

Summary

• For Current Internet Searches:
  There is currently no OpenAI API or model that provides direct browsing or real‑time search capabilities. Developers need to use external search APIs for that functionality.
• For Plugin Integration:
  Plugin support (as seen in the ChatGPT interface) is not offered through the API.

If you want to build an application that both fetches live data and uses language model responses, consider combining external search APIs with the OpenAI API in your workflow.