ChatGPT iOS App Adds Microsoft Bing Integration

The ChatGPT app for iOS now lets ChatGPT Plus users use Bing to get results from the search engine (via ZDNet). Microsoft announced at its Build developer conference that Bing would become the default search engine for ChatGPT, and the Bing integration has been available on the ChatGPT web app since last month.

Adding Bing search results to ChatGPT doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the free version of the generative AI app actually doesn’t have information about what happened after September 2021. ChatGPT users could already address these limitations by using third-party plugins to access other knowledge sources, though access to ChatGPT plugins is still quite limited.

To get Bing search results in the ChatGPT app for iOS, you’ll need an active ChatGPT Plus subscription ($20/month). In the app’s settings, you’ll also need to enable Browsing in the “New Features” section. In the model switcher, the “Browse with Bing” option will then appear in the drop-down menu.

If you do need a ChatGPT Plus subscription to enjoy the best of what the generative AI app has to offer, including faster response times powered by the newer GPT-4 model, Microsoft’s Bing chatbot pretty much offers the same features for free. Bing doesn’t support third-party plugins yet, but Microsoft is already working on it.

At its Build conference last month, Microsoft also announced that it working with OpenAI on an open standard for plugins. This means that ChatGPT plugins should eventually be compatible with Bing, the Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the upcoming Windows Copilot.