---
sidebar_position: 5
title: "🌐 Web Search"
---

## Overview

This guide provides instructions on how to set up web search capabilities in Open WebUI using various search engines.

## SearXNG (Docker)

> "**SearXNG is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search services and databases. Users are neither tracked nor profiled.**"

### 1. SearXNG Configuration

If you want to modify the default configuration, follow these steps:

1. Create a new directory `searxng-docker` by cloning the searxng-docker repository. This folder will contain your SearXNG configuration files. Refer to the [SearXNG documentation](https://docs.searxng.org/) for configuration instructions.

```bash
git clone https://github.com/searxng/searxng-docker.git
```

2. Navigate to the `searxng-docker` repository:

```bash
cd searxng-docker
```

3. Remove the `localhost` restriction and define a less used port by modifying the `docker-compose.yaml` file:

```bash
sed -i "s/127.0.0.1:8080/1337/" docker-compose.yaml
```

4. Allow the container to create new config files:

```bash
sudo chmod a+rwx searxng-docker/
```

5. Create a non-restrictive `searxng-docker/limiter.toml` config file:

<details>
<summary>searxng-docker/limiter.toml</summary>

```bash
cat > searxng-docker/limiter.toml << EOF
[botdetection.ip_limit]
# activate link_token method in the ip_limit method
link_token = false

[botdetection.ip_lists]
block_ip = []
pass_ip = []
EOF
```

</details>

6. Delete the default `searxng-docker/settings.yml` file, it will be regenerated on first launch:

```bash
rm searxng-docker/settings.yml
```

7. Bring up the container momentarily to generate a fresh settings.yml file:

```bash
docker compose up searxng-docker -d ; sleep 10 ; docker compose down searxng-docker
```

8. Add HTML and JSON formats to the `searxng-docker/settings.yml` file:

```bash
sed -i 's/formats: \[\"html\"\/]/formats: [\"html\", \"json\"]/' searxng-docker/settings.yml
```

#### Configuration Files

#### searxng/settings.yml (Extract)

The default `settings.yml` file contains many engine settings. Below is an extract of what the default `settings.yml` file might look like:

<details>
<summary>searxng-docker/settings.yml</summary>

```yaml
# see https://docs.searxng.org/admin/settings/settings.html#settings-use-default-settings
use_default_settings: true

server:
  secret_key: "Generate a secret key and provide it here"
  limiter: false
  image_proxy: true
  port: 8080
  bind_address: "0.0.0.0"

ui:
  static_use_hash: true

search:
  safe_search: 0
  autocomplete: ""
  default_lang: ""
  formats:
    - html
    - json
    # json is required
```

The port in the settings.yml file for SearXNG should match that of the port number in your docker-compose.yml file for SearXNG. So if you plan to use port `1337` for example, you'd set both to `1337`. If you want to use port `8080`, keep both on `8080`. Feel free to change the `bind_address` from `0.0.0.0` to `127.0.0.1` instead. Leaving it on `0.0.0.0` means that SearXNG can listen across all interfaces, while `127.0.0.1` just means that its listening on localhost.

</details>

8. Your `searxng-docker/uwsgi.ini` file for SearXNG should look like:

<details>
<summary>searxng-docker/uwsgi.ini</summary>

```ini
[uwsgi]
# Who will run the code
uid = searxng
gid = searxng

# Number of workers (usually CPU count)
# default value: %k (= number of CPU core, see Dockerfile)
workers = %k

# Number of threads per worker
# default value: 4 (see Dockerfile)
threads = 4

# The right granted on the created socket
chmod-socket = 666

# Plugin to use and interpreter config
single-interpreter = true
master = true
plugin = python3
lazy-apps = true
enable-threads = 4

# Module to import
module = searx.webapp

# Virtualenv and python path
pythonpath = /usr/local/searxng/
chdir = /usr/local/searxng/searx/

# automatically set processes name to something meaningful
auto-procname = true

# Disable request logging for privacy
disable-logging = true
log-5xx = true

# Set the max size of a request (request-body excluded)
buffer-size = 8192

# No keep alive
# See https://github.com/searx/searx-docker/issues/24
add-header = Connection: close

# uwsgi serves the static files
static-map = /static=/usr/local/searxng/searx/static
# expires set to one day
static-expires = /* 86400
static-gzip-all = True
offload-threads = 4
```

</details>

Now, copy the modified `searxng-docker` folder to the same directory as your compose files.

Alternatively, if you don't want to modify the default configuration, you can simply create an empty `searxng-docker` folder and follow the rest of the setup instructions.

### 2. Docker Compose Setup

Add the following to your `docker-compose.yaml` file:

```yaml
services:
  open-webui:
    environment:
      ENABLE_RAG_WEB_SEARCH: True
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE: "searxng"
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_RESULT_COUNT: 3
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS: 10
      SEARXNG_QUERY_URL: "http://searxng:1337/search?q=<query>"

  searxng:
    image: searxng/searxng:latest
    container_name: searxng
    ports:
      - "1337:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./searxng:/etc/searxng
    restart: unless-stopped
```

Launch your updated stack with:

```bash
docker compose up -d
```

Alternatively, you can run SearXNG directly using `docker run`:

```bash
docker run -d --name searxng -p 1337:8080 -v ./searxng:/etc/searxng --restart always searxng/searxng:latest
```

Confirm connectivity from Open-WebUI container instance:

```bash
docker exec -it open-webui curl 'http://host.docker.internal:1337/search?q=this+is+a+test+query&format=json'
```

### 3. GUI Configuration

1. Navigate to: `Admin Panel` -> `Settings` -> `Web Search`
2. Toggle `Enable Web Search`
3. Set `Web Search Engine` from dropdown menu to `searxng`
4. Set `Searxng Query URL` to examples given: `https://<search.domain.com>/search?q=<query>` or `http://<searxng.local>/search?q=<query>`. **Do note the `/search?q=<query>` part is mandatory.**
5. Adjust the `Search Result Count` and `Concurrent Requests` values accordingly
6. Save changes

![SearXNG GUI Configuration](/img/tutorial_searxng_config.png)

### 4. Using Web Search in a Chat

To access Web Search, Click on the + next to the message input field.

Here you can toggle Web Search On/Off.

![Web Search UI Toggle](/img/web_search_toggle.png)

#### Note

You will have to explicitly toggle this On/Off in a chat.

This is enabled on a per session basis eg. reloading the page, changing to another chat will toggle off.

## Google PSE API

### Setup

1. Go to Google Developers, use [Programmable Search Engine](https://developers.google.com/custom-search), and log on or create account.
2. Go to [control panel](https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/controlpanel/all) and click `Add` button
3. Enter a search engine name, set the other properties to suit your needs, verify you're not a robot and click `Create` button.
4. Generate `API key` and get the `Search engine ID`. (Available after the engine is created)
5. With `API key` and `Search engine ID`, open `Open WebUI Admin panel` and click `Settings` tab, and then click `Web Search`
6. Enable `Web search` and Set `Web Search Engine` to `google_pse`
7. Fill `Google PSE API Key` with the `API key` and `Google PSE Engine Id` (# 4)
8. Click `Save`

![Open WebUI Admin panel](/img/tutorial_google_pse1.png)

#### Note

You have to enable `Web search` in the prompt field, using plus (`+`) button.
Search the web ;-)

![enable Web search](/img/tutorial_google_pse2.png)

## Brave API

### Docker Compose Setup

Add the following to a file named `docker-compose.yaml`:

```yaml
services:
  open-webui:
    environment:
      ENABLE_RAG_WEB_SEARCH: True
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE: "brave"
      BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY: "YOUR_API_KEY"
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_RESULT_COUNT: 3
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS: 10
```

## Mojeek Search API

### Setup

1. Please visit [Mojeek Search API page](https://www.mojeek.com/services/search/web-search-api/) to obtain an `API key`
2. With `API key`, open `Open WebUI Admin panel` and click `Settings` tab, and then click `Web Search`
3. Enable `Web search` and Set `Web Search Engine` to `mojeek`
4. Fill `Mojeek Search API Key` with the `API key`
5. Click `Save`

### Docker Compose Setup

Add the following to a file named `docker-compose.yaml`:

```yaml
services:
  open-webui:
    environment:
      ENABLE_RAG_WEB_SEARCH: True
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE: "mojeek"
      BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY: "YOUR_MOJEEK_API_KEY"
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_RESULT_COUNT: 3
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS: 10
```

## SearchApi API

[SearchApi](https://searchapi.io) is a collection of real-time SERP APIs. Any existing or upcoming SERP engine that returns `organic_results` is supported. The default web search engine is `google`, but it can be changed to `bing`, `baidu`, `google_news`, `bing_news`, `google_scholar`, `google_patents`, and others.

### Setup

1. Go to [SearchApi](https://searchapi.io), and log on or create a new account.
2. Go to `Dashboard` and copy the API key.
3. With `API key`, open `Open WebUI Admin panel` and click `Settings` tab, and then click `Web Search`.
4. Enable `Web search` and set `Web Search Engine` to `searchapi`.
5. Fill `SearchApi API Key` with the `API key` that you copied in step 2 from [SearchApi](https://www.searchapi.io/) dashboard.
6. [Optional] Enter the `SearchApi engine` name you want to query. Example, `google`, `bing`, `baidu`, `google_news`, `bing_news`, `google_videos`, `google_scholar` and `google_patents.` By default, it is set to `google`.
7. Click `Save`.

![Open WebUI Admin panel](/img/tutorial_searchapi_search.png)

#### Note

You have to enable `Web search` in the prompt field, using plus (`+`) button to search the web using [SearchApi](https://www.searchapi.io/) engines.

![enable Web search](/img/enable_web_search.png)

## Kagi API

Coming Soon

### Setup

## Serpstack API

Coming Soon

### Setup

## Serper API

Coming Soon

### Setup

## Serply API

Coming Soon

### Setup

## DuckDuckGo API

### Setup

No setup required! DuckDuckGo works out of the box in Open WebUI. Note that there is a possibility of your searches being rate limited.

## Tavily API

Coming Soon

### Setup

## Jina API

Coming Soon

### Setup

## Bing API

### Setup

1. Navigate to the [AzurePortal](https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.BingSearch) and create a new resource. After creation, you’ll be redirected to the resource overview page. From there, select "Click here to manage keys." ![click here to manage keys](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/dd2a3c67-d6a7-4198-ba54-67a3c8acff6d)
2. On the key management page, locate Key1 or Key2 and copy your desired key.
3. Open the Open WebUI Admin Panel, switch to the Settings tab, and then select Web Search.
4. Enable the Web search option and set the Web Search Engine to bing.
5. Fill `SearchApi API Key` with the `API key` that you copied in step 2 from [AzurePortal](https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.BingSearch) dashboard.
6. Click `Save`.