Web search: when to enable.

LADLE's composer has a web-search toggle. It's off by default. That's deliberate — search changes model behavior in ways that aren't always what you want.

The rule of thumb

If the answer would be materially different in six months, turn search on. If the answer is timeless, leave it off.

Search-on is right for: current events, prices, product releases, version numbers, company moves, anything time-sensitive, and anything where you want citation URLs you can click through and verify.

Search-off is right for: drafting, editing, translation, tone work, code (unless a specific library version matters), explaining concepts, exploratory thinking, personal or subjective tasks (advice, planning, brainstorming).

Why leaving search on hurts drafting

When search is enabled, the model treats every question as if it might need a lookup. For factual questions this is neutral or helpful. For a birthday message or a cover letter, the model wastes tokens on searches that return nothing useful, and the reply comes back subtly stiffer than if it had just answered from what it knows.

Cost implications

Web search bills at $10 per 1,000 queries ($0.01 each). A heavy-search subscriber can burn through their monthly compute budget faster than a same-usage subscriber who leaves search off. The router caps a single turn at 3 searches so a runaway search chain can't eat your budget in one query.

How to see what fired

The kitchen panel (Cmd+K on any reply) shows how many searches ran and what the queries were. If a turn feels slower than expected, check whether search fired — that's often the cause.

Setting a per-user default

Some users work in domains where search-on is right most of the time (journalists, researchers, competitive analysts). Settings → Behavior has a per-user default toggle. Still overridable per chat.

When citations don't verify

The web search tool returns citations that link to the results Anthropic's search index found. If a URL 404s or the cited page doesn't contain what the reply claims, that's usually the search index being temporarily out of sync with the live web. Report it and we'll pass the feedback along — no fake citations should exist, only stale index entries.