How To Replace Google With ChatGPT Search In Your Browser

ChatGPT search launched this week, and in many ways it delivers richer results than Google. So much so, that you might even want to replace Google with ChatGPT search as the default in your browser of choice.

It’s not always possible – some of the most popular web browsers tightly control which services can act as your default search engine. But here’s how to do it in some of the most popular desktop web browsers out there.

Before we dive in, it’s worth noting that only ChatGPT Plus subscribers have access to web search at the time of writing, it’s not available on the free accounts.

Replace Google With ChatGPT Search In Chrome

OpenAI makes it easy to replace Google as the default search engine in Chrome, because it’s released a browser extension that does just that. All you need to do is install the browser extension and it takes care of the rest.

Click here to download the ChatGPT search extension for Google Chrome.

If you don’t want to go the whole hog and replace Google as your default, but you do want to make it easier to search with ChatGPT, you can add ChatGPT search to Chrome’s site search shortcuts. This means you can type a shortcut such as “@chat” into the browser’s address bar, followed by your search term, to search with ChatGPT without having to visit the site first. (Hat tip to MasterSnipes on Reddit for posting the following solution.)

To do this:

1. Open Chrome Settings
2. Select Search Engine from the left-hand menu
3. Click Manage search engines and site search
4. Under Site Search, click Add
5. Change the name to “ChatGPT” (without the quote marks)
6. Change the shortcut to “@chatgpt” or a shortcut of your choice
7. Change the URL to “https://chatgpt.com/?q=%s” and then click Add

Now, for example, you can type searches such as “@chatgpt today’s weather in Chicago” into the Chrome address bar, and it will run the search using ChatGPT. You should see the address bar change to “Search with ChatGPT” after you’ve typed the shortcut and pressed the space bar.

Replace Google With ChatGPT Search In Edge

Microsoft Edge is based on the same Chromium engine as the Google Chrome browser, and so it too can load the ChatGPT search extension.

However, Microsoft being Microsoft, it’s not going to make life easy for people who want to switch their default away from a Microsoft service, in this case Bing. So when you attempt to install the ChatGPT search extension, it will initially be blocked and you’ll see this warning pop-up message:

Click the grey Turn On button to ensure ChatGPT search does become the default.

Edge also has a similar feature to Chrome that allows you to add search engines, without replacing the default. To find this:

1. Open Settings
2. Select Privacy, Search, and Services from the left-hand menu
3. Scroll down to Address bar and search and click that
4. Click Manage search engines
5. Click Add and follow steps 5, 6 and 7 for Chrome above

Replace Google With ChatGPT Search in Safari, Firefox And Other Browsers

Your options are more limited with some of the other popular browsers.

Safari does allow you to switch the default engine, but only to one of five different providers, not including ChatGPT. Neither does ChatGPT search appear to work with Safari’s Quick Website feature, that allows you to search sites from the address bar, without visiting them first.

Firefox too lets users switch their default search engine, but this requires the search provider to create an extension for the browser. It doesn’t appear that OpenAI has created one for Firefox yet.

Vivaldi is my browser of choice. It too is based on the Chromium engine and it also allows you to install extensions from the Chrome Web Store. However, when I attempted to install the ChatGPT search extension, it didn’t change the default engine.

You can, however, add ChatGPT to Vivaldi’s list of search engines using the same process as detailed above for Chrome (navigate to Settings > Search > Search Engines in Vivaldi). Once it’s added as a search engine, you can then make it the default.

The big question is, now that you’ve learned how to replace Google with ChatGPT search, will you ever go back?