OpenAI web search lands mid-pack on the Artificial Analysis Search Index
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- x.com
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OpenAI Web Search debuts on the Artificial Analysis Search Index at 74, the 5th best provider behind Perplexity, Octen, Parallel and Brave @OpenAI Web Search is the first integrated first-party search tool on our board. Instead of an agent calling a Search API in our Stirrup harness, GPT-5.6 Luna (medium reasoning) calls OpenAI's built-in web_search tool, and OpenAI runs the whole search loop inside one Responses API call. All setups use the same underlying model, GPT-5.6 Luna (medium reasoning). At ~$0.05 per task, OpenAI Web Search costs less than Parallel (advanced, $0.06) and Perplexity (medium, $0.07), but about twice as much as Octen ($0.024), which scores 3 points higher. Key benchmarking results for OpenAI Web Search (medium search context): ➤ 5th best provider on the Artificial Analysis Search Index: OpenAI Web Search scores 74, a 41-point lift over the same model with no search (33). It places 7th of 26 products, level with You . com (highlights), Nimble (standard) and Exa (auto) at 74, behind the three Perplexity variants (77 to 80), Octen (77), Parallel (advanced) and Brave (LLM context) at 75 ➤ OpenAI Web Search performs best on AA-Omniscience, our proprietary…
Context
Artificial Analysis added OpenAI's built-in web search to its Search Index, where it scored 74, against 33 for the same model without search, according to an October 2026 post on X. The index normally tests search APIs by having an call them inside a fixed . Here GPT-5.6 Luna at medium reasoning used OpenAI's own web_search tool, with OpenAI running the whole search loop in one API call. All setups used the same underlying model, but the loop itself differed, so the lift reflects the whole search setup, not only the search results.
The score ranks 5th among providers and 7th of 26 products, behind three Perplexity variants (77 to 80), Octen (77), Parallel and Brave (75). At about $0.05 per task it is cheaper than 17 of 25 search APIs, though Octen costs about $0.024 and scores 3 points higher. The profile is uneven: 72% on AA-Omniscience, a factual question (3rd of 26), but 73.5% on BrowseComp, which needs several linked searches (13th of 26, behind Perplexity variants and Octen at 85% to 87%). These are Artificial Analysis's measurements from one harness and one model.
- AI agent — An AI system that doesn't just answer once but works toward a goal in a loop — taking actions, reading the results, and deciding what to do next.
- agent harness — The scaffolding around a model that turns it into a working agent — the loop, the tools it can call, and the rules for when to stop.
- benchmark — A standard public test set for comparing AI models — the shared scoreboards behind every "model X beats model Y" claim.
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