SideNote ProAI web search beside your work on Windows
Ask about current information without leaving the app you are using. Turn on Web search in a SideNote Pro conversation, and a supported AI provider can search when its model decides that current sources would help. You can open citations and the pages listed under Web sources. Search runs through your own provider account.
How Web search works
- Turn on the globeIn a conversation, select the Web search globe beside the provider picker. The switch starts off by default and belongs to that conversation.
- Ask about current informationSend a question that could benefit from recent facts. The model decides whether to search; switching Web search on does not make every request search.
- Follow the sourcesWhen the provider reports a search, SideNote Pro shows search activity. Responses can include clickable citations and a Web sources section linking to pages the provider returned.
Web search is available for requests in a conversation. It is not a continuous background research or monitoring service, and a citation does not by itself verify every claim in an answer. Open the linked pages when the details matter.
Which AI providers support Web search?
In SideNote Pro 1.17.0, Web search works with OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude) and OpenRouter through their supported provider endpoints. Model support can vary; a model that cannot search may return a refusal. Provider setup explains how profiles work.
Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Ollama, LM Studio and custom endpoints do not support Web search in this version. They continue to handle ordinary requests with Web search off. If you enable it with one of these providers, SideNote Pro refuses to send the message instead of silently answering without search.
Control it for each conversation
Web search starts off for new and existing conversations. Each conversation retains its own switch setting. In Settings → General, you can turn on Enable Web search in new conversations if you want new threads to start with the switch on. This preference does not change conversations you already have, and it does not make an unsupported provider searchable.
With Web search off, regular requests keep their previous behavior. Other workflows, including selected-text actions, inline commands and Takeaways, do not run Web search.
Costs, data and privacy
Web search lets your AI provider retrieve current information. It may increase API usage costs, including token and search fees charged by your provider.
Search uses your existing provider account and API key. There is no additional SideNote Pro search subscription, service, account or API key. Your provider may charge for searching and for processing the content it retrieves. Search fees are outside SideNote Pro's local cost estimates and daily cost limit; retrieved content can also make token usage exceed the estimate shown before sending.
Search requests go to the provider you configured. OpenRouter may pass search queries to an external search partner. BediniLabs does not run the search infrastructure or receive your searches. Your provider's privacy and retention policies apply.
When conversation history is enabled, SideNote Pro can save the search queries, source titles, URLs and search counts returned by the provider alongside the local conversation. It does not save the retrieved web page contents. Read the Privacy Policy for the full data flow.