ChatGPT for iOS now lets paid subscribers use Bing right from the app

June 28, 2023

2 min read

OpenAI released the first official ChatGPT app for iOS in May, following the roaring success of the AI-based platform. Since then, the app has been updated with many new features, including support for Siri Shortcuts. Now the ChatGPT app for iOS is getting another update, this time with Microsoft’s Bing built in – but only for paid subscribers.

ChatGPT brings Bing integration to iOS

As described in the release notes of the latest version of the app (via The Verge), ChatGPT Plus subscribers can now enable a new “Browsing” feature that uses GPT-4 combined with Bing search. When this feature is enabled, ChatGPT gives “comprehensive answers and current insights on events and information that extend beyond the model’s original training data.”

In other words, this means that ChatGPT uses Bing search to give even more accurate answers based on recent data. For those unfamiliar, ChatGPT has been trained with data from no later than September 2021. The AI has no knowledge about events that happened after that, but integrating with Bing solves this problem.

A similar integration is already available in the web version of ChatGPT. It’s worth noting that Microsoft made a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI earlier this year. As a result, Bing became the default search engine for ChatGPT, while OpenAI’s generative AI now comes built into Microsoft Edge and is part of Bing.

As an example, Microsoft recently updated the Bing app for iOS with a new widget that takes the user directly to the ChatGPT-based chatbot.

In order to enable the new Bing-based feature, look for the “Browsing” option in the “New Features” section and make sure to switch to the GPT-4 model.

ChatGPT for iOS is available for free on the App Store. Some features require a ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20 per month. The app is available in more than 40 regions across the world.