---
title: "Pioneer AI web search"
description: "How Pioneer AI searches the web for current versions, patches, and advisories, what a query may never contain, and how searches are billed."
url: "https://support.outpostplatform.com/pioneer-ai/web-search/"
product: "depot"
type: "concept"
status: "draft"
ai_summary: "Pioneer AI web search uses Brave. Answers cite their sources. Queries and page addresses are refused if they contain a client name, endpoint hostname, email address, IP address, or the console address. Only result titles and addresses are stored. Owners turn it off with Web search on Settings > AI. Outpost Cloud AI bills about $0.01 per search; your own endpoint needs your own Brave key."
availability:
  plans: ["home-lab", "essentials", "enterprise", "msp"]
  permission: "ai:use"
  preview: false
source: "https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/edit/main/src/content/docs/pioneer-ai/web-search.md"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Pioneer AI web search

Pioneer AI can search the web when an answer depends on something newer than
its model: the latest version of an agent, a patch that was pulled, a vendor
advisory. It can also read a public page it found, or a page whose address you
gave it. This page explains how searches work, what keeps your clients out of
them, and what they cost. Web search is on by default, and an owner can turn
it off.

## How it works

1. Pioneer AI decides a question needs current information and writes a
   search query in general technical terms, such as `Windows 11 24H2 known
   issues printer`.
2. Outpost checks the query before it leaves your Outpost (see below), then
   sends it to the search provider, Brave.
3. Pioneer AI reads the results, and can open up to 5 of the pages it found in
   one reply.
4. The answer lists the pages it used under **Sources**, each with its title
   and site. Selecting one opens it in a new browser tab. The console itself
   never loads those pages.

Pioneer AI can open a page only if it came from a search in the same
conversation or its address is in one of your messages. Web pages are treated
as untrusted data: text on a page is never taken as an instruction.

## What a search may never contain

Before a query or a page address is sent, Outpost refuses it if it contains:

- the name of one of your clients (names of 4 or more characters);
- the hostname of one of your endpoints;
- an email address;
- an IPv4 or IPv6 address;
- your console's own address.

Pioneer AI is told **Search queries must not contain client names, hostnames,
email or IP addresses. Rephrase with generic technical terms.** and searches
again with general terms. You see the refused attempt as a failed tool card.

## What is kept

The conversation keeps only the title and address of each result. The result
snippets and the text of pages Pioneer AI read are used for that reply and
are not stored. Outpost does not store or log the text of a query. Brave keeps
a record of queries for up to 90 days, as Schedule B of the Outpost Terms of
Service describes. See
[Pioneer AI data and privacy](/pioneer-ai/data-and-privacy/).

## Limits

| Limit | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Searches in one reply | 5 |
| Searches in one conversation | 40 |
| Searches by one person in a day | 200 |
| Pages opened in one reply | 5 |

## Cost

| Source | What a search costs |
| --- | --- |
| Outpost Cloud AI | About $0.01 per search, billed as **Pioneer AI - Web search** lines on your Outpost invoice. Searches count toward the monthly budget and the [spending limit per reply](/pioneer-ai/set-up/#set-a-spending-limit-per-reply). Home Lab is not billed for searches. |
| Your own endpoint | Nothing from Outpost. Searches use your own Brave Search API key, and Brave bills you. Without a key, Pioneer AI does not search. |

Each search appears on **Settings** > **AI** > **Usage**. See
[Review Pioneer AI usage](/pioneer-ai/usage/).

## Turn it off, or use your own key

An owner controls web search with the **Web search** switch on **Settings** >
**AI**, and adds a key for your own endpoint in **Your own search key
(optional)**. See
[Choose web search](/pioneer-ai/set-up/#choose-web-search).

## Related

- [Use Pioneer AI](/pioneer-ai/use-pioneer-ai/)
- [Pioneer AI data and privacy](/pioneer-ai/data-and-privacy/)
- [Set up Pioneer AI](/pioneer-ai/set-up/)