Web Search

Overview

This guide provides instructions on how to set up web search capabilities in Open WebUI using various search engines.

SearXNG (Docker)

SearXNG is a metasearch engine that aggregates results from multiple search engines.

1. SearXNG Configuration

Create a folder named searxng in the same directory as your compose files. This folder will contain your Searxng configuration files. Refer to the Searxng documentation for configuration instructions.

Configuration Files:

searxng/settings.yml

# see https://docs.searxng.org/admin/settings/settings.html#settings-use-default-settings
use_default_settings: true

server:
  secret_key: "f9e603d4191caab069b021fa0568391a33c8a837b470892c64461b5dd12464f4"
  limiter: false
  image_proxy: true
  port: 8080
  bind_address: "0.0.0.0"

ui:
  static_use_hash: true

search:
  safe_search: 0
  autocomplete: ""
  default_lang: ""
  formats:
    - html
    - json

searxng/limiter.toml

[botdetection.ip_limit]
# activate link_token method in the ip_limit method
link_token = true

searxng/uwsgi.ini

[uwsgi]
# Who will run the code
uid = searxng
gid = searxng

# Number of workers (usually CPU count)
# default value: %k (= number of CPU core, see Dockerfile)
workers = %k

# Number of threads per worker
# default value: 4 (see Dockerfile)
threads = 4

# The right granted on the created socket
chmod-socket = 666

# Plugin to use and interpreter config
single-interpreter = true
master = true
plugin = python3
lazy-apps = true
enable-threads = 4

# Module to import
module = searx.webapp

# Virtualenv and python path
pythonpath = /usr/local/searxng/
chdir = /usr/local/searxng/searx/

# automatically set processes name to something meaningful
auto-procname = true

# Disable request logging for privacy
disable-logging = true
log-5xx = true

# Set the max size of a request (request-body excluded)
buffer-size = 8192

# No keep alive
# See https://github.com/searx/searx-docker/issues/24
add-header = Connection: close

# uwsgi serves the static files
static-map = /static=/usr/local/searxng/searx/static
# expires set to one day
static-expires = /* 86400
static-gzip-all = True
offload-threads = 4

2. Docker Compose Setup

Add the following to a file named docker-compose.searxng.yaml alongside your existing docker-compose.yaml:

services:
  open-webui:
    environment:
      ENABLE_RAG_WEB_SEARCH: True
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE: "searxng"
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_RESULT_COUNT: 3
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS: 10
      SEARXNG_QUERY_URL: "http://searxng:8080/search?q=<query>"

  searxng:
    image: searxng/searxng:latest
    container_name: searxng
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./searxng:/etc/searxng
    restart: always

Launch your updated stack with:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yaml -f docker-compose.searxng.yaml up -d

3. Alternative: Docker Run

You can run SearXNG directly using docker run:

docker run -d --name searxng -p 8080:8080 -v ./searxng:/etc/searxng --restart always searxng/searxng:latest

4. GUI Configuration

1. Navigate to: Admin Panel -> Settings -> Web Search
2. Toggle Enable Web Search
3. Set Web Search Engine from dropdown menu to searxng
4. Set Searxng Query URL to examples given: https://<search.domain.com>/search?q=<query> or http://<searxng.local>/search?q=<query>. Do note the /search?q=<query> part is mandatory.
5. Adjust the Search Result Count and Concurrent Requests values accordingly
6. Save changes

5. Using Web Search in a Chat

To access Web Search, Click on the + next to the message input field.

Here you can toggle Web Search On/Off.

Note

You will have to explicitly toggle this On/Off in a chat.

This is enabled on a per session basis eg. reloading the page, changing to another chat will toggle off.

SearchApi API

SearchApi is a collection of real-time SERP APIs. Any existing or upcoming SERP engine that returns organic_results is supported. The default web search engine is google, but it can be changed to bing, baidu, google_news, bing_news, google_scholar, google_patents, and others.

Setup

1. Go to SearchApi, and log on or create a new account.
2. Go to Dashboard and copy the API key.
3. With API key, open Open WebUI Admin panel and click Settings tab, and then click Web Search.
4. Enable Web search and set Web Search Engine to searchapi.
5. Fill SearchApi API Key with the API key that you copied in step 2 from SearchApi dashboard.
6. [Optional] Enter the SearchApi engine name you want to query. Example, google, bing, baidu, google_news, bing_news, google_videos, google_scholar and google_patents. By default, it is set to google.
7. Click Save.

Note

You have to enable Web search in the prompt field, using plus (+) button to search the web using SearchApi engines.

Google PSE API

Setup

1. Go to Google Developers, use Programmable Search Engine, and log on or create account.
2. Go to control panel and click Add button
3. Enter a search engine name, set the other properties to suit your needs, verify you're not a robot and click Create button.
4. Generate API key and get the Search engine ID. (Available after the engine is created)
5. With API key and Search engine ID, open Open WebUI Admin panel and click Settings tab, and then click Web Search
6. Enable Web search and Set Web Search Engine to google_pse
7. Fill Google PSE API Key with the API key and Google PSE Engine Id (# 4)
8. Click Save

Note

You have to enable Web search in the prompt field, using plus (+) button. Search the web ;-)

Serper API

Serpstack API

Brave API

Docker Compose Setup

Add the following to a file named docker-compose.yaml:

services:
  open-webui:
    environment:
      ENABLE_RAG_WEB_SEARCH: True
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_ENGINE: "brave"
      BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY: "YOUR_API_KEY"
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_RESULT_COUNT: 3
      RAG_WEB_SEARCH_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS: 10