Query fan-out and web search control

Use the web_search input to control whether LLM scrapers run a web search and read web_search_triggered (1 = a search ran for the request) to confirm.

Query fan-out is the mechanism Bright Data LLM Scrapers use to control and report external web search activity during a run. Use the web_search input to decide whether a web search is allowed, and read the web_search_triggered output field to know whether a web search actually occurred.

web_search is a permission. web_search_triggered is the actual behavior. They are not the same, set web_search: true and the model may still decide not to search; set web_search: false and web_search_triggered will always return false.

Which scrapers support query fan-out

LLM Scraper	Query fan-out support
ChatGPT	Available
Grok	Available

Gemini does not currently expose a web_search control. The decision to search the web is made internally by Gemini and cannot be forced or disabled from the scraper input.

Input: web_search

Field	Type	Required	Default	Meaning
web_search	boolean	No	true	Controls whether web search is allowed during the run

Values

• true or omitted: web search is allowed. The scraper enables the Web Search button in the LLM UI and the model may choose to use it.
• false: web search is disabled. The scraper does not enable the Web Search button, and the model will not trigger a search.

Output: web_search_triggered

Field	Type	Always returned	Meaning
web_search	boolean	No	Echoes the input value (defaults to true if omitted). Does not indicate whether a search actually happened.
web_search_triggered	boolean	Yes	true only if the model actually triggered a web search during the run; false otherwise.

Use web_search_triggered when you need to confirm whether the model’s answer was grounded in live web results.

Example: disable web search

The request below passes web_search: false to force an offline answer.

curl -X POST "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_m7aof0k82r803d5bjm&notify=false&include_errors=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "input": [
      {
        "url": "https://chatgpt.com/",
        "prompt": "Top hotels in New York",
        "country": "",
        "web_search": false,
        "additional_prompt": ""
      }
    ]
  }'

What to expect

• The response includes web_search: false.
• The response includes web_search_triggered: false because searching was not allowed.

How to interpret results

When web_search_triggered is true

A response with web_search_triggered: true means the model actually ran an external web search during the run. If the response also includes prompt-derived structured fields (for example is_map: true with a populated map payload, or citations), those fields were produced from live search results.

Why map can be null even when search happened

Even if web_search_triggered: true, fields like map or citations can still be empty or null. The reason:

• web_search_triggered only tells you whether web search ran.
• Fields like map, shopping_visible, and citations reflect what the model chose to output, which depends on the prompt and the model’s final answer format.

Do not use output fields like map as proof that web search happened. Use web_search_triggered for that.

Summary

• Set web_search on the input to control whether web search is allowed.
• Read web_search_triggered on the output to know whether web search actually occurred.
• Do not rely on prompt-derived output fields (map, citations, shopping_visible) as a signal that a web search ran. Those fields depend on the prompt and the model’s response format, not on search activity.

See also

• ChatGPT Scraper API introduction
• Send your first ChatGPT search request
• ChatGPT Search by prompt API reference
• AI Scrapers overview