ChatGPT can be helpful—but it’s not always right
ChatGPT is designed to provide useful responses based on patterns in data it was trained on. But like any language model, it can produce incorrect or misleading outputs. Sometimes, it might sound confident—even when it’s wrong.
This phenomenon is often referred to as a hallucination: when the model produces responses that are not factually accurate, such as:
Incorrect definitions, dates, or facts
Fabricated quotes, studies, citations or references to non-existent sources
Overconfident answers to ambiguous or complex questions
That’s why we encourage users to approach ChatGPT critically and verify important information from reliable sources.
New tools can improve factual accuracy
Depending on your plan, ChatGPT may have access to tools that help it answer with more up-to-date or verifiable information:
Tool | What it does |
Search | Lets ChatGPT look up current or niche information from the web and provided cited answers |
Code interpreter / Data analysis | Enables accurate calculations, data visualizations, and structured logic |
Deep research | Provides multi-source, cited answers across web and internal knowledge |
ChatGPT doesn't know everything
While our latest models are highly capable, they do have limitations:
Knowledge cutoff: The models are trained on data up to a certain point and responses do not incorporate information about events beyond that, unless tools are used.
Confidence isn’t reliability: The model may express high confidence even in incorrect answers.
Lack of access: The model may not be able to obtain relevant information from a given website due to technical issues, paywalls or preferences set via robots.txt.
Bias and over-simplification: In some cases, it may:
Present a single perspective as absolute truth
Oversimplify complex or nuanced issues
Misrepresent the weight of scientific consensus or social debate
Does ChatGPT have access to the internet?
Generally, yes. While ChatGPT does not search the web unless specific tools are enabled, these tools are enabled for all models by default.
Without search enabled: Responses are based on what the model has learned during training.
With search or deep research: It can access and cite real-time web sources to answer questions with more recent information.
To check if search is enabled, check if the search or deep research icons are enabled in the input bar when typing in ChatGPT or whether sources from the web are cited to in the response.
Practical tips for using ChatGPT responsibly
Use ChatGPT as a first draft, not a final source. Please check important information.
Always verify quotes, data, technical information or references to external documents.
Use available tools like search or deep research and check sources when accuracy matters by visiting links directly.
Encourage critical thinking—especially in educational settings.