⚡ Key takeaways
- Research needs a paid plan, including Pro. On Free, normal web search handles a smaller version.
- Ask one bounded question with an audience, a decision, preferred sources, and a size limit.
- Switch off connectors first: Research can use them without asking each time.
- Check the claim that drives the decision against the page it cites.
Your neighborhood reading group is planning its first 45-minute meeting. Should you start with introductions, read a short story together, or have everyone bring a book to recommend? One search won’t settle that, and a pile of links doesn’t help either. Claude’s Research mode searches many sources, compares them, and returns a short brief with citations. In this guide you write that request, run it, and check whether the sources really say what Claude claims.
When to use Research
Use the smallest tool that answers the question. Anthropic’s comparison of the three options separates them like this:
- Web search: one current fact, such as a library’s opening hours.
- Extended thinking: reasoning through information you already have.
- Research: comparing information from many sources to answer a broader question.
The Research guide lists it on Pro and higher plans, in Claude Desktop, on the web, and on mobile.
Step 1: Set up the chat
Research may use any connector that is switched on, without asking first. For a public-web exercise, switch them off.
- Start a new conversation.
- Open the + menu in the message box, choose Connectors, and switch off every app.
- Open the + menu again and select Research.
- Check for the blue Research indicator below the message box.
Older layouts also show a Web search toggle in the + menu; switch it on if you see it. In the new Claude layout there is no toggle, because Claude searches when it helps.
Step 2: Ask one bounded question
Help plan a first 45-minute meeting for a casual reading group of adult neighbors in the United States. Use public sources, preferably public libraries or literary organizations. Compare three formats: introductions and choosing a book, discussing a short text, and bringing a book to recommend. Recommend one and explain the trade-offs. Separate advice your sources support from your own suggested agenda. Return a brief under 600 words, a comparison table, and a source link beside each claim. List what remains uncertain. Do not invent a date, time, location, or book.
The request has four parts you can reuse for your own questions: who it’s for, the decision to make, which sources to prefer, and how big the result should be. Leave one out and the brief tends to sprawl.
Expect it to take a while. Anthropic’s comparison puts typical runs at one to three minutes, and some take longer. Research also uses your plan’s limit faster than a normal chat, so look at Settings > Usage before you start a second large run.
From my own use
When I need deeper information, for travel too, a run often takes half an hour or more, sometimes an hour.
Step 3: Check the claim that drives the decision
A source can be real without supporting the sentence it is attached to. Start with the reason Claude gives for its recommended format.
- Click the citation next to the recommendation.
- Find the passage that should support it.
- Check who published it, when, and for which audience.
- Compare the passage with Claude’s wording.
- Note whether the claim is supported, partly supported, or not supported.
Advice for a school class is not evidence about adult neighbors. Repeat the check for one more claim that could change your decision. If a link is dead or the passage isn’t there, treat the claim as unverified.
Step 4: Fix the weak claim
Ask for a narrow repair instead of a whole new report. Paste the exact sentence that failed your check:
Check this claim again: [paste the claim]. Find a public source that supports it for an adult reading group, or remove it. Change only that part of the brief and its citation.
- Send the follow-up.
- Check the new citation against the original page.
- Click the blue Research indicator to switch Research off.
On Free: a smaller version
Free accounts can use web search, just not Research. Ask a narrower question and run the same check from Step 3:
Search the web for advice from US public libraries on running a first book club meeting. Give me three tips, each with a link to the page it came from.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Research missing or not starting?
Check that you’re signed in to your paid account. On a work account, an admin may have turned it off. If Research is on but Claude answers quickly without it, ask it directly to research the question.
Does it matter which model I choose?
No. According to the Research guide, Research uses its own models, whatever you picked for the chat. On mobile it searches only the web, without connectors.
Next: put Claude to work on five real tasks, from PowerPoint to Claude in Chrome. This is part 6 of Claude beyond the basics; the beginner series covers the fundamentals.
John Lock
The Tested Weekly
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