By default BidBot works only from your organisation's approved internal knowledge. Where broader research is needed, you can allow it to search the open web.
Web Search is never enabled automatically. You turn it on, per prompt.
Enable Web Search
Find the Web Search icon in the bottom-left of the BidBot input field.
Toggle it on before submitting your prompt.
BidBot may then reference publicly available online sources in its answer.
When to use it
Web Search earns its place where the answer genuinely lives outside your organisation — context about the buyer, the market or the regulatory environment.
Market and sector research
Use the web to provide a current market overview relevant to the {Project Name} tender, including sector trends, growth drivers, emerging risks, and any recent shifts that could influence buyer priorities or evaluation criteria.
Competitive landscape
Using the web {or a specific URL}, identify the likely competitive landscape for the this project/ opportunity, including common incumbents, typical market participants, and any publicly available information on recent contract awards in this space.Policy and regulatory context
Use web search to summarise any relevant public policy, regulatory or compliance frameworks that apply to the {Project Name} tender, including recent or upcoming changes that may impact delivery or evaluation.Web Search also suits buyer background research and general industry context.
What you see when it is on
BidBot indicates clearly that external sources are being used.
Each result shows its source domain, publication date and author.
Click any result to open the source website in a new tab.
Internal knowledge sources are still prioritised where relevant.
Check the publication date on anything you rely on. Public sources age, and a policy summary from three years ago can read as authoritative while being wrong.
Using it responsibly
Enable it only when your internal sources genuinely cannot answer the question.
Be explicit about what you want researched — a vague web-enabled prompt produces vague web content.
Treat web-based output as contextual rather than authoritative.
Use internal sources for anything compliance-critical. A claim about your own organisation should come from your Bid Library, not from the internet.
Related articles
Agent Mode — the internal data sources BidBot uses by default.
Using Specific Libraries — grounding answers in your own approved knowledge.
Analysing tender documents with BidBot — combining tender analysis with market context.
BidBot in the Answer Workspace — enabling web search while drafting an answer.