1
Enable grounding
Turn on Google Search or Google Maps grounding in the model configuration
2
Model queries Google
The model issues one or more search queries to retrieve real time information
3
Results incorporated
Search results are woven into the model's response with source citations
4
Verify with sources
Clickable source links let users verify every grounded claim
Google's search advantage
Gemini is the only major AI API with direct access to Google's own search index. Competing APIs rely on Bing, Brave, or Tavily for web search. Google's index is the most comprehensive, meaning grounded responses from Gemini models tend to have broader and more up to date coverage.