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This page explains the two working paths to web search with Claude models on APIYI, verified by hands-on testing in June 2026. For channels, billing, and basic setup, see Claude API Basics first.

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TL;DR

APIYI’s default Claude group routes to official AWS Claude (Amazon Bedrock), and AWS itself does not support Claude’s native web search — this is a Bedrock architecture limitation, not a gateway configuration issue. To get web access, you have two options:
PathBest forStability
Option 1: ClaudeOfficial beta group (native web_search tool)You specifically need Anthropic’s native search experience and can accept beta-level stability⚠️ Beta, less stable than the default group
Option 2: Custom search tool (works on the default group, recommended)Production workloads that need stability and control✅ Same tier as the default group
A common pitfall: sending a request with the web_search tool on the default group does not raise an error — the gateway handles it gracefully, the request returns HTTP 200, but no search happens; the model just answers from its training data. Do not treat “no error” as “search worked”. See the FAQ at the end for how to verify.

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Why doesn’t the default group support it?

Claude’s web_search / web_fetch are server-side tools: the search is executed by Anthropic’s own server infrastructure. AWS Bedrock only provides model inference and has no such search backend, so the Bedrock interface rejects these tools at the validation layer. Bedrock’s tool-type whitelist only includes client-side tools: 
bash_20250124, custom, memory_20250818, text_editor_*(20250124/0429/0728),
tool_search_tool_bm25(_20251119), tool_search_tool_regex(_20251119)
Likewise, Anthropic’s MCP Connector (the mcp_servers parameter) is also a server-side feature and is not supported on the default group. APIYI offers a beta group called ClaudeOfficial (direct Anthropic official channel) that supports Claude’s native web_search / web_fetch tools.
  • How to enable: contact customer support to have your key added to the ClaudeOfficial group
  • Stability note: this is a beta group and is less stable than the default group — for important workloads, prepare a fallback (Option 2 works well as the fallback)

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Request example

curl https://api.apiyi.com/v1/messages \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_APIYI_KEY(ClaudeOfficial group)" \
  -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "max_tokens": 2048,
    "tools": [{"type": "web_search_20260209", "name": "web_search"}],
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What new models has Anthropic released recently? Search and cite sources."}]
  }'
Tool versions:
TooltypeNotes
Web Search (recommended)web_search_20260209With dynamic filtering, for 4.6+ models
Web Search (basic)web_search_20250305Compatible with earlier models
Web Fetchweb_fetch_20260209 (legacy: web_fetch_20250910)Fetches content from a given URL
Optional parameters: max_uses (limit the number of searches), allowed_domains / blocked_domains (domain filtering).

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How to verify the search actually ran

A successful response contains server_tool_use and web_search_tool_result blocks in content, with citations in the answer text, and a counter field in usage: 
"usage": {
  "server_tool_use": { "web_search_requests": 2 }
}
If the response only has text blocks and usage has no server_tool_use, the request did not reach a search-capable channel.

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Billing

  • Tool names: web_search, web_fetch
  • web_search: $10 / 1,000 searches ($0.01 per search, counted by usage.server_tool_use.web_search_requests — one answer may trigger multiple searches) plus normal token fees; failed searches are not billed
  • web_fetch: no per-call fee; fetched content is billed as input tokens
  • Reference cost per web-enabled Q&A (sonnet): roughly $0.02–0.08
The default group (Bedrock) fully supports standard function calling (custom tools). Define a search tool, have your client execute the actual search (via a search API such as Tavily / Brave / Serper / Bing), and feed the results back to the model. In testing, Claude actively calls the tool, rewrites queries in both Chinese and English, and produces sourced answers after multiple search rounds.

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Complete example (Python)

import requests

API_KEY = "YOUR_APIYI_KEY"  # default group works
URL = "https://api.apiyi.com/v1/messages"
HEADERS = {
    "content-type": "application/json",
    "x-api-key": API_KEY,
    "anthropic-version": "2023-06-01",
}

SEARCH_TOOL = {
    "name": "web_search",
    "description": ("Search the web for current information. Call this whenever "
                    "the user asks about recent events or anything after your "
                    "knowledge cutoff. You may call it multiple times."),
    "input_schema": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {"query": {"type": "string", "description": "Search keywords"}},
        "required": ["query"],
    },
}

def do_search(query: str) -> str:
    """Call your search API of choice (Tavily/Brave/Serper, etc.) and return result text."""
    # Tavily example:
    # r = requests.post("https://api.tavily.com/search",
    #                   json={"api_key": TAVILY_KEY, "query": query, "max_results": 5})
    # return "\n".join(f"- {x['title']}\n  {x['url']}\n  {x['content'][:200]}"
    #                  for x in r.json()["results"])
    ...

messages = [{"role": "user", "content": "What new models has Anthropic released recently? Search, then answer with sources."}]

for _ in range(5):  # tool loop, up to 5 rounds
    resp = requests.post(URL, headers=HEADERS, json={
        "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
        "max_tokens": 2048,
        "tools": [SEARCH_TOOL],
        "messages": messages,
    }, timeout=180).json()

    if resp.get("stop_reason") != "tool_use":
        print(next(b["text"] for b in resp["content"] if b["type"] == "text"))
        break

    messages.append({"role": "assistant", "content": resp["content"]})
    results = [{"type": "tool_result", "tool_use_id": b["id"],
                "content": do_search(b["input"]["query"])}
               for b in resp["content"] if b["type"] == "tool_use"]
    messages.append({"role": "user", "content": results})

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Cost reference

  • Model token fees: one multi-round search Q&A uses roughly 10k input + 1–2k output tokens (about $0.05 on sonnet)
  • Search API fees: Tavily free tier 1,000 calls/month (paid roughly $0.008 per call), Brave $3 / 1,000 calls — the same order of magnitude as the official web_search
  • Advantages: channel-agnostic, controllable and cacheable search sources, and you keep the default group’s stability and cache billing benefits

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Advanced: MCP search sources

If you already use the MCP ecosystem (e.g. Tavily MCP, Brave MCP), connect to the MCP server on the client side and convert its tools into the custom tools shown above — the principle is identical. Note: passing the mcp_servers parameter directly in the request (server-side MCP) is not available on the default group.

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FAQ

Q: I sent the web_search tool on the default group and got no error — does that mean it’s supported? A: No. The default group handles server tools gracefully (ignores them); the request returns 200 but no search happens. To verify: check whether the response content contains server_tool_use blocks and whether usage has the server_tool_use.web_search_requests field — if not, no search was executed. Q: What about passing the mcp_servers parameter? A: Also unsupported (it’s an Anthropic server-side feature as well). Important: in this case the model may generate plausible-looking “tool result” text in the answer body — that is a hallucination, not real data. Do not rely on it. Q: How do I choose between the two options? A: For production, prefer Option 2 (stable and controllable). If you need Anthropic’s native search quality, citation format, or don’t want to build your own search, contact customer support to enable the ClaudeOfficial beta group — and keep a fallback ready.

Claude API Basics

Channels, model list, setup, and billing basics

Claude Prompt Caching

Multi-round search Q&A pairs well with caching for major cost savings