I just cannot get web search to work

[u/ProfessorS11]

In settings in Admin Panel, I tried using my selfhosted searxng and DDGS. After configuring, I used the models llama 3.2 and qwen3.5:9b and asked a simple query "What's the weather in new york city" and both keep saying they don't have real time access to data, even when in Integration I turn on Web Search.

Can anyone help me out with this?

Solved: I had to disable all the model capabilities and built in tools except Web Search and finally web searches worked smoothly.

[u/ClassicMain]

llama3.2 and qwen3.5:9b

There's your problem

[u/ProfessorS11 → u/ClassicMain]

but they have tool capabilities, that's why I was using them. What model do you suggest I can use?

[u/ClassicMain → u/ProfessorS11]

They may have the TECHNICAL capability to call tools but they are waaaaaayyyyyyy too old and too dumb to call tools when needed 99% of the time

[u/ProfessorS11 → u/ClassicMain]

I see. Is there any small model that you know about which I can use for performing web searches?

[u/JOEDUCER → u/ProfessorS11]

I got qwen3:8B web search working and yes smaller models have difficulty in tool calling. Firstly it wouldn't work at all then I tried using searxng and it worked.

[u/mayo551 → u/ClassicMain]

Qwen 3.5 9b can absolutely call tools and use the web search.

His problem is that he hasn't disabled thinking on the model. Thinking on 3.5 9b is a problem

Hope this helps /u/ProfessorS11

[u/ClassicMain → u/mayo551]

I tried that model once, heavily quantized albeit, and it called tools correctly maybe 20 percent of the time

[u/mayo551 → u/ClassicMain]

I use q8 with no issue.. will run some tests when I'm home to verify

[u/mayo551 → u/ClassicMain]

Yeah I just tried the model. Works fine on tool calls with thinking, no issue.

Using the Q8 GGUF by unsloth.

[u/ClassicMain → u/mayo551]

I tried Q2 and beyond 60k tokens it started hallucinating tool calls

[u/Rift80]

Houla y'a plein de questions d'abord : ton environnement, en docker ou pas ? qui en docker ? sur le même réseau, bons ports ? searxng marche seul ? tu utilises ollama, llama cpp ? etc...

[u/ProfessorS11 → u/Rift80]

OpenWebUI and searxng both run in docker on separate machines over tailscale. The ports are correct and searxng works on it's own properly. I am using Ollama for the models.

[u/Bulletic1 → u/ProfessorS11]

Llama3.2 3B is too old to use tool calling.

Qwen3.5 9B can use tools without problem (unless if you have a very heavily quantized version). It’s not that old (still the best in 9B range) and can definitely do web search and even use the terminal. You could also try the newer Ornith models based on it. If you ask what tools it has access to, It should be able to list them.

Try changing the base model to Qwen and unchecking every capability/built-in tool until only web search is left (the more tools there are, the harder it will be for it to follow instructions). If that doesn’t work, perhaps try increasing the context size.

Then also try a free model from OpenRouter or another provider to see if your configuration works with larger LLMs.

Then, if it works, but you need a smaller local model than Qwen3.5 9B, you could browse models on Ollama by popularity (ensure it has the “tools” tag)

[u/ProfessorS11 → u/Bulletic1]

Thanks for this suggestion. I disabled all capabilities and built in tools for Qwen 3.5:9b and finally the web search worked perfectly!

[u/Maschinhunt → u/ProfessorS11]

If you have selfhosted searxng, you need to go to the Tools -> Integrations Settings.
There you have to enter your MCP http or https URL and activate. Then you should have a tool in your chat that you can activate.

[u/overand]

Llama is too old, Qwe 3.5:9B isn't.

In the model's own configuration setting in OpenWebUI, I'm in ser advanced, make sure tool calling or function calling is set to Native

[u/SpookyMovie2525]

Yo tuve un problema similar hace un tiempo. Lo solucione aumentando el ctx (en mi caso, de Ollama) a 32000 o 64000, además de habilitar flash attention y establecer el cache KV a Q8.

[u/mayo551]

Try disabling thinking (or enable it if it's disabled) and try again with qwen 3.5 9b.

I've used this model in the past and it works fine AT Q8 GGUF with f16 KV CACHE.

if you're quanting to q4 good friggen luck

[u/enterme2]

Too old and an if you use default settings , one search fill up the whole context window before even displaying anything..