Using Tobava Search
Last updated: 16 October 2026
Tobava Search is the web search side of Tobava. It gives you a page of links, like a traditional search engine, with an optional AI answer on top when you want one. Searching is free and does not use your daily chat messages.
How to search
On the home page, select Search above the main box (the box then says “Search the web”), type your words and press Enter. You can also choose Search the web from the menu. If you search more than you chat, set Settings → General → Open Tobava in to Search so Tobava opens in search mode.
Each search has its own web address (for example tobava.com/?q=your+words), so you can bookmark a search or share it.
Where the results come from
Tobava Search combines two kinds of results:
- Tobava's own index: pages collected by Tobava's own crawler and stored in Tobava's search index.
- Results from other search providers, fetched by Tobava's servers using only your search words.
Tobava merges these and re-ranks them with its own ranking system, which weighs relevance and the trustworthiness of each site. Results from outside sources that do not mention enough of your search words are dropped, to cut down on unrelated pages. Ranking does not depend on whether a link can earn Tobava money.
The tabs
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| All | Web pages from Tobava's index and other sources, ranked together |
| Images | Image results for your words |
| Videos | Video results |
| News | News articles about your search |
Switch tabs at any time; your search words stay the same. Use the page links at the bottom to see more results.
Quick filters
For some kinds of search, such as laptops, phones, TVs, cars, servers and insurance, a row of filter buttons appears above the results (for example a brand or a price range for TVs). Each button simply adds those words to your search, so you can narrow results in one tap and go back with All results.
Getting an AI answer
AI answers never run on their own on the results page. You choose when you want one:
- Ask AI: the bar above the results, labelled “Get an answer with sources”, writes a short answer from the results you are looking at.
- Ask Tobava AI about this: the button lower on the page opens a new chat with your search words as the first question, so you can keep asking follow-ups. This counts as a chat message toward your daily allowance.
As with any AI answer, open the linked results to check anything important. See Checking answers.
Search tips
- Use the distinctive words. “Mansfield QLD council green waste collection” finds the right page faster than “when is rubbish day”.
- Name the place. For local searches such as “dentist near me”, Tobava uses your approximate city, estimated from your internet connection, and adds it to the search. That estimate can be wrong, especially on a VPN or mobile network, so type the suburb or city yourself when it matters.
- Add the year for anything that changes: tax rates, rules, product models, timetables.
- Search the site name to find a website. If your words clearly point to one site, Tobava tries to put that site first.
- Try the right tab. The News tab is better than All for recent events; Images is better for identifying a product or place visually.
- Switch to chat for questions that need explaining. Search is best for finding pages; chat is best for “why” and “how” questions.
Safe results
Tobava requests results from outside sources with safe search turned on, and filters known adult websites out of web results. No filter is perfect. If you see something that should not be there, email [email protected] with the search words.
Ads and affiliate links in search
Tobava Search is free because of ads and affiliate links, which appear only for guests and free accounts. Some links to online shops may be affiliate links: if you buy something after clicking one, the shop may pay Tobava a small commission, and you pay the same price. Results still show the shop's real web address, and encyclopedias, government sites and universities are always plain links. AI Light and AI Plus subscribers always get plain links and no ads. Details are in the Ads and Affiliate Disclosure.
Privacy of your searches
You do not need an account to search, and Tobava Search does not link your searches to your Tobava account. Searches go through Tobava's own servers, and the Privacy Policy describes how search queries are handled. Your approximate location is used to make local searches relevant, as described above. For a plain-English overview of everything Tobava handles, see Privacy and safety.
When results look wrong
- If a search shows nothing, try fewer or more common words, or check the spelling.
- If results are for the wrong place, add your city or country to the search.
- If a result is broken, outdated or misleading, tell us at [email protected]. It helps us improve Tobava's own index.
Still stuck? Email [email protected] and tell us what you were trying to do. For a bug, include the page address and the browser you use.