Create and edit
Web research and sources for your documents
In short
Slaide searches the web when a document needs current or unfamiliar public facts, not for every request. Research runs wherever Slaide may build the document: on paid plans with credits left, on your first free document, and for students once the document is unlocked. You see it as a step in the assistant panel and afterwards as a list of all sources. Sources appear on the slides only if you ask for footnotes or a sources slide.
When does Slaide search the web?
Slaide searches when a document depends on current or unfamiliar public facts: market figures, prices, legal rules, deadlines, specifications, or companies and products it does not know well. It does not search for stable general knowledge or for content that comes from your brief or your files.
There are two moments. While you answer the planning questions, Slaide usually starts a quick research pass in the background, and the plan screen shows a Web research badge for it. While building, Slaide can research again when a specific claim needs it. A targeted edit of a selected page or area may use one pass.
In the assistant panel a pass appears as Researching: your topic and ends as Web research · 5 sources. It uses credits like the rest of the run; your first free document is covered (How credits work in Slaide).
Who gets web research?
Slaide searches wherever it is allowed to build the document for you. The plan tier does not change that.
| Your account | Web research |
|---|---|
| Plus, Pro or Max with credits left | Yes: in the plan step, while building and in follow-up requests. |
| Free account, first document | Yes, while Slaide plans and builds it. |
| Any account with a credit balance or pay-as-you-go | Yes, as long as a run can start, for example with credits from invitations. |
| Student account before the document is unlocked | Planning is free, but nothing is searched. See the note below. |
| Free account, free document used, no credits | No run can start, so there is no research. See Not enough credits: causes and fixes. |
How do I ask for research or a source check?
Say it in the request, in the first one or any later one: current figures, a source on every slide, or a check of a claim. A request that needs nothing external is not researched.
Slide 4: replace the market figures with the latest public numbers and name the source in a footnote.
Check the statement on slide 2 about the new EU rules against current sources and correct it if needed.
Add a last slide that lists all sources used in this deck.
What happens with a link I paste?
Slaide reads pages you link in a request before it plans or writes, up to three links per request. Links to PDF files and to Word, Excel and PowerPoint files work too if the file has readable text. Scanned PDFs without a text layer cannot be read.
- Readable page: listed in the sources as From your link.
- No readable text (login wall, bot protection, a page built entirely by scripts): Slaide shows Could not read with the host name and tells the model not to treat the page as facts.
- More than three links: Slaide can open further links during the run. Those pages are marked Directly read.
Web pages are source material, never instructions: Slaide tells the model to ignore commands inside a page or a file.
Where do I see the sources?
In the assistant panel, under the conversation, folded to one line such as 5 sources. A click opens the list. Each row shows the page title, how Slaide got the page and its domain, and opens the page in a new tab.
| Label in the list | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Web research | Found by Slaide's own web search during the run. |
| From your link | A link from your request, read before planning. |
| Directly read | A page Slaide opened on purpose during the run, for example a source it wanted to read in full. |
| Web source | A page that reached the document another way, for example from the Chrome extension. |
The list belongs to the document. Slaide keeps the latest 50 sources and saves them with every version, so restoring an older version brings its list back (see Version history: see and restore earlier states).
How are the findings checked?
Every research pass ends in one of three results. Only a usable result may carry claims in the document, and the plan screen names the result in words.
| Result | Badge on the plan screen | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Usable | Fact check complete | Each finding links to a source the search returned. |
| Partial | Research with open points | Some points stayed open. Claims from it are not used as facts. |
| Empty | No reliable findings | Nothing reliable was found, or no search ran. It is not used as evidence. |
What does web research not do?
- No automatic source lines on slides. Slaide usually names a source briefly in a footnote. Ask for source lines or a sources slide if you need them.
- Public pages only. Content behind a login or paywall is not available. Attach it as a file instead (Files and exports: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
- No guarantee of completeness or correctness. The check confirms that findings link to sources the search returned, not that a source is right. Check figures that decisions depend on. See Check facts, sources and calculations.
- Fixed budgets. One pass uses at most 3 searches and 30 links, a single request stays within 100 unique web links, and up to 3 pasted links are read in advance.
Frequently asked questions
Can I ask for research explicitly?
Yes. Say it in the request, for example “with current figures and sources” or “check the market data on slide 4 against current sources”. It works in the first request and in later changes.
Are the sources written onto the slides?
Not automatically. Slaide usually names a researched source briefly in a footnote. If you need a source line on every slide or a sources slide at the end, ask for it in the request.
Does Slaide send my files to a search engine?
No. Slaide tells the research step to phrase every search as a general public question and never to copy uploads, customer names or internal figures into a query. Your files are not search text. To create a document, Slaide does send your request and the content it needs through OpenRouter to AI providers in the USA; using it for training is contractually excluded. The privacy policy (as of October 2026) is authoritative.
Why does my plan show “No reliable findings”?
The research step ended without findings Slaide can rely on. That happens when the searches return nothing usable, and on student accounts before the document is unlocked, because no search runs then. The plan itself is not affected, and the research is made up in the first build after the unlock.