You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
3Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
1Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
Web SearchArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.290,
ImprovementsSection of the release
Unclear The actual limits and what turns refilling on by default are not stated.
What
WebSearch is the tool Claude uses to search the web. The number of searches is now governed by a budget that refills over time, instead of a plain count of calls.
Otherwise, a value sent by the server, used only when refilling by default is turned on
The server's value must be a whole number within an allowed range. If it is not, Claude Code logs a warning and uses its default refill rate.
Why
This changes how many web searches a session can make over time. If you need a different rate, you can set it yourself with the environment variable.
How sure we are
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubtThe actual limits and what turns refilling on by default are not stated.
Anthropic's release notes agreeChanged the interactive session's WebSearch budget to refill over time (100 calls/hour; CLAUDE_CODE_WEB_SEARCH_REFILLS_PER_HOUR sets the…
