AI Search is now generally available

This post announces the general availability of AI Search, highlighting expanded multimodal capabilities including native image embeddings (using Qwen3-VL-Embedding model) and OCR for PDFs. It details the query lifecycle, including optional query rewriting, embedding (direct for images with multimodal models, or via caption conversion for text-only models), parallel vector and keyword search, fusion, and optional reranking. The post also introduces larger file support (up to 10 MiB) and clarifies billing for AI Search, which will start on November 1, 2026, with a revised free tier allocation for semantic and full-text queries. Future work includes video and audio processing, keyword search engine refactoring, and simplified index creation for websites.