# \`sonar-deep-research\` intermittently fails to activate web search via the API

**URL:** <https://community.perplexity.ai/t/sonar-deep-research-intermittently-fails-to-activate-web-search-via-the-api/4264>\
**Category:** Bug Reports\
**Created:** [March 21, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://community.perplexity.ai/t/sonar-deep-research-intermittently-fails-to-activate-web-search-via-the-api/4264 "2026-03-21T19:07:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![Rfairweather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c67d28/32.png) [@Rfairweather](https://community.perplexity.ai/u/Rfairweather)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://community.perplexity.ai/t/sonar-deep-research-intermittently-fails-to-activate-web-search-via-the-api/4264/2 "2026-03-26T14:26:47Z")

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I have also observed this. I spent days trying to debug the behavior, exactly as you describe it here. Exact same API calls, one works and one responds with a warning that it is unable to complete the task as requested due to its knowledge cut off date and that it is unable to access the internet.

I finally came here to check to see if anyone else had a similar issue and found this report which describes it precisely. Is this being actively investigated?

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