One question, one plain-English answer. What is RAG? Does ChatGPT use it? RAG or fine-tuning? Beginner answers about Retrieval-Augmented Generation.https://what-is-rag.com/https://what-is-rag.com/blogs/does-chatgpt-use-rag/https://what-is-rag.com/blogs/does-chatgpt-use-rag/Sometimes. When ChatGPT searches the web or reads your uploaded files, that's RAG in action; plain answers from memory are not. Here's how to tell.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTbasicschatgptbeginnershttps://what-is-rag.com/blogs/rag-vs-fine-tuning-which-do-you-need/https://what-is-rag.com/blogs/rag-vs-fine-tuning-which-do-you-need/Need the AI to know your facts? Use RAG. Need it to change how it behaves? Fine-tune. A plain-English rule of thumb, with the exceptions that matter.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTcomparisonsfine-tuningbeginnershttps://what-is-rag.com/blogs/what-does-a-vector-database-do-in-rag/https://what-is-rag.com/blogs/what-does-a-vector-database-do-in-rag/A vector database is the searchable library in a RAG system: it stores documents as meaning-capturing numbers so the AI can find passages by meaning.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTbasicsvector-databasesembeddingshttps://what-is-rag.com/blogs/what-is-rag-in-simple-terms/https://what-is-rag.com/blogs/what-is-rag-in-simple-terms/RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) means an AI looks up relevant documents before answering. Here's the simple version, with a plain analogy.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTbasicsbeginnershttps://what-is-rag.com/blogs/when-does-rag-give-wrong-answers/https://what-is-rag.com/blogs/when-does-rag-give-wrong-answers/RAG fails when it retrieves the wrong passages, the documents are wrong, or the model ignores what it read. The main failure modes, in plain English.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTtroubleshootingbasicsbeginners