Abstract Searching for information on the web is regarded as a complex problem-solving activity involving a range of cognitive and affective processes. Anxiety is a key affective factor. In this article, we describe the construction and initial validation stages of the Information Retrieval on the Web Anxiety Rate (IROWAR) scale. The final structure of this inventory was validated with a sample of 183 English-speaking Internet users. Reliability analyses indicated that the factors were internally consistent (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.92). When we checked divergent validity, we found negative correlations with both self-efficacy and positive attitude towards the Internet. There were no effects of either sex or age on the total IROWAR score, but the Internet search anxiety sum score decreased with the length of use. This scale will be useful in several domains, including research on the determinants of web anxiety, individuals’ experience of web anxiety and ways of supporting them and Internet learning.