ChatGPT Finally Has a Free (but Limited) Deep Research Tool

Months after enabling Deep Research in its expensive $200 ChatGPT Pro plan, OpenAI is now rolling out the feature to all users. Anyone can now access a lightweight version of Deep Research for free.

This new version of Deep Research sits somewhere between a regular ChatGPT search and a ChatGPT Pro-style in-depth report. These searches usually take around five to ten minutes, and give you a report that's about a page or two long. In my experience, its reports are practical, to-the-point, and well-researched.

How the new "lightweight" ChatGPT Deep Research works

Deep Research is different from a regular ChatGPT search. Here, ChatGPT will use all of its resources, like its reasoning model, its thinking capabilities, its online search integration, and bring it all together to generate a detailed response.

Deep Research will first ask you some clarifying questions about your prompt, and then start its work. A single Deep Research query can take anywhere between 5–30 minutes, depending on how complex of a question you're asking. The full-version of the Deep Research tool can perform complex and detailed research for you on complicated science, and math problems. These queries usually take around 30 minutes, and then generated in-depth, multipage reports.

The new lightweight version is more casual than that. You can use it to research a share that you want to invest in, products that you want to buy, or to understand a new topic. The results take about five to ten minutes, and the reports are shorter and to the point. But they'll still be heavily sourced, so you can check the links to confirm that ChatGPT isn't hallucinating.

But despite technically being available to everyone, access to ChatGPT Deep Research is quite limited, and it's based on the plan that you're using.

• Free plan: You'll get five lightweight Deep Research queries per month.

• Plus and Team plans: The $20 per month plan gives you ten queries a month with the full-fledged Deep Research tool and an additional 15 using the lightweight version.

• Pro: The $200 per month plan comes with 125 full Deep Research queries per month, and an additional 125 using the lightweight version.

All limits reset every 30 days, and the count starts the day you start using the Deep Research feature.

How to use Deep Research in ChatGPT

After opening the ChatGPT website, click the Deep Research button and enter your prompt. The more details that you can provide, the better off you'll be. To add more context, you can attach images, documents, or spreadsheets.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

After you enter your prompt, ChatGPT will come back to you with clarifying questions. These questions are not compulsory to answer, but they will help specify your report. If you want a more general report, you can just say something like "I don't know, do your best", and ChatGPT will get started with what it thinks is the best way to go forward.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

When the research starts, you'll see a progress bar in the chat itself. You are free to leave the chat and come back later, as this will take time. In my testing using the lightweight free version, queries still took between four to eight minutes, even for simple questions.

You can click the progress bar to reveal a sidebar. This is where you'll see the steps that ChatGPT is going through to answer your query. Depending on your question, ChatGPT might look at scholarly articles, PDFs, websites, and then use its thinking model when all the information is collated.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Once the report is ready, you'll see it in its own specialized box. You can click the Share button to see a Preview window. Here, you can click on Share Link to generate a link to the report. Though, unlike Google Gemini, you can't export the report as a PDF (or other format).

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

How ChatGPT Deep Research can help you

I ran a couple of tests with the Deep Research tool on the free plan, and I came away impressed. ChatGPT's reports are concise and direct. By comparison, Google Gemini's reports feel unnecessarily verbose. ChatGPT is also better at highlighting links right in the text, something that Gemini hides behind a menu.

I asked ChatGPT to create a beginners guide to learning Handpan, and it did a good job of compiling YouTube videos, handpan sellers, and exercises, all on one page. Next, I asked it to research market sentiment for a specific share, and it included everything from recent earnings, to expert opinions, to share price targets.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

I then used it for something that I standard Googling couldn't help me with, which was to find a part number for a spare wheel screw hook for my Volkswagen Polo. Not wanting to open the owner's manual or go to the dealership, I asked ChatGPT for help instead.

First, I used the regular Search feature, and it just wouldn't give me a usable answer. The Deep Research feature, though, found the part number in a couple of minutes. But it couldn't find a website based in India (where I'm located) that sells this part (it did find many sellers in the US and Europe, though).

To compare, I ran the query in Gemini. Gemini generated a really long report, most of which wasn't really useful. I had to scroll all the way to the bottom to find the spare part number. This being Google, though, it gave me a link to an Indian site that sells the part. Nice.

Overall, I found that ChatGPT's Deep Research tool is comparable to the likes of Gemini and Perplexity, and goes beyond them when it comes to direct-language and sourcing.

That said, the content is still generated using a Large Language Model, which has a tendency to hallucinate and make things up. It would be best to check the report's sources to confirm that what ChatGPT has generated is correct.

View the full article