OpenAI is releasing a new lightweight version of the “Deep Research” feature in ChatGPT, which should be cheaper to run—and that makes it possible for the company to make it available to ChatGPT’s free users.
ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature can perform multi-step research using sources across the internet, then generates detailed reports with clear citations and summaries of its research process and results. It’s particularly useful for complex tasks in knowledge-heavy fields such as economics, science, law, and technology.
The lightweight version will be as in-depth as the standard version but will produce shorter answers, according to OpenAI. Free users will have access to five Deep Research tasks per month, while Paid Plus and Team users will have access to 15 tasks per month. These will start to be used after the first 10 standard Deep Research tasks are used up. Meanwhile, Pro users will have access to 125 tasks with standard Deep Research and 125 tasks with the lightweight version.
When we reviewed ChatGPT Pro, we found that Deep Research was the best feature included in the ultra-premium subscription, with other AI assistants currently trying to mimic it but none offering anything that comes close to matching it. But ChatGPT Pro is extremely expensive—about $200/mo as of this writing—and it’s hard to justify that even if Deep Research is that good. So it’s nice to be able to have a lightweight version of it, especially without even having to pay for it.
