OpenAI Introduces Lightweight Deep Research Tool for ChatGPT, Expanding Access to Free Users

OpenAI rolls out a 'lightweight' version of its ChatGPT deep research tool | TechCrunch

OpenAI is bringing a new "lightweight" version of its ChatGPT deep research tool, which scours the web to compile research reports on a topic, to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users, the company announced Thursday. The new lightweight deep research, which will also come to free ChatGPT users starting today, is powered by a version of OpenAI's o4-mini model, OpenAI says. It's not quite as capable as the "full" deep research, but OpenAI claims it's cheaper to serve and thus enables the company to up usage limits. "Responses will typically be shorter while maintaining the depth and quality you've come to expect," OpenAI said in a series of posts on X. "Once limits for the original version of deep research are reached, queries automatically default to the lightweight version." There's been a raft of deep research tools launched recently across chatbots including Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, and xAI's Grok. Driving them are reasoning AI models, which possess the ability to think through problems and fact-check themselves -- skills arguably important for conducting in-depth research on a subject. ChatGPT's lightweight deep research will come to Enterprise and educational users next week with the same usage levels as Team users, OpenAI says.

Want to try ChatGPT's Deep Research tool for free? Check out the lightweight version

ChatGPT users can now try out a new, lightweight version of the AI's Deep Research tool, and you don't even need a paid subscription. Announced in an X post on Thursday, the new version is not only free to use but will automatically activate for paid subscribers who use up their quota of the full Deep Research. Also: How much energy does a single chatbot prompt use? This AI tool can show you Unveiled in early February, Deep Research browses the web to find and compile the information you need. Simply submit your question or request to ChatGPT, and the AI will search the web for the most relevant sources to answer your query. After completing its search, ChatGPT creates and displays a detailed report on your topic. Previously, ChatGPT's Deep Research had a few drawbacks. It was available only to paid subscribers with Plus, Team, Edu, and Enterprise plans. It also limited the number of queries you could submit per month -- 120 for Pro users and 10 for other subscribers. Depending on your question, Deep Research could take as long as 30 minutes to deliver results. However, the new lightweight version helps overcome these barriers. Also: How to use ChatGPT: A beginner's guide to the most popular AI chatbot In total, ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Edu users now get 25 queries per month (10 full and 15 lightweight), Enterprise users get 10 (all full), Pro users get 250 (125 full and 125 lightweight), and free users get 5 (all lightweight). Once you reach your limit for the full version of Deep Research, your queries automatically default to the lightweight version. Moreover, the lighter version is much quicker than the full one. Also: Is ChatGPT Plus worth your $20? Here's how it compares to Free and Pro plans "The lightweight version of Deep Research is powered by a version of OpenAI o4-mini and is nearly as intelligent as the Deep Research people already know and love, while being significantly cheaper to serve," OpenAI said in its post. "Responses will typically be shorter while maintaining the depth and quality you've come to expect." Using both versions of Deep Research, I asked ChatGPT to explore how time travel is portrayed in film and television and what it says about our values, fears, and wishes. The full version took 17 minutes to compile the results but delivered a detailed, in-depth report with numerous examples and a helpful chart of different TV shows and movies. The lightweight version took only eight minutes to finish but provided a much shorter and less in-depth report, though still one that proved interesting and helpful. Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

OpenAI supercharges ChatGPT with Deep Research mode for free users -- what you need to know

OpenAI is releasing yet another update for ChatGPT that's going to benefit users of the AI chatbot. This time, the focus is on its deep research mode, bringing in a new lightweight version that's cheaper but not quite as powerful. The good news is that even free users will get access to this lightweight mode, although they'll be limited to just five queries a month while using it. Creating a new kind of deep research tool is an attempt from OpenAI to reduce the heavy usage of existing deep research modes it's seeing from users. These kinds of queries can be more expensive for AI providers to execute, due to their process of running more complicated commands and returning more information. In a post on X announcing the news, OpenAI stated, "We've noticed many of you love using deep research, so we're expanding usage for Plus, Team and Pro users by introducing a lightweight version of deep research to increase current rate limits". All plans (except the free version) will still use the more advanced version, but there is a limit to the number of prompts you can do on it before being moved to the lightweight version. Plus, Team, Enterprise, and Education users get 25 deep research queries a month while Pro users get 250. As mentioned, free users just get five and the limit resets each month. What is lightweight deep research? Deep research is a tool that a lot of AI chatbots have begun to introduce recently. As the name suggests, these tools allow the AI to produce more thorough answers by pouring more time, effort, and resources into a prompt. This can be for everything from learning a new skill to completing a report or building out a comprehensive gym routine based on the latest research. This, however, requires the model to look through articles, papers and research, as well as producing much longer answers. This can all be a huge drain on resources, especially when done millions of times. That's where this lightweight alternative comes in. "The lightweight version of deep research is powered by a version of OpenAI o4-mini and is nearly as intelligent as the deep research people already know and love, while being significantly cheaper to serve," OpenAI explained. With this version, responses will typically be shorter while maintaining the depth and quality of deep research. Is ChatGPT the only place for deep research? The advent of deep research tools has seen a rollout across a lot of chatbots now. Google Gemini offers deep research, with its most powerful version being available through Gemini 2.5 Pro. This is the best known alternative to ChatGPT's deep research. However, the same technology is available through Perplexity, and will likely be seen in other chatbots in the near future. While it can sometimes be available on free plans, it is usually hidden behind a paywall or limited to a certain number of prompts each month. More from Tom's Guide

Free ChatGPT users are finally getting Deep Research access from today, but there are restrictions

Plus users will also get access to it after they hit their usage limits It's the news that all ChatGPT free users have been waiting for: Deep Research is finally coming to the free tier of ChatGPT. However, the new version of the popular research tool is not quite the same as the one currently enjoyed by Pro, Plus, Teams and Enterprise users. The new Deep Research, which is rolling out to all free-tier users starting from today, is described by OpenAI as 'lightweight'. It's powered by a version of ChatGPT o4-mini in contrast to the existing Deep Research, which is powered by a version of ChatGPT-o3. OpenAI describes the new lightweight Deep Research as "nearly as intelligent as the Deep Research people already know and love, while being significantly cheaper to serve." In a tweet on the subject OpenAI shared a graph showing accuracy rates for the new lightweight Deep Research compared to the original Deep Research and the o3 model. The bad news is that free-tier users are going to be restricted to five uses per month, so don't click the Deep Research button (when you get it) unless you really need to use it. At the same time OpenAI says it's expanding its usage limits for Deep Research for existing Plus and Teams users. However, it appears that after your 10 monthly uses have been used up the 'expansion' is achieved by giving you access to the lightweight version instead. After usage limits on the original ChatGPT Deep Research have been reached people will automatically switch to the lightweight version of Deep Research and gain a further 15 uses a month, leading to some ChatGPT users on X accusing the company of being poor value compared to Google's Gemini, which allows up to 20 uses per day for its Deep Research tool on its Advanced plan and 10 per month for free Gemini users. ChatGPT Pro users get 125 Deep Research uses a month, with an additional 125 lightweight uses a month, while Enterprise users simply get 10 uses of the original Deep Research a month. To use Deep Research you simply select the 'Deep research' button while using ChatGPT. Deep Research has agentic qualities, meaning you can give it a task and it will continue researching for you, under its own steam, until it has completed the task, producing a full report complete with citations. Reports can take several minutes to generate, and involve searching the web for sources, which makes Deep Research most suited to answering complex questions, rather than the usual back and forth chats that people have with AI chatbots. I've found that Deep Research works best for subjects like literature reviews, market research, or for helping me make big life decisions like deciding where to live. The news comes hot on the heels of the announcement that ChatGPT Plus, Teams and Enterprise users are getting expanded usage limits, with 100 minutes of ChatGPT-o3 usage per week and 300 minutes of ChatGPT o4-mini per day.

ChatGPT's awesome Deep Research gets a light version and goes free for all

Table of Contents Table of Contents Why does it matter? What's the new benefit? There's a lot of AI hype floating around, and it seems every brand wants to cram it into their products. But there are a few remarkably useful tools, as well, though they are pretty expensive. ChatGPT's Deep Research is one such feature, and it seems OpenAI is finally feeling a bit generous about it. The company has created a lightweight version of Deep Research that is powered by its new o4-mini language model. OpenAI says this variant is "more cost-efficient while preserving high quality." More importantly, it is available to use for free without any subscription caveat. Recommended Videos Why does it matter? Deep Research, as the name suggests, is an agentic feature that performs a comprehensive web research on any topic and provides responses in the form of a well-drafted paper. Compared to the typical chatbot answer, it feels more like a research assignment. You can narrow down the research to a specific type of sources, such as academic papers or corporate press releases, and get a well-curated multi-page answer with all the citations, headings, tables, and bullet points. In a nutshell, Deep Research accomplishes in minutes what would usually take hours of internet research and writing for a person. At the same time, this process is extremely resource-intensive, and that's why it has remained exclusive to the paid ChatGPT users. Thanks to the new lightweight version, it is not only reaching out to free-tier users, but also expanding the search limit for subscribers. What's the new benefit? OpenAI says ChatGPT users can launch up to five Deep Research queries each month. So far, the company has only allowed one attempt per month for free users. Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, and Perplexity also offer this convenience. For users who pay a $20 monthly fee for a ChatGPT Plus subscription, they get a window of 25 Deep Research queries per month. The same limit is also applicable for ChatGPT's Education, Team, and Enterprise packages. The $200/month Pro package will give you 250 attempts each month. Once that limit is exhausted, users are automatically shifted to the lightweight version of Deep Research. OpenAI says this iteration is "nearly as intelligent as the deep research people already know and love." The only difference is that the length of responses will be smaller, but they won't compromise on the depth of research. This is fantastic news for users who couldn't afford a subscription fee, but still wanted to use a powerful AI tool that can get serious work done instead of just creating fun Ghibli-style images.

Free ChatGPT users get a taste of deep research

OpenAI announced Thursday that it is rolling out a "lightweight" version of its ChatGPT deep research tool to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users. The new version, powered by OpenAI's o4-mini model, is also available to free ChatGPT users starting today. The lightweight deep research tool scours the web to compile research reports on a given topic. While not as capable as the "full" deep research, OpenAI claims it is cheaper to serve, enabling the company to increase usage limits. According to OpenAI, responses from the lightweight version will be shorter while maintaining the expected depth and quality. Once the original version's usage limits are reached, queries automatically default to the lightweight version. OpenAI stated on X that the lightweight version is "nearly as intelligent as the deep research people already know and love, while being significantly cheaper to serve." The introduction of ChatGPT's lightweight deep research follows a surge in deep research tools across chatbots, including Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, and xAI's Grok. These tools are driven by reasoning AI models capable of thinking through problems and fact-checking themselves, skills important for in-depth research. OpenAI plans to roll out the lightweight deep research to Enterprise and educational users next week, with the same usage levels as Team users.

OpenAI Just Made a Powerful Research Tool Free for Everyone

OpenAI is making ChatGPT's popular Deep Research feature more broadly available to free and paid users. Deep Research is an agentic capability that enables ChatGPT to perform intensive research on a subject over an extended period of time. By clicking the Deep Research button and making a request, you can send a custom AI model down an internet rabbit hole. It will then search the web for information related to your request, and reason through future steps to ensure you get the best possible answer. The process can take several minutes, but usually results in a fairly detailed report. Here's an example: I asked Deep Research to analyze Google's recently-released Q1 financial report, with a particular focus on AI-related revenue figures. After 28 minutes, Deep Research delivered a lengthy report. It had trouble finding Google's actual 10-Q filing, but used articles from outlets like Search Engine Land and The Verge to get answers. The report accurately said that in Q1, Google's search advertising revenue rose by 8.5 percent year over year to $66.9 billion, while revenue from Google Cloud, which provides access to Google's suite of Gemini AI services, jumped 28 percent year over year to $12.26 billion.

OpenAI unveils deep research tool, free for all ChatGPT users

OpenAI is expanding access to its Deep Research feature with a new lightweight version that's now rolling out to everyone -- yes, even free-tier users. Whether you're on Plus, Team, or Pro, this trimmed-down tool is now part of your ChatGPT experience. Powered by OpenAI's efficient o4-mini model, this version may not be as heavy-duty as the original, but it still packs a punch. It can surf the web in real-time, pull in fresh data, and get you answers fast -- all while easing the load on OpenAI's bigger models. Bonus? It's free to use and more cost-effective for the platform to maintain. According to OpenAI, the lighter Deep Research tool may keep its answers brief -- but that doesn't mean they skimp on substance. You'll still get valuable insights, just delivered in a more concise package. OpenAI first unveiled its Deep Research tool earlier this year, built on a customized version of its upcoming o3 model -- fine-tuned specifically for web browsing and deep data dives. While GPT-4o shines in snappy chats and real-time interactions, Deep Research is designed for the long haul -- ideal for detailed tasks like gathering references, fact-checking, and handling complex queries that need more than just quick responses. Deep Research is like having an AI research assistant in ChatGPT. Drop in a query -- say, a product comparison or market overview -- and it scours the web, analyzes content, and delivers a structured report with sources and a step-by-step summary. It can take 5 to 30 minutes, depending on the complexity, but runs in the background so you can keep working. The new lightweight version does similar work, just faster and with fewer system demands. Just select 'Deep Research' from the message composer in ChatGPT and enter your query. You can even upload files like PDFs or spreadsheets to give the AI more context. OpenAI says future updates will bring visual upgrades -- think charts and data visualizations -- to make reports even easier to digest. With the rollout of the lightweight Deep Research tool, OpenAI has also added usage limits: - Free users get 5 queries/month - Plus, Team, Enterprise, and Education users get 25 queries/month - Pro users can run up to 250 queries/month Once you hit your full-version limit, ChatGPT will automatically switch to the lightweight version -- no disruption. Enterprise and Education users are set to get access to the lighter tool next week, with the same limits as Team accounts.

OpenAI Makes ChatGPT Deep Research Free for All Users, But With a Caveat

OpenAI has also expanded the usage limit for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team users. OpenAI's impressive Deep Research AI agent is finally rolling out to free ChatGPT users. You don't need a paid subscription to perform in-depth research and generate a comprehensive report on ChatGPT. However, there is a caveat. The free offering is a lightweight version of the Deep Research AI agent which is powered by the smaller o4-mini reasoning model. The standard version of Deep Research, which is available to paid users, is powered by the larger o3 reasoning model. Having said that, OpenAI says the lightweight version is "nearly as intelligent as the deep research people already know and love, while being significantly cheaper to serve." In the BrowseComp benchmark that evaluates agentic browsing, the o3-powered Deep Research scored 51.5% while the o4-mini-powered Deep Research achieved 45.7% accuracy. It means that both the standard and lightweight versions of Deep Research are nearly on par. OpenAI further says that responses on the lightweight version will be shorter, but it will maintain the depth and quality of the standard Deep Research agent. The lightweight version of Deep Research is rolling out to free ChatGPT users, starting today. However, you can only perform up to 5 tasks per month. Apart from that, OpenAI has expanded the usage limit for paid users who are subscribed to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro plans. ChatGPT Plus and Team users get 10 tasks per month with the o3-powered Deep Research, and an additional 15 tasks per month with the lightweight version. ChatGPT Pro users will get 125 tasks per month on the standard version and an additional 125 tasks per month using the lightweight version. Enterprise and Edu users will get access next week and will have the same usage limit as Team users.

ChatGPT's Deep Research is now free: Here's what you can do with it - Softonic

OpenAI brings Deep Research to free ChatGPT users, offering up to 5 in-depth queries per month with strong quality and shorter response lengths. OpenAI has just introduced a lightweight version of its powerful Deep Research feature in ChatGPT, and the biggest surprise is that even free users can now try it out. While the full version remains exclusive to paying plans, this new mode offers broad access with only a few limits. Deep Research is designed for prompts that require extended processing time, in-depth answers, and access to complex reasoning. It's used for everything from understanding scientific papers to creating detailed workout plans, and is ideal for users who need more than a quick summary. The new lightweight version uses the o4-mini model, which OpenAI says is nearly as intelligent but much cheaper to run. That makes it accessible to free users, though they're limited to five Deep Research queries per month. Plus, Team, and Pro users now get expanded access, with 25 to 250 queries per month depending on the plan. While this version won't deliver responses as long or rich in nuance as the premium tier, OpenAI claims the depth and quality remain surprisingly strong. You can expect shorter but still comprehensive outputs -- perfect for learning, content creation, or exploring unfamiliar topics. This move is part of OpenAI's effort to balance cost, performance, and availability, offering meaningful tools to more users while managing heavy server loads. It also puts pressure on competitors like Google Gemini and Perplexity, who offer similar features behind paywalls. Whether you're a casual user or a serious researcher, the lightweight Deep Research tool now gives you the chance to explore advanced AI capabilities -- for free.

ChatGPT users can now access lightweight deep research tool for free

Available to Enterprise and educational accounts next week, with access levels similar to Team users. OpenAI has officially announced a new lightweight version of deep research for ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users, as well as free-tier users, which will be available starting today. The ChatGPT-maker explained that this new feature aims to improve information gathering via the ChatGPT interface and is powered by a version of OpenAI's o4 mini model. The AI giant also stated that it will provide slightly shorter responses than the full version while maintaining the same depth and quality that users will expect, all while being more cost-efficient to operate. When users reach the limits of the standard deep research version, the lightweight tool activates automatically to provide continuous access to research capabilities. According to OpenAI, the new strategy enables greater accessibility across user tiers and increases usage limits. Also read: Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus price drops by Rs 47,000 on Flipkart "We've noticed that many of you enjoy using deep research, so we're expanding it for Plus, Team, and Pro users by introducing a lightweight version of deep research to increase current rate limits. We're also rolling out the lightweight version to Free users," the company said. "Responses will typically be shorter while maintaining the depth and quality you've come to expect," according to the business. With this move, the company hopes to attract more users amidst increasing competition in the AI research space, particularly from Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and xAI Grok, all of which provide similar features. Users will be able to find answers to complex questions and verify information, which may be useful for in-depth, reliable research. Meanwhile, the company has announced that this lightweight deep research feature will be available to Enterprise and educational accounts beginning next week, with access levels matching those of Team users.