OpenAI provides free ChatGPT users with limited access to its Deep Research tool without having to pay for it. In addition, the company has expanded the tool’s capabilities for all users by releasing a lighter version based on the o4-mini model. The company claims that o4-mini Deep Research provides slightly shorter answers, but is “almost as smart, more cost-effective, and delivers the same high quality results” as the original version. Earlier, OpenAI released the tool for paid Pro, Plus, Team, Edu, and Enterprise subscribers. But even they had a limited number of Deep Research queries per month.
Plus users, for example, had access to only 10 queries, while Pro subscribers who pay $200 per month had a limit of 125 queries. Now, when users exhaust their limit in the original version, ChatGPT will switch to the lite version. Plus and Team subscribers now receive an additional 15 Deep Research queries per month in addition to their 10, and Pro users receive an additional 125 tasks based on the lightweight version of the tool in addition to their 125. Enterprise and Edu users will have access to the lite version of the tool next week and will receive 15 more queries per month. As for free users, they can use the o4-mini-based tool to receive up to five answers per month.
Deep Research has the ability to analyze websites and various sources to create in-depth reports with citations. The company claims that the tool is “finely tuned to the OpenAI o3 reasoning model,” but its lightweight version is “significantly cheaper to maintain.”
