OpenAI has announced that its research tool, Deep Research, is now available for free ChatGPT users. But it does not offer the same experience as the one that's available to premium subscribers.

OpenAI launched its Deep Research tool for complex tasks such as conducting autonomous research and produce detailed reports that include citations. It has been well received among users for providing more in-depth information than a typical conversation with a chatbot.

Free users get access to a new lightweight version of the tool, which is powered by GPT-4o mini. OpenAI says that it has been designed to be "nearly as intelligent" as the original Deep Research available to Pro, Plus, Teams, and Enterprise users. But, the free version's responses will be shorter than the premium version's, though the company claims it will still maintain the depth and quality that its users expect from it.

Select ‘deep research’ in the message composer and enter your query. You can use ChatGPT Deep Research for free for five times per month, so you will need to be really careful with your queries.

OpenAI says that these limitations allow the company to operate in a cost-effective manner. Oddly, even the paid plans have a similar restriction, 15 regular tasks + 15 lightweight tasks, providing a total of 30 uses for Plus, Team every month. Once a subscriber hits their 15-task limit for the regular version, they will gain access to the lightweight version of Deep Research for the next 15 uses for the month. ChatGPT Pro users have a higher limit at 125 regular tasks per month, and a further 125 lightweight tasks per month. Enterprise users on the other hand have a measly 10 task limit for the regular version of the AI. Enterprise and EDU users can access Deep Research in ChatGPT next week.

In contrast to these limits, Google's Gemini Advanced allows users to access its own deep research tool 20 times per day. This comparison has sparked some criticism among ChatGPT users.

Source: Android Authority