OpenAI unveiled Deep Research, a ChatGPT AI agent that lets you use AI to obtain answers to more complex answers. Deep Research takes longer to process queries, but when ChatGPT is done thinking it’ll put out more complex reports on the topic you’ve chosen.
Deep Research is the kind of feature I’ve been waiting for from ChatGPT after using the chatbot to conduct similar research before. It’s hardly comparable to Deep Research, but you can ask ChatGPT complex answers and it’ll provide replies that can save you time. You won’t have to spend as much time browsing the web for answers, though you should always check ChatGPT’s claims.
Deep Research should make the process even easier. The research papers that ChatGPT delivers at the end of its thinking run should be more thorough, and they’ll contain references to sources.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to try Deep Research. I’m not a ChatGPT Pro subscriber, the $200/month subscription service that gets Deep Research. But I do pay for ChatGPT Plus, the next tier to receive Deep Research. While it’s unclear when OpenAI will turn on Deep Research support for ChatGPT Plus, Sam Altman shared access limits for Plus and Free subscribers.
When OpenAI unveiled Deep Research, we learned that ChatGPT Pro users would initially receive 100 queries per month. These tasks are more difficult, and the AI agent takes longer to provide answers. “The longer it takes to research a query, the more inference compute is required,” OpenAI said. Therefore, Deep Research generates increased compute costs.
On Wednesday, Sam Altman took to X to announce OpenAI’s plans for GPT-4.5 and GPT-5. But he did more than that, teasing Deep Research support for ChatGPT Plus subscribers. Altman said he thinks OpenAI is “going to initially offer 10 uses per month for ChatGPT Plus and 2 per month in the Free tier, with the intent to scale these up over time.”
It might not sound great, but 10 Deep Research queries per month is proportionate to the ChatGPT Plus cost. At $20/month, the Plus subscription is 10 times cheaper than Pro. Getting 10 times fewer Deep Research queries with the subscription is not unreasonable.
On the other hand, I already feel like 10 queries might not be enough for the Plus tier. I will have to test Deep Research and see how many I actually use each month.
Altman also tweeted that “longer-term, we still have to find some way to let people pay for compute they want to use more dynamically.” It’s unclear what that means, but it aligns with his plans for the future of ChatGPT.
When GPT-5 is out, ChatGPT Free users will have unlimited access to the basic intelligence features. The more advanced ones will be restricted to Premium tiers. The more you pay, the better the AI experience:
Plus subscribers will be able to run GPT-5 at a higher level of intelligence, and Pro subscribers will be able to run GPT-5 at an even higher level of intelligence. These models will incorporate voice, canvas, search, deep research, and more.
However, there will be a big caveat in how GPT-5 works. Rather than picking the AI model you need to handle a task, the AI will know which to choose. That’s something I’ve realized I need from my ChatGPT experience. I want the AI to decide which of its capabilities to use when dealing with my prompts.
That means the AI will need to be aware of the limitations of my ChatGPT subscription. It might also need to inform me of what computation is about to do for my query and how that might impact my budget or account limits.
What I’m getting at is that a more dynamic way to spend money on advanced AI in ChatGPT is inevitable. Before I get there, I’ll hopefully be able to test Deep Research in ChatGPT Plus. If Altman is already teasing limits, ChatGPT Plus users must be getting Deep Research soon.
