Thunderbolt for users of ChatGPT : Deep Researchso far reserved for subscription ChatGPT Pro at $200 (around €190) per month, finally arrives on free accounts. OpenAI opens its most advanced research tool to the general public.
To achieve this, the company is deploying a lightweight version of Deep Research, powered by the o4‑mini model, which is less expensive than the full version based on o3. Result: all plans, from Free to Pro, can launch these long analyses, but with very different quotas which really change the usage.
Free ChatGPT Deep Research: what does this star feature of ChatGPT Pro really bring?
Initially, Deep Research was launched in February 2025 as an exclusive to ChatGPT Prodesigned for consultants, researchers or content creators. The principle: you give a subject, the agent browses dozens or even hundreds of sites for 5 to 30 minutes, including forums such as Reddit, then assembles a structured report with quotes, summary and recommendations, exportable in PDF or Markdown.
The full version is based on the o3 model, designed for reasoning about complex questions; on the benchmark Humanity’s Last Examit has surpassed other mainstream assistants. For a gamer wanting to analyze the meta of a competitive game or a techie comparing GPUs, Deep Research digs into tests, patch notes, and community discussions to produce an actionable overview.
A lighter version of o4‑mini for everyone: what quotas for ChatGPT Free, Plus and Pro?
To make Free ChatGPT Deep Research, OpenAI has created a lightweight version, based on the o4‑mini model. The company says it’s “nearly as smart as the Deep Research that people know and love, while being significantly cheaper to run.” The answers are generally shorter than those in the full version, but maintain the same depth of analysis on the essentials.
Now all accounts have access to Deep Search in ChatGPTbut with limits. Free users have 5 Deep Research queries per month, only in o4‑mini version. Subscribers ChatGPT Plus and Team get 10 “full” requests and 125 in light version, while clients ChatGPT Pro rise to 125 full queries and 125 light queries, or 250 monthly searches; beyond the full quota, new requests automatically switch to the light version.
How to run Deep Research in ChatGPT and who really needs the Pro subscription?
In the interface, Deep Research appears as “Deep Research”: open a new conversation, click the “+” button next to the message field, choose the tool then describe your need precisely. It is better to group several questions in the same request, for example to compare graphics cards or analyze the patch notes of a game service.
For personal or occasional use, these 5 free searches are more than enough, provided you check the sources cited by the tool. On the other hand, if you chain together projects, complete guides or hardware and gaming monitoring, the volume and priority of ChatGPT Pro remain decisive, especially in the face of competition from Google Gemini and Perplexity AIwho also limit their free Deep Research modes to five detailed reports per month.