OpenAI to Make Deep Research Free on ChatGPT’s Free Trial
OpenAI is getting ready to make its powerful Deep Research feature available to everyone—including users on the ChatGPT free tier. Until now, this AI tool was only available to users who paid for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Enterprise, or Edu plans. But soon, even free users can use this powerful AI-powered research tool.
The Deep Research feature goes beyond the usual answers that ChatGPT gives. You can ask it to dig deep into a topic, and it will give you a full, detailed report in 5 to 30 minutes all on its own, with no human help needed.
During a recent livestream on X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI team member Isa Fulford confirmed that Deep Research on ChatGPT will be launched for free users soon. However, she didn’t give an exact date yet.
At the moment, Deep Research is available through ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20/month. There’s also a ChatGPT Pro plan that costs $200/month and comes with more advanced AI models and tools. Even though some features are part of these paid plans, OpenAI has started giving free users access to a few of them.
For example, anyone with a free Microsoft account can now use the “Think Deeper” tool in Copilot — a similar feature powered by OpenAI’s AI model. It helps users perform deeper research tasks and is available through the Copilot app or website.
OpenAI also recently gave free users access to its GPT-4o image generation feature, letting them create up to three image mockups. Paid users still get more flexibility and access.
The move to open up Deep Research to more users is likely in response to growing competition. Just two weeks ago, Google made its Deep Research tool-free on Gemini, which used to be available only through its AI Premium plan. Similarly, Perplexity AI offers its deep research tool for free, though there are limits on how much users can do.
By making more AI features free, OpenAI is helping more people access advanced research tools, stay productive, and get the most out of AI technology even without a subscription.