OpenAI is bringing a new “lightweight” version of its ChatGPT deep research tool, which scours the web to compile research reports on a topic, to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users, the company announced Thursday.
The new lightweight deep research, which will also come to free ChatGPT users starting today, is powered by a version of OpenAI’s o4-mini model, OpenAI says. It’s not quite as capable as the “full” deep research, but OpenAI claims it’s cheaper to serve and thus enables the company to up usage limits.
“Responses will typically be shorter while maintaining the depth and quality you’ve come to expect,” OpenAI said in a series of posts on X. “Once limits for the original version of deep research are reached, queries automatically default to the lightweight version.”
The lightweight version of deep research is powered by a version of OpenAI o4-mini and is nearly as intelligent as the deep research people already know and love, while being significantly cheaper to serve.
Responses will typically be shorter while maintaining the depth and… pic.twitter.com/H2UD5GThVj
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 24, 2025
There’s been a raft of deep research tools launched recently across chatbots including Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, and xAI’s Grok. Driving them are reasoning AI models, which possess the ability to think through problems and fact-check themselves — skills arguably important for conducting in-depth research on a subject.
ChatGPT’s lightweight deep research will come to Enterprise and educational users next week with the same usage levels as Team users, OpenAI says.