OpenAI announced Thursday that it is rolling out a “lightweight” version of its ChatGPT deep research tool to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users. The new version, powered by OpenAI’s o4-mini model, is also available to free ChatGPT users starting today.
The lightweight deep research tool scours the web to compile research reports on a given topic. While not as capable as the “full” deep research, OpenAI claims it is cheaper to serve, enabling the company to increase usage limits. According to OpenAI, responses from the lightweight version will be shorter while maintaining the expected depth and quality.
Once the original version’s usage limits are reached, queries automatically default to the lightweight version. OpenAI stated on X that the lightweight version is “nearly as intelligent as the deep research people already know and love, while being significantly cheaper to serve.”
The introduction of ChatGPT‘s lightweight deep research follows a surge in deep research tools across chatbots, including Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, and xAI’s Grok. These tools are driven by reasoning AI models capable of thinking through problems and fact-checking themselves, skills important for in-depth research.
OpenAI plans to roll out the lightweight deep research to Enterprise and educational users next week, with the same usage levels as Team users.
