ChatGPT's new tool makes research simpler and cheaper
25 Apr 2025

OpenAI has unveiled a new "lightweight" version of its ChatGPT deep research tool.

The company announced that this innovative feature will be available to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users.

The lightweight deep research tool will scour the web and compile research reports on various topics, though responses will be shorter while maintaining depth and quality.

It is powered by a version of OpenAI's o4-mini model.

Lightweight tool offers cost-effective solution with expanded usage limits
Advantages

While the lightweight version of deep research may not be as capable as its "full" counterpart, OpenAI claims it is a more affordable solution.

This affordability enables higher 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.

The company also said that once limits for original deep research are reached, queries will automatically default to this new lightweight version.

The tool will be available for enterprise, educational users soon
Future plans

OpenAI intends to expand ChatGPT's lightweight deep research tool to enterprise and educational users next week.

They will get access with the same usage levels as Team users.

This comes as part of a wider trend where several chatbots, including Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, and xAI's Grok, have recently introduced their own deep research tools powered by reasoning AI models.