The ChatGPT AI Deep Research Query Feature

As you have probably noticed, there has been a push to implement AI into our daily lives by adding it to things such as the Windows operating system and Office apps with Copilot and even third party applications such as Adobe Acrobat. Many software companies are frantically adding AI features to their apps to try and stay ahead of the competition. And of course, you can use the free and pay for LLM (Large Language Model) search websites such as Google Gemini, Claude, Grok and ChatGPT.

Open AI’s ChatGPT LLM was one of the first models out there that you could use to get detailed information on just about anything without having to do a traditional web search. You can even use it to create images from text or edit existing ones. Open AI now as a new feature you can use for your searches called Deep Research. In this article, we will be showing you how the ChatGPT AI Deep Research query feature works.

Deep Research is an advanced feature designed to automate complex, multi-step research tasks by autonomously browsing the web, analyzing information, and generating comprehensive reports with citations. It significantly reduces the time required for in-depth research, delivering results in approximately 5 to 30 minutes.

Depending on your account type, you can either do regular queries or lightweight queries.

Regular Queries

• Depth: High — the AI pulls from multiple sources or pages.
• Speed: Slower than lightweight, but still reasonably quick.
• Use Case: Designed for complex, multi-part, or fact-sensitive
• Behavior: The system may visit several web pages, extract information, summarize, and even cross-check.

Lightweight Queries (Sometimes used instead)

• Depth: Low to moderate — pulls data from a single webpage or snippet.
• Speed: Much faster.
• Use Case: Ideal for quick facts, recent dates, or headline-level info.
• Behavior: Typically grabs a single source (like a Wikipedia entry or current news article).

Deep Research Availability

• Pro Users ($200/month): Receive up to 250 queries per month, including 150 lightweight queries.
• Plus, Team, Edu, and Enterprise Users: Have access to 25 queries per month, with 15 being lightweight.
• Free Users: Granted 5 lightweight queries per month.

To use Deep Research, all you need to do is go to the ChatGPT website and login with your Open AI account. You can use the free account type or one of the subscription based accounts.

Then you can type in your query, click on the Deep research button and then the go\arrow button to start the process. The following text is what we will be using for our query.

Conduct a deep market analysis of the top 5 antivirus programs in 2025, including feature comparisons, pricing, customer satisfaction ratings, reported issues, and ideal use cases for individuals versus businesses. Include citations from reputable sources.

You may then be asked to add additional details to your query so that ChatGPT can provide you with the most relevant information.

Then you can type in the requested information and ChatGPT will begin the deep research query process.

Once the process begins, it can take several minutes depending on how much information you are asking for and whether it’s a regular or lightweight query. Our lightweight query took 11 minutes to complete, and the results are shown below.

We are first shown an introduction paragraph followed by detailed information about the top 5 antivirus applications for 2025. Within the results, you will have multiple citations that you can then click on to be taken to the website where the information was pulled from.

The next part of the results shows various tables showing things such as a feature comparison and user reviews for each product.

You can then copy this information right from the results and use it for whatever purpose you need it for. If you are a Microsoft Copilot user, then they have a similar feature called Think Deeper.

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