Artificial intelligence is transforming how we conduct research, making information retrieval faster and more accurate. Perplexity, OpenAI, and Google’s Gemini are among the most advanced AI models designed to assist in deep research with their agentic tools. Each of these AI systems has its strengths and limitations, making them suitable for different research needs. Let’s compare Perplexity Deep Research, OpenAI Deep Research, and Gemini 1.5 Pro Deep Research based on their capabilities, accuracy, sources, and more.
OpenAI Deep Research
OpenAI’s Deep Research is an AI-powered agent designed for in-depth, multi-step research on the internet. Unlike standard ChatGPT browsing, which provides quick responses, Deep Research autonomously finds, analyzes, and synthesizes information from hundreds of online sources and makes use of OpenAI’s upcoming o3 model. It’s built for professionals in knowledge-intensive fields like finance, science, and law, as well as researchers and discerning shoppers who need thorough, precise, and reliable research.
Features and Capabilities
- Multi-Step Analysis: Deep Research breaks down complex queries into smaller steps, searches the web, analyzes documents through multiple passes, and synthesizes the information into comprehensive reports.
- Interactive Questioning: The tool engages in interactive questioning to clarify user requests and refine its research strategy.
- Structured Reports: Deep Research generates structured reports with clear sections, proper use of bolding, font size, and bullet points, making it easy to review and understand the findings.
- Source Citation: Every output is fully documented with clear citations to sources, making it easy to verify and reference the information.
- Handles Diverse Inputs: Deep Research accepts diverse inputs, including spreadsheets, images, and PDFs, to provide tailored responses. Users can also attach images, files, or spreadsheets to add context to their question.
- Finding Niche Information: Deep Research is particularly effective at finding niche, non-intuitive information that would typically require extensive manual searching across numerous websites.
- Multimodal Input: The model is also able to browse over user uploaded files, plot and iterate on graphs using the python tool, embed both generated graphs and images from websites in its responses, and cite specific sentences or passages from its sources. As a result of this training, it reaches new highs on a number of public evaluations focused on real-world problems.
Limitations
- Accuracy: While generally reliable, Deep Research can sometimes miss key details, struggle with recent information, and occasionally fabricate information.
- Source Reliability: It can struggle to differentiate authoritative sources from unreliable ones.
- Time Consumption: As per OpenAI, Deep research may take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to complete its work, taking the time needed to dive deep into the web. The time being taken is much higher than the likes of Perplexity Deep Research and Gemini 1.5 Pro Deep Research.
- Usage Limits: Pro users are limited to up to 100 Deep Research queries per month.
- Costly: The Pro plan is also quite costly (pricing discussed below).
Perplexity Deep Research
Perplexity AI has also introduced a Deep Research feature, designed to give users the tools they need to do extensive research in just minutes. It’s particularly adept at handling expert-level queries across various domains, including finance, marketing, and technology.
Features and Capabilities
- Extensive Research: Perplexity Deep Research performs dozens of searches, reads hundreds of sources, and reasons through the material to offer comprehensive reports autonomously.
- Iterative Approach: It iteratively searches, reads documents, and reasons about what to do next, refining its research plan as it progresses.
- Report Generation: It compiles its findings into a clear and comprehensive report that can be exported as a PDF or document or converted into a Perplexity Page and shared.
- Speed: Perplexity claims its Deep Research is faster than OpenAI’s, with most queries completed in under 3 minutes.
- High Accuracy: It achieves high accuracy in fact-checking, scoring 93.9% on the SimpleQA benchmark.
- Usage Limit: Pro subscribers get 500 Deep Research queries, while non-subscribers will have access to five queries per day.
Perplexity’s mission is to democratize access to powerful research tools, which is reflected in its decision to offer Deep Research for free with limited usage.
Limitations
- Depth of Analysis: While fast, it may sometimes lack the depth of analysis compared to OpenAI Deep Research.
- Accuracy: It can miss key details, struggle with recent information, and sometimes invent facts.
- Word Limit: There is a word limit for the reports generated, even for Pro users, as per reports from users on Reddit.
In our use, while the Perplexity Deep Research reports were accurate, they were quite short on words. They could have been more detailed like reports from OpenAI’s and Gemini’s Deep Research.
Gemini 1.5 Pro Deep Research
Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro with Deep Research is another powerful tool that uses AI to conduct research and provide a comprehensive report with key findings and links to original sources.
Features and Capabilities
- AI Research Assistant: It acts as a personal AI assistant that can find information and write a report based on your query.
- Multi-Step Research Plan: After you enter your question, it creates a multi-step research plan that you can revise or approve.
- Comprehensive Reports: It generates a comprehensive report of key findings that you can export into a Google Doc.
- Long-Context Understanding: Gemini 1.5 Pro has a context window of up to 1 million tokens, allowing it to process large amounts of information.
- Native Tool Use: Gemini has native tool use capabilities, allowing it to integrate with other Google services for tasks like searching for information, looking up reviews, and translating languages.
- Report Generation Time: Report generation typically takes 5-10 minutes, but can be longer for complex topics.
Limitations
- Accuracy: While generally accurate, it can sometimes make mistakes or provide generic information.
- Limited Adaptability: It follows a predefined research workflow, making it less adaptable to dynamic research needs.
- Multimodal Input: Primarily relies on text-based queries, with limited support for other input formats.
Pricing and Availability
Each Deep Research tool has different pricing and availability:
- OpenAI: Deep Research is currently available to all ChatGPT Pro users across all platforms (web, iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows). The Pro plan costs $200 per month and includes other benefits like priority access to new features and faster response times. OpenAI also offers a free plan with limited features and a Plus plan for $20 per month with general access to GPT-4 and a larger context window.
- Perplexity: Perplexity Deep Research is available for free to all users with a limit of 5 queries per day. The Pro plan costs $20 per month and provides 500 queries, along with the ability to export reports and access more advanced models like GPT-4 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
- Gemini: Deep Research is available to Gemini Advanced subscribers. This plan costs $20 per month in the US and Rs 1,950 a month in India, and includes features like Deep Research, 2TB of Google One storage, and enhanced AI capabilities. Gemini also offers Business and Enterprise plans with varying pricing and features, such as access to Gemini in Google Workspace apps and advanced AI tools for meetings and security.
Verdict
OpenAI Deep Research, Perplexity Deep Research, and Gemini 1.5 Pro Deep Research each offer unique strengths and cater to different needs. OpenAI excels in deep, multi-step analysis, while Perplexity prioritizes speed and cost-effectiveness. Gemini provides a user-friendly interface and leverages Google’s vast knowledge base and other services such as integration with Google Docs and Sheets. Moreover, its plan offers the most value out of the three with add-ons like 2TB cloud storage, and more. Ultimately, the best tool for you depends on your specific research requirements, budget, and desired level of interaction.
It’s important to remember that none of these tools are perfect and still require human oversight to ensure accuracy, address potential biases, and critically evaluate the generated information. As AI-powered research continues to evolve, these tools will likely become even more powerful and versatile, further transforming how we explore and understand information.