OpenAI is introducing a new “lightweight” version of its ChatGPT deep research tool, which scours the web to compile research reports on a topic, for ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users, as announced on Thursday. The company also mentioned that the lightweight deep research will be available for free ChatGPT users starting today. This new feature is powered by a version of OpenAI’s o4-mini model, making it more cost-effective for the company to increase usage limits.

According to OpenAI, this lightweight deep research will provide shorter responses while maintaining the depth and quality users expect. When the limits for the original deep research version are reached, queries will automatically switch to the lightweight version. The new lightweight version is almost as intelligent as the full deep research tool and comes at a lower cost.

Recent advancements in deep research tools for chatbots, like Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, and xAI’s Grok, are driven by reasoning AI models that can think through problems and fact-check themselves. These skills are crucial for conducting thorough research on a given topic. OpenAI plans to introduce the lightweight deep research feature for Enterprise and educational users next week, offering the same usage levels as Team users.