If you’ve ever wished ChatGPT could handle more than just quick answers, OpenAI has some exciting news. The company just unveiled a new feature called “Deep Research,” designed to tackle complex queries with precision and detail. This tool is perfect for anyone needing thorough, well-documented answers—whether you’re researching finance, science, or even shopping for a car.

For now, Deep Research is available to ChatGPT Pro users, capped at 100 queries a month. Support for Plus and Team users is expected soon, followed by Enterprise plans. Unfortunately, folks in the U.K., Switzerland, and the European Economic Area will have to wait a bit longer, as OpenAI hasn’t shared a timeline for those regions.

Using the feature is simple. Just select “Deep Research” in the composer, type in your question, and optionally attach files or spreadsheets. The process can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, and you’ll get a notification when your detailed response is ready. Currently, the outputs are text-only, but OpenAI plans to add images, graphs, and more analytical features in the future.

Of course, AI isn’t perfect. OpenAI acknowledges that Deep Research can sometimes make mistakes, struggle with uncertain information, or misformat citations. To combat this, every output comes with clear citations and a detailed summary of its reasoning—giving users the tools to verify the information themselves.

Under the hood, Deep Research uses a fine-tuned version of OpenAI’s o3 reasoning model, trained through reinforcement learning to handle real-world tasks like browsing and data analysis. The company claims it can perform multi-step research, generate graphs, and cite hundreds of sources—making it a powerful tool for in-depth inquiries.

Interestingly, Google announced a similar feature with the same name just two months ago. Whether OpenAI’s version will outshine its competitor remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: the race for smarter AI research tools is heating up.