Agents & tools
Deep Research
An AI agent feature that spends minutes (not seconds) browsing many sources, reasoning across them, and producing a long-form cited report.
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In plain English
Deep Research names a product category — and several specific features by that name — where an AI agent runs an extended browsing and synthesis loop to answer a research question. Instead of a one-shot reply, it spends 2–30 minutes pulling from dozens of sources and writes a structured report with citations.
Branded features:
- ChatGPT Deep Research (OpenAI, launched Feb 2025)
- Claude Research (Anthropic)
- Gemini Deep Research (Google)
- Perplexity Deep Research
- Grok DeepSearch
What deep research is good for:
- Market scans and competitive analysis
- Literature reviews
- Due diligence and background research
- Multi-source comparison ("compare these five vendors on X")
What it isn't good for:
- Real-time data (news in the last hour)
- Paywalled or private sources
- Tasks needing precise numerical accuracy without a code interpreter
Deep Research is one of the clearest examples of value created by a longer-running agent — the time investment buys depth that no instant search can match.
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Related terms
AI Search
A search experience that returns a synthesised AI answer with citations — instead of a ranked list of links — powered by retrieval plus an LLM.
AI Agent
Software that uses an LLM to plan and act — picking tools, taking actions, and adapting based on results to complete a user’s goal.
Reasoning Model
A model variant trained or tuned to spend more compute on internal reasoning before answering — better on math, code, and multi-step problems.
RAG
Retrieval-Augmented Generation — a technique that gives an AI model access to external documents before it answers, so it can cite real, up-to-date sources.
Agentic Workflow
A multi-step task where an AI agent autonomously decides the steps, uses tools as needed, and works toward a goal with minimal human steering.
Extended Thinking
A model mode where the LLM spends extra compute reasoning through a problem before answering — trading latency for quality on hard tasks.
Back to glossaryLast reviewed May 2026