How to Choose Between ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity Deep Mining Tools

You may be used to AI chatbots answering your questions in a few sentences or even paragraphs, but what about multi-page reports? With Deep Research, that’s exactly what companies like ChatGPT , Gemini , and Perplexity are doing, using their large language models along with web search and reasoning capabilities to become scientific collaborators of sorts.

The deep research request takes time (five to 30 minutes, depending on what you ask), but comes back to you with a detailed report on anything you might ask about, including complex things like niche market research or scientific mysteries. What’s more, all three of Deep Research’s major AI providers now have free tiers.

Although, let’s be honest, most of us don’t do scientific research every day. So, how can these deep research tools help you?

How deep dives work

Deep Research combines the power of the open web, large language models, and new reasoning models. When you enter a hint, it first uses a reasoning model to figure out what you’re actually asking. At this stage, the AI ​​chatbot can even return to you with clarifying questions and prepare a research plan on its own. You can provide answers and edit the study plan, but this is usually not necessary.

Once the exploration begins, you can keep an eye on what the AI ​​is doing using the sidebar (or a separate tab if you’re using Perplexity). Here you can see the search queries the AI ​​performs, the documents it scans, and the information it collates.

As I mentioned above, a detailed report takes up to 30 minutes, but this is only relevant if you are asking about something really complex. In testing, I found that all three tools generated results in 5-10 minutes, still producing detailed reports that were a couple of pages long.

When should you use Deep Research?

The best way to use deep research tools is when you can’t find something on Google yourself or don’t want to waste time going through five different articles to lay out the basics on a topic.

I personally used these Deep Research tools to find a replacement part code for my car that Google simply didn’t tell me about. I’ve also used them to research a company’s stock price forecast and learn something new about the handpan, a musical instrument I can’t stop obsessing over.

If you need quick answers, then, of course, it is better to use a regular search in an artificial intelligence chatbot. And if you’re working on a presentation to a client and need to do market research on five different competitors, you might want to consider purchasing the paid version of whatever deep research tool you use. But for anything in between, it’s worth knowing how to use their lightweight alternatives.

How to use Deep Research tools in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity

All three competing mainstream AI chatbots have their own Deep Research tools that work in much the same way. I’ll go into more detail below, but basically you start with a prompt as detailed as possible, click the “Dig Deep” button below the prompt, and then submit your request. You can also upload documents, spreadsheets, and images for additional context.

Limitations of Free Deep Research

There are a limited number of free versions of Deep Research tools available. Perplexity and Gemini provide the free user with the same quality of Deep Research reports as the paid plans, but limit usage. However, Perplexity is the most generous with a daily limit system. Perplexity doesn’t specify its exact limits, but it will show you how many Deep Research requests you have left in a day. In testing, I was able to complete three Deep Research queries per day. You can upgrade to a $20/month plan to remove all restrictions.

Gemini limits free users to 5 searches per month, and Gemini Advanced users can create up to 20 reports per month on the $20 per month plan.

ChatGPT has the most complex structure. Free users get access to five monthly searches using the lightweight ChatGPT model, which does not generate full reports. However, in my experience, this free model is sufficient for general day-to-day searching.

The $20 per month ChatGPT Plus plan increases limits to 10 requests per month when using the full Deep Research model and up to 15 when using the lightweight model.

How I tested ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity’s Deep Research tools

I tested the Deep Research features on all three platforms using the same three prompts. The first was to create a beginner-friendly guide to learning handpan, the second was to research the company’s stock market prospects, and the third was to find the part number of the spare tire screw cap for my car. The latter was something I just couldn’t figure out using Google.

ChatGPT Deep Research: Accurate and Reliable

I find ChatGPT’s deep exploration to be the most direct and reliable. The reports that ChatGPT generates are easy to read and, importantly, contain only the information you requested and nothing more. ChatGPT always asks follow-up questions whenever you make a deep dive request. This may seem tedious (it was for me), but it clearly works, and you can tell ChatGPT to continue without further replies from you if you wish.

I’ve seen this in both the handpan report and stock research. However, ChatGPT may not be the best at finding shopping links yet. Although he found the car part I was looking for and highlighted it right at the top, he couldn’t find a link to buy the part in India, where I live (but he did find sellers in the US and Europe).

Gemini Deep Research: contextual but verbose

When it comes to deep research, Gemini has two strengths: the ability to edit planned research and access to other Google products.

When you give Gemini the Deep Research prompt, she will first go out and create a research plan. It will then show you this plan and you can edit it if you need to (just confirm it if you don’t need to make any changes). Unlike ChatGPT, Gemini doesn’t ask you follow-up questions, but instead focuses on using the integration with your Google account for broad-level thinking. This is Google, and it will include, for example, searching for relevant information from around your hometown.

Deep Research Gemini also integrates with Google search. Essentially, when you use Deep Research, you are essentially asking the AI ​​to do some Google searches for you. It can even take your browsing history into account ( though only if you want it to ).

But the downside of Gemini is that it is too verbose, and its default research design is often too broad in scope. It may be best to edit your research plan to make it more specific. I saw this in my test of finding my car’s part number, where several paragraphs talked about spare tire covers instead of directly stating the part number I was asking for (which both ChatGPT and Perplexity do better). On the plus side, Gemini integrates Deep Research directly into its audio reviews feature, so you can easily create a short podcast episode based on your report.

Perplexity: Fast and Built for Web Search

Perplexity’s Deep Research tool is fast. He’s the fastest to get back with a Deep Research report, sometimes giving me answers in just two minutes or so. It does a good job with shopping links and shopping research. And this is done in one click. Perplexity doesn’t ask any follow-up questions or ask you to approve the study plan like Gemini does. He just goes and does his thing.

Perplexity is currently able to integrate web search into its research, perhaps even better than Gemini. But speed comes at a price. During testing, I found that Perplexity’s Deep Research reports lacked detail, even though the report had multiple sources attached.

Which deep research tool is right for you?

All three free Deep Research tools have their uses, but some are better suited for certain tasks than others. Based on my research and testing, I found the following:

• ChatGPT’s Deep Research docs are the most robust while remaining concise, although they suffer a bit when it comes to finding specific links online.

• Gemini Deep Research reports are the most detail oriented, although they tend to be wordy and sometimes unnecessarily long.

• Perplexity’s Deep Research tool is the fastest and produces results in minutes. While the research it produces is not often factually incorrect, it lacks the detail and depth of ChatGPT or Gemini.

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