Deep Research
Deep research is an AI feature in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, each under the same name, that takes a hard question, makes a research plan, reads many sources and returns a long report with citations. OpenAI's help center says that in ChatGPT you can review the plan first and keep the research to websites you choose.
Source: OpenAI Help Center, Deep research in ChatGPT, checked October 29, 2026
What Deep Research means for your business
Google says Gemini Deep Research can browse up to hundreds of websites on its own, plus your Gmail, Drive and Chat if you choose. When Perplexity launched its version in February 2025, it said it runs dozens of searches and reads hundreds of sources before it writes a report.
OpenAI's help page says deep research can stick to the sites you enter, or favor them while still searching the rest of the web. It also tells people to use regular search for quick facts and deep research for depth. So we'd expect it from buyers making bigger, slower decisions, like a company choosing a vendor.
Deep research reads many pages about the same question and writes up what it finds across them. So we'd check what other sites say about you, like directories and review sites, and fix anything that contradicts your own site.
If your buyers research vendors before they call, the usage numbers in our AI search report can tell you which AI tools to test your name in first.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview treated deep research as a kind of feature found in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, citing each company's pages and a university library. ChatGPT described only its own feature and cited nothing.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
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