OpenAI has announced the launch of a new lightweight version of its Deep Research tool integrated within ChatGPT, offering reduced operational costs while maintaining high performance quality.
The new version, called Deep Research (Lightweight), is powered by OpenAI’s o4-mini model. According to the company, this model delivers intelligence comparable to the original version, which is used to prepare comprehensive, source-backed reports and summaries.
However, the lightweight version provides shorter responses while preserving the depth and accuracy that users expect from OpenAI’s advanced models.
Unlike the full version, which is available exclusively to paid plan subscribers, the new lightweight edition is now accessible to free ChatGPT users, limited to five tasks per month. Meanwhile, users subscribed to the Plus and Team plans can perform up to 25 tasks monthly across both versions, and Pro plan subscribers have access to up to 250 tasks.
Starting next week, users on educational and enterprise plans will also gain access to the new tool, following the same usage limits applied to the Plus and Team plans.
We've noticed many of you love using deep research, so we’re expanding usage for Plus, Team, and Pro users by introducing a lightweight version of deep research in order to increase current rate limits.
We’re also rolling out the lightweight version to Free users.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 24, 2025
OpenAI places significant emphasis on this release, describing it as “much less expensive” than the original version. This is crucial given the company’s high operational costs, which reportedly reach “tens of millions of dollars” merely to process simple phrases like “please” and “thank you,” according to recent statements by the company’s CEO.
Deep Research is one of ChatGPT’s most advanced tools, enabling users to analyze websites and various online sources to generate in-depth reports with clearly cited references.
