In a move that could revolutionize how we conduct research, Perplexity AI has unveiled its highly anticipated Deep Research tool – and surprisingly, it won’t cost you a penny to try it out.
The new AI-powered research assistant can dive into complex topics across finance, marketing, and product research, delivering comprehensive reports in just minutes. It’s like having a tireless research intern who can sift through hundreds of sources at superhuman speed.
“We believe everyone should have access to powerful research tools,” declared Perplexity AI in their announcement, backing up their words with action by making the tool freely available to all users for up to 5 queries per day.
The company’s co-founder and CEO, Aravind Srinivas, took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the news: “Excited to introduce the Perplexity Deep Research Agent: available for free to all users.” For those wanting more horsepower, a Pro subscription at $20 monthly unlocks 500 daily queries – a stark contrast to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro plan, which charges a hefty $200 per month for just 100 queries.
But can this AI actually deliver expert-level research? According to recent benchmarks, it just might. The system scored an impressive 21.1% on Humanity’s Last Exam, outperforming several prominent AI models including Gemini Thinking and DeepSeek-R1. Even more striking is its 93.9% accuracy on the SimpleQA benchmark, putting it ahead of other leading AI models.
The secret sauce behind Deep Research is its three-phase approach. First, it conducts iterative research, much like a human researcher would – searching, evaluating sources, and refining its understanding as it goes. Then it compiles its findings into a coherent report, which users can export as PDFs or documents for easy sharing.
Speed is another standout feature. The system is powered by Sonar, Perplexity’s in-house model built on Meta’s Llama 3.3 70B and supercharged by Cerebras Inference. This technological combo enables it to produce an impressive 1,200 tokens per second, making it one of the fastest AI inference engines available.
Initially available on the web, Perplexity plans to roll out Deep Research across iOS, Android, and Mac platforms soon. Users can access it by simply selecting “Deep Research” from the mode selector before firing off their query.
The implications for various industries could be significant. Financial analysts could use it to quickly compile market research, marketing teams could generate comprehensive competitor analyses, and students could gather in-depth information for academic papers – all in a fraction of the time it would take to do manually.
However, some questions remain about the tool’s limitations. While Perplexity has optimized for speed and accuracy, the challenge of ensuring 100% factual accuracy in AI-generated research remains. The company acknowledges this, indicating ongoing work to enhance fact-checking features and refine the user interface.
Dr. Sarah Chen, an AI ethics researcher at Stanford University (who wasn’t involved in the development), offers a balanced perspective: “Tools like Deep Research represent a significant step forward in democratizing access to research capabilities. However, they should be seen as assistants rather than replacements for human critical thinking and analysis.”
The launch of Deep Research marks another milestone in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. While it may not spell the end of traditional research just yet, it certainly provides a glimpse into how AI could transform the way we gather and analyze information in the future.
For now, Perplexity AI seems to have found a sweet spot between accessibility and capability. Whether you’re a professional researcher, student, or just someone with a curious mind, Deep Research offers a powerful new tool for exploration – and you won’t have to break the bank to try it out.
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