Perplexity Introduces Deep Research That Can Generate Expert-Level Reports on Complex Topics

Perplexity introduced a Deep Research function on its platform last week. The tool can analyse complex questions better and provide comprehensive reports by reasoning through the topics. The new feature is being added to the model picker and is currently available to all users. The company claims that its responses are generated faster than the eponymous OpenAI tool, with an average output time of three minutes. Notably, Perplexity recently introduced an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for Android devices with computer vision and web search features.

Perplexity Launches Deep Research Feature

After Google and OpenAI, now Perplexity has become the latest Silicon Valley AI company to introduce its Deep Research product. Based on the description of the feature in the blog post, the feature likely uses a test time compute expansion technique to allow the AI model to spend more time on a query. This way, the AI can delve deeper into the problem, second guess its response and verify, as well as evaluate alternate theories.

Perplexity is rolling out Deep Research to all users. Pro subscribers will get an unlimited number of queries using the tool, while those on the free tier will get an unspecified but limited number of queries per day. Currently, the feature is only available on Perplexity's web client, but the company stated that it will also be rolled out to the iOS, Android, and Mac apps.

To use Deep Research, Perplexity users can tap on the mode selected underneath the text box and find the option at the bottom of the list. Once selected, the AI will automatically begin answering queries using the Deep Research function. The company has claimed that a response takes about three minutes to generate on average, which is much faster than the five to 30-minute period OpenAI's tool takes.

The tool uses search and coding capabilities to conduct iterative research, reading documents and adjusting its approach based on the information gathered. After evaluating the source materials, it compiles the findings into a structured report. Users can export the report as a PDF or document or share it as a Perplexity Page with others.

Notably, the company claimed that Deep Research scored 21.1 percent on Humanity's Last Exam in an internal test, outsourcing Gemini Thinking, OpenAI's o1 and o3-mini, and DeepSeek-R1.