Deep research agents that read many sources and write cited reports for you. Compared on starting price and what each one does best.
From the 6 AI research agents on Klyvoo, with prices checked on each official site.
| Agent | Best for | Starting price | Pricing model | Free trial | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | Fast cited market research | Free; Pro $20/mo | Freemium subscription plus credits for Computer tasks | Every answer cites its sources and reports export to PDF or a shareable Page | |
| ChatGPT Deep Research | In-depth business reports | Free; Go $8/mo | Freemium subscription | Can search the web, your files and connected apps like Google Drive and SharePoint | |
| Gemini Deep Research | Google Workspace users | Free; AI Plus $4.99/mo | Freemium subscription | Can pull from Gmail, Drive and Chat and turn reports into Audio Overviews | |
| Elicit | Research from scientific papers | Free; Plus $11/mo (yearly) | Freemium subscription, per user | Sentence-level citations and systematic review screening at scale | |
| Manus | Hands-off multi-step research | Free; Pro from $20/mo | Freemium, credit-based subscription | 7 days on the $40/mo Pro tier | Wide Research runs a separate agent for each item, tested up to 250 items |
| Genspark | Research turned into deliverables | Free; Plus $24.99/mo | Freemium, credit-based subscription | One plan covers GPT, Claude, Gemini and 80+ more models plus Slides, Sheets and Docs agents |
Prices in USD from each vendor’s official pricing page, checked October 2026. Some links may be affiliate links; that never changes our picks.
AI answer engine with deep research
Best for: fast cited market research
Answer engine that searches the web and writes cited reports, with a Research mode for deeper work.
Deep research feature in ChatGPT
Best for: in-depth business reports
Browses many sources for minutes and returns a long cited report you can download.
Deep research feature in Gemini
Best for: google Workspace users
Plans a research task, reads up to hundreds of sites and drafts a structured report.
Academic research assistant
Best for: research from scientific papers
Searches 138M+ academic papers and 545K clinical trials and writes reports with sentence-level citations.
Autonomous general AI agent
Best for: hands-off multi-step research
Autonomous agent that researches and produces reports, slides or sites, with parallel Wide Research.
AI workspace with Super Agent
Best for: research turned into deliverables
Super Agent that researches, then builds slides, sheets, docs and pages using 80+ models.
Every research agent on this page has a free plan, so you can find the best AI for research on your own topics before you pay. Paid tiers then raise your limits. Gemini Deep Research has the cheapest step up at $4.99/mo for Google AI Plus. ChatGPT Deep Research comes with Go at $8/mo, Elicit Plus is $11/mo billed yearly and Perplexity Pro is $20/mo.
Most of these tools don't publish exact report counts. ChatGPT labels deep research as limited, expanded or maximum by plan. Gemini draws from a shared usage limit that resets every 5 hours until a weekly cap. Perplexity describes Pro and Max limits as average or advanced use and Elicit doesn't publish the size of its monthly usage pool. Perplexity's free plan is the clearest at 1 Research query a month.
Manus and Genspark run on credits instead. Manus gives 300 free credits a day and Pro starts at $20/mo for 4,000+ credits. Genspark Free gives 100 credits a day until a lifetime allowance runs out and Plus is $24.99/mo for 10,000 credits. Credit use per task isn't fixed on either, so monthly costs are harder to predict.
We check whether claims link back to sources you can open and verify yourself.
We note what each tool searches, from the open web to your own files or 138M+ academic papers.
We look for clear report counts and flag tools that only describe their limits in loose terms.
We check how a report leaves the tool, such as PDF, Word or Markdown downloads, shareable pages or slides.
We check what the free plan really allows, since some cap deep research at one query a month.
Every fact comes from the vendor’s official site. How we review
It depends on where your answers need to come from. Perplexity is the quickest way to a cited web report and ChatGPT Deep Research suits long business reports that also draw on your files and connected apps. For academic work, Elicit searches 138M+ papers with sentence-level citations. If budget matters most, Gemini Deep Research has the cheapest paid plan at $4.99/mo.
Yes. All six tools here have a free plan. Perplexity Free gives 3 Pro searches a day and 1 Research query a month, ChatGPT and Gemini include limited deep research and Elicit Basic offers unlimited paper search and summaries. Manus gives 300 free credits a day, while Genspark's 100 daily credits stop once a lifetime allowance is used.
A research agent plans the task, runs many searches and reads many sources before it writes a cited report. Perplexity's Research mode reads hundreds of sources in about 2 to 4 minutes and Gemini Deep Research builds a plan, browses and then drafts a structured report. Limits differ too. ChatGPT Free has unlimited text chats but only limited deep research.
Perplexity links sources on every answer and ChatGPT Deep Research includes source links in every report. Elicit goes further with sentence-level citations from the underlying papers. Perplexity reports export to PDF or a shareable Page, while ChatGPT reports download as Markdown, Word or PDF with citations.
Every price on Klyvoo comes from the vendor’s official pricing page. How we review
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