Deep Reasoning is coming to ChatGPT free, but I think it’s still worth paying for ChatGPT Plus

• Deep Research is coming to the free tier of ChatGPT very soon
• The Plus tier still offers considerable advantages over the free tier
• ChatGPT Plus has much higher usage limits and features

ChatGPT’s Deep Research has proved to be incredibly popular. It acts like a team of researchers who head off online and research a complex subject for you before returning with a full report, including sources, on the subject you’ve asked it to investigate.

For example, using Deep Research you could ask ChatGPT to compile a report on how the gaming industry has changed in the last three years and it would get back to you with a full report complete with data tables and sources.

Deep Research falls under the category of an AI agent because it can act independently. You effectively give it a task and off it goes to research it for you before using its AI to apply reasoning before coming to conclusions.

From Pro to Plus

Deep Research started off on the Pro tier of ChatGPT, which costs a whopping $200 (£165 /AU$325) a month, but very quickly moved to the more reasonable $20 (£16 / AU$30) Plus tier, where I’ve been enjoying it for the last few weeks.

It was always the plan that Deep Reasoning would move to the free tier of ChatGPT eventually, but it looks like this may happen sooner than later.

X user Tibor Blaho recently noted, in a discussion about Deep Research with two of OpenAI's Technical Staff, that they revealed it was coming to the free tier very soon.

While this is obviously great news for free tier users, it brings into question whether the Plus tier of ChatGPT is still worth paying for. I think it is, and I’ll give you a few reasons why:

1. Fewer limitations

Sure, Deep Research may be coming to the free tier of ChatGPT very soon, but I bet you it’s limited to just a small sample of uses a day.

If you’ve been following ChatGPT’s recent server meltdown caused by the release of its native image generation abilities you’ll be aware that ChatGPT has limited its image generation allowances to just three images on the free tier.

Being able to generate only three images a day is hopelessly restrictive, and while they may up the limit in the future, I would expect the release of Deep Research into the wild to elicit a similarly huge response from the public, causing yet another server meltdown and tough restrictions being imposed to the free tier.

Basically, everything is limited in the free tier, including things like how many files you can upload to ChatGPT a day. On the Plus account, you don’t need to worry about that. While there are still some limits, you rarely ever get close to them.

2. More LLMs

Having a Plus account also comes with a whole range of benefits, but the main one is access to more LLMs. On the Plus tier, you can (currently) access ChatGPT 4o, 4o-mini, 4, 4o with scheduled tasks, 4.5, o1, o3-mini and o3. That’s a lot of choice! On the free tier, you only have access to ChatGPT 4o-mini, with some very limited access to 4o and o3-mini.

You’ll find that these different LLMs are more useful when it comes to doing complex tasks that require more reasoning, not to mention that you get a chance to play around with the research preview of OpenAI’s very latest model, ChatGPT-4.5

3. Sora video generation

On a Plus account, you get limited access to Sora AI video generation. Sora is great, but to really use it properly and create clips that don’t have a watermark on you need a Pro account, (provided you are in the US) you can at least experiment with it in the Plus account, which is great fun.

4. You can talk to ChatGPT and have it talk back

Advanced Voice mode is one of the best ChatGPT features, and you need a Plus account to access it for more than 15 minutes a month. 15 minutes is really just a preview of the feature, and you'll find you run out of time before you've really had a chance to explore.

There are a range of different voices available for you to choose from, and it makes ChatGPT feel more personal and intimate.

You can access Advanced Voice mode from the ChatGPT website or its various apps, including mobile, and for many people, it’s their preferred way of using ChatGPT.

5. All the extras

Those are the main benefits to using ChatGPT Plus, but of course you get everything that you get in the free tier as well, including ChatGPT Canvas and ChatGPT search.

While ChatGPT search is available in both the free and Plus accounts, there are some other features that you only get with Plus like projects, which is a way to group files and chats together, tasks, which can be scheduled for another time, and the ability to create custom GPTs, so you can create exactly the sort of chatbot you want for a specific task.

All in all, there are more than enough good reasons to keep your ChatGPT Plus subscription, even if Deep Research becomes available on the free tier. I think you'd find that going back to the free tier from the joys of a Plus subscription would be a deeply frustrating experience.

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