Perplexity Deep Research and Labs are transforming AI-powered research into a new league of productivity – automated reports that are created in minutes and process hundreds of sources.
In February 2025, Perplexity AI introduced Deep Research, a tool that fundamentally changes the way information is gathered. The system performs dozens of search queries, reads hundreds of sources and autonomously generates comprehensive reports – a process that is modeled on human expert workflows. The free feature is available to all users, while Pro subscribers get unlimited access.
Deep Research works with a multi-level approach that mimics human thought processes. The system dynamically adapts its research strategy to new information using Perplexity’s proprietary online LLMs such as pplx-7b-online and pplx-70b-online. These models integrate real-time web data into their responses and use curated text snippets from high-quality, non-SEO-optimized websites to ensure factual accuracy.
The speed of the system is impressive: Deep Research delivers results in 2-4 minutes for most queries, while human researchers would take hours for comparable reports. This efficiency results from parallel processing – the system simultaneously performs searches, extracts relevant data and structures insights.
From Deep Research to Perplexity Labs
The success of Deep Research paved the way for Perplexity Labs, which was launched for Pro subscribers in May 2025. Labs significantly extends the functionality of Deep Research: users can not only generate reports, but also create tables, dashboards and basic web applications. For example, a marketing team could enter a product launch brief and receive a Gantt chart, budget spreadsheet and customer segmentation analysis.
Labs’ technical advances include multi-tool integration with deep web browsing, code execution (Python, SQL) and visualization libraries such as D3.js and Matplotlib. The system organizes automatically generated files in a dedicated tab and is available cross-platform on web, iOS and Android.
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Strategic positioning in the AI market
Perplexity’s tools occupy a unique niche between search engines and full-fledged development platforms. While ChatGPT excels at creative writing and Gemini focuses on enterprise integrations, Deep Research and Labs prioritize executable research – turning queries into polished results rather than mere text responses. Deep Research remains free for basic use, while Pro subscriptions ($20/month) unlock unlimited queries and early access to features like Labs.
- Summary
- Launched in February 2025,Deep Research automatically generates comprehensive reports through dozens of search queries in 2-4 minutes
- Perplexity Labs expanded functionality in May 2025 to include tables, dashboards and web applications for Pro subscribers
- The system utilizes proprietary online LLMs with real-time web data for factual accuracy and low hallucination rates Free
- Basic version of Deep Research available, Pro subscriptions cost 20 dollars per month
- Cross-platform availability on web, iOS, Android with planned macOS/Windows support
- Competes directly with ChatGPT and other AI tools by focusing on executable research results instead of pure text generation
Source: Perplexity
