Don't want to pay for ChatGPT Deep Research? Try this free open-source alternative

Since DeepSeek challenged OpenAI two weeks ago, the open- vs. closed-source AI competition has shown no signs of stopping.

Also: Why Mark Zuckerberg wants to redefine open source so badly

Just two days after OpenAI announced Deep Research, a new AI agent within ChatGPT that can sift through online sources for you, its open-source counterpart has already emerged.

Hugging Face's Deep Research

On Tuesday, Hugging Face released its equivalent to the new feature. Blatantly dubbed open Deep Research, the alternative uses OpenAI's o1 model and an agentic framework to navigate the web. The open alternative achieved 55% accuracy on the General AI Assistants benchmark (GAIA), a top assessment test for agents, compared to Deep Research's 67%, and ranks in first place for open submissions.

However, Hugging Face acknowledged the agent is not yet a full competitor to OpenAI's. "Deep Research is a massive ...