ChatGPT Deep Research vs FutureHouse vs STORM (Stanford) vs You.com Research
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
ChatGPT Deep Research
OpenAI's cited, multi-step research agent inside ChatGPT
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FutureHouse
Eric-Schmidt-backed nonprofit building AI agents to automate scientifi...
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You.com Research
You.com's Research API — cited multi-step web research, billed per cal...
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| RECATOOLS Score | 7.8 / 10 | 7.5 / 10 | 7.2 / 10 | 6.8 / 10 |
| Capability | — | |||
| Value for money | — | |||
| Ease of use | — | |||
| ASEAN readiness | — | |||
| API quality | — | |||
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium | Open Source | Usage_based |
| Free tier | Free and Go plans include limited deep research; OpenAI publishes no task counts — an in-product counter shows tasks left and resets every 30 days | Free public web platform and agents (Crow, Falcon, Owl, Robin) plus a free API tier for researchers. | Free and open source (MIT); hosted research preview is free with sign-in | $100 in free API credit to start; consumer chat closed to new users |
| Paid from | Plus $20/mo; Pro 100/200/500 at $100, $200 or $500/mo | Not published — the founding Kosmos subscription was withdrawn in May 2026 | — | Research API from $12 per 1,000 calls (Lite) |
| Has API | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Users | — | — | — | — |
| Founded | 2025 | 2023 | 2024 | 2024 |
| Maker | — | Sam Rodriques, Andrew White | Stanford University (Stanford OVAL) | — |
| Verdict | Deep research is the most consequential agent mode in ChatGPT: give it an open-ended question and it plans, browses and reads for 5 to 30 minutes before handing back a structured, cited report — work that would take an a... |
What this is for: Automating literature review, hypothesis generation and multi-step scientific reasoning with citation-grounded AI agents. Who this is for: Academic researchers and scientists in biology, chemistry and... |
STORM is a clear example of structure-first long-form generation: it surveys perspectives, simulates source-grounded interviews and outlines before drafting, which in Stanford's evaluation produced better-organised and b... |
You.com has stopped selling research to individuals: its free plan ended in April 2026, and from 4 August chat closed to new subscribers, leaving the Research API as the product. That API is reasonable infrastructure for... |
| Full review → | Full review → | Full review → | Full review → |
Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.