ChatGPT Deep Research vs Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) vs Perplexity Projects (formerly Spaces) vs Tencent ima (腾讯ima)
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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Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)
Source-grounded research notebooks with audio, video and slide summari...
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Perplexity Projects (formerly Spaces)
Perplexity's persistent research workspaces, renamed from Spaces in 20...
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Tencent ima (腾讯ima)
Tencent's knowledge-base AI for search, Q&A and writing
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| RECATOOLS Score | 7.8 / 10 | 8.3 / 10 | 7.2 / 10 | 6.1 / 10 |
| Capability | ||||
| Value for money | ||||
| Ease of use | ||||
| ASEAN readiness | ||||
| API quality | ||||
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium | Subscription | Freemium |
| 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 | Standard plan free with a Google account: 100 notebooks, 50 sources each, standard compute limits refreshing every five hours | Perplexity's free plan is search-only; Projects are a feature of paid plans and free access is not documented | Knowledge bases, AI search, document Q&A and writing are free; the copilot agent spends credits, some granted free in promotions |
| Paid from | Plus $20/mo; Pro 100/200/500 at $100, $200 or $500/mo | S$6.98/month via Google AI Plus (Singapore price), with Google AI Pro at S$28.99/month | From $20/month with Perplexity Pro ($17/month billed annually) | ¥5 for 75 copilot credits (China App Store in-app pack) |
| Has API | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Users | — | Reported in the millions of monthly active users in 2026 | — | — |
| Founded | 2025 | 2023 | 2024 | 2024 |
| Maker | — | Perplexity AI, Inc. | Tencent | |
| 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... |
Gemini Notebook remains one of the most useful free research tools: it answers from your own sources with citations, and its Audio and Video Overviews, slide decks, quizzes and flashcards make study material easier to ab... |
Projects make Perplexity far more useful for ongoing work, keeping files, instructions and connected data together, and the new limits — 5,000 files per Project on every paid plan — are generous. The rename from Spaces m... |
ima is Tencent's knowledge-base AI: collect PDFs, web pages, audio and WeChat Official Account articles, then search, question and write against them with Tencent's HY models or DeepSeek. Few rivals can read WeChat artic... |
| 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.