AI Search and Deep Research Tools Compared: Perplexity vs ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Claude vs Grok vs Google in 2026
Update, July 2026: Grok 4.5 is now publicly available, released on July 8, 2026. See our Grok 4.5 breakdown, and our Grok 4.3 review for the previous generation. Claude figures below now reflect Claude Opus 5, which shipped on July 24, 2026. A single Perplexity Deep Research query now runs dozens of searches, reads hundreds of sources, and delivers a cited report in 2 to 4 minutes. On the heavier end, ChatGPT Deep Research can browse the web for up to 30 minutes and pull from hundreds of pages. In 2026, every major AI tool has shipped its own version of search, deep research, or both, and the gap between […]
