How to leverage Perplexity’s Research mode for deep insights?

Perplexity’s Research mode (formerly called Deep Research) is like having a personal research assistant that works at lightning speed. When you have a complex question or a topic that needs thorough analysis, switching to Research mode prompts Perplexity to perform dozens of searches and read hundreds of web pages on your behalf. It then “thinks” through the findings and synthesizes everything into a coherent report, complete with citations. In other words, instead of just giving a quick answer, Perplexity Research will deliver a deeper write-up – often a few pages long – summarizing key points, facts, and even differing perspectives it found, much like an analyst might do for a briefing. Impressively, it manages to do this in about 2–4 minutes for most queries, which could save you many hours of manual research.

You should leverage Research mode whenever your question goes beyond a simple fact lookup. Great examples include: getting a market overview or trend report in an industry, comparing products or technologies in-depth, gathering background on a complex issue (say, an environmental policy debate or a medical breakthrough), or any time you need a well-structured explanation rather than a one-liner. Research mode excels at expert-level tasks across domains like finance, marketing, tech, health, or even travel planning – effectively acting as a domain expert that can draft a report for you. For instance, users have used it to produce detailed market research complete with stats and references, or to summarize the state of current AI research with citations to papers. It’s also handy as a teaching tool: if you ask a complex question (e.g., “Explain quantum computing and its applications”), the Research mode will provide a structured, multi-section answer that you can study.

To get the most out of it, be specific about what you want in your prompt. You can ask a broad question and let Perplexity decide the outline, or you can request particular aspects to be covered (e.g., “include recent statistics” or “compare 3 different theories”). After the Research completes, don’t forget you can ask follow-up questions in the same thread if you need clarification or more details on a sub-point – Perplexity will remember the context. Another pro tip: you can export the research report as a PDF or copy it to a document for easier reading and sharing. This is useful if you need to present the findings or save them for later. Also, if you have an account, you can save the whole research thread in your library.

One thing to note is that Research mode is available for everyone for free, but with limits for free users. Currently, non-subscribers can run a limited number of deep research queries per day (e.g., five free research questions daily), while Pro subscribers get unlimited usage. So if you have many heavy questions, upgrading might be worthwhile. Regardless, it’s amazing that this level of analysis is available to anyone – it’s like having a junior researcher on call. Just remember that while Perplexity does a great job, it’s always wise to skim the provided sources (thanks to the citations), especially if you’re using the info for important work. This way, you both verify the information and possibly discover even more details.

The next time you face a big, hairy question that would normally take you an afternoon of Googling, switch over to Perplexity’s Research mode. Let it crunch through the web and deliver you a report – you’ll get a rich, sourced answer in minutes. It’s one of the fastest ways to go from question to deep insight. Give it a try and prepare to be amazed at how much it digs up for you.