6 tips to get the most out of Deep Research

Last week, we announced that Deep Research, our tool that explores complex topics for you and delivers its findings in a comprehensive, detailed report, is now available for anyone¹ to try. Deep Research was previously available for Gemini Advanced subscribers, so this change brings the tool’s helpfulness to significantly more people. Plus, Audio Overviews just launched for Deep Research, so you have the option to listen to an AI-generated, podcast-like discussion of your report (more on this feature below).

The idea for Deep Research came from a challenge given to Gemini Senior Product Manager Aarush Selvan. “Our lead gave us this example of finding the right summer camp for your kids,” he says. “There are so many steps that go into that. You need to look into prices, availability, schedules and so on. None of the information is in one place.” It’s the kind of task that requires opening dozens of browser tabs and piecing together all the important details into a doc. “The challenge was to use AI to cut down on the hours spent researching,” he says.

Aarush and software engineer Mukund Sridhar had an idea to build an AI system that researched all this for you and created a report of options. “After a few weeks of prototyping with his team, Mukund pulled me into a room and was like, ‘We did it,’” he says. Mukund asked the AI to find all the soccer and art summer camps for kids in the New York area and compare details about them. “And it delivered,” Mukund says. “It found details for more than 20 camps. So we thought, OK, we have something really cool here.”

That “something really cool” was Deep Research. Now that more people can try the tool, we asked Aarush to share some tips on how to get the most out of it.

1. Decide whether your task needs Deep Research

Aarush says Deep Research is particularly useful for something that requires lots of browsing and lots of tabs. “Think of it as helping you go from zero to understanding a subject deeply,” Mukund agrees. If your question requires a fast, immediate answer then you probably don’t need Deep Research. For example, if you want a quick synopsis of what “fintech” is, you can use Gemini’s default chat option. But if you’re a VC meeting a startup in the fintech sector and you want to catch up on the latest industry trends, Deep Research can help.

2. Start with quick, simple questions

Just because it’s called “Deep” Research doesn’t mean you need to labor over your initial prompt, Aarush says. “Don’t overthink it. You can always adjust your question, and before Deep Research even begins its work, it will show you its research plan and allow you to change it as needed.” All you have to do is select the “Edit plan” option to ask Deep Research to add something to the plan or go in a different direction — all using natural language instructions. You don’t need to be a prompt-writing master, Aarush says. “You can simply express your end goal — like ‘I want to find a great summer camp in New York for my 10-year-old — and Deep Research can take it from there.”

3. Ask follow-up questions

Once you have your report, an interesting detail or two might stick out to you — Aarush suggests asking follow-up questions. In the chat window, add your question and Deep Research will either provide an instant answer based on the research it’s already done or go back to the web to learn more. You can also use the space to ask Deep Research to add something new to the report after it’s been generated and it will adjust the report in real time. For example, you can ask something like “add camp cost details to my report” and Deep Research will add the information it finds.

4. Check out interesting links while Deep Research is working

While Gemini is busy researching and writing your report, you’ll see options for “Show thinking” and “Sites browsed.” If you select “Show thinking,” the model will give you a look at the steps it’s taking to generate your report. Both of these options will show websites Deep Research is using; “Sites browsed” will just display them all in a list without additional details on its process. Either way, while it’s working, you can review the sites coming up and if something catches your attention while you’re waiting for Deep Research to finish, you can click to open it in another tab. This is a great way to discover new sites you may not have otherwise found.

5. Try Deep Research for local questions

“Deep Research is really good at hyper-local searches and finding things in your immediate vicinity,” Aarush says. If you want to learn more about your community or use local businesses to plan a complex home project, definitely give Deep Research a go. Another good use case is asking Deep Research to help you plan an event, like a dinner or birthday party, and see how it dives into local sources for you.

6. Generate an Audio Overview or export your report to docs

Thanks to today’s update, you can generate an Audio Overview of your report. Audio Overviews were first introduced to NotebookLM as a way to listen to two AI hosts discuss and review information you uploaded. And now they’re available for Deep Research: Once your report is ready, you’ll see a toggle in the right-hand corner with a few different options, including one to generate an Audio Overview, which is a podcast-style discussion of your report. This means you can multitask while listening, even on-the-go, and it’s great if you absorb information better that way. Plus, you can listen on web or mobile, and easily share it or download it.

You also have the option to export your report to a doc, something Aarush likes to do. “If I really like the report, I want to edit it myself and share it with people for their edits and comments,” Mukund says. And when you export to docs, all of Deep Research’s citations are included in a works cited section. Plus, this means if you prefer to print something out to read it or mark it up, you can — which is good news if you still prefer to mark up a hard copy!