TOMORROW’S TECH

Search & Research

Answer engines and research assistants

14 tools · 4 changes / 30d

ChatGPT Deep Research

OpenAI

Multi-step research reports

Version: o-series era
Cost: from $20/mo
Model: GPT-5.2 Thinking

Consensus

Evidence-based answers from science

Version: 2025 platform
Cost: Free tier, Premium $9/mo
Model: GPT-5.2

Elicit

AI research assistant for papers

Version: 2025 platform
Cost: Free tier, Plus $12/mo
Model: Claude

Exa

1

Search API built for AI

Version: Exa 2.0
Cost: Free credits, then usage-based
Model: Exa embeddings

Google

1

Google's assistant and model family

Version: 3 Pro
Cost: Free tier, AI Pro $20/mo
Model: Gemini 3 Pro

Genspark

Agentic search that generates sparkpages and runs tasks.

Version: 2025
Cost: Free credits, $24.99/mo
Model: mixture of agents

Glean

Enterprise search and agents over every internal system.

Version: 2025
Cost: from $100/mo
Model: GPT-5 class

Kagi

Ad-free paid search with an optional assistant.

Version: 2025
Cost: from $5/mo
Model: Claude

MetasoChina

Ad-free AI search with citations, popular with Chinese researchers.

Version: 3.0
Cost: from $5/mo
Model: Undisclosed in-house model

Google

Grounded research notebook with audio and video overviews.

Version: 2025
Cost: Free, Pro via Google AI Plus
Model: Gemini 3

Perplexity

2

Answer engine with citations

Version: Comet era
Cost: Free tier, Pro $20/mo
Model: Sonar

SciSpace

Literature review and paper Q&A for researchers.

Version: 2025
Cost: Free tier, $12/mo
Model: GPT

Semantic Scholar

Allen Institute for AI

Open academic graph and API used across research tooling.

Version: 2025
Cost: Free, open API
Model: SPECTER embeddings

You.com

Agentic research API and assistant for enterprises.

Version: ARI
Cost: Free tier, $15/mo Pro
Model: frontier mix

Recent changes in Search & Research

Jul 22, 2026capability
Perplexity — Comet browser opened to all Pro subscribers
Cited answers, Deep research, SpacesCited answers, Deep research, Comet browser, Spaces, Shopping
source
Jul 17, 2026model
Perplexity — Claude Opus 4.5 and Gemini 3 Pro added to the model picker
Sonar, GPT-5Sonar, GPT-5.2, Claude Opus 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro
source
Jul 10, 2026version
Exa — Exa 2.0 released with a rebuilt neural index
1.52.0
source
Jul 5, 2026version
Gemini — Gemini 3 Pro rolled out across the consumer app
Gemini 2.5 ProGemini 3 Pro
source
Jun 30, 2026capability
Glean — Glean Agents opened to all enterprise customers
—Agent builder GA
source
Jun 22, 2026pricing
Gemini — Google AI Plus tier introduced at $8 per month
Free, AI Pro $20, AI Ultra $250Free, AI Plus $8, AI Pro $20, AI Ultra $250
source
Jun 16, 2026pricing
Elicit — Plus plan reduced from $16 to $12 per month
16.0012.00
source