What is deep search, and how does it differ from deep research?

Deep search is an AI retrieval approach that expands a question into multiple queries, reviews and compares sources iteratively, and produces cited answers or structured results, trading speed and cost for broader coverage and stronger evidence than standard search. The article distinguishes it from deep research, which generally involves a more autonomous, multi-minute investigation that plans and writes a longer report, while noting that the terms overlap and are used inconsistently across products. Deep search is presented as useful for tasks such as competitor analysis, due diligence, literature reviews, and codebase questions, where information must be assembled from several sources. It also categorizes related tools by their focus on web research, documents and code, public-person information, or configurable developer APIs. Exa describes its Deep Search offering as a Search API mode with adjustable depth, speed, freshness, extra query directions, citations, and structured outputs, with response times ranging from seconds to under a minute depending on the mode.

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