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provider specs
what you need to know before integrating — verified against each vendor’s own docs on 2026-08-26; every provider name links to the page it was checked against
| provider | pricing model | est. cost/query | latency | api pattern | citations | special capabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI o3 ↗ o3-deep-research | per-token | $10 / $40 per 1M tok (~$1-10/query) | 10-30+ min | Responses API, async background (poll / webhook) | yes (inline annotations: url, title, start/end index) | MCP serverscode interpreterweb search$10 / 1k web-search calls |
| OpenAI GPT-5.5 Pro ↗ gpt-5.5-pro | per-token | $30 / $180 per 1M tok (no cached rate) | several min (vendor) | Responses API, async background recommended | yes (inline annotations via web search tool) | web searchMCP serversfile searchcode interpreter+10% regional processing |
| OpenAI o4-mini ↗ o4-mini-deep-research deprecated · off the arena roster since 2026-07-23 — jobs fail model_not_found; OpenAI still lists it, no notice | per-token | $2 / $8 per 1M tok | 3-10 min | Responses API, async background | yes (inline annotations) | MCP serverscode interpreterfile searchweb search |
| Perplexity Sonar ↗ sonar-deep-research deprecated · Sonar endpoints retire 2026-09-27 → Agent API preset “high” | per-token + per-search | $2 / $8 per 1M tok + $5 / 1k searches (~$0.30-1.30/query) | 1-3 min | POST /v1/sonar (sync) or /v1/async/sonar (poll) | yes (citations[] URLs + search_results[] w/ snippets) | citation-focusedsearch groundingbilled per token + citation + reasoning + search |
| Gemini Deep Research ↗ deep-research-preview-04-2026 | per-token + per-search | ~$1-3/task (vendor est.) | minutes (60 min max) | Interactions API, async (background=true; poll / stream / webhook) | yes (cited report; schema not documented) | google searchurl contextcode executionMCPfile searchvisualizationmultimodal |
| Gemini Deep Research Max ↗ deep-research-max-preview-04-2026 | per-token + per-search | ~$3-7/task (vendor est.) | up to 60 min | Interactions API, async (background=true; poll / stream / webhook) | yes (cited report; schema not documented) | ~160 searches/taskgoogle searchurl contextcode executionMCPfile searchvisualization |
| Parallel Pro ↗ pro | per-request | $0.10/run | 2-10 min | Task API, async (poll / webhook / SSE) | yes (citations + excerpts + confidence, per element) | structured JSON outputauto-schema1 of 9 tiers (lite→ultra8x)failed runs not billed |
| Parallel Pro-Fast ↗ pro-fast | per-request | $0.10/run | 30s-5 min | Task API, async (poll / webhook / SSE) | yes (citations + excerpts + confidence, per element) | structured JSON outputauto-schemafaster variant (speed over freshness) |
| Parallel Ultra ↗ ultra | per-request | $0.30/run | 5-25 min | Task API, async (poll / webhook / SSE) | yes (citations + excerpts + confidence, per element) | structured JSON outputauto-schemadeep research modeultra2x/4x/8x at $0.60/$1.20/$2.40 |
| Parallel Ultra-Fast ↗ ultra-fast | per-request | $0.30/run | 1-10 min | Task API, async (poll / webhook / SSE) | yes (citations + excerpts + confidence, per element) | structured JSON outputauto-schemafaster variant (speed over freshness) |
| Valyu DeepResearch ↗ deepresearch (fast/standard/heavy/max) | per-request | $0.10 / $0.50 / $2.50 / $15 per task | 5 min - 3 hr (vendor pages disagree) | REST, async (poll / HMAC webhook) | yes (sources[]: title + url) | SEC/academic/clinical/patent sourcesstructured JSON outputpython sandbox $0.10/runscreenshots $0.05/URL |
| You.com Research ↗ research (lite→frontier) | per-request | $0.012 / $0.05 / $0.10 / $0.45 / $1.20 per call | < 10s - 5 min (frontier p50 5 min) | REST, sync (background=true → poll / SSE; frontier background-only) | yes (inline [[n]] + sources[] w/ snippets) | structured JSON output (not lite)source control (domains/freshness)finance research variant |
| Exa Agent ↗ agent (effort minimal→xhigh, auto/max) deprecated · legacy /research API (exa-research, exa-research-pro) retired by Exa — HTTP 410 RESEARCH_RETIRED; arena now runs Agent tiers | per-request | $0.012 - $1.00/run (auto/max metered, $0.10/ACU) | 2-15 min (measured); vendor: not stated | Agent API POST /agent/runs, async (poll 4s / SSE) | yes (output.grounding: field-level citations + confidence) | Exa's own indexstructured output w/ groundingreturns real per-run costDollarsdeep search $12-15/1k |
benchmarks
the RACE column is an independent academic benchmark (DeepResearch Bench, 2025 model versions). vendor scores are self-reported — note that DRACO is authored by Perplexity and Valyu's figures are its own re-run, so treat them as marketing, not neutral evals. every number links to its source. for a blind, community-run signal, see our arena leaderboard.
| provider | RACE (independent) | vendor self-reported | arena elo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini Deep Research | 48.9 ↗ | 59.0% DRACODRACO (Perplexity-authored) ↗ | view rankings → |
| OpenAI Deep Research | 47.0 ↗ | 52.1% DRACODRACO (Perplexity-authored) ↗ | view rankings → |
| Perplexity Deep Research | 42.3 ↗ | 70.5% DRACODRACO (Perplexity-authored) ↗ | view rankings → |
| Grok Deeper Search(not indexed) | 40.2 ↗ | — | view rankings → |
| Parallel Ultra (8x) | — | 82% DeepSearchQAParallel (self-reported) ↗ | view rankings → |
| Valyu DeepResearch (Heavy) | — | 72.7% DRACOValyu (self-reported re-run) ↗ | view rankings → |
| You.com Research | — | 52.9% DRACOValyu (re-run) ↗ | view rankings → |
| Exa Research | — | 25.9% DRACOValyu (re-run) ↗ | view rankings → |