Deep Research Agent — Automated Web Research & AI Synthesis to Structured JSON

The Deep Research Agent is an AI research automation tool that searches the web, fetches and analyzes up to 30 sources, and synthesizes findings into a structured JSON report — fully automated, no coding required.

Whether you need competitive intelligence, SEO keyword research, content briefs, or a pay-per-use alternative to OpenAI Deep Research and Perplexity, this Actor delivers structured, actionable intelligence on any topic in minutes.

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What This AI Research Agent Does

1. Multi-query web search — Generates multiple search query variants and queries Brave Search to find the most relevant, up-to-date sources
2. Automated content extraction — Fetches and cleans full-text content from each source, removing ads, navigation, and noise
3. AI synthesis — Uses DeepSeek to read all sources simultaneously and synthesize key findings into a structured JSON report
4. GEO optimization — Generates a 130–170 word citation-ready answer optimized for AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google SGE)

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Output: Structured Research Report (JSON)

Every run produces a clean, machine-readable JSON object ready for downstream automation, content pipelines, or API integrations:

{
  "topic": "best AI coding assistants 2026",
  "keyword": "AI coding assistant",
  "type": "comparison",
  "summary": "A 2–3 sentence executive summary of the research findings...",
  "competitors": [
    { "url": "https://...", "key_points": ["point 1", "point 2"] }
  ],
  "stats": [
    { "fact": "GitHub Copilot has 1.8M paid subscribers", "source": "https://..." }
  ],
  "angles": [
    "Most tools lack offline mode — an underserved use case",
    "Enterprise security compliance is the top buyer concern"
  ],
  "keywords": ["AI coding assistant", "GitHub Copilot alternative", "code completion AI"],
  "outline": [
    "H2: What Is an AI Coding Assistant?",
    "H2: Top 7 AI Coding Assistants Compared",
    "H2: How to Choose the Right Tool for Your Team"
  ],
  "geo_angle": {
    "core_answer": "130–170 word self-contained answer optimized for AI search citation...",
    "key_stats": ["GitHub Copilot: 1.8M subscribers (2025)", "..."],
    "related_questions": ["What is the best free AI coding assistant?", "..."],
    "entity_signals": ["GitHub Copilot", "Cursor", "Tabnine", "Codeium"]
  },
  "sources_count": 15,
  "sources": [{ "url": "https://...", "title": "Article title" }],
  "research_date": "2026-04-14"
}

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Use Cases

Content Creation & SEO

Research any topic before writing a blog post, article, or video script. Get a full outline, key statistics, unique angles, and competitor content analysis in one run.

Competitive Intelligence Automation

Track what's being said about competitors, analyze their content strategy, and identify gaps — automatically, at scale.

Market Research Automation

Synthesize information from 15–30 sources on any market, product, or trend without spending hours manually browsing.

AI Search Optimization (GEO)

The geo_angle field outputs a structured, citation-ready answer designed to be referenced by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google SGE. Ideal for brands optimizing for AI-generated search results.

Developer & API Integration

The JSON output integrates directly into n8n, Zapier, Make, or any custom pipeline. Use it as a research layer in your AI applications.

OpenAI Deep Research Alternative

Unlike OpenAI Deep Research (requires ChatGPT Plus subscription) or Perplexity (subscription-based), this Actor uses pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for what you actually run.

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Input Parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
query	string	✅ Yes	Research question, topic, or keyword to investigate
depth	string	No	shallow (5 sources ~$0.80), medium (15 sources ~$1.30), deep (30 sources ~$2.05). Default: medium
language	string	No	en (English) or ko (Korean). Default: en
focusAreas	array	No	Specific subtopics or angles to emphasize (e.g., ["pricing", "enterprise features"])
includeGeoAngle	boolean	No	Include AI search optimization section. Default: true

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Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event (PPE) pricing — no monthly subscription, no wasted spend:

Event	Price	When
Actor start	$0.05	Once per run, on initialization
Source fetched	$0.05	Per web source analyzed
Report delivered	$0.50	Once, when final report is generated

Estimated total cost per run:

Depth	Sources	Estimated Cost
Shallow	5	~$0.80
Medium	15	~$1.30
Deep	30	~$2.05

Compare to OpenAI Deep Research (requires $20/month ChatGPT Plus) or Perplexity Pro ($20/month). With PPE pricing, you only pay when you run — ideal for occasional or high-volume automated research.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What makes this different from OpenAI Deep Research or Perplexity? This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing (no subscription), delivers structured JSON output for programmatic use, and runs as a fully automated API — not a chat interface. It's designed for developers and automation workflows, not manual browsing.

Can I use this for automated competitive intelligence? Yes. Run it on any competitor's product name, feature set, or market category to get a synthesized report with key points, statistics, and angles extracted from across the web.

Does it support languages other than English? Yes. Set language: "ko" to receive the full report in Korean. Additional language support planned.

How many sources does it analyze?

• Shallow: up to 5 sources
• Medium: up to 15 sources (recommended)
• Deep: up to 30 sources

What is the geo_angle field? It's a structured section containing a 130–170 word answer written specifically to be cited by AI search engines (ChatGPT with web search, Perplexity, Claude, Google SGE). This helps brands and content marketers appear in AI-generated search answers.

Can I integrate this into my automation pipeline? Yes. The JSON output works natively with n8n, Zapier, Make, and any REST API consumer. Use the Apify API to trigger runs and retrieve results programmatically.

What data does the report contain? Topic, primary keyword, content type classification, executive summary, source analysis with key points, notable statistics with sources, unique content angles, SEO keywords, article outline, AI search optimization section, and full list of analyzed sources.

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Technical Details

• Search: Brave Search API (privacy-focused, no Google bias)
• AI Model: DeepSeek via Ollama Cloud
• Runtime: Python 3.12 on Apify platform
• Typical run time: 1–4 minutes depending on depth
• Output: Apify dataset (JSON) + key-value store

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Related Actors

Looking for more research and intelligence tools? Check out other Actors by the same developer.

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Built for the AI search era. Research smarter, publish faster.