# GPT Researcher review (2026): is it any good? > Open source research agent that writes cited reports Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. GPT Researcher is an MIT-licensed Python agent that plans a research question, reads web sources and your own documents in parallel, and writes a report with citations. You host it yourself and pay only the language model and search providers you connect. - **Category:** AI Agents - **Made by:** GPT Researcher (since 2023) - **Website:** https://gptr.dev - **Runs on:** Linux, macOS, Windows - **Who should skip it:** Not for you if you want a hosted service, since there is none. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, GPT Researcher is free to use. - **Pricing model:** Free - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Open Source | $0 | MIT-licensed Python package and MCP server that you host yourself; you pay your own LLM and search API providers. | Read from https://gptr.dev/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with GPT Researcher before buying. ## Key features - **Planner and parallel researchers:** A planner splits a question into sub-questions and runs a researcher on each at the same time before a writer drafts the report. - **Many retrievers and your own files:** The site lists 20+ retrievers, including Tavily, Google, Bing, Exa, arXiv and PubMed, which can be combined with MCP servers or local documents. - **Cited reports:** Each claim in the report is tied to a numbered source. Reports can be output as markdown, PDF, docx or plain text. - **Deep research mode:** Findings seed new questions, so a run explores a tree of subtopics instead of a single pass. Depth is configurable. - **MCP server and API:** The official gptr-mcp server exposes research tools to Claude, Cursor, n8n and other MCP clients, and a FastAPI server can be run from the repository. ## Good for - Developers adding cited research reports to their own apps - Teams that want to keep research on their own infrastructure - Researchers who want to choose their own model and search engine ## Worth knowing - There is no hosted service; you run it yourself with Python 3.11 or newer, or Docker. - You pay your LLM and search providers directly; the site gives a few cents to a few dollars per deep run as a ballpark. - Managed deployments, private-corpus retrievers and SLAs are handled by contacting the maintainers, with no listed price. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.0 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. GPT Researcher is an open-source agent that plans, searches in parallel and writes cited reports. There is no hosted service, so you run it with Python or Docker and pay your own model and search bills. A deep run is a few cents to a few dollars. - **Value for money: C.** The software costs nothing, but there is no hosted service, so you host it yourself and pay LLM and search providers, a few cents to a few dollars per deep run. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Free and MIT licensed, with free retrievers like DuckDuckGo and SearXNG. The model calls are not free. - **Features: C.** Planner, parallel researchers, many retrievers, your own files, deep research mode, MCP server and API. Managed deployments and SLAs are by contact only. - **Ease of use: D.** No store rating on record. Python 3.11 or newer or Docker, keys and a command line are needed. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Runs on Linux, Mac and Windows as a program, with an API and MCP server. No web service or phone app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from GPT Researcher's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among AI agents - GPT Researcher's GPA of 2.0 is higher than 64 of the 178 other AI agents we grade, and level with 16. - It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 144 of 178) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - GPT Researcher has no paid plan. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 1.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-agents ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** GPT Researcher is free, so making your own would save you nothing. And it is not the kind of software a weekend replaces. - You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. - You could not: A library of papers and sources to search. - You could not: Citation records for millions of papers. - You could not: Apps for macOS, Windows and Linux that stay in step with each other. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Tavily, Google and Bing among them, and has an API. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Tavily, Google, Bing, Exa, arXiv, PubMed, DuckDuckGo, SearXNG **Tags:** AI agents, Research, Citations, Open source, Self-hostable, Public API ## Alternatives - [Dust](https://toolgpa.com/tools/dust): Platform for building AI agents on your company's knowledge. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/dust-vs-gpt-researcher) - [Browser Use](https://toolgpa.com/tools/browser-use): Browser agents and cloud browsers for AI apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/browser-use-vs-gpt-researcher) - [OpenHands](https://toolgpa.com/tools/openhands): Open-source platform for AI coding agents and automations. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gpt-researcher-vs-openhands) - [Manus](https://toolgpa.com/tools/manus): General AI agent for research, slides, websites and browser tasks. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gpt-researcher-vs-manus) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://gptr.dev/pricing - https://gptr.dev Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/gpt-researcher Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).