What is Deep Search in Google AI Mode?
On 20 May 2025, Google described Deep Search as an AI Mode research feature that expands a question into searches and produces a cited report. Our September Index recorded 420 Mode-labelled targets on 22 September 2026, kept as our ordinary AI Mode cohort rather than a separately labelled Deep Search test.
What we measured
Measured. The September Index method and source cover fourteen software categories, ten buyer questions per category and three repeats per engine. For Google AI Mode, the published question-engine records contain 140 cells, each with a base of three, giving 420 targets. The unit is a recorded target response, including the text returned at collection, rather than a search performed inside Google's system.
Reported. Google's 20 May 2025 announcement describes Deep Search as an expansion of query fan-out: it searches across information, reasons over those sources and produces a report with citations. The named output is a research report, beyond a quick answer or an ordinary follow-up exchange.
The 16 July 2025 follow-up described the initial US rollout for Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers using the AI Mode experiment in Labs. Both articles were read on 29 October 2026. Their dated rollout account should not be substituted for the conditions currently shown for a reader's account.
What this means for you
Reasoned. Name the selected feature. In your visibility report, retain AI Mode as the recorded surface and add Deep Search only when the capture actually identifies that research option. The original Index records cannot acquire a Deep Search label just because Google's announcement places the feature inside AI Mode. That would change the meaning of the comparison while leaving its number unchanged.
Keep the report separate from the searches behind it. Google's description concerns the internal research process and the final cited document. Our 420 targets count returned observations. Adding the searches that support a report to that answer base would mix two units, even if both appear in the same product explanation.
Also asked as
google ai mode deep search?
Related
- Google’s Deep Search definition
- The dated rollout announcement
- September Index records
- The Manual on valid measurement
- What AI Mode is
Next step
For a separate check of public buyer answers, use the Free 10-question check (one engine). No email is needed; runs are limited per network and per day, and by the site's daily allowance.
If one public answer misstates a documented company fact, Fix one answer, $490. Keep the requested correction tied to that fact and its source.
Every figure comes from the published method, v1.1.
Prepared by the Broadcastwell team.
Page owner: Vikram Patel, AI Architect. Corrections: hello@broadcastwell.com