I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature, and I’ve produced all kinds of strange (though comprehensive) reports. There’s always been a notable gap in its functionality, though, until now. OpenAI has augmented the Deep Research feature with the ability to export your reports as fully formatted PDFs. No more ChatGPT links or screenshots necessary to share what I’ve learned about the Lake George monster.
It’s a small interface upgrade, but one that feels like it should have been built into Deep Research from the beginning. Here’s how it works. You make your Deep Research report or pull up one from a while ago, then click on the share icon at the top of the page. You’ll see that the usual ‘share link’ button now has a companion ‘download as PDF’ button. One click and your report will be a fully formed, citation-rich PDF in your downloads folder.
This export option isn’t universally available at the moment. You’ll need a subscription to ChatGPT Plus, Team, or Pro. Enterprise and Education users don’t have it yet, but OpenAI said it’s coming soon. That’s good, as students and professionals are among those I would bet would use Deep Research the most.
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Deep PDF
You can now export your deep research reports as well-formatted PDFs—complete with tables, images, linked citations, and sources.Just click the share icon and select ‘Download as PDF.’ It works for both new and past reports. pic.twitter.com/kecIR4tEneMay 12, 2025
With downloadable PDFs, you can finally do all the things you’d expect to do with your research. That might mean putting it with other research projects, sharing it with teammates, or just attaching it to an email as part of a bet you’re going to win.
So yes, this is just a PDF button. But it’s a PDF button that fixes what used to be one of ChatGPT’s more frustrating aspects. Now, with downloadable PDFs, you can finally do all the things you’d expect to do with your research: archive it, share it with teammates, attach it to an email, or even – this is my new favorite – upload it to another AI.
Yes, really. With the PDF in hand, I popped it into Gemini’s NotebookLM, Google’s own experimental research assistant. Suddenly, the AI was summarizing my Deep Research report, making flashcards, and suggesting related reading. Then I tried uploading the same PDF into a podcast tool and got an AI-generated episode script out of it. Which means, in a roundabout way, ChatGPT just became a content pipeline. One that exports research and lets other tools remix it into whatever format you need.
And that’s a huge deal.
Because the more AI tools we use, the more we’re going to need bridges between them. OpenAI doesn’t need to be the everything app, but it does need to be interoperable. Giving users a PDF option is low-hanging fruit, sure, but it’s also the kind of fruit that lets you bake an entirely new pie. It makes Deep Research portable. It gives it legs. It means I don’t have to keep 14 tabs open just to reference a well-organized write-up on the history of Japanese vending machines.
Of course, OpenAI’s implementation still has quirks. It’s a little confusing that the “Download as PDF” option isn’t in the main chat share menu. Most people will assume it’s not there unless they know where to click. And for a company whose whole pitch is about reducing friction and increasing clarity, burying this behind a second share icon feels oddly off-brand. Still, I’ll take “slightly hidden but fully functional” over “completely missing” any day.
More importantly, this change signals something else: OpenAI is listening. Maybe not always quickly. Maybe not always intuitively. But enough people have clearly asked for this (or screamed about it on Reddit) that it finally happened. And in a product landscape where most updates feel like AI models arguing over who’s better at summarizing Aristotle, it’s refreshing to get a feature that solves a real-world problem.
