Claude's deep research feature can hand you a sourced report on almost any topic. Checking it is still your job.
The feature is officially just called "Research", and it's on every paid plan. Turn it on, ask one question, and Claude runs search after search, then writes you a report with its sources.
But a report isn't the same as facts you can trust. This week my research setup checked 356 claims for my videos and this blog, and the second check caught real mistakes. Here's how Claude Research works, and the fact-checking method I add on top.
What Claude Research Is (in Plain Words)
Normal web search in Claude looks something up once or twice. Research goes further. Anthropic's help page says Claude "runs multiple searches that build on each other and decides what to look into next based on what it finds."
Anthropic's guide on choosing between features says Research is best for questions that need five or more lookups over one to three minutes, like comparing a client's competitors, and that it pulls the results into a longer report with citations.
How to Use Claude Deep Research
Who gets it: Research is available on paid plans only (Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise), on the web, the desktop app and the phone app.
How to turn it on: web search has to be on first. Then click the "+" button at the bottom left of the chat and choose "Research". A blue marker shows it's on.
What it can read: the web, plus any connectors you've switched on for that chat. A connector is a link between Claude and another app, like Gmail, Google Calendar or Google Docs. On the phone app, Research only searches the web and quietly skips your connectors, so start important research on a computer.
The catch: it uses up your plan's limits faster than a normal chat, because it reads so many sources.
How I Research a Topic (My Real Method)
Here's where I'm honest about my own setup. This week I didn't use the Research button. I used Claude Code, the version of Claude that can run tools on my computer, and I built the research and checking into separate steps. But the method works with the Research button too.
Step 1: Several helpers, different angles. Claude sent out research helpers at the same time, each with one job: the company's own pages, posts on X, other YouTube videos.
Step 2: Separate checkers. A different set of checkers opened every source again, without trusting the first set's notes.
Step 3: A ledger. Every claim went into one list with a verdict: ✅ verified, 🟡 partly right (with the corrected wording), ❓ couldn't confirm, ❌ wrong.
Step 4: Only checked facts move on. Nothing reaches a script or a post unless it's ✅, or 🟡 with the corrected wording.
The numbers from this week: 194 claims for my MiniMax video, 101 for my Kimi video, and 61 for this blog's plan.
What the Fact-Check Actually Caught
Three examples, so you can see why the second step matters.
The first research pass wrote that freelancers' earnings from AI skills grew 109%. Upwork's own release says something different: skills that mention AI grew 109% in demand, not earnings.
A careers site said the US government expects admin assistant jobs to drop 10%. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projection for 2024 to 2034 was actually 0%, "little or no change". Its newer projection, for 2025 to 2035, is a 2% decline.
And the first pass decided that Space Bunny, a mystery AI model later revealed as MiniMax M3.1 Flash, was "not #1" on OpenRouter, a site that ranks AI models by use. Half right. It was #2 over the month, but #1 on the daily chart for 10 straight days.
Two of those came from a first pass reading a real source too quickly. One came from a website misquoting a government page. Every one of them looked believable, and that's exactly what a client report can't afford.
Do This With the Research Button
You don't need my setup to copy the method. Run Research on your question. Then open a new chat and paste in the report with this prompt:
"For each factual claim in this report, open the source and quote its exact wording. Mark each claim ✅ verified, 🟡 partly right (give the corrected wording), ❓ couldn't confirm, or ❌ wrong."
Then only use the ✅ claims, and the 🟡 ones in their corrected form.
What This Means for VAs
Research is one of the most common things clients hand to a VA: a competitor list, a supplier check, a "find out what's new in our industry". Claude Research does the searching for you.
What it can't do alone is take responsibility for the answer. A ledger with ticks and crosses is something you can show a client. It says "I checked this", and that's worth more than any fast summary.
Try it on your next research task.
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