Research Faster with Claude's Multi-Source Research Mode: Combine Web Data and Your Own Documents in One Report

TipAugust 27, 2026 · Anthropic Help Center - Use research on Claude & Suprmind Features Documentation

Claude's Research Mode conducts autonomous multi-step investigations that combine real-time web search with your proprietary documents—reports, spreadsheets, PDFs—in a single comprehensive report with citations. This is ideal for competitive analysis, market research, or regulatory compliance work where you need current information grounded in your internal context.

Claude's Research Mode, available since April 2025 and expanded in February 2026, works fundamentally differently from simple web search. Instead of returning quick facts, Claude operates agentically—it conducts multiple sequential searches, reads sources deeply, identifies gaps in its findings, and determines what to investigate next. For professional research, this means you get thorough, cited reports instead of fragmented snippets. Here's a practical workflow: You're a product manager evaluating competitor pricing changes. Upload your internal product database and the latest Q2 financial reports to Claude, then trigger Research Mode with: "Research how Competitors X and Y have changed their pricing in the last 90 days. Compare their new pricing against the data in our uploaded files. What segments are they targeting? How does this affect our positioning?" Claude will search the web for recent press releases, earnings calls, and price lists, cross-reference that information against your internal spreadsheets, identify contradictions or gaps, and synthesize everything into a structured report—typically 5-30 minutes depending on complexity. Each claim includes inline citations showing which sources informed that finding. The 200K token context window (expanded to 1M for Opus 4.8 users) means Claude can process entire 300-page regulatory documents or complete codebases without losing detail. This is particularly valuable for legal teams reviewing contracts against regulatory changes, compliance analysts monitoring policy updates, or researchers integrating proprietary data with public information. Research Mode is available on Pro ($20/month), Max ($100/month), Team, and Enterprise plans, and works on web, desktop, and mobile. For those who need even deeper integration with enterprise systems, the MCP (Model Context Protocol) support added in February 2026 lets you connect proprietary databases directly, so Claude can research against your Salesforce, SQL servers, or internal wikis.