Best AI Chat Assistants tools
General-purpose AI assistants for chat, reasoning, research, and everyday work — the flagship subscriptions from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others.
10 tools · 19 comparisons
AI Chat Assistants pricing overview
| Tool | Free plan | Starts at | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Yes | $20/mo (Plus) | Anyone who wants one subscription covering chat, images, voice, and files |
| Claude | Yes | $20/mo (Pro) | Writers and developers who value long context and careful output |
| Google Gemini | Yes | $19.99/mo (Google AI Pro) | People living in Gmail, Docs, and the Google ecosystem |
| DeepSeek | Yes | Free (web chat) | Developers and power users who want frontier AI at a fraction of Western pricing |
| Qwen (Alibaba) | Yes | Free (1M tokens/90 days) | Developers who want cheap, capable models with no peak/off-peak complexity |
| Perplexity | Yes | $20/mo (Pro) | Researchers and professionals who need cited, current answers |
| Kimi | Yes | Free (Adagio) | Users who want strong agents and long-context at a lower price than Western flagships |
| GLM (Zhipu AI) | Yes | Free (chat + Flash API) | Developers who want cheap coding AI with open-weight models |
| Microsoft Copilot | Yes | Free (chat) | Organizations already on Microsoft 365 who want AI grounded on their work data |
| Grok | Yes | $30/mo (SuperGrok) | Users who want real-time social data and fewer guardrails |
Best free options
Cheapest paid plans
- DeepSeekFree (web chat)
- Qwen (Alibaba)Free (1M tokens/90 days)
- KimiFree (Adagio)
- GLM (Zhipu AI)Free (chat + Flash API)
All AI Chat Assistants tools
ChatGPT
AI Chat Assistants
The most widely used AI assistant, with GPT-5-class models, voice, vision, and DALL-E image generation.
Claude
AI Chat Assistants
Anthropic's assistant, known for writing quality, long documents, and the Claude Code developer tool.
Google Gemini
AI Chat Assistants
Google's assistant with a 1M-token context window, Veo video, and deep Workspace integration.
DeepSeek
AI Chat Assistants
China's most popular AI assistant with frontier V4.1 models, free web chat, and peak/off-peak API pricing from $0.15/1M.
Qwen (Alibaba)
AI Chat Assistants
Alibaba's Qwen family — Flash from $0.15/1M, Max at $2/$6, and Token Plan from $8/mo.
Perplexity
AI Chat Assistants
An AI answer engine that searches the live web and cites its sources on every response.
Kimi
AI Chat Assistants
Moonshot AI's assistant — free chat, agent work from $19/mo, and K3 API at $3/$15 per 1M tokens.
GLM (Zhipu AI)
AI Chat Assistants
Zhipu AI's GLM family — free Flash models, GLM-5.2 at $1.40/$4.40, and Coding Plan from $18/mo.
Microsoft Copilot
AI Chat Assistants
Microsoft's AI family spanning free chat to $30/user/mo enterprise Copilot grounded on your organization's data.
Grok
AI Chat Assistants
xAI's assistant with real-time X (Twitter) data and an unfiltered conversational style.
AI Chat Assistants comparisons
Related reading
AI Chat Assistants FAQ
What is the best free ai chat assistants tool?
ChatGPT is a strong free option — Free tier with limited access to flagship models and daily caps. Other tools with free plans in this category include Claude, Google Gemini.
What is the cheapest ai chat assistants tool?
DeepSeek has the lowest entry price at Free (web chat).
How many ai chat assistants tools do you compare?
We currently track 10 ai chat assistants tools and 19 head-to-head comparisons in this category.