Best AI chat assistants in 2026
AI chat assistants answer questions, draft and edit text, summarize files and, more and more, search the web and talk back in voice mode. This page compares the general-purpose assistants US buyers most often weigh up, starting with ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.
All three have a free plan, apps for iOS and Android, file uploads, web search and memory across chats, so the differences are in the details. Paid plans start at $4.99 a month for Google AI Plus, $8 for ChatGPT Go and $20 for Claude Pro ($17 a month billed yearly), and each vendor sells heavy-use tiers from about $100 a month. ChatGPT and Gemini generate images; Claude does not. Team plans, API access and the way you opt out of model training differ too.
Below you will find the ranked list, a feature matrix and head-to-head comparisons. Prices come from each vendor's own pricing pages, and each tool page shows when its prices were last checked.
Our ranking
OpenAI's all-round AI assistant for chat, search, images and voice, with plans from free to $500 a month.
Compare: vs Claude · vs Gemini · vs Perplexity · vs Microsoft Copilot · vs Grok
Anthropic's AI assistant for writing, analysis and coding, with Claude Code included on paid plans.
Compare: vs ChatGPT · vs Gemini · vs Perplexity · vs Microsoft Copilot · vs Grok
Google's AI assistant with Google Search built in, and Google AI plans from $4.99 a month.
Compare: vs ChatGPT · vs Claude · vs Grok
An AI answer engine that searches the web and cites its sources, with personal plans from free to $200 a month.
Compare: vs ChatGPT · vs Claude
Microsoft's AI assistant for work and life: free with a Microsoft account, built into Microsoft 365 apps on paid plans.
Compare: vs ChatGPT · vs Claude
xAI's assistant, now from SpaceXSI, with live web and X search, images, video and voice, from free to $200 a month.
Compare: vs ChatGPT · vs Claude · vs Gemini
Free AI chat assistant from China's DeepSeek, with web search, file uploads, a 1M-token context and a pay-per-token API.
Meta's AI assistant in WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and its own app, free for everyday use, with AI plans from $7.99.
AI assistant that keeps chats on your device, with open-source and frontier models and plans from free to $200 a month.
DuckDuckGo's private AI chat with OpenAI, Anthropic and other models: free with no account, or from $9.99 a month.
Top 5 compared
| Feature | ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini | Perplexity | Microsoft Copilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes · Unlimited text chats; limited uploads, images and voice | Yes · Sonnet and Haiku; web search, memory, 5 projects | Yes · Flash-Lite model, 32k-token context | Yes · Practically unlimited basic searches, 3 Pro Searches a day, limited uploads | Yes · Free with a Microsoft account; usage limits; may show ads |
| File upload | Yes · Limited on Free; more on paid plans | Yes · Up to 20 files per chat, 500 MB each | Yes · Up to 10 files per prompt, 100 MB each | Yes · Up to 40 MB per chat file (50 MB on Enterprise) and 100 MB per Project file; rolling weekly chat upload allowance on Free, Pro and Max | Yes · Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and image files; Microsoft says upload limits apply but gives no figures |
| Web search | Yes · All plans, even signed out | Yes · All plans | Yes · Google Search, even with Keep Activity off | Yes · Real-time web search with inline citations; limited on Free | Yes · Searches the web for current answers; can be turned off in settings |
| Image generation | Yes · Limited on Free | No · Diagrams and charts only (HTML/SVG) | Yes · Generation and editing, incl. Free | Yes · Pro, Max and Enterprise; Free, Pro and Max images are non-commercial only | Yes · Limited on Free; more on Microsoft 365 plans |
| Voice mode | Yes · Limited on Free | Yes · All plans | Yes · Gemini Live, incl. Free | Yes · Voice conversations in the iOS app; voice assistant on Android | Yes · Copilot Voice on Microsoft 365 plans and licensed work accounts; Microsoft says voice needs an eligible subscription |
| Memory/projects | Yes · Memory and projects on all plans; memory limited on Free | Yes · Memory on all plans; Free up to 5 projects | Yes · Memory across chats; notebooks for projects (rolling out) | Yes · Memory across chats; unlimited Projects, up to 5 contributors each (9,999 if the owner is in an organization or is a verified student or educator) | Yes · Saved memories; Notebooks on Microsoft 365 plans and work accounts |
| API access | Add-on · OpenAI API, billed separately | Add-on · Claude API, pay as you go; Max and Team include credits | Yes · Gemini API: free tier, then prepaid or pay as you go | Add-on · Perplexity API, pay as you go; no subscription needed | Partial · No Copilot Chat API; Microsoft 365 Copilot APIs need a Copilot license (Chat API in preview) |
| Mobile apps | Yes · iOS and Android | Yes · iOS and Android | Yes · Android and iOS | Yes · iOS and Android | Yes · Microsoft Copilot app for iOS and Android |
| Team plan | Yes · Business from $25/user/mo ($20 billed yearly), 2+ seats | Yes · Team from $20/seat/mo billed yearly ($25 monthly), 2-150 seats | Yes · Gemini Enterprise Business from $21/seat/mo, up to 300 seats | Yes · Enterprise Pro $40/seat/mo or $400/seat/yr; Enterprise Max $325/seat/mo or $3,250/seat/yr | Yes · Copilot Business $21/user/mo billed yearly, up to 300 users; needs a Microsoft 365 Business plan |
| Training opt-out | Yes · All individual plans; Business not used for training by default | Yes · Opt-out on individual plans; no training on Team content by default | Yes · Turn off Keep Activity; chats then kept 72 hours only | Yes · Toggle on Free, Pro and Max (on by default); Enterprise data never used | Yes · Chats and files in the updated Copilot app not used to train foundation models; same for work accounts |