When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, I quickly hopped on the bandwagon and started using the tool as one of its early users. Today, I am writing a blog on the best ChatGPT alternatives.
I’m still one of the tool’s 180.5 million users. But if you ask me now if it’s the ONLY AI chatbot you’ll ever need, it will be a glaring NO from me.
From incorrect responses and lack of real-time information to a noticeable lack of depth—ChatGPT has limitations that made me look for better alternatives. So, I tested several AI tools over the past few months.
In this blog, I will share my experience with 11 of them. Read on to learn how these tools are better than ChatGPT and how you can use them for work, study, leisure, and beyond!
Top 11 ChatGPT Alternatives In 2024 (Key Takeaways)
The number of generative AI tools available online is increasing every day. But here are eleven of them that I found the best alternatives to ChatGPT:
| ChatGPT alternative | Language Model(s) | Free Version | Paid Subscription from | Gemini Nano and Pro (Free); Gemini Ultra 1.0 (Paid) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini | Gemini Nano and Pro (Free);Gemini Ultra 1.0 (Paid) | ✅ | $19.99/month | 4.3 |
| Claude AI | Claude 2.1 | ✅ | $20/month | 4.7 |
| Perplexity AI | GPT 3.5 (Free); GPT-4; Claude 2.1; Perplexity | ✅ | $20/month | 4.6 |
| WriteSonic | GPT-3.5 (Free) & GPT-4 | ✅ | $13/month | 4.7 |
| Jasper AI | GPT-4, Claude 2, and others. | 7-day free trial | $39/month | 4.7 |
| Microsoft Copilot | GPT-4 | ✅ | Free | Unavailable |
| Copy.ai | GPT-4, Claude, & Azure AI | ✅ | $36/month | 4.7 |
| Open AI Playground | GPT-3.5 (Free) & GPT-4 | ✅ | Pay as you go | Unavailable |
| YouChat | GPT-3.5 (Free) & GPT-4 | ✅ | $15/month | 4.4 |
| GitHub Copilot | GPT-4 | 30-day free trial | $10/month | 4.5 |
| Character AI | Multiple models | ✅ | $9.99/month | Unavailable |
*Ratings sourced from G2
I tested these tools for different use cases, such as creating content and organizing tasks. Most of them are efficient at providing results at par with—and often even better than those from—ChatGPT.
Some of them sound more human-like. Others seem noticeably better at understanding complex instructions and executing them efficiently.
Let me tell you about each tool in detail one by one.
1. Gemini (Formerly, Google Bard)
| Language Model | Gemini Nano and Pro (Free);Gemini Ultra 1.0 (Paid) |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 5 |
| Mobile App | Android only |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | 4.3/5 |
| Best For | Content Generation (both long-form and short-form) and Coding |
If there is one AI tool that surpasses ChatGPT on almost every front, it’s none other than Gemini—Google’s flagship AI language model.
Like ChatGPT, Gemini can help you with content generation (both long-form and short-form), SEO, code generation and debugging, general brainstorming, and more.
However, what I love the most about this tool is its ability to access and provide real-time information—something ChatGPT doesn’t offer for free. Google powers Gemini and can also be integrated with other Google services like YouTube and Maps, providing responses tailored to your specific needs.
Why Choose Gemini Over ChatGPT?
ChatGPT’s knowledge becomes extremely limited for events after January 2022. But that’s not the case with Gemini, as it can provide real-time responses. Besides, it has a built-in fact-checking feature powered by Google Search. So, you can double-check the tool’s responses line by line to see if they are factually correct.
Gemini can also read and understand images and answer related queries. Moreover, starting February 1, Gemini will also let you generate images from text—another great advantage over ChatGPT’s limited free version.
Key Features
- Available in 45+ languages
- Provides real-time responses
- Built-in tool to fact-check responses
- Ability to generate images from text
- Maps, YouTube, & Workspace integrations available
Pricing
- Gemini is currently free to use.
- Gemini Advanced is available for highly complex tasks at $19.99/month.
2. Claude AI
| Language Model | Claude 2.1 |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 4 |
| Mobile App | No |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | 4.7/5 |
| Best For | Long-form content, summarization, and ideation and coding |
Like most other AI tools, Claude’s strength lies in its ability to create content across various formats. And so, I tried creating various pieces ranging from social media posts to blogs and articles.
While the tool seems decent with long-form content like blogs, its output for personalized short-form content like posts needs some improvement. But that’s not a deal breaker since the tool improves responses after receiving detailed instructions.
Unlike Gemini, Claude cannot provide real-time responses. But it’s still better than ChatGPT since its training data extends till early 2023.
Why Choose Claude AI Over ChatGPT?
One of Claude’s best abilities is that of reading and analyzing files. You can upload a range of files (PDF, DOCX, CSV, HTML, EPUB, etc.). The tool can summarize and provide other insights related to these files. I particularly love this feature!
Besides these technical aspects, I found its conversational style somewhat more nuanced and human-like. While it makes mistakes and errors, it often explicitly declares its limitations before answering the query when unsure about its accuracy.
Key Features
- Can read, process, and analyze uploaded files
- Token limit of 200K (around 150,000 words) per prompt
- Noticeably honest and ethical responses—thanks to Constitutional AI
- Assists in coding and debugging codes
- Training data will be updated till early 2023
Pricing
- A free version is available.
- Claude Pro is $20/month with enhanced limits and early access to new features.
3. Perplexity AI
| Language Model | GPT 3.5 (Free); GPT-4; Claude 2.1; Perplexity |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 5 |
| Mobile App | Android & iOS |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | 4.6/5 |
| Best For | Academic and Professional Research |
Perplexity AI excels in its research capabilities. It lets you search for topics in real-time across the web. But it also offers targeted searches in specific categories, such as Academic for searching researching papers, Wolfram Alpha for computational research, YouTube for searching videos, and so on!
That’s barely all. Enabling the Copilot mode lets you fully use the AI tool’s efficiency. Unlike most other AI tools, Perplexity Copilot listens to your initial prompt and comes up with relevant follow-up questions related to your query.
The result is a well-researched final output—complete with citations and sources—tailored to your requirements! For all these reasons, Perplexity is undoubtedly among my favorite ChatGPT alternatives.
Why Choose Perplexity AI Over ChatGPT?
There can be many reasons for choosing Perplexity AI over ChaGPT. First, its free version provides real-time responses. And like Claude, Perplexity can read uploaded files—text, images, and PDFs—and provide responses based on them.
Like ChatGPT, Perplexity AI can help you with content creation. But a striking difference is that it’s commendably faster. Besides, the Copilot mode takes everything to the next level, making this tool a perfect research companion.
Key Features
- Real-time research with citations
- Ability to read images, text files, and PDFs
- Copilot asks follow-up questions to fine-tune your prompt
- 5 free Copilot searches are available every 4 hours
- Runs on multiple AI models: GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Claude 2.1, & Perplexity
Pricing
- A free version is best for everyday tasks.
- Perplexity Pro is $20/month and offers over 300 Copilot searches and switching between AI models.
4. WriteSonic
| Language Model | GPT-3.5 (Free) & GPT-4 |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 4 |
| Mobile App | Android |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | 4.7/5 |
| Best For | Copywriting, SEO-writing, & Paraphrasing |
WriteSonic claims to be the “best AI writer.” So, I thought it would be appropriate to test it solely on its three primary services: writing, copywriting, and paraphrasing. My verdict? It seems quite promising!
WriteSonic is not your usual chatbot that helps you with SEO titles, keywords, and meta descriptions. Rather, it takes you through the complete content writing journey—from ideation through research to finally writing a search-engine-optimized copy.
You can choose from many use-case-based features, such as Article & Blog Writer, AI Editor, Instagram Captions, Product Descriptions, SEO Checker, and more. However, the catch is that the free version only offers 10,000 words a month, which I found rather low.
Why Choose WriteSonic Over ChatGPT?
If you want to use an AI tool to write content, WriteSonic should be your go-to choice over ChatGPT. After all, WriteSonic comes as a complete writing assistant. It can generate output based on real-time data and create content pieces according to your needs.
That’s not all. WriteSonic also has a ChatGPT-like chatbot called ChatSonic, which you can use to generate text and images. It also lets you upload images, Word documents, URLs, and audio files.
Key Features
- Creates all kinds of long-form and short-form content
- Built-in plagiarism and SEO checkers
- Real-time responses and research
- Generates images
- Can process image, text, and audio files
Pricing
- 10,000 words credits every month for free.
- Paid plans include Small Team ($13/month), Freelancer ($16/month), and Enterprise (custom).
5. Jasper AI
| Language Model | GPT-4, Claude 2, and others. |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 3 |
| Mobile App | ❌ |
| Free version | ❌ |
| Ratings | 4.7/5 |
| Best For | All things content: creation, management, and strategy |
Jasper AI is among the best options for you if you are a content creator or marketer looking to integrate AI into your workflow. It can be the complete marketing assistant, helping you with content and copy and SEO, SMM, email marketing, and content strategies.
The more I used this tool, the more convinced I became of its capabilities. I tried writing product descriptions, emails, and blog posts using this tool. It can also help repurpose content across different mediums—letting you convert blog posts into social media posts.
On the flip side, though, all these features make it somewhat complex. Besides, the tool has no free version, which is a bit disappointing.
Why Choose Jasper AI Over ChatGPT?
If you are okay with shelling out some money monthly, Jasper AI might be the right deal for you. It can help you with content, strategy, and even ideation. It’s fast and accurate, so it does a good research job, too.
Overall, Jasper is designed for marketing and business needs. So, if you are a marketing person, you have all the reasons to switch to Jasper from ChatGPT.
Key Features
- Helps create, manage, and analyze marketing campaigns
- Creates content across all formats
- Can convert videos into blogs
- Built-in plagiarism checker
- Generates images
Pricing
- Plans come in three models: Creator ($39/month), Pro ($59/month), & Business (custom pricing), with a 7-day free trial available.
6. Microsoft Copilot (Formerly Bing AI)
| Language Model | GPT-4 |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 5 |
| Mobile App | Android and iOS |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | Unavailable |
| Best For | Research, Planning, and Content Creation |
Microsoft Copilot combines Bing’s real-time search capabilities with GPT-4’s natural language processing (NLP) capabilities. So, when I used this tool, the result of this combination was evident—an AI-powered search engine that goes beyond search.
It came in handy for general tasks like writing emails, blog outlines, travel itineraries, and more—basically, everything you can do on ChatGPT. But thanks to its web browsing ability, it can also help with real-time research.
The best part? Microsoft Copilot is completely free as of February 2024!
Why Choose Microsoft Copilot Over ChatGPT?
There are many reasons for choosing Microsoft Copilot over ChatGPT.
First, ChatGPT asks you to pay to access OpenAI’s most capable AI model—GPT-4, but Copilot gives you that access for free. Second, upgrading to ChatGPT Plus enables you to generate images using DALL-E. Copilot offers the same benefit for free.
That’s not all. ChatGPT Plus enables browsing capabilities for you—again, something already available on Microsoft Copilot. Yes, all these reasons make this tool a great alternative to ChatGPT.
Key Features
- AI-powered search engine
- Cites sources for research results
- Can read and understand uploaded images
- Generates images from text
- Ability to adjust conversational style
Pricing
- Microsoft Copilot is free to use.
- Copilot Pro is available at $20/month for priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo, 100 daily boosts for image generation, and other enhanced capabilities.
7. Copy.ai
| Language Model | GPT-4, Claude, & Azure AI |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 4 |
| Mobile App | ❌ |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | 4.7/5 |
| Best For | Long-form content and workflow automation |
Copy.ai markets itself as an AI writing and marketing assistant across four major areas: emails, blogs, social media posts, and translation. However, what stood out to me was not these use cases but how the tool implements them.
The Copy.ai interface comes in two forms: Chat and Workflow.
The Chat interface is the usual AI chatbot interface in most tools. However, a Workflow is a special interface that lets you automate bulk tasks.
Let me give you an example. I wanted to summarize several blog posts in bullet points. Instead of repeatedly asking the chatbot to create the summaries one by one, I created a workflow with a single prompt so the tool could generate summaries, just as I provided the blog URL.
Why Choose Copy.ai Over ChatGPT?
Copy.ai distinguishes itself from other tools with its sheer advanced capabilities—be it the Workflow or Chat interface.
The Workflow is a great asset to any individual, team, or business for automating tasks and saving time. Even the Chat interface is much ahead of ChatGPT. Besides allowing real-time search, it lets you attach text files (such as DOCX and PDF) and even improve your prompts.
Key Features
- Lets you add brand voice
- Improves your prompts
- Generates well-researched content
- Reads and analyzes uploaded text files
- Automates large-scale tasks with Workflows
Pricing
- A free version with limited words and workflow credits is available.
- Paid plans include Pro ($36/month), Team ($186/month), and Enterprise (custom).
8. OpenAI Playground
| Language Model | GPT-3.5 (Free) & GPT-4 |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 2.5 |
| Mobile App | ❌ |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | Unavailable |
| Best For | Developers |
Let me be clear: Open AI Playground is not for everyone. If you are a regular user with general requirements like content creation, planning, brainstorming, and the like, you will likely find other tools—even ChatGPT—more helpful.
Playground is mainly for developers experimenting with GPT models and testing their capabilities. The tool lets you do complex technical tasks like fine-tuning AI models, creating custom AI assistants, creating API keys, and more.
Using Playground, you can also switch between different OpenAI language models like DaVinci, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4, among others.
Why Choose Open AI Playground Over ChatGPT?
If you are a developer interested in going deep into the intricacies of ChatGPT, Playground can serve as a dedicated platform for your musings. You can use it to test and compare multiple models and even fine-tune the models with your custom training data.
Simply put, Playground gives you advanced capabilities of ChatGPT over and above the features available for the general public. You should choose it over ChatGPT if you want to test AI models.
Key Features
- Useful for developers
- It lets you switch between language models
- It lets you fine-tune models with custom datasets
- It lets you generate and test your AI assistant
- Offers access to API keys
Pricing
- Playground offers free token credits worth $5 on signup.
- Post credit exhaustion, you must top up your account to spend more tokens.
9. YouChat
| Language Model | GPT-3.5 (Free) & GPT-4 |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 5 |
| Mobile App | Android & iOS |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | 4.4/5 |
| Best For | Content Creation & Research |
YouChat has a remarkably clean and simple interface—a striking contrast to most other tools that can overwhelm you with their features. But don’t be confused; it has sufficient features for performing a range of tasks.
It becomes your AI search companion by helping with real-time web-based research. It also assists by reading uploaded files (PDF, CSV, or code files) and providing relevant insights as you wish. Besides the capabilities to understand complex tasks, it can also generate images from text.
However, there is a big catch that stood out to me. It gives you limited access to these advanced features—just five daily prompts! The limit could’ve easily been a bit higher, in my opinion.
Why Choose YouChat Over ChatGPT?
Why should you choose YouChat over ChatGPT? For starters, you don’t need to sign in to start using the tool.
Once you sign in, the tool lets you switch between the different modes to use all the special features that ChatGPT lacks. It researches your desired topics and provides citations for its results. I also liked the quality of the images it generates.
Key Features
- A clean and no-fluff interface
- Assists in real-time research
- Can analyze text, images, codes, etc.
- Generates images from text
- Works without an account
Pricing
- Free to use with limited capabilities.
- The pro version starts at $15/month.
10. GitHub Copilot
| Language Model | GPT-4 |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 3 |
| Mobile App | ❌ |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | 4.5/5 |
| Best For | Coding and Debugging |
If you are a coder, GitHub Copilot might be the only AI assistant you need to get help with your codes. If you are not a coder, this is not for you.
Think of GitHub Copilot as the Grammarly for coders. Once you install its extension in your preferred IDE, such as Visual Studio Code or Azure Data Studio, it gives suggestions to improve your code. It works well with several languages, including Python, JavaScript, Ruby, C#, C++, and more.
That’s not all. Since it’s an AI-powered assistant, it can also explain and generate code, write comments within the code, and answer coding-related questions.
For example, I love how Copilot generates a code within 30 seconds based on the comment provided (in green). Have a look:
Why Choose GitHub Copilot Over ChatGPT?
ChatGPT can also help you with your code, fine errors, and improve it. However, Copilot goes a league ahead with its nuanced features specially built to help in coding. It can be integrated into most leading IDEs and help you with your codes.
It provides autocomplete suggestions as you type, write code from your instructions, and also add comments for your code, simplifying the otherwise lengthy code documentation process. With such features, ChatGPT doesn’t even come anywhere close to GitHub Copilot.
Key Features
- Can be integrated into prominent IDEs
- Provides suggestions to debug or improve the code
- Writes comments based on the code
- Writes code based on the comments
- Understands multiple languages (coding and conversational)
Pricing
- Free for students of popular open-source projects.
- GitHub Copilot plans include Individual ($10/month), Business ($19/user/month), and Enterprise ($39/user/month).
11. Character AI
| Language Model | Multiple models |
| Ease of use (out of 5) | 5 |
| Mobile App | Android & iOS |
| Free version | ✅ |
| Ratings | Unavailable |
| Best For | Having fun conversations with bots |
Unlike other tools, Character AI doesn’t just let you talk with an AI bot. It lets you create an AI bot that can talk to you about anything under (and beyond) the sun.
On Character AI, you can talk with virtual, fictional characters and even characters that play the role of celebrities. You can get dating advice from Ella, get book recommendations from Librarian Linda, and chat with Elon Musk about space, time, and even peanuts! Sounds fun? Sure it is.
Why Choose Character AI Over ChatGPT?
Character AI can come to your rescue when you want a break from work and a casual chat with an AI bot.
It’s no secret that ChatGPT’s responses are bland and generic. But the characters you meet on Character AI are as amusing as you can expect. Each character has its characteristic tone. So, you can get a variety according to your needs.
Besides, you can create a character, describe its behavior, and customize its personality according to your wish.
Key Features
- Talk with fun virtual characters
- Variety of pre-made characters
- Create and customize new characters
- Group chat with multiple characters
- Customize your character’s voice
Pricing
- Free to use.
- Subscribe to Character.ai+ at $9.99/month for faster response time and other features.
Related Reads:
Conclusion: Gemini & MS Copilot Are the Best Alternatives!
ChatGPT might be the first popular AI chatbot. But it’s certainly not the only reliable one in the market. Several new and more efficient tools have emerged that compete with it, leaving it lagging in many aspects.
Among all the ChatGPT alternatives I tried, I found these three the most promising:
- Gemini: For its real-time responses and fact-checking.
- Perplexity AI: For its advanced research skills.
- Microsoft Copilot: For its unique blend of GPT-4, Bing, and DALL-E.
Besides these tools, some tools excel in specific use cases, such as WriteSonic and Jasper AI for content creation and GitHub Copilot for coding.
I loved trying out these tools and look forward to trying more tools in the future. Meanwhile, which of these tools stood out the most for you? Tell me in the comments!
