ChatGPT alternatives: 8 chatbots to use instead or alongside

People look for ChatGPT alternatives for plain reasons: a usage cap hit mid-task, a price, a privacy worry, or a job another assistant does better. This page lists eight AI tools like ChatGPT that you can use instead of it or next to it, with the price and free plan each vendor publishes as of October 2026. If you want to compare chatbots without ChatGPT as the reference point, see our AI chatbots roundup.

How the picks were chosen

Every pick is a general-purpose chat assistant that a ChatGPT user could move to without learning a new kind of tool. We kept assistants that meet four public criteria:

• A free tier you can use today, so you can try it before paying.
• A published price for the paid tier on the vendor's own page or help center.
• A clear strength that differs from ChatGPT: research with citations, Microsoft 365, privacy, open models or price.
• Web and app access for ordinary users, not only an API for developers.

We did not run our own benchmark, and nothing here is a paid placement. For reference, OpenAI's own Codex pricing page lists ChatGPT Free at $0, Go at $8 a month, Plus at $20 a month and Pro from $100 a month.

The eight alternatives at a glance

1. Claude

Best for: long documents, writing and coding · Price: Pro $20/month, or $17/month billed annually (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

Claude is Anthropic's assistant, and its plan ladder mirrors ChatGPT's closely: a free tier, a $20 plan and a heavy-use tier from $100. The Free plan covers chat on the web, desktop and mobile. Pro adds Claude Code, Claude Design and more models. Max starts at $100 a month and gives 5x or 20x the usage of Pro. Anthropic lists Projects, memory, custom instructions, Artifacts for finished editable work, connectors to your files and tools, and Claude for Microsoft 365 among its features.

Limits: usage scales with the plan, so heavy daily users end up on Max. API use is billed separately per token. Our ChatGPT vs Claude comparison goes task by task, and the Claude prompt library has ready prompts if you switch.

2. Gemini

Best for: Gmail, Docs and Drive users · Price: Google AI Plus $4.99/month; Google AI Pro $19.99/month (US, as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

Google's free Gemini tier covers a lot. It includes Gemini 3.6 Flash, varying access to Gemini 3.1 Pro, image generation, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas and 15 GB of storage. Google AI Plus doubles the free usage limits and adds video generation, Gemini in Gmail and Vids, and 400 GB of storage. Google AI Pro raises limits to 4x free and adds the Jules coding agent, Gemini in Docs and 5 TB of storage. Google AI Ultra costs $99.99 to $199.99 a month.

Limits: features differ a lot between tiers, and prices outside the US are set in local currency, so check the plan page for your country. Compare the two directly in ChatGPT vs Gemini.

3. Microsoft Copilot

Best for: people who write in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook · Price: free; Microsoft 365 Personal $9.99/month or $99.99/year (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

Microsoft offers a limited free version of Copilot, subject to available capacity. The paid route is a Microsoft 365 subscription. Personal ($9.99 a month) gives higher Copilot chat usage than free, plus image creation and AI audio. Family costs $12.99 a month, but Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook is available only to the subscription owner. Premium ($19.99 a month) gives extensive usage and limited agent features. A Microsoft 365 Pro tier costs $99.99 a month.

Limits: the free tier depends on capacity, and the in-app features that make Copilot useful are tied to Microsoft 365.

4. Perplexity

Best for: research questions where you want sources · Price: Pro $20/month (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

Perplexity answers questions from web search and shows its sources. Its help center says the Free plan includes practically unlimited basic searches, 3 Pro Searches a day and limited file uploads, and that Perplexity picks the model for you. Pro gives extended access to Pro Search, 10x as many citations per answer, a choice of top AI models, and image and video generation. Perplexity Max costs $200 a month or $2,000 a year.

Limits: the free tier does not let you choose advanced models, and Pro Searches on Free are capped at three a day.

5. Grok

Best for: real-time X search, plus image and video generation on paid plans · Price: SuperGrok $30/month; SuperGrok Plus $100/month (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

Grok is xAI's assistant. Its documentation lists chat, image and video creation with Grok Imagine, hands-free voice, file analysis and connectors to email, files and calendar, and says Grok is free to start. xAI's pricing page lists real-time web and X search, voice mode and connectors on the Free plan, and puts image and video generation on SuperGrok at $30 a month. SuperGrok Plus costs $100 a month and adds 1080p video. A SuperGrok Heavy tier is listed without a price on that page.

Limits: since June 2026, paid plans draw from one shared weekly usage pool. When it runs out, paid features pause until the weekly reset unless you buy Extra Usage Credits, from $5. See ChatGPT vs Grok for a direct comparison.

6. DeepSeek

Best for: a free assistant and cheap API access · Price: free app; API billed per token (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

DeepSeek announced its app as free to use with no ads and no in-app purchases, on the web, iOS and Android. Its current model, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, was released on September 10, 2026, and the model weights are published under the MIT license on Hugging Face. That means developers can also run it themselves. Details and API prices are on our DeepSeek page.

Limits: DeepSeek's privacy policy says it collects, processes and stores personal data in the People's Republic of China, and that it uses inputs to train and improve its models. The policy lists a right to opt out of training. Read it before pasting work documents.

7. Mistral

Best for: chat plus a coding agent, with a training opt-out · Price: Pro $14.99/month before tax; verified students $5.99/month (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

Mistral's pricing page calls its consumer assistant Vibe, and its FAQ also refers to Le Chat. Vibe runs on the web and on iOS and Android. The Free plan includes limited messages and web searches, limited coding sessions and image generation. Pro adds more messages and searches, all-day coding in the terminal, IDE or web, and chat and email support. Team costs $24.99 per user per month. Mistral's plan table shows an opt-out from model training on every plan, and its open-weight models can be self-hosted.

Limits: Pro is subject to fair-use limits, and prices shown exclude tax.

8. Duck.ai

Best for: private chats with well-known models · Price: free; larger models need a paid DuckDuckGo tier (as of Oct 2026) · Free plan: yes

Duck.ai is DuckDuckGo's chat front end to models from several labs. DuckDuckGo says it does not record or store chats by default, removes your IP address and other personal metadata before a request reaches the model provider, and has agreements that the providers delete prompts after replying and never train on them. Free models include Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Mistral Small 4, gpt-oss 120B and Gemma 4 31B. Larger models such as GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Opus 4.8 sit on the paid Plus and Pro tiers.

Limits: DuckDuckGo documents exceptions. OpenAI and Anthropic may hold chats in short-term memory for up to an hour for prompt caching.

Which one to pick

• Closest overall swap: Claude or Gemini. Try both free tiers with the same task.
• Research with sources: Perplexity.
• Office documents and email: Copilot through Microsoft 365, or Gemini AI Plus for Gmail.
• Lowest cost: Gemini Free, DeepSeek or Google AI Plus at $4.99.
• Privacy first: Duck.ai; avoid pasting sensitive work into any free tier without reading its policy.
• Building an app: you need a model API, which is a different choice. See OpenAI API alternatives.

The fastest way to decide is to run one real task through two assistants and compare the output side by side.

I am testing you as a replacement for ChatGPT.
Here is a task I gave ChatGPT last week: [paste the task]
Here is what ChatGPT returned: [paste the answer]

Do the same task from scratch. Then list three places where your answer differs from ChatGPT's and say which version a [type of reader] would find more useful, and why.

If you are looking for free options more broadly, see free AI tools.

FAQ

What is the best free AI like ChatGPT?

Every pick here has a free tier, so all eight work as free AI tools like ChatGPT. Gemini's free plan includes Deep Research, image generation and Gemini Live, and DeepSeek says its app is fully free with no ads. Claude Free covers chat on web, desktop and mobile.

Which AI is better than ChatGPT?

None is better at everything. Perplexity is built around cited answers, Copilot works inside Microsoft 365 apps, and Duck.ai anonymizes chats. For a head-to-head on plans and features, read our ChatGPT vs Claude comparison.

Which ChatGPT alternative is the most private?

Of these eight, Duck.ai documents the strictest defaults: no stored chats, IP addresses removed, and provider agreements against training on chats. DeepSeek's policy says data is stored in China and used for training unless you opt out.

How much does ChatGPT cost, for comparison?

OpenAI lists ChatGPT Free at $0, Go at $8 a month, Plus at $20 a month and Pro from $100 a month, with Business at $20 per user per month billed annually.

Are there apps similar to ChatGPT for free on a phone?

Yes. Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Mistral all document mobile apps with free use, and Gemini's free tier includes Gemini Live. Check each store listing for your country.