ChatGPT vs Claude vs Google Gemini vs Perplexity AI
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
ChatGPT
The most widely used AI assistant — now on GPT-5.6, from OpenAI
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Claude
Anthropic's AI assistant — leading reasoning, coding and long-context...
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Google Gemini
Google's flagship multimodal AI — the Gemini 3 family across Search, W...
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Perplexity AI
The answer engine that cites its sources on every live web query
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| RECATOOLS Score | 9.2 / 10 | 9 / 10 | 8.7 / 10 | 8.4 / 10 |
| Capability | ||||
| Value for money | ||||
| Ease of use | ||||
| ASEAN readiness | ||||
| API quality | ||||
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| Free tier | GPT-5-class model with daily message limits | Claude access with daily message limits | Free access to Gemini (3.5 Flash, limited 3.1 Pro) on web and mobile | Unlimited basic searches with standard model |
| Paid from | $20/month (Plus); free, Go, Pro, and Team/Enterprise tiers also offered | $20/month (Pro); Max 5× $100 and Max 20× $200 above | Free tier; Google AI Plus ~$7.99/mo, AI Pro $19.99/mo, AI Ultra from ~$99.99/mo | $20/month (Pro); $200/month (Max, launched July 2025) |
| Has API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Users | ~900M weekly active users (1B+ monthly active app users as of mid-2026) | Tens of millions of users globally | Hundreds of millions via Google products | 30M+ standalone monthly active users (100M+ across all products, 2026) |
| Founded | 2022 | 2021 | 2023 | 2022 |
| Maker | OpenAI | Anthropic | Google / Alphabet | Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, Andy Konwinski |
| Verdict | ChatGPT is still the default AI assistant, and the July 2026 release of GPT-5.6 (Sol, Terra and Luna tiers) keeps the flagship current across writing, coding and agentic work. No rival matches its feature breadth — voice... |
Claude is what serious builders reach for when reasoning quality and reliability matter. It's the strongest option for long-form writing, document analysis and code review, Claude Code has become the category-defining ag... |
Gemini is one of the three frontier assistants alongside ChatGPT and Claude, and the tightest-integrated of the three if your life runs on Workspace, Android and Search. The Gemini 3 family brings strong multimodal reaso... |
Perplexity remains the strongest citation-first answer engine: every query triggers a live web search and each sentence links to its sources, which makes verification fast in a way plain chatbots can't match. The free ti... |
| Full review → | Full review → | Full review → | Full review → |
Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.