It’s been a good couple of years for ChatGPT, with the chatbot rising from relative obscurity to becoming a household name. Now, it has tens of millions of monthly users and is a staple in offices and homes around the world. Is it really the best AI chatbot though? In this guide, I’ve tested all of the big players, as well as using some more niche platforms, to help you decide for yourself.
Alongside ChatGPT, an ecosystem of other AI chatbots has emerged over the past 12 months, with applications like Gemini and Claude also growing large followings during this time. Crucially, each chatbot has its own, unique selling point – some excel at finding accurate, factual information, coding, and planning, while others are simply built for entertainment purposes.
Whatever you’re looking for, we’ve got the lowdown on the best free and paid AI chatbots you can use in 2024. All of them are worth testing out, even if it’s just to expand your understanding of how AI tools work, or so you know about the best ChatGPT alternatives to use when that service periodically goes down.
What Is an AI Chatbot?
“AI chatbots” are a relatively new class of software applications or web interfaces that produce human-like conversations, respond to queries, and are capable of assisting with a wide range of tasks (depending on how intelligent they are).
Some AI chatbots are simple, like the helpbots you find on many websites. Conversational AI chatbots like ChatGPT, on the other hand, can help with an eclectic range of complex tasks that would take the average human hours to complete. AI chatbots have already been called upon for legal advice, financial planning, recipe suggestions, website design, and content creation.
This has led to their rapid and widespread usage in workplaces, but their application is much broader than that. Both consumer and business-facing versions are now offered by a range of different companies.
AI chatbots are powered by large language models (LLMs) – algorithms that use machine/deep learning techniques and huge sets of data to get a general grasp on language, so can be considered a form of artificial intelligence.
Prominent examples currently powering chatbots include Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s GPT-4 (and the even newer GPT-4 Turbo).
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AI chatbots vary in their abilities and uses based on a variety of factors, including the language model they’re built on top of, their pre-defined functionality, and access to data sources (such as the internet).
The Best AI chatbots: Comparison Table
If you haven’t got time to read the full article, here’s a whistlestop comparison of the 13 top AI chatbots available in 2024:
Chatbot | Company | Best | Free Version? | Paid Plans From | Language model | Sign in | Languages | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
ChatGPT | Gemini | Claude | Grok | Chatsonic | Llama2.ai | Copilot (Bing Chat) | Perplexity | Personal AI | Pi | Poe | YouChat | Character AI |
OpenAI | | Anthropic | xAI | Writesonic | Meta | Microsoft | Perplexity.ai | Human Labs Inc. | Inflection | Quora | You.com | Character AI |
Overall | ChatGPT alternative | For large inputs/document review | For entertaining conversations | For content creation | Open-source chatbot | For web search | For informational research | Personal assistant | Friendly conversation companion | Chatbot aggregator | Copilot alternative | For fun/recreation |
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
$20/month | $20/month | $20/month | $16/month | $13/month | N/A | N/A | $20/month | $400/year | N/A | $19.99/month | N/A | $9.99/month |
|
| Free: Claude Sonnet | Grok-1 | GPT-4 | Llama 2-70B | Microsoft Prometheus/GPT-4 | pplx-70b-online | PLM (20 million parameters) | Inflection-1 | Various models | GPT-4 | C1.2 |
Requires any email address. No waitlist at present. | Requires a Google account (work or personal). | Requires an email address to create an Anthropic account. | Requires X account and X Premium+ subscription for early access. | Requires an email address to create a Writesonic account. | No sign-in required. | No sign-in information required. | No sign-in information required. | Email address and password required. | Sign-in information is only needed for chat history, and can be used without. | Email address or Google account required. | No sign-in required (but it does unlock more features). | Email address required. |
95+ languages | 40+ languages | English, Japanese, Spanish and French | 200+ languages | 24+ languages | English | 8+ languages | 28+ languages | English | English (fluent) | 9+ languages | Supports “all the world’s languages”. | 30+ languages |
The Best AI Chatbots in 2024 by Use Case
Here are the best AI chatbots available in 2024. Although there are a few more AI tools out there worth keeping an eye on (and for that, head on to the next section of this article), these 13 stand out as the most important ones to know about as 2024 gets underway – a year during which significant strides are likely to be made in this area.
- ChatGPT: Best All-Rounder
- Google Gemini: Best For Creative Tasks
- Claude: Best for Large Inputs/Document Review
- Grok: Best for Entertaining Conversations
- Writesonic/Chatsonic: Best for Content Creation
- Llama2.ai: Best Open Source Chatbot
- Copilot: Best for Best for Chatbot + Web Search
- Perplexity AI: Best for Research
- Pi: Best Personal AI
- Personal AI: Best Personal Assistant
- Poe: Best Chabot Aggregator
- YouChat: Best Copilot Alternative
- Character AI: Great Fun & Generates Images
1. ChatGPT
- Best AI chatbot overall (and best for image generation)
- Free plan: Yes
The chatbot that needs no introduction, ChatGPT is by far the most widely-used chatbot on this list and its breakthrough LLM helped pave the way for similar models to be made after its release.
Pros:
- Powerful LLM
- Regular Updates
- Create your own GPTs
- Very Scaleable
- Large context window
Cons:
- GPT-4 Only on Plus plan
- Sometimes crashes
- Phone number required
- Cut-off September 2022
- No real-time internet access on the free plan
Created by Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, ChatGPT has been powered by the GPT family of large language models throughout its public existence – first by GPT-3, but subsequently by GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. GPT-5 is not expected to be released for some time, however.
ChatGPT has a free version that anyone can access with just an email address and a phone number. However, this free plan is limited to 30 interactions per hour and three image requests per day, and it only has access to information before September 2021. There’s also a $20 per month Plus plan which can access the internet in real-time, a $25 per user, per month Team plan for small businesses that want to use it at work, as well as ChatGPT Enterprise for large businesses that want to use the API.
ChatGPT’s Plus, Team, and Enterprise customers have access to the internet in real-time, but free users do not.
ChatGPT is most people’s go-to conversational chatbot for a good reason – but that’s also its biggest downside – the site sometimes goes down due to the immense amount of traffic it’s having to deal with, which leads users to be presented with immovable error codes.
ChatGPT provides an answer to a query. Image: Tech.co
At DevDay 2023, OpenAI launched GPTs – custom chatbots that will act and respond in specific ways based on the instructions and knowledge that you give them. It’s pretty easy to learn how to make a GPT, so if you’ve got ChatGPT Plus, we’d advise giving it a go – soon, you might find yourself selling it on the GPT store.
ChatGPT also lets you create AI images with its DALL-E integration, and the chatbot also released an AI search tool that works in a similar way to Perplexity AI. All of these useful capabilities, and OpenAI’s commitment to continually improving its product offering, are all factors that help ChatGPT to remain the best chatbot on the market in 2024.
Using the ChatGPT DALL-E integration. Image: Tech.co
2. Gemini
- Best AI chatbot overall for creative tasks
- Free plan: Yes
After ChatGPT was launched by a Microsoft-backed company, it was only a matter of time before Google got in on the action. Google launched Bard in February 2023, changing the name in February 2024 to Gemini. And despite some early hiccups, has proven to be the best ChatGPT alternative.
Pros:
- New LLM (Gemini)
- Great at coding
- Very quick & creative
- Connected to internet
- Free to use (for now)
Cons:
- Hallucinations common
- No build-your-own chatbot tool (yet)
- No customer support
Like ChatGPT, Gemini has been powered by several different LLMs since its release in February 2023. First, it ran on LaMDA – which one former Google employee once said was sentient – before a switch to PaLM 2, which had better coding and mathematical capabilities.
Now, Gemini runs on a language model called Gemini Pro, which is even more advanced. We recently compared Gemini to ChatGPT in a series of tests, and we found that it performed slightly better when it came to some language and coding tasks, as well as gave more interesting answers. Thanks to a recent upgrade, Gemini Pro is now even more capable of engaging in complex topics in a natural way. Basically, it sounds a lot more human.
Gemini summarizes some text. Image: Tech.co
Users are able to get started with the Gemini plan for free, or the Gemini Advanced for $25 per month. Its plans run on three different LLMs Gemini Nano, Gemini Pro, and Gemini Ultra. The most advanced LLM, Gemini Ultra, was released at the start of 2024 and boasts more advanced reasoning capabilities and a larger memory footprint than previous models, and even beats GPT-4 when it comes to speed.
3. Claude
- Best for large inputs/document review
- Paid plan: Yes
After Gemini and ChatGPT, Claude is the most capable chatbot on this list, all things considered. It was created by Anthropic, an AI research and development startup bankrolled by Google and Amazon since it was founded in 2021.
Pros:
- Industry-leading context window perfect for enterprise application
- Claude Instant (lightweight)
- Constitutional AI
- Pay-per-token pricing for businesses
- Welcoming interface
Cons:
- Not as powerful as ChatGPT
- No way to make custom bots
- No internet access in real-time
The company’s first skin in the chatbot game was Claude 1.3, but Claude 2 was rolled out shortly after in July 2023. Now, Claude 2.1, Anthropic’s most advanced chatbot yet, is available for users to try out.
Anthropic is pioneering a concept called “constitutional AI” – which is effectively a way to make an LLM safer by ensuring it “gains” values via a constitution provided.
Claude. Image: Tech.co
“Anthropic’s language model Claude currently relies on a constitution curated by Anthropic employees” Antrhopic explains. “This constitution takes inspiration from outside sources like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as our own firsthand experience interacting with language models to make them more helpful and harmless”.
Claude’s other unique selling point is that it has an enormous 200K context window – the range of text that an LLM can consider at any given moment – which makes it useful for analyzing large documents and other banks of information.
You can use Claude for free, but there’s also a lightweight version called Claude Instant and a more powerful version called Claude Advanced. Find out more in our guide to Claude and Anthropic.
4. Grok
- Best for entertaining conversations
- Paid plan: No
Grok is Elon Musk’s biggest play in the AI space since he took over Twitter back in November 2022. The multi-billionaire actually co-founded OpenAI back in 2015, and more recently, launched xAI.
Grok’s name comes from the world of 1960s sci-fi and is now used as a term to mean intuitively or empathetically understanding something, or establishing a rapport.
Pros:
- Outperforms ChatGPT on some tests
- Designed to be "humorous"
- Has real-time access to X network
Cons:
- Only available to X Premium+ subscribers
- Only supports text inputs
- Already being politicized
The latest Grok language mode, Grok-1, is reportedly made up of 63.2 billion parameters, which makes it one of the smaller large language models powering competing chatbots. This is a lot smaller than GPT-4 and Claude 2.
However, early benchmarking tests seem to suggest that Grok can actually outperform the models in its class, such as GPT-3.5 and Meta’s Llama 2. At the time of writing, Grok does not currently offer a free plan in the US. Yet, as X aims to make use of the AI tool more widespread, the company has released a free tier to select users in New Zealand, with plans to eventually roll it out on home soil.
xAI’s Grok system is designed to have a little humor in its responses pic.twitter.com/WqXxlwI6ef
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023
Grok didn’t take much time to start hitting the headlines after its launch, with many right-wing commentators who’ve found a foothold on Twitter since Musk’s takeover complaining that Grok was “too woke” and “too liberal”.
Grok is only available if you sign up for the chatbot’s early access program, which is currently limited to X Premium+ subscribers. X Premium+ retails at $16 per month or $168 per year on the web, according to X’s help center.
5. Writesonic
- Best for content creation
- Free plan: Yes
If you need a bot to help you with large-scale writing tasks and bulk content creation, then Chatsonic is the best option currently on the market.
Pros:
- Huge range of additional tools
- Great for businesses creating content
- Build-your-own chatbot tool
- Connected to the internet
- Image generator
Cons:
- Pricey if you don't need content creation features
- Lack of customization options
- High costs for generating lots of words
There’s a ChatGPT-stye chatbot called Chatsonic included in all Writesonic plans (including the free plan) and it can help with a variety of tasks, including generating articles and blog posts, improving grammar, and bulk content generation. It also has tools that can be used to improve SEO and social media performance.
Now, Writesonic has caught up with OpenAI and offers users the ability to create custom chatbots with a tool called “Botsonic”. With Botsonic, you can edit the knowledge base of any bot you’re building by uploading documents, and you even import a bot you’ve made using a GPT language model into Writesonic.
A chat with Writesonic. Image: Tech.co
Writesonic also includes Photosonic, its own AI image generator – but you can also generate images directly in Chatsonic. One of the big upsides to Writesonic’s chatbot feature is that it can access the internet in real time so won’t ever refuse to answer a question because of a knowledge cut-off point.
Writesonic offers a Team plan for $13 per month, although if you need more than one user/more words, you’ll need to pay a higher price. For instance, a 4-user plan costs $133 per month.
There’s also a Freelancer plan that retails at $16 per month, and an Enterprise plan that costs more than $500+ per month – but you’ll have to contact the company for an exact price.
6. Llama 2
- Best open source chatbot
- Free plan: Yes
Llama 2 is Meta’s biggest contribution to the AI arms race. Unlike Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s GPT-4 language models, Llama 2 is completely open source, which means all of the code is made available for other companies to use as they please.
Pros:
- Open source, so great for developers
- Not as busy as ChatGPT/Bard
- Run-time and token counter
- "Temperature" adjuster
Cons:
- Not an "official" Llama 2 chatbot
- No internet access at present
Llama 2 – the second member “Llama” family of LLMs – was released back in July 2023. Since then, it’s been incorporated into several different systems, thanks to the fact that it’s open source and free to use if you’re developing your own language model or AI system.
For instance, Microsoft Azure users can use Llama 2 to build chatbots and other AI-powered applications, while Perplexity AI – another chabot to make our list – is powered by language models that are built upon Llama 2.
Talking to a chatbot powered by Llama 2. Image: Tech.co
Although Llama 2 is technically a language model and not a chatbot, you can test out a basic chatbot powered by the LLM on a webpage created by Andreessen Horowitz. It performs similarly to GPT-3.5, and its knowledge cut-off date is sometime in 2022, according to the chatbot itself.
The interface above is of course a little more bare than the likes of ChatGPT or Gemini, but it’s much more powerful than some of the smaller models included on this list. One interesting feature is the “temperature” adjuster, which will let you edit the randomness of Llama 2’s responses. The chatbot is a useful option to have if ChatGPT is down or you can’t log in to Gemini – which can happen at any given moment.
7. Copilot
- Best chatbot + web search combo
- Free plan: Yes
Although chatbots are usually adept at answering humans’ queries, sometimes, you have to head back to good ol’ Google to get your hands on the information you’re looking for.
That’s where Copilot – formerly Bing Chat – comes into play. It’s an AI-powered search engine that gives you the best of both worlds.
Pros:
- Web results + chatbot answer provided
- Cites website sources it's using
- Adjustable conversation style
- Image and audio inputs are available
- GPT-4 access
Cons:
- 2,000-word cap on queries
- Sign-in required for "longer conversations"
Copilot – which is also included in several Microsoft tools, including Microsoft Teams – uses the same large language systems that have powered ChatGPT since its launch, but you’ll be connected to the internet and much closer to those trusty search engine results.
Just ensure you don’t bombard it with tons of questions at once, as it does deal well with this kind of informational overload and sometimes crashes – at least in our experience.
Asking Copilot a question via the Bing search engine. Image: Tech.co
The best thing about Copilot for Bing is that it’s completely free to use and you don’t even need to make an account to use it. Simply open the Bing search engine in a new tab, click the Bing Chat logo on the right-hand side of the search bar, and then you’ll be all set.
Remember, though, signing in with your Microsoft account will give you the best experience, and allow Copilot to provide you with longer answers.
8. Perplexity AI
- Best for Research
- Free plan: Yes
Perplexity AI is a relatively young AI startup founded by Andy Konwinski, Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho, who are all former Google AI researchers. There’s a free version available, while Perplexity Pro retails at $20 per month or $200 per year and allows for image uploads.
Pros:
- Provides pre-set prompts
- Great at source citing
- Clean & simple interface
- Interesting 'Discover' tab
- Playground tool included
Cons:
- Can be slow to answer
- Not suitable for coding
- Pricey paid plan
Initially, Perplexity AI was powered by the LLMs behind rival chatbots ChatGPT and Claude. However, at the the end of November 2023, they released two LLMs of their own, pplx-7b-online and pplx-70b-online – which have 7 and 70 billion parameters respectively.
These two LLMs are built on top of the mistral-7b LLM from Mistral and and llama2-70b LLM from Meta, the latter of which appeared just above in this list.
Unlike ChatGPT, Perplexity AI’s language models are grounded in web search data and therefore have no knowledge cut-off. You can, for example, search “What happened on January 1, 2024?” and get a coherent answer from Perplexity AI.
Asking Copilot a question via the Bing search engine. Image: Tech.co
This key difference between Perplexity AI and many other widely-used chatbots like Gemini is that it always cites all of its sources used in any answer it gives, so users can make a judgment for themselves on whether the information is accurate, taking into account the source that it’s from. Images are also provided, sourced from the web.
As you can see, the interface is pretty plain and uncluttered, and there’s also a “Discovery” tab which will let you browse some trending stories and topics if you’re looking to explore the chatbot’s full potential. There’s also a Playground if you’d like a closer look at how the LLM functions.
9. Pi
- Best personal AI
- Free plan: Yes
Pi is a chatbot launched by Inflection AI back in May of 2023. It’s designed to be a companion-style AI chatbot or “Personal AI” that can be used for lighthearted chatter, talking through problems, and generally being supportive.
Pros:
- Friendly & safe
- Straightforward interface
- Very quick responses
Cons:
- Not as powerful as ChatGPT
- No real business application
Pi – which is completely free to use – has a welcoming interface, and like Perplexity AI, there’s a “Discovery” tab. However, instead of being a direct route to trending topics, it’s instead a list of “conversation starters” you can use to prompt your conversations with Pi.
The large language model powering Pi is made up of over 30 billion parameters, which means it’s a lot smaller than ChatGPT, Gemini, and even Grok – but it just isn’t built for the same purpose.
Conversing with Pi. Image: Tech.co
Pi is a good Personal AI or Character AI alternative. It’s a little more general use than the build-it-yourself business/brand-focused chatbot offered by Personal AI, however, so don’t expect the same capabilities.
What Pi is really great for is pleasant conversations and talking through your problems. It’s never going to replace the likes of ChatGPT in work settings, but it looks well on its way to carving out its own, distinct niche.
10. Personal AI
- Best personal assistant
- Free plan: Yes
Personal AI is what it says on the tin – a personal AI assistant. The Human Labs Inc. creation has a relatively small language model – only 120M parameters in size – but it’s designed for a truly different – and more specific – purpose than generic giants like Gemini and ChatGPT.
Pros:
- Highly customizable
- Easy to train/edit
- Lots of instructions
Cons:
- Long set-up time
- Language model is small
- Expensive plans
When you log in to Personal AI for the first time, it’ll ask you if you want to create a person for your professional life, personal life, or an “author”. You’ll need to upgrade to a different plan to create a personal AI for work, but the personal option is free.
You’ll then be able to choose if the AI should mirror you, or someone else, and also edit its designated traits and communication styles.
You can then add information about your past work history, your interests, and various other aspects of your life – quite a bit like a social media profile. When we started to use it, it remembered things I’d put into my prompts regarding wanting to open a Bee sanctuary:
Asking Personal AI to help with career planning. Image: Tech.co
As we’ve covered, Personal AI is free to use. However, there’s also a Premium plan that costs $400 per year, as well as a larger plan for enterprises which includes a “personal voice clone” – but you’ll have to contact the company to find out more about the pricing.
Personal AI is quite easy to use, but if you want it to be truly effective, you’ll have to upload a lot of information about yourself during setup. If you’re happy to spend some time doing that, though, it’ll be much more helpful for personal development than a more general-use tool like ChatGPT or Claude.
11. Poe
- Best chabot aggregator
- Free plan: Yes
Poe isn’t actually a chatbot itself – it’s a new AI platform that will allow you to access lots of other chatbots within a single, digital hub. If you’re someone who likes to have lots of choices – and you’re interested in using lots of different chatbots – then this might just be the platform for you.
Pros:
- Access to all major chatbots
- Android and iOS apps
- Assistant chatbot included
- You can make your own AI bot
Cons:
- Assistant isn't very advanced
- Pricey paid plans needed to access the best language models and features
Despite its unique position in the market, Poe still provides its own chatbot, called Assistant, which you can use alongside all of the other apps and tools included within its platform.
There’s a free version of Poe that’s available on the web, as well as iOS and Android devices via their respective app stores. However, the free plan won’t let you access every chatbot on the market – bots running advanced LLMs like GPT-4 and Claude 2 are hidden behind a paywall.
The first paid Poe plan costs $19.99 per month – but if you sign up for an annual plan, it’ll only cost $16.67 per month or around $190 per year.
12. YouChat
- Best Microsoft Copilot alternative
- Free plan: Yes
YouChat works similarly to Bing Chat and Perplexity AI, combining the functions of a traditional search engine and an AI chatbot.
Pros:
- Chatbot answer + web search
- "Research" mode available
- GPT-4 access (sign-in required)
- Clear interface
- Cites sources (usually)
Cons:
- Not as useful for coding/paraphrasing etc.
- Free plan only has GPT-3 available
When you start typing into the chat bar, for example, you’ll get auto-fill suggestions like you do when you’re using Google.
However, you’ll still be provided with a ChatGPT-style answer, and it’ll be sourced so you can click through to the websites it drew the information from. This makes it a good alternative for people who aren’t quite sold on Perplexity AI and Copilot.
Asking YouChat about a trip to Spain. Image: Tech.co
You can use YouChat powered by GPT-3 without making an account, but if you sign in, you’ll be able to use GPT-4 and other premium “modes” for free. There’s now a “research” mode available, which YouChat says “provides analysis and topic explorations, with extensive citations and the ability to display information in an organized table.
13. Character AI
- Great fun & generates images
- Free plan: Yes
Character AI is a chatbot platform that lets users chat with different characters/personas, rather than just a plain old chatbot. In October 2023, the company had around 4 million active users spending an average of two hours a day on the platform, while the site’s subreddit has 893,000 members.
Pros:
- Some characters generate images
- highly customizable
- Users can make their own characters
- You can use chatbots made by other people
Cons:
- Some data privacy concerns
- Chatbots aren't very advanced
- Not suitable for work tasks
If you want to use Character AI, you’ll have to make an account. And, while it’s fun, we wouldn’t trust the information coming out of it as much as we would with Gemini or ChatGPT (although that’s not saying much).
Asking Napoleon Bonaparte a question with Character AI. Image: Tech.co
There have been questions raised previously about whether Character AI is safe, and what the company does with the data created by conversations with users.
Honorable Mentions & Other AI tools
Of course, the 11 chatbots that we’ve featured in this article aren’t the only chatbots out there. Some companies have built AI chatbots straight into their apps, like Snapchat did in February of last year with “My AI”. Snapchat also has an AI image generation tool built into their app.
Although we’d say Chatsonic edges it as the best content creation tool, Jasper AI is worth having a look at if that’s your use case. It’s very powerful, used by a significant number of businesses, and is just as useful as Writesonic (Chatsonic).
The only problem with Jasper is the price – the cheapest plan costs $39 per set, per month. Writesonic, which made our list above, costs just $13 per month for the small team plan and will be a better option for a lot of smaller businesses.
OpenAI playground, on the other hand, is a free, experimental tool that’s free to use and made available by ChatGPT creators OpenAI. You can switch between different language models easily, and adjust other settings that you can’t normally change while using ChatGPT. All in all, we’d recommend the OpenAI Playground to anyone interested in learning a little more about how ChatGPT works in a hands-on kind of way.
OpenAI Playground. Image: Tech.co
Like Character AI, Replika AI is a “companion” chatbot – rather than assisting with day-to-day tasks, it allows users to interact with human-generated AI personas. It was created by a company called Luka and has actually been available to the general public for over five years.
The big difference is that using Replika involves building an AI persona that fits into the more traditional, “companion”-style model. It can be built to almost “mirror” a user and even has therapeutic benefits. Character AI, on the other hand, lets users interact with chatbots that respond “in character”. However, it’s just not as advanced (or as fun) as Character AI, which is why it didn’t make our shortlist.
Other AI tools
Although ChatGPT and Gemini can paraphrase text well, Quillbot is worth a look if you need an AI companion for your written work that can paraphrase sentences, generate citations, and check your grammar. Quillbot has been around a lot longer than ChatGPT has and is used by millions of businesses worldwide (but remember, it’s not a chatbot!).
If you’re looking for an image generator and you’re not planning to pay for ChatGPT Plus, then look no further than MidJourney, which is widely considered to be among the best AI image generators currently available. You don’t need any graphic design software to use Midjourney, but you will have to sign up to Discord to use the service.
The Midjourney interface. Image: Tech.co
If you need an AI content detection tool, on the other hand, things are going to get a little more difficult. No AI content detection tool is 100% accurate and their results should be taken with a pinch of salt – Even OpenAI’s text classifier was so inaccurate they had to shut it down.
However, Originality.ai’s test results seem pretty impressive, and it’s considered more accurate than the likes of GPTZero and Duplichecker.
Is It Worth Upgrading to a Paid Plan?
Fortunately, most chatbots offer free plans that let you fire off prompts without paying a premium. Free packages, like those offered by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, offer surprisingly impressive capabilities, letting users write, plan, resolve queries using up-to-date data, and even create basic AI-generated images. For the casual AI user, these features will probably be enough to get by.
However, most free AI chatbots have pretty tight usage limits. For example, ChatGPT only lets free users send off 10 prompts every five hours, while Gemini Free limits requests to two per minute. If you’re relying on the chatbot heavily to streamline work or personal processes, we’d recommend increasing access through a paid plan. Paid plans offer much more advanced features too, like file uploads, advanced image creation, and enhanced audio recognition.
If you think you’d benefit from these features, the price of the paid plans will likely pay for itself within a short amount of time. Still unsure whether paying for a chatbot will be worth it? We’ve split some use cases into the two categories, to make it more clear.
Stick with a free plan if:
- You only use chatbots sporadically
- You aren’t interested in creating AI-generated images
- You don’t want to commit to one chatbot
- You use chatbots to assist with simple tasks like writing and problem-solving
You should upgrade to a paid plan if:
- You use chatbots regularly for work or personal purposes
- You want to generate high volumes of images
- You want to create your own GPT
- You want to use AI to assist with complex tasks like coding or data analysis
Tips On How to Use AI Responsibly
AI chatbots have a near-endless list of use cases and are undoubtedly very useful. But as is the case with any powerful yet freely available technology – not least one that helps workers save significant amounts of time during their working day – it’s important to be aware of the risks and ethical considerations, and use it responsibly.
Chatbots aren’t governed by any specific regulation – governments are only just getting around to exploring ways to manage AI development more broadly – and they’re made by a wide range of companies with different attitudes to the user relationship.
For instance, most chatbots have different policies that govern how they can use your data, as a user. These policies dictate how long companies like Google and OpenAI can store your data for, and whether they can use it for training purposes. Some chatbots, like ChatGPT, will let you turn your chat history on or off, which subsequently impacts whether your data will be stored. Claude, Character AI, and Grok all have different data privacy policies and terms of service.
This means it’s incredibly important to seek permission from your manager or supervisor before using AI at work. Some companies have banned their works from using ChatGPT over privacy fears, and if you’re dealing with sensitive information, from customer data to source codes, then you don’t want to breach your own company’s rules and regulations.
Of course, it’s also good to be upfront about whether you’re using AI for your own sake, considering 68.5% of business leaders we spoke to as part of a recent Tech.co survey think employees should be using AI without permission.