Consumer AI assistants: free tiers, subscription plans and apps to download.
Updated
OpenAI's AI assistant for the web, Windows, macOS and phones, used for everyday questions, writing, images and voice conversations.
Anthropic's assistant for the web, desktop and phones, often chosen for long documents, writing and analysis. It runs in the cloud, not as a local model.
Google's AI assistant on the web and in the Android app, connected to Google services — a good match for people who live in Google's apps.
Microsoft's consumer assistant, available in Windows, on the web and on phones, and tied to your Microsoft account.
Answer engine that searches the web and cites its sources, so every claim comes with a link you can check.
Free chat assistant from DeepSeek on the web and on phones, giving access to the company's own models.
Grok is xAI's assistant, available in its own app and built into X, with a focus on current topics.
Mistral AI's assistant, which used to be called Le Chat, offering a European alternative to ChatGPT.
This page gathers the consumer AI apps: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok and Mistral Vibe. They are the simplest way to use a strong model — sign in, type or speak, attach a photo or a file — without keys, code or hardware of your own.
Prices come from the vendors' pricing pages. We re-read those pages every month; when a price no longer matches, it is reviewed by hand before the card changes, so a price can lag behind a very recent change. Prices are in the vendor's currency and may vary by country and tax.
A subscription covers use of the app. It does not include API access for your own programs — that is billed separately, per token, by the API providers. If you only chat, a plan is predictable; if you build something, the API is the right door.
Most apps offer a free tier, so trying two or three costs nothing. Differences show up in the details: Perplexity answers with sources you can check, Gemini and Copilot connect to the services of Google and Microsoft, Claude and ChatGPT handle long documents and projects. The models behind the apps are ranked on the text leaderboard, which helps when you compare what a paid plan unlocks.
Remember that everything you type into these apps is processed in the vendor's cloud under its privacy terms, and some vendors use conversations to train models unless you switch that off in the settings. If privacy matters more than convenience, consider running a model on your own computer instead: see the local LLM apps.