Finding the possibilities
Shortlist · checked Oct 4, 2026
Best AI chatbots
General chatbots now compete on subscription price, free-tier limits and API access more than on the chat window itself. Compare what each plan includes before choosing.
- Lowest listed start
- Gemini · $4.99/mo
- With a free plan
- 9 of 10
- With API access
- 9 of 10
What to compare
- What the free plan allows before you hit limits
- Starting price of the paid plan and what it unlocks
- API availability and how it is billed separately
- Benchmark standing, where we have it
- 01
ChatGPT
OpenAI’s consumer chat app for drafting, research, coding help, and multimodal tasks in a single conversation thread. Paid tiers raise model access and usage caps; the developer API is billed separately from the web subscription.
This is a shortlist, not a ranking by quality. Tools are ordered by fit for the task, and every price, free-tier and API statement comes from the vendor's own pages on the date shown. Where a figure could not be confirmed it is marked as such.
AI chatbots: common questions
What is the best free AI chatbot?
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok have an ongoing free plan in this list. Free plans change and often cap usage, so check the vendor before relying on one.
What is the cheapest paid option?
Gemini has the lowest listed starting price in this list at $4.99/mo per month. Some prices are quoted for annual billing; each tool's page shows the billing basis.
Which of these have an API?
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek mention API or developer access. Check each vendor for API pricing, which is usually billed separately.
