Perplexity Pro costs $20/mo and Max $200/mo. It's excellent at cited search, but weaker for creative writing or open-ended chat, which is why many users want one tool that does both.
Gemini AI Pro is the best all-in-one alternative: Deep Research plus a full assistant for about the same price. ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo) suits people who want writing and research in one place. For research on your own files, NotebookLM is free.
| App | Free tier | Paid from | Top plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | Yes | $20/mo | $200/mo | Research with verifiable sources, fact-checking, exploring unfamiliar topics |
| Gemini | Yes | $4.99/mo | $99.99–199.99/mo | Google ecosystem users, video generation, very long documents (1M tokens) |
| ChatGPT | Yes | $8/mo | $500/mo | Everyday writing, brainstorming, image generation, casual coding |
| NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook) | Yes | $4.99/mo | $99.99–199.99/mo | Students, researchers, and analysts who need grounded answers and audio summaries from their own documents |
| Claude | Yes | $20/mo | $100–200/mo | Document analysis, research papers, nuanced writing, software engineering |
| Grok | Yes | $30–40/mo | $300/mo | Current events, X/Twitter integration, less-filtered responses |
Monthly prices in US dollars before tax, from each vendor's official pricing (US list price; weekly-billed plans converted to a monthly figure). Updated October 7, 2026
AI Pro includes Deep Research for structured reports, a 1M-token context for long sources and the full Gemini assistant; the free tier is generous for quick lookups.
Pick it if: you want cited research reports and a general assistant on one bill.
Full Gemini pricing →Plus includes 10 Deep Research runs a month and web browsing alongside unlimited chat, so one tool covers finding, drafting and editing.
Pick it if: you research to produce documents and Perplexity's writing feels thin.
Full ChatGPT pricing →NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook) answers only from documents you upload, with 50 queries and 3 Audio Overviews a day on the free tier.
Pick it if: your research starts from papers, reports or notes rather than the open web.
Full NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook) pricing →Claude Pro includes Research access and is built for document analysis and research papers, with careful reasoning over what it reads.
Pick it if: you need deep analysis of sources more than fast web lookups.
Full Claude pricing →Grok has real-time search and direct access to the X timeline; SuperGrok adds Deep search.
Pick it if: you track current events and X discussion, and accept a pricier plan.
Full Grok pricing →Gemini's free tier and NotebookLM are the strongest free options. Perplexity's own free tier is also decent: unlimited quick searches and 5 Pro searches a day.
Perplexity is better at quick, cited answers. ChatGPT Plus is better when you need to turn research into writing; it includes 10 Deep Research runs a month.
How we choose: prices come from each vendor's official pricing page and are re-checked every week. We take no affiliate fees, so rankings aren't for sale.