Not everyone needs a $20 plan. Both OpenAI and Google now sell a budget tier that removes the free tier's daily friction — and the two plans take opposite approaches to what 'cheap' should include.
Gemini AI Plus ($4.99) is the best-value AI subscription anywhere — model access plus 400 GB storage and family sharing for a quarter of the usual price. ChatGPT Go ($8) buys a stronger pure assistant. Both are honest budget tiers, not crippled trials.
By OpenAI. Full ChatGPT profile →
By Google. Full Gemini profile →
Best for: Everyday writing, brainstorming, image generation, casual coding
Weakness: Output quality varies between model tiers; pricing tiers can confuse
From $0 (free)/mo. Top tier: $500/mo.
Best for: Google ecosystem users, video generation, very long documents (1M tokens)
Weakness: Quality lags ChatGPT/Claude on hard reasoning; UI changes constantly
From $0 (free)/mo. Top tier: $199.99/mo.
Pick ChatGPT Go if you want the better assistant, cheap: $8 keeps GPT-5.6 Terra with higher caps, image generation, voice mode and memory. It's the free ChatGPT experience without the ceiling.
Pick Gemini AI Plus if you want the most value per dollar in AI, full stop: $4.99 gets full Gemini Flash access, double limits, 400 GB of Google One storage, Gemini Notebook and family sharing for five people — the storage alone nearly pays for it. (Plus lost Gemini 3.1 Pro access on Oct 9, 2026; Pro is now an AI Pro/Ultra exclusive.)
Pure chat quality → Go. Value, storage and families → AI Plus. Either way you're saving $12–15/month over the standard tiers.
Gemini AI Plus at $4.99/month is the cheapest paid plan from any major AI provider. ChatGPT Go is next at $8/month. Both remove the free tiers' most annoying caps.
GPT-5.6 Terra plus GPT-5.4 mini with higher caps than free, image generation, voice mode, and memory & projects — for $8/month. Sol access and Deep Research remain Plus-only.
For almost any Google user, yes: full Gemini Flash access, 2× limits, Gemini Notebook, family sharing for 5, and 400 GB of storage that would cost ~$2/month on its own — all for $4.99. (Gemini 3.1 Pro access was removed from AI Plus on Oct 9, 2026.)