ChatGPT vs Perplexity
Pricing
ChatGPT: Free tier, paid from $8/mo (Plus $20/mo, Pro from $100/mo)
Perplexity: Free tier, Pro $17/mo billed yearly, Max $167/mo billed yearly
Description
ChatGPT: OpenAI's AI assistant for writing, research, analysis, images and voice, with the Codex coding agent included
Perplexity: AI answer engine that searches the web and answers with inline citations, using models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others
Pros
- The free plan includes unlimited text chats with GPT-6, within abuse guardrails
- Plus adds deep research, projects, scheduled tasks, custom GPTs and more Codex usage
- Apps for web, iOS, Android and desktop, with voice chats on every plan
- Every answer includes inline citations, so you can check where each claim comes from
- Pro lets you choose the model, such as GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Grok 4.7
- The free plan allows practically unlimited basic searches
Cons
- The $8 Go plan may show ads
- Your chats can be used to train OpenAI's models unless you opt out
- Most plan limits (uploads, images, deep research, Codex) are described as limited or expanded rather than given as numbers
- The pricing page describes Pro and Max as for personal use only; business use goes through Enterprise Pro, from $40 per seat a month
- The free plan has 3 Pro Searches a day, 1 research query a month, and no advanced models or image generation
- On Pro, your data can be used for AI training unless you opt out
Details
ChatGPT is OpenAI’s assistant. Besides chat, it searches the web, works with files and spreadsheets, creates images, holds voice conversations and takes on multi-step work in ChatGPT Work. Codex, OpenAI’s coding agent, is included in the same plans.
Go ($8/month) mainly raises the free limits. Plus ($20/month) is where the advanced reasoning models, projects, scheduled tasks and fuller Codex access start. Pro starts at $100 a month in three usage tiers, for people who use it all day.
Business plans for teams start at two users. OpenAI’s API is billed separately from any ChatGPT plan.
Perplexity is an answer engine. You ask a question, it searches the web and writes an answer with inline citations to the sources it used, and you can follow up from there. Pro adds deeper research, file and app creation, image and video generation and a choice of model for each question.
It suits founders who do a lot of market and competitor research and want to see the source behind every claim. Its agent, Perplexity Computer, can also build documents, apps and tools from a prompt, and Pro includes expanded access to it.
Pro costs $17 a month and Max $167 a month, both billed yearly; Max adds the highest limits and frontier models. Teams and companies are pointed to Enterprise Pro, priced per seat from $40 a month or $400 a year.
Verified
