Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
ChatGPT vs DeepSeek vs Kimi
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Anyone who wants one general-purpose assistant that handles most everyday jobs.
Pick it if: Anyone who wants a strong reasoning assistant for free, and developers watching their API costs.
Pick it if: People who want an agent to produce finished slides, documents, spreadsheets and websites, and developers after a cheaper coding model.
ChatGPT scores highest overall, but DeepSeek gives you more for your money. Which one is right comes down to what you value most.
Overview
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | OpenAI's all-rounder: chat, images, voice, web search and agents in one app. | A free Chinese assistant that's strong at maths, logic and code. | Moonshot AI's assistant with a strong agent for slides, documents, sheets and websites. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Free | Freemium |
| Starting price | $8/mo | Pay per use | $19/mo or $15/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | No | No | No |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.3Winner | 3.8 | 3.8 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers the job it's built for, and how well the pieces fit together. | 5.0 | 3.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.0 | 5.0 | 3.5 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser extension | Yes | No | No |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | No | – |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | No | No |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | No | No |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | Yes | Yes |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Makes images | Yes | No | – |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | No | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | Yes | No | No |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 15/ 17 | 8/ 17 | 10/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Kimi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Trying it out and everyday questions. | Chat appOur pick Free Anyone who wants a capable reasoning assistant at no cost. | Adagio Free Trying the chat and a taste of the agent. |
Go $8/mo Casual users who hit the free limits. | API (deepseek-flash) Pay per use, from $0.15 per million input tokens Developers building cheap features into their own apps. | PlusOur pick $19/mo or $15/mo billed yearly Anyone who wants to use the agent most weeks. | |
PlusOur pick $20/mo Anyone using it most days for work. | API (deepseek-v4-pro) Pay per use, from $0.66 per million input tokens Developers who want the stronger model. | Pro $39/mo or $31/mo billed yearly Regular users who run out of credits on Plus. | |
Pro From $100/mo Heavy users and people living in Codex. | Max $99/mo or $79/mo billed yearly Heavy users running several jobs at once. | ||
Business See website Teams from 2 people up. | Ultra $199/mo or $159/mo billed yearly Power users running agents all day. | ||
| Which plan to pick | The free plan is now good enough to use properly, so stay on it until the image, voice or research limits annoy you. Plus is the sensible upgrade. Only look at Pro if you run Codex or deep research all day, and read the current tier details first: Pro 200 now comes with a smaller allowance than it did before 29 September. | The app is free, so the only decision is whether the privacy trade-off is acceptable for what you're asking. If you need the model inside your own software, have a developer use the API or run the open model through a provider that keeps your data in Australia. | Try the free plan to see the agent's output. If you like it, Plus at $19 is the sensible plan, and the yearly price drops it to $15. Only move up if you keep running out of credits, which long Swarm jobs do quickly. |
Key features
Pros and cons
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Kimi |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Kimi |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, ChatGPT, DeepSeek or Kimi?
ChatGPT scores highest overall in our ratings (ChatGPT 4.3/5, DeepSeek 3.8/5 and Kimi 3.8/5). ChatGPT is best for everyday questions and brainstorming and making and editing images in the chat. DeepSeek is best for Maths, logic and step-by-step problems and coding help. Kimi is best for turning a brief into a slide deck and research reports and document drafts.
Which is cheaper, ChatGPT, DeepSeek or Kimi?
ChatGPT: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $8/mo. DeepSeek: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at Pay per use. Kimi: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $19/mo or $15/mo.
Which is easier to use, ChatGPT, DeepSeek or Kimi?
ChatGPT rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Anyone who wants one general-purpose assistant that handles most everyday jobs.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
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