Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
ChatGPT vs DeepSeek vs Perplexity
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: Anyone who researches as part of their job and is sick of having ten tabs open.
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 | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | Ask a question and get a short answer from the web, with links to every source. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Free | Freemium |
| Starting price | $8/mo | Pay per use | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | No | No | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.3Winner | 3.8 | 4.2 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers the job it's built for, and how well the pieces fit together. | 5.0 | 3.0 | 3.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | Yes | No | Yes |
| Browser extension | Yes | No | Yes |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | No | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | No | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | No | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | Yes | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Makes images | Yes | No | Yes |
| Makes video | Yes | No | Yes |
| 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 | 16/ 17 | 8/ 17 | 15/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Trying it out and everyday questions. | Chat appOur pick Free Anyone who wants a capable reasoning assistant at no cost. | Free Free Everyday questions and quick fact-checks. |
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. | ProOur pick $20/mo, or $17/mo billed yearly Anyone who researches as part of their job. | |
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. | Max $200/mo, or $167/mo billed yearly Power users running the Computer agent all day. | |
Pro From $100/mo Heavy users and people living in Codex. | Enterprise See website Teams that need admin controls and data protection. | ||
Business See website Teams from 2 people up. | |||
| 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 because they keep changing. | 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. | Start free and see how often you hit the Pro search limit. If you research most days, Pro pays for itself in saved tabs. Max only makes sense if you're using the Computer agent heavily enough to burn through the credits. |
Key features
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | ChatGPT | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, ChatGPT, DeepSeek or Perplexity?
ChatGPT scores highest overall in our ratings (ChatGPT 4.3/5, DeepSeek 3.8/5 and Perplexity 4.2/5). 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. Perplexity is best for fact-checking and quick research and competitor and market research.
Which is cheaper, ChatGPT, DeepSeek or Perplexity?
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. Perplexity: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo.
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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