Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
Claude 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
Claude
4.6Pick it if: Anyone who writes, researches or makes decisions for a living, plus anyone curious about Claude Code.
DeepSeek
3.8Pick it if: Anyone who wants a strong reasoning assistant for free, and developers watching their API costs.
Perplexity
4.2Pick it if: Anyone who researches as part of their job and is sick of having ten tabs open.
Claude scores highest overall, but DeepSeek gives you more for your money. Which one is right comes down to what you value most.
Overview
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Anthropic's chat assistant, at its best on careful writing and long documents. | 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 | $20/mo | Pay per use | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | No | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.6Winner | 3.8 | 4.2 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow much it can do, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Claude | 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 | No | No | Yes |
| Makes video | No | 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 | 14/ 17 | 8/ 17 | 15/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Trying it out and light daily use. | Chat appOur pick Free Anyone who wants a capable reasoning assistant at no cost. | Free Free Everyday questions and quick fact-checks. |
ProOur pick $20/mo, or $17/mo billed yearly Anyone who uses it most days. | 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. | |
Max From $100/mo Heavy users and people living in Claude Code. | 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. | |
Team From $20/seat/mo billed yearly Businesses with 2 to 150 people. | Enterprise See website Teams that need admin controls and data protection. | ||
| Which plan to pick | Start on Free to see if the writing suits you. Most people who stick with it move to Pro within a month; only go to Max if you hit the Pro limits every day or you're running Claude Code for hours at a time. | 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 | Claude | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standout features |
|
|
|
Pros and cons
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pros |
|
|
|
| Cons |
|
|
|
Who each one is for
| Attribute | Claude | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for |
|
|
|
| You'll find it used by |
|
|
|
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability. The "Visit" buttons may use affiliate links, which never affect a score.
Swap in another tool
More ai assistants & llms tools from the library.
