Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
Claude vs Kimi 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 writes, researches or makes decisions for a living, plus anyone curious about Claude Code.
Pick it if: People who want an agent to produce finished slides, documents, spreadsheets and websites, and developers after a cheaper coding model.
Pick it if: Anyone who researches as part of their job and is sick of having ten tabs open.
Overview
| Attribute | Claude | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Anthropic's chat assistant, at its best on careful writing and long documents. | Moonshot AI's assistant with a strong agent for slides, documents, sheets and websites. | Ask a question and get a short answer from the web, with links to every source. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | $20/mo | $19/mo or $15/mo | $17/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 | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.6Winner | 3.8 | 4.2 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers the job it's built for, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 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 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.5 | 3.0 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Claude | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Browser extension | Yes | No | Yes |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | – | 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 | – | Yes |
| Makes video | No | No | Yes |
| Writes code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | Yes | No | No |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 14/ 17 | 10/ 17 | 15/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Claude | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Trying it out and light daily use. | Adagio Free Trying the chat and a taste of the agent. | Free Free Everyday questions and quick fact-checks. |
ProOur pick $20/mo, or $17/mo billed yearly Anyone who uses it most days. | PlusOur pick $19/mo or $15/mo billed yearly Anyone who wants to use the agent most weeks. | ProOur pick $17/mo billed yearly Anyone who researches as part of their job. | |
Max From $100/mo Heavy users and people living in Claude Code. | Pro $39/mo or $31/mo billed yearly Regular users who run out of credits on Plus. | Max $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. | Max $99/mo or $79/mo billed yearly Heavy users running several jobs at once. | Enterprise Pro $34/seat/mo billed yearly Teams that need admin controls and data protection. | |
Ultra $199/mo or $159/mo billed yearly Power users running agents all day. | Enterprise Max $271/seat/mo billed yearly Research teams working with large datasets and files. | ||
| 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. | 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. | Start free and see how often you hit the Pro search limit. If you research most days, Pro pays for itself in saved tabs. Its 4,000 bonus Computer credits are a one-off and run out after about 30 days, so don't count them as a monthly allowance. Max only makes sense if you're using the Computer agent heavily enough to burn through the credits. |
Key features
| Attribute | Claude | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Claude | Kimi | Perplexity |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Claude | Kimi | Perplexity |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude, Kimi or Perplexity?
Claude scores highest overall in our ratings (Claude 4.6/5, Kimi 3.8/5 and Perplexity 4.2/5). Claude is best for long-form writing and editing and reading and summarising long documents. Kimi is best for turning a brief into a slide deck and research reports and document drafts. Perplexity is best for fact-checking and quick research and competitor and market research.
Which is cheaper, Claude, Kimi or Perplexity?
Claude: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo. Kimi: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $19/mo or $15/mo. Perplexity: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $17/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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