Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
Claude vs Microsoft Copilot vs DeepSeek
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.
Microsoft Copilot
3.6Pick it if: Businesses and people who spend their day in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams.
DeepSeek
3.8Pick it if: Anyone who wants a strong reasoning assistant for free, and developers watching their API costs.
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 | Microsoft Copilot | DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Anthropic's chat assistant, at its best on careful writing and long documents. | Microsoft's assistant, free on Windows and built into Word, Excel and Outlook. | A free Chinese assistant that's strong at maths, logic and code. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium | Free |
| Starting price | $20/mo | $9.99/mo | Pay per use |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | No | No |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Claude | Microsoft Copilot | DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.6Winner | 3.6 | 3.8 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| FeaturesHow much it can do, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 5.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Claude | Microsoft Copilot | DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | Yes | Yes | No |
| Browser extension | Yes | Yes | No |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | Yes | No |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | No | Yes |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Makes images | No | Yes | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | No |
| Learns your brand or style | Yes | No | No |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 14/ 17 | 14/ 17 | 8/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Claude | Microsoft Copilot | DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Trying it out and light daily use. | Free Free Trying Copilot chat on Windows or your phone. | Chat appOur pick Free Anyone who wants a capable reasoning assistant at no cost. |
ProOur pick $20/mo, or $17/mo billed yearly Anyone who uses it most days. | Microsoft 365 Personal $9.99/mo, or $99.99/yr One person who wants Office plus some Copilot. | API (deepseek-flash) Pay per use, from $0.15 per million input tokens Developers building cheap features into their own apps. | |
Max From $100/mo Heavy users and people living in Claude Code. | Microsoft 365 PremiumOur pick $19.99/mo, or $199.99/yr Sole traders and households who want the full Copilot in Office. | API (deepseek-v4-pro) Pay per use, from $0.66 per million input tokens Developers who want the stronger model. | |
Team From $20/seat/mo billed yearly Businesses with 2 to 150 people. | Microsoft 365 Copilot (business add-on) $30/user/mo billed yearly Businesses already on a Microsoft 365 business plan. | ||
| 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. | If you're a sole trader or a household already paying for Microsoft 365, Premium is the easy upgrade. For a business, the $30 add-on only makes sense for the people who live in Excel, Outlook and Teams meetings; give everyone else the free Copilot Chat and a Claude or ChatGPT seat. | 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. |
Key features
| Attribute | Claude | Microsoft Copilot | DeepSeek |
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Claude | Microsoft Copilot | DeepSeek |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Claude | Microsoft Copilot | DeepSeek |
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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.
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