Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
Google Gemini 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: People whose work already runs on Gmail, Google Workspace or an Android phone.
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 | Google Gemini | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Google's assistant, built into Gmail, Docs, Drive and Android phones. | 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 | US$4.99/mo | $19/mo or $15/mo | $17/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 | Google Gemini | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.2 | 3.8 | 4.2 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 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 | 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 | Google Gemini | 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 | Yes | – | Yes |
| Makes video | Yes | 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 | 16/ 17 | 10/ 17 | 15/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Google Gemini | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free Free Light use and seeing how it feels. | Adagio Free Trying the chat and a taste of the agent. | Free Free Everyday questions and quick fact-checks. |
Google AI Plus US$4.99/mo Casual users who want Gemini in Gmail and more storage. | 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. | |
Google AI ProOur pick US$19.99/mo Anyone who works in Google Workspace every day. | 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. | |
Google AI Ultra From US$99.99/mo Heavy creative and agent users. | 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 | Skip the free plan for anything serious now that it's Flash-Lite only. AI Pro (US$19.99, or A$32.99 in Australia) is the one to buy: it's the cheapest way to get Gemini 4 Argon plus Gemini in Docs and Gmail, and the 5 TB of storage offsets a Google One bill. Ultra is for people generating video all day. | 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 | Google Gemini | Kimi | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Google Gemini | Kimi | Perplexity |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Google Gemini | Kimi | Perplexity |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Google Gemini, Kimi or Perplexity?
They tie on our overall rating (Google Gemini 4.2/5, Kimi 3.8/5 and Perplexity 4.2/5). Google Gemini is best for searching and summarising your Gmail and drafting in Google Docs. 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, Google Gemini, Kimi or Perplexity?
Google Gemini: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at US$4.99/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.
Which is easier to use, Google Gemini, Kimi or Perplexity?
Perplexity rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Anyone who researches as part of their job and is sick of having ten tabs open.
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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