Side-by-side comparison · AI Assistants & LLMs
Meta AI vs Perplexity vs Qwen Chat
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: Heavy WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook users, and Ray-Ban Meta glasses owners, who want a free assistant without installing anything new.
Pick it if: Anyone who researches as part of their job and is sick of having ten tabs open.
Pick it if: Anyone after a capable free assistant with image, video, slides and website tools, and developers who want open models.
Perplexity scores highest overall, but Qwen Chat gives you more for your money. Which one is right comes down to what you value most.
Overview
| Attribute | Meta AI | Perplexity | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Meta's free assistant, built into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Ray-Ban Meta glasses. | Ask a question and get a short answer from the web, with links to every source. | Alibaba's generous free assistant for research, slides, websites, images and video. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | $7.99/mo | $17/mo | $4/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | No | Yes | No |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Meta AI | Perplexity | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 3.9 | 4.2Winner | 4.0 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 3.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Meta AI | Perplexity | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | No | Yes | No |
| Browser extension | No | Yes | No |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | No | Yes | No |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | No | Yes | No |
| Connects to other apps | – | 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 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Makes video | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Writes code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | No | No | No |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 10/ 17 | 15/ 17 | 11/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Meta AI | Perplexity | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | FreeOur pick Free Almost everyone. Chat, search and voice cost nothing. | Free Free Everyday questions and quick fact-checks. | FreeOur pick Free Most people. The free limits are generous for chat and research. |
Meta One Core $7.99/mo People who make lots of AI images and clips for social. | ProOur pick $17/mo billed yearly Anyone who researches as part of their job. | Go $4/mo Regular users who want higher chat limits. | |
Meta One Premium $19.99/mo Heavy creators who keep hitting the Core limits. | Max $167/mo billed yearly Power users running the Computer agent all day. | Plus $19/mo Creators making images and video most days. | |
Enterprise Pro $34/seat/mo billed yearly Teams that need admin controls and data protection. | Pro $99/mo Heavy video and image users who need priority. | ||
Enterprise Max $271/seat/mo billed yearly Research teams working with large datasets and files. | |||
| Which plan to pick | Stay on the free plan. The paid Meta One bundles only raise image and video limits, and Meta doesn't publish the actual numbers, so only pay if you're making a lot of AI visuals for social. | 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. | Start free; most people never need to pay. Go at $4 is cheap if you hit the chat limits. Prices are App Store prices, so check the in-app screen before you subscribe. |
Key features
| Attribute | Meta AI | Perplexity | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standout features |
|
|
|
Pros and cons
| Attribute | Meta AI | Perplexity | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pros |
|
|
|
| Cons |
|
|
|
Who each one is for
| Attribute | Meta AI | Perplexity | Qwen Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for |
|
|
|
| You'll find it used by |
|
|
|
Questions people ask
Which is better, Meta AI, Perplexity or Qwen Chat?
Perplexity scores highest overall in our ratings (Meta AI 3.9/5, Perplexity 4.2/5 and Qwen Chat 4.0/5). Meta AI is best for quick answers inside WhatsApp or Instagram and free image and short video generation. Perplexity is best for fact-checking and quick research and competitor and market research. Qwen Chat is best for A free assistant that does a bit of everything and quick webpages and slide decks from a prompt.
Which is cheaper, Meta AI, Perplexity or Qwen Chat?
Meta AI: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $7.99/mo. Perplexity: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $17/mo. Qwen Chat: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $4/mo.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
Swap in another tool
More tools from AI Assistants & LLMs in the library.
