CHATBOTS · 5 TOOLS COMPARED

Free ChatGPT alternatives.

ChatGPT: ongoing free plan. Unlimited everyday text chats on GPT-5.6 Luna, subject to abuse-prevention safeguards; uploads, images, voice, and data analysis have separate limits. Below, 4 other chatbots tools are compared on what their free access actually includes; 4 of them have an ongoing free plan or free local software.

Built from each tool's reviewed official sources · latest review Oct 4, 2026

Detail	ChatGPT	Claude	DeepSeek	Google Gemini	Microsoft Copilot
Access	Ongoing free plan	Ongoing free plan	Ongoing free plan	Ongoing free plan	Ongoing free plan
Free allowance	Unlimited everyday text chats on GPT-5.6 Luna, subject to abuse-prevention safeguards; uploads, images, voice, and data analysis have separate limits.	Free use includes web search, extended thinking, files, code execution, memory, and connectors, with unpublished usage limits.	DeepSeek advertises its consumer app as free, without ads or in-app purchases; it does not publish a stable usage allowance.	No-plan accounts get standard, compute-based access to Gemini models and major tools, refreshing every five hours within a weekly limit.	Free Copilot offers web-grounded chat and Edge insights; signed-in users also get history, images, longer chats, voice, and files.
Commercial use on free	Not confirmed	Not confirmed	Not confirmed	Not confirmed	Not confirmed
Card required	No	No	No	No	No
Paid plan	Paid individual plans are Go, Plus, and Pro. See current pricing for regional availability and prices.	Pro: $20/month, or $17/month effective when $200 is billed annually; includes more usage and additional Claude products.	The consumer app is free. DeepSeek API access is priced separately.	Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra raise Gemini limits and context size. See current regional pricing.	Microsoft 365 Personal: $9.99/month; includes desktop apps with Copilot, 1 TB storage, and higher AI usage than free.
Sources reviewed	Oct 4, 2026	Oct 4, 2026	Oct 4, 2026	Sep 23, 2026	Oct 4, 2026

“Not confirmed” means the reviewed sources did not answer it; it is not a yes. Follow each tool page for its sources.

Claude

Chatbots

General assistant for thoughtful writing, coding, web research, file creation, data visualization, and connected workplace context.

Ongoing free plan

Free use includes web search, extended thinking, files, code execution, memory, and connectors, with unpublished usage limits.

↳Long-form writing and careful document work

Keep in mindThe free allowance is qualitative and variable. Research and additional models require Pro; commercial permissions remain unknown.

See plan details Sources reviewed
Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek

Chatbots

Free cross-platform AI chat with web search, Deep-Think reasoning, file upload, text extraction, and synced history.

Ongoing free plan

DeepSeek advertises its consumer app as free, without ads or in-app purchases; it does not publish a stable usage allowance.

↳Free reasoning and file-based chat

Keep in mindConsumer limits and commercial output permissions are not stated. An email, Google, or Apple login is required for synced app use.

See plan details Sources reviewed
Oct 4, 2026

Google Gemini

Chatbots

Google assistant with multimodal chat, Deep Research, Canvas, Gems, connected apps, image generation, and study tools.

Ongoing free plan

No-plan accounts get standard, compute-based access to Gemini models and major tools, refreshing every five hours within a weekly limit.

↳Google users wanting research and connected apps

Keep in mindGoogle may change limits without notice, and compute-heavy features can become unavailable for free users during high demand.

See plan details Sources reviewed
Sep 23, 2026

Microsoft Copilot

Chatbots

Free web-grounded assistant for questions, writing, brainstorming, summaries, image creation, voice, files, and Edge page insights.

Ongoing free plan

Free Copilot offers web-grounded chat and Edge insights; signed-in users also get history, images, longer chats, voice, and files.

↳Web answers and Microsoft Edge users

Keep in mindLimits are unpublished and capacity-based. Microsoft 365 app integration needs an eligible subscription and applies only to the subscription owner.

See plan details Sources reviewed
Oct 4, 2026

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