ChatGPT vs Perplexity

Pick up to 4 tools and see their free plans, entry prices, platforms and limits in one table. Every fact comes from each vendor's own pages, checked 16 October 2026.

Written head to head: ChatGPT vs Perplexity, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	ChatGPT Free plan · from $8/mo Visit Remove	Perplexity Free plan · from $17/mo Visit Remove
What it is	OpenAI's AI chat assistant for writing, research, images, voice and coding	AI answer engine that replies with cited sources from the web
Free plan	Unlimited text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna (subject to abuse guardrails); limited uploads, image generation, voice chats, deep research, memory and Codex access	Limited daily usage, basic AI models and citations in every answer; limited web answers, file uploads and asset generation; no video generation, app connectors or Computer credits
Cheapest paid plan	$8/mo (Go)ChatGPT pricing	$17/mo billed annually (Pro)Perplexity pricing
What it covers	Go may include ads. Plus is $20/month. OpenAI's FAQ says Go and Plus are sold as monthly plans; annual plans are for Business and Enterprise.	$200 a year on annual billing; the developer API is billed separately, per token and per request.
Free trial	None stated	None stated
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android, macOS	Web, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	400+ app connectors
Open source	No	No
Good for	Drafting and editing emails, reports and posts Researching a topic with web search and deep research Analysing a spreadsheet or document you upload	Getting a sourced answer to a factual question Researching a market or competitor with cited sources Comparing products or prices across the web
Watch out for	Free and Go have limited uploads, image generation, voice, deep research and Codex access The Go plan may include ads Business plans start at 2 users; Enterprise and Edu pricing requires contacting sales	The Free plan has limited daily usage and basic models Among individual plans, monthly Computer credits (10,000) are included only in Max Individual plans are for personal use only
Made by	OpenAI	Perplexity AI

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

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