DeepSeek vs ChatGPT vs Claude

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 23 September 2026.

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

Compared on	DeepSeek Free Visit Remove	ChatGPT Free plan · from $8/mo Visit Remove	Claude Free plan · from $17/mo Visit Remove
What it is	Free AI chat app and pay-per-token API from Chinese AI company DeepSeek	OpenAI's AI chat assistant for writing, research, images, voice and coding	Anthropic's AI assistant for writing, analysis, research and coding
Free plan	Yes	Unlimited text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna (subject to abuse guardrails); limited uploads, image generation, voice chats, deep research, memory and Codex access	Chat on web, desktop and mobile with web search, file creation, code execution, memory, app connections and artifacts; less usage than Pro; no Claude Code or projects
Cheapest paid plan	FreeDeepSeek pricing	$8/mo (Go)ChatGPT pricing	$17/mo billed annually (Pro)Claude pricing
What it covers	Not stated	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.	Annual billing is $200 paid up front. Includes Claude Code.
Free trial	None stated	None stated	None stated
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android, API	Web, iOS, Android, macOS	Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Chrome extension, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Open source	No	No	No
Good for	Everyday questions and drafting at no cost Summarising uploaded documents Developers running high-volume text tasks through the API	Drafting and editing emails, reports and posts Researching a topic with web search and deep research Analysing a spreadsheet or document you upload	Drafting and editing long documents and emails Summarising and analysing uploaded files Researching a topic with web search
Watch out for	API prices are higher at peak times (01:00-04:00 and 06:00-10:00 UTC on weekdays) The deepseek-v4-pro API model does not accept images No team or business subscription is listed on the pricing page	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	Claude Code, projects and task scheduling are not in the Free plan Usage limits apply on Free and Pro; Max raises them 5x or 20x Enterprise adds usage billed at API rates on top of the seat price
Made by	DeepSeek	OpenAI	Anthropic

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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