Let’s be honest. ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month adds up. That’s $240 a year for a chatbot.

I paid for it for a while, but then I started wondering what else was out there. Turns out, there are several free alternatives that rival ChatGPT in many areas. Some are actually better for specific tasks.

Here’s a breakdown of 9 free AI chatbots I’ve tested in 2025. Not just surface-level overviews, but practical tips on how to actually use them, hidden features worth knowing, and ways to get premium access for free.

 

 

 

01. Google Gemini – The Obvious Choice for Google Users

Link: gemini.google.com

If you have a Google account, you’re five seconds away from using Gemini. No separate signup required.

What You Get for Free

As of December 2025, free users get access to Gemini 2.5 Flash by default, with limited access to Gemini 2.5 Pro. The recently announced Gemini 3 is also available in preview. For a free tier, this is about as good as it gets.

Here’s what’s included: file uploads up to 10 files per prompt (100MB each), so you can drop in a PDF and ask for a summary of page 3. Deep Research is available with usage limits—Gemini will search, analyze multiple sources, and compile a structured report for complex topics. Gemini Live voice conversations work on both Android and iOS, for free. ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode requires a paid plan.

Tips to Get More Out of It

Use Google Workspace integration: Gemini connects with Gmail, Google Docs, Drive, and Calendar. You can ask things like “Find the email from John last week about the Q3 budget.” Enable this in Settings → Extensions → Google Workspace.

How to trigger Deep Research: Ask a complex question that requires multi-source analysis. Gemini will ask if you want to use Deep Research. Accept, and it’ll create a research plan, gather information, and generate a structured report. Free users have limited uses, so save it for topics that actually need it.

Starting Gemini Live: In the mobile app, tap the Live button next to the microphone. You can have a voice conversation, interrupt mid-sentence, ask follow-ups, and Gemini maintains context throughout. Useful when you’re driving or your hands are occupied.

Free Premium for Students

Students can get Google AI Pro free for one year by verifying with a school email at gemini.google/students. This is the $19.99/month plan that includes expanded Gemini 2.5 Pro access, unlimited Deep Research, NotebookLM Plus, and 2TB cloud storage. Eligible countries include the US, UK, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, and others. Deadline is January 31, 2026.

 

 

 

02. Claude – Best for Long Documents and Writing

Link: claude.ai

Claude is made by Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI researchers. It uses “Constitutional AI” principles, which in practice means responses tend to be more thoughtful and careful compared to ChatGPT.

Why Claude Stands Out

200,000 token context window: ChatGPT’s free tier handles roughly 8,000-32,000 tokens. Claude handles 200,000. That’s roughly a full book’s worth of text without losing track of earlier content. For analyzing long contracts, research papers, or large codebases, this makes a real difference.

Writing quality: In public benchmarks, Claude consistently scores higher than ChatGPT for creative writing tasks. The output tends to be more natural and varied. ChatGPT often starts with “In the rapidly evolving world of…” while Claude produces more human-sounding prose.

What’s Included in Free

Free users get Claude Sonnet 4.5, with limited access to Opus 4.1 (the more powerful model). There’s a daily message limit of around 30 messages, resetting at midnight UTC. Since March 2025, web search is available—toggle it on in the chat interface for queries that need current information.

Artifacts – Don’t Sleep on This Feature

When you ask Claude to create code, documents, or designs, a separate panel appears showing the output in real-time. Ask for “a simple to-do list web app” and you’ll see a working app in the side panel, with the code visible and editable.

Practical uses: “Build a React dashboard component,” “Create a chart from this data,” “Design an SVG icon.” The output renders live, and you can copy the code directly into your project. This is free.

Projects for Persistent Context

Claude’s Projects feature lets you store background information, files, and instructions that apply to all conversations within that project. Set up a project for a client, upload their brand guidelines and product docs, and every chat in that project will have that context automatically. No need to re-explain every time.

 

 

 

03. Microsoft Copilot – Already Installed on Windows 11

Link: copilot.microsoft.com or press Windows + C

If you’re on Windows 11, Copilot is already there. Look for the icon in your taskbar. No installation or signup needed to start.

GPT-5 Is Free Here

Since August 2025, GPT-5 powers Copilot. OpenAI’s latest model, free to use. Microsoft is clearly investing heavily in this.

Free features include GPT-5 text generation, DALL-E 3 image generation, Copilot Vision for camera/screen recognition, and Copilot Voice for spoken conversations. That voice feature costs money on ChatGPT but is free on Copilot.

Copilot Vision – Point and Ask

On mobile, you can use your camera to show Copilot something and ask about it. Practical examples: photograph a plant and ask what it is and how to care for it, capture a foreign-language menu for translation, point at an appliance button to learn what it does, or snap a math problem to get it solved.

On desktop, Vision can see your screen. While browsing, you can ask Copilot to summarize the page you’re viewing or explain a section you’ve highlighted.

Edge Browser Integration

If you use Edge, enable Copilot Mode in browser settings. It gives you AI assistance while browsing—summarizing articles, comparing products, answering questions about page content without switching tabs.

What Requires Payment

Using Copilot inside Word, Excel, or PowerPoint requires Copilot Pro ($20/month) or Microsoft 365 Copilot (enterprise). The free version only works in the standalone app or web interface. For general AI chat, search, and image generation, free is plenty.

 

 

 

04. Perplexity – AI Search with Sources

Link: perplexity.ai

Perplexity is less of a chatbot and more of an AI-powered search engine. The key difference: every response includes source links. You can verify any claim by clicking through to the original source.

This matters because AI hallucinations are a real problem. Perplexity shows its work, so you can fact-check anything that seems off. For research tasks, this is invaluable.

Free vs Pro

Free users get unlimited Quick Search powered by Perplexity’s Sonar model (based on Meta Llama 3.3 70B, 128K context window). Pro Search—which breaks down complex questions into multiple steps for deeper analysis—is available about 5 times per day for free users. Use Quick Search for straightforward questions, save Pro Search for topics that need real depth.

Source Filtering – Use This

When searching, you can choose which sources Perplexity pulls from. Click “Focus” below the search bar. Options include All (entire web), Academic (scholarly papers only), YouTube (video content), Reddit (community discussions), and News (news articles only).

Same question, different Focus settings, completely different results. Searching “machine learning trends” with Academic Focus gives paper-based insights. With Reddit Focus, you get practitioner perspectives and real-world experiences.

Collections for Organizing Research

Group related searches into Collections. Create one for a project, save relevant searches there, and access everything in one place later. Available to free users.

How to Get Pro for Free

Perplexity Pro normally costs $20/month, but there are several ways to get it free.

Students and educators: Verify with a school email (.edu, .ac, etc.) at perplexity.ai/education for 12 months free. Includes access to GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4, and other premium models.

Xfinity customers: Claim a free year through xfinity.com/rewards.

PayPal/Venmo users: Check for promotional offers through those platforms.

Samsung/Motorola phone buyers: Devices released in 2025 (Galaxy series, Motorola Razr/Edge) often include 3-12 months of Pro. Check during phone setup—Perplexity comes preinstalled.

 

 

 

05. DeepSeek – Completely Free with GPT-4 Level Performance

Link: chat.deepseek.com

DeepSeek made headlines in early 2025 when it hit #1 on the App Store, beating ChatGPT. US media called it an “AI Sputnik moment.” The story: a Chinese company achieved GPT-4-class performance for roughly $6 million in training costs.

Actually Free, No Catches

No subscription, no message limits, no premium feature locks. Everything is open. You can use basic features without an account, or sign up with Gmail to save chat history.

R1 vs V3 – Which to Use

DeepSeek V3 (currently V3.2-exp): General-purpose model for conversation, writing, and information tasks. 67 billion parameters, 128K token context.

DeepSeek R1: Specialized for reasoning. It shows its thinking process step-by-step, explaining how it arrives at answers. Strong for math, logic problems, and coding.

Toggle Deep Think mode in the chat interface to switch to R1. Use it when you need the AI to work through a problem methodically.

Why Developers Like It

DeepSeek scores well on coding benchmarks—code generation, debugging, and explanation. It’s open source under MIT license, meaning you can download and run it on your own servers.

API pricing is roughly 30x cheaper than OpenAI: about $0.55 per million input tokens and $2.19 per million output tokens as of February 2025. For startups or indie developers adding AI features, this changes the economics significantly.

What You Should Know

Being upfront here: DeepSeek is a Chinese service with some considerations.

Content restrictions: Chinese government policy means certain political topics (Tiananmen, Taiwan independence, etc.) get deflected or censored responses.

Data privacy: User data is sent to Chinese servers. Several regulatory bodies, including South Korea’s PIPC, have raised concerns. In February 2025, PIPC confirmed DeepSeek was sharing data with ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company).

Practical guidance: Avoid using it for sensitive business information or personal data. For general learning, coding practice, math problems, and non-sensitive tasks, it’s excellent value for a completely free service.

 

 

 

06. Meta AI – AI Built Into Apps You Already Use

Link: meta.ai or within Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp/Messenger

Meta AI runs on Meta’s Llama 4 model (released April 2025) and has over 600 million monthly users. It’s completely free.

Access Without Switching Apps

The main advantage is that it’s integrated into platforms you probably already use.

Instagram: Find Meta AI in the search bar or start a DM with it. Browse your feed, ask a question, get an answer, continue browsing.

WhatsApp: Meta AI appears at the top of your chat list or in new chat search. Chat with it like you would a contact.

Facebook/Messenger: Same approach—search for Meta AI and start a conversation.

Standalone: Visit meta.ai or download the dedicated Meta AI app (launched April 2025).

Free Image Generation

Ask “draw a cat wearing a space suit” and it generates the image. This feature costs money elsewhere. Meta AI includes it free.

“Imagine yourself” feature: Upload your photo and describe a scenario (“me on a beach at sunset”) to generate images featuring yourself in different situations.

Personalization

Tell Meta AI about yourself (“I’m interested in photography and live in Seattle”) and it remembers for future conversations. It can also draw on information you’ve shared on Meta platforms (profile, liked content) to give more relevant responses.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses

If you have Ray-Ban Meta glasses, you can activate Meta AI by voice and ask questions hands-free. Point the camera at something and ask what it is. Available in the US and expanding to other countries.

 

 

 

07. Poe – One Platform, 100+ AI Models

Link: poe.com

Poe, built by Quora, isn’t an AI itself—it’s a platform that aggregates multiple AI models in one interface.

Compare Models Side by Side

Access GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet/Opus 4, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Grok 4, DeepSeek R1, and over 100 other models. Ask the same question to different models and compare outputs to see which works best for your use case.

Free users get daily credits to spend across models. Lighter models cost fewer credits; powerful ones like GPT-4 or Claude Opus cost more.

Model Selection Guide

Need fast responses: Claude Instant, GPT-3.5 Turbo. Lower credit cost, quicker output.

Complex reasoning: GPT-4, Claude Opus, DeepSeek R1.

Coding tasks: DeepSeek Coder, Claude (strong at code).

Creative writing: Claude models generally perform well here.

Custom Bots

Create your own bots by selecting a base model and writing a system prompt that defines behavior. Build a “code reviewer” bot that analyzes code for bugs and style issues, or a “technical writer” bot that converts rough notes into documentation. Use them yourself or share publicly.

 

 

 

08. HuggingChat – Open Source AI Playground

Link: huggingface.co/chat

HuggingChat is run by Hugging Face, the go-to platform for the open-source AI community. It’s completely free.

115+ Open Source Models

Access Meta’s Llama, Alibaba’s Qwen, DeepSeek, Google’s Gemma, Mistral, and many others. These models have public code—you can see how they work, and if you want, run them yourself.

Omni – Automatic Model Selection

Omni is enabled by default. It analyzes your query and routes it to the best model for that task—coding questions go to code-optimized models, creative prompts go elsewhere. You can disable Omni and manually select models if you want to test specific ones.

Web Search

HuggingChat has web search, but it’s off by default. Click the search icon to enable it. When active, it shows which sources it consulted and how it processed them.

Assistants

Similar to OpenAI’s Custom GPTs, you can create Assistants with specific instructions that persist across conversations. Build a “translator” assistant or a “code explainer” assistant and use it repeatedly. Community-created assistants are also available.

Who This Is For

HuggingChat is best for developers, researchers, and AI enthusiasts who want to experiment with different open-source models and compare their behaviors. If you care about open source principles and transparency in AI, this is your tool.

 

 

 

09. Pi – When You Want Conversation, Not Information

Link: pi.ai

Pi is fundamentally different from everything else on this list. It’s not built for productivity or information retrieval. It’s built for conversation and emotional support.

Talking to Pi

Don’t ask Pi to write code or summarize documents. That’s not its strength. Instead, Pi excels at actual conversation.

Say “I had a rough day at work, my manager criticized my presentation in front of everyone” and Pi doesn’t just respond with “That sounds hard.” It empathizes, asks follow-up questions, and engages like a thoughtful friend would.

Voice Options

Pi offers 8 voice options, and they’re remarkably natural. Not robotic TTS—actual conversational cadence with emotional inflection. “Pi 3” and “Pi 4” voices are particularly well-regarded.

Threads for Context

Create separate threads for different topics: work stress, hobby discussions, general chat. Pi remembers context within each thread, so you can return to a conversation and pick up where you left off.

When Pi Makes Sense

End of a long day and want someone to talk to. Need to think through a problem out loud. Want to brainstorm ideas conversationally. Learning something new and prefer dialogue-based explanation.

Pi users have conversations that are 5x longer on average than other chatbots. That says something about how engaging the interaction is.

Note: No web search, so it can’t verify current facts. Use other AIs for information, Pi for conversation.

 

 

So Which One Should You Use?

There’s no single answer. Different tools for different jobs. Here’s how I use them:

9 Free AI Chatbots at a Glance

Service	Base Model	Key Strengths	Web Search	Multilingual
Google Gemini	Gemini 3/2.5	Google ecosystem integration, Deep Research	✅	✅
Claude	Sonnet 4.5	Long context (200K), creative writing	✅	✅
MS Copilot	GPT-5	Windows integration, free voice chat	✅	✅
Perplexity	Sonar	Source citations, research/fact-checking	✅	✅
DeepSeek	V3/R1	Completely free, coding/reasoning	✅	✅
Meta AI	Llama 4	Social media integration, free image generation	✅	✅
Poe	Multiple	Access to 100+ AI models	Varies	✅
HuggingChat	Open source	Developer/research use, model experimentation	✅	✅
Pi	Proprietary	Emotional conversation, natural voice	❌	✅

 

Quick searches and fact-checking: Perplexity. Sources are visible for verification.

Long document analysis: Claude. 200K context handles full PDFs without losing track.

Coding: DeepSeek R1. Free, strong performance, shows reasoning steps.

Writing: Claude. Most natural output.

Google ecosystem integration: Gemini. Connects to Gmail, Docs, Calendar.

General questions: Copilot or Gemini. Both are solid.

While using social media: Meta AI. Already in Instagram/WhatsApp.

Comparing AI models: Poe. Same question to multiple models.

Actual conversation: Pi. The only one built for it.

 

 

I rotate between 2-3 depending on the task. They’re all free, so try them out and see what fits your workflow. The ChatGPT subscription can wait.