You must have seen how explodingly popular ChatGPT has become on the internet. The chatbot is based on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 language models, allowing users to converse with the AI. But that also brought a big downside with ChatGPT’s servers being overloaded with users. This has locked users out of using the handy bot when needed. So, if you are one of the folks who find ChatGPT frequently down, you can follow our list of the best ChatGPT alternatives in 2024.
1. Google Gemini (Formerly Bard)
Key Features:
Excels at creative tasks
Upload and generate images
Google Search Integration for latest information
Chat with YouTube videos, Docs, Google Drive Files
Powered by Gemini 1.0 models (Pro and Ultra)
Google has finally released Gemini (formerly Bard) which rivals ChatGPT and is considered a close competitor to the GPT-4 model. Just like ChatGPT, Gemini is also free to use and the free version is powered by the Gemini 1.0 Ultra model. It’s very good at creative tasks and outperforms ChatGPT. However, in reasoning tasks, the paid version of Gemini ranks below ChatGPT Plus.
To test Gemini’s capability against ChatGPT, we performed a simple reasoning test on both AI chatbots. The free version of ChatGPT gives a wrong answer whereas the free version of Gemini responds with a correct answer. It goes on to show that Google has done a great job at offering a capable model even for free users.
Apart from that, you get image generation on Gemini (currently it can’t produce images of people), image analysis on the free version which is not available on the free version of ChatGPT, extension support, and more. You can also use Gemini to chat with YouTube videos which is not available on ChatGPT. Keep in mind, the upcoming Gemini 1.5 Pro model is even more powerful and will be integrated to Gemini perhaps after Google I/O.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great at creative writing; a solid tool for researching on any subject | Commonsense reasoning is slightly weak |
| Fast response time | |
| Image analysis and generation | |
| Extensions support, chat with YouTube videos | |
| Google ecosystem advantage |
Pricing: Free, Gemini Advanced starts at $20 per month, Offers a free trial of 2 months with Google One benefits
2. Microsoft Copilot
Key Features:
Free GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo access
Bing integration for latest information
Free image generation via DALL-E 3
Free image analysis via GPT-4V
Cites sources
Microsoft Copilot is one of the best competitors to ChatGPT because it offers free access to the GPT-4 model. And now the company has announced Copilot Pro which costs $20 per month but brings priority access to GPT-4 Turbo, and GPT-4 models. It also lets you use Copilot features in Office apps. Bear in mind, free Copilot users will only get responses from the GPT-4 model during non-peak hours.
To test Microsoft Copilot against ChatGPT, I ran the same prompt again. And well, Copilot aced it while the free version of ChatGPT struggled to give the correct answer. As I said, the free version of Copilot hosts the GPT-4 model so it’s far more capable than the free tier of ChatGPT.
Besides that, Copilot has access to the internet via Bing, can analyze and generate images as well. Furthermore, Copilot even allows users to plan trips, get recipes, seek out advice, and a lot more, just like ChatGPT. Finally, you also get a handful of plugins on Copilot.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Offers free access to GPT-4 Turbo during non-peak hours | Responses could be faster |
| Different conversation modes | |
| Provides accurate information; Bing integration | |
| Image generation and analysis | |
| Credits sources |
Pricing: Free, Copilot Pro starts at $20 per month
3. Claude 3
Key Features:
Powered by Claude 3 Sonnet (Free) and Opus (Paid) models
Large context window of 200K tokens
Upload PDF files, spreadsheets, and documents
Image analysis
ChatGPT has no shortage of rivals in the AI space. Anthropic recently released a new family of Claude 3 models featuring Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku. And according to the company, the largest Claude 3 Opus model beats GPT-4 and Gemini 1.0 Ultra in key benchmark tests. In case you didn’t know, Anthropic is backed by Google and Amazon, making it a solid OpenAI competitor.
To test the claim, we compared the Claude 3 Opus model with ChatGPT in our dedicated article and concluded that the Opus model does pack a punch. However, we ran the same test on the free version of Claude which is powered by the mid-size Sonnet model, but it failed to give a correct answer.
Moreover, the Claude 3 models have a context length of 200K tokens, much higher than ChatGPT’s 32K context window. It means that Claude 3 can handle large volumes of data with ease. Apart from that, Claude 3 models are fluent in non-English languages including Japanese, Spanish, and French. It also brings vision capability and can process complex graphs, diagrams, and charts.
Claude 3 is also very good at code generation you can even upload documents and PDFs and ask Claude to summarize them for ease of use. The free version of Claude chat is powered by the Claude 3 Sonnet model. If you wish to use the more capable Opus model, you will have to subscribe to Claude Pro which costs $23.60 per month.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| 200K context length | Cannot access the Internet |
| Upload images, documents including PDFs | |
| Free version powered by the mid-size Sonnet model | |
| Based on Constitutional AI to deliver a safer experience |
Pricing: Free, Claude Pro with Opus model starts at $23.60 per month
4. Meta AI
Meta recently released its Llama 3 models and introduced a new platform called Meta AI, similar to ChatGPT, where you can chat with its AI models. Currently, Meta AI is available in a few countries: Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Meta says more regions will be added soon.
Apart from that, you can also chat with Meta AI on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. It uses the Llama 3 70B which has shown great promise. We recently compared Llama 3 70B with ChatGPT’s GPT-4 model and came out pretty impressed. Despite its smaller size, it rivals the GPT-4 model in many challenging tasks.
We ran the same reasoning test on Llama 3 70B which it failed to answer correctly, but in many other tests, the model excelled. Moreover, Meta AI also offers image generation which is nice. That said, it doesn’t support image or file analysis as of now. Meta says that a larger 500B Llama 3 model is currently being trained and it will support most multimodal capabilities.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Impressive results despite the smaller size | Cannot access the Internet |
| Performs great at challenging tasks | Available in a handful of regions |
| Supports image generation | Requires a Facebook account |
| Open-source |
Pricing: Free
5. Mistral Chat
Key Features:
Powered by Mistral Large
Advanced reasoning capability
Fluent in English, French and other European languages
Built-in function calling support
In case you are not following news, Microsoft recently invested close to $16 million investment in a young French AI startup called Mistral AI, overshadowing its close partner, OpenAI. Mistral AI has been gaining recognition in the open-source community for developing powerful AI models, closely competing against OpenAI’s GPT-4 model.
Its newly-announced Mistral Large model is one of the flagship AI models out there, scoring 81.2% in the MMLU test (GPT-4 scored 86.4%). According to the company, Mistral Large is very good at advanced reasoning, supports a context length of up to 32K tokens, has function calling support just like GPT-4, and natively fluent in various popular international languages.
I posed the advanced reasoning question to Mistral Chat and it performed accurately. I have personally used Mistral Chat on many occasions in the past and have found it on par with ChatGPT. You should definitely try it as it performs better than the free version of ChatGPT.
The company released Mistral Chat (also known as Le Chat), powered by the Mistral Large model. So if you are looking for a solid alternative to ChatGPT without having to pay for GPT-4 access, Mistral Chat is an impressive option, powered by a GPT-4 class Mistral Large model. Users who want AI models fluent in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian, will enjoy Mistral Chat.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Powered by a GPT-4 class Mistral Large model | No extra features like plugins and code interpreter |
| Great at complex reasoning, and coding | No internet access |
| Fluent in English, French and many European languages | |
| Simple and easy-to-use UI |
Pricing: Free
6. Perplexity AI
Key Features:
Limited GPT-4 and Claude 3 access to free users
Good for product recommendations
Choose your source; Cites sources
Find latest information
Upload PDFs, images, and text files
Perplexity AI is a ChatGPT alternative users have always loved because it combines a search engine experience with an AI tool like Copilot. The bot hosts OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Claude 3 models. While the tool can converse with you, it even cites a variety of sources for its answer. The best thing about Perplexity is that it can find latest information on any subject and it does a great job at finding suitable products.
Besides searching the Internet, Perplexity can comb through various sources like Reddit, academic sources, YouTube, and more. Perplexity AI even has a handy co-pilot mode that uses the power of GPT-4 to dive deep into your questions and come up with the best answers. However, you only get five queries for GPT-4 which refreshes every four hours.
In my testing, Perplexity failed to correctly answer the reasoning question. That said, advanced reasoning is not its strong suit and I was using the free version. Nevertheless, for web searches, you can definitely check out Perplexity.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Holds good conversations without being confused | Might accidentally copy from sources |
| Offers free GPT-4 access with limited queries | Reasoning is weak |
| Cites sources with answers | |
| Revamped layout is appealing | |
| Co-Pilot mode finds even more detailed answers |
Pricing: Free, Perplexity Pro costs $20 per month
7. GroqChat
Key Features:
Lightning fast output generation
Hosts open-source models including Llama 3 70B and Mixtral 8x7B
Free to use
Groq is an AI-first hardware company that has developed a specialized chip for AI inference called an LPU (Language Processing Unit). The company has taken the AI industry by storm by offering 10x better performance than Nvidia GPUs. To showcase its LPU’s prowess, the company has launched GroqChat where you can run your prompts on open-source models and generate results in a jiffy.
Currently, it hosts Meta’s impressive Llama 3 70B and Mistral AI’s open-source model, Mixtral 8x7B. Both models are great, but I prefer to use Llama 3 70B as it’s more powerful despite being a smaller model. I ran the same reasoning prompt on Groq and Llama 3 70B failed to guess the correct answer whereas Mixtral 8x7B gave a correct response.
Simply put, if you want a fast AI chatbot that performs close to ChatGPT, GroqChat is a solid option. Not to mention, the lightning performance of GroqChat will blow your mind.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Lightning fast output generation | Limited models available |
| Hosts open-source models like Mixtral-8x7B | |
| Clean interface |
Pricing: Free
8. HuggingChat
Key Features:
Hosts multiple latest open-source models
Check out Llama 3 70B, Command R+, Mixtral 8x7B, Gemma, Phi-3
Web access for latest information
Free to use
One of the best open-source ChatGPT alternatives, HuggingChat is an AI chatbot created by HuggingFace, one of the premier websites hosting many AI models and datasets. This chatbot was previously based on the Meta AI (LLaMA) LLM but has since evolved where it lets you choose from a variety of language models.
This includes the recently-released Llama 3 70B, Mixtral-8x7B, Command R+, Phi-3, Google’s recent open-source Gemma models, and more. You can select one of the models and write interesting blog posts and jokes, generate HTML code for websites, recipes, and much more. There is also a handy toggle to enable web access.
This will allow the bot to gather information online to supplement its answer. However, the bot has network errors from time to time, which might hinder you. Nonetheless, try this ChatGPT alternative if you want to check out open-source AI models for free.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Fast and snappy replies | Prone to network errors |
| Users can choose from multiple LLMS including Mixtral-8x7B | |
| Can perform a variety of functions | |
| Can search the web |
Pricing: Free
9. Pi, your personal AI
Key Features:
Personal AI chatbot
Emotionally intelligent
Listen to custom podcast
Audio chat
Engaging and conversational
Among all the other ChatGPT alternatives, Pi is possibly the only one that will provide you with a different experience altogether. Based on being a supportive and smart AI, Pi is a chatbot that follows a unique design. Instead of full-blown chats, conversations on Pi happen dialogue by dialogue. What makes it more interesting is that Pi is also one of the only assistants who talks back. The website has eight different voices; each is eerily realistic and oddly comforting.
Pi starts the conversation itself and tries to glean in every message you send. Speaking something like how a therapist would, the ChatGPT alternative is quite inquisitive and tries to understand and respond in kind. One could almost start to forget this is an AI if not for the occasional errors.
So, while it can get tedious if you keep talking, Pi is one of the best ChatGPT alternatives if you want some mental relief. However, you need an account to sign up, which can be a downside for some. Nonetheless, check it out.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Quite effective at mental health conversations | Needs an account |
| Realistic and comforting voice | |
| Free to use |
Pricing: Free
10. Poe
Key Features:
One-stop platform to access a variety of models
Limited access to GPT-4, Claude 3 models for free users
Hosts bots having different characters
Create your own bot
Image generation
Upload images, documents, and files
Web search
Introduced in early 2023, Poe by Quora is not an AI itself but more of a platform where you can talk to AI chatbots. Poe stands for ‘Platform for Open Exploration.’ True to its name, Quora Poe is a place where users can talk to and experiment with various AI chatbots. Quora mentions that Poe lets people ask questions, get instant answers, and have back-and-forth conversations with several AI-powered bots.
Poe’s website is neatly packaged and currently allows users to talk with AIs like ChatGPT, Dragonfly, and even GPT-4, Claude 3, Gemini, Mistral-Medium, and more. All told, the platform allows access to over 20 different LLMs. However, access is limited for GPT-4 and Claude 3, so you must get a subscription for the same.
Quora Poe works extremely well and has little to no downtime while you talk away with the various AI bots. However, you do need to create an account to access it. Thankfully, you don’t need to create separate accounts for all services, so that’s the bright side. If you’re the sort who loves to talk to different AI characters, Poe can be your one-stop platform.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| All-in-one platform to access almost all AI bots | Limited access to GPT-4 and Claude 3 for free users |
| Talk to AI characters | |
| Create your own AI bot | |
| Little to no downtime |
Pricing: Free, Paid plan costs $19.99 per month
For those unaware, AI chatbots are virtual programs and apps designed to simulate human conversation. AI chatbots make users feel like they’re talking to another human instead of bots. AI chatbots can do a lot of other things, including writing essays, solving calculations, and more.
You can check out Microsoft Copilot, Claude, and Gemini. These are comparable to ChatGPT, both in terms of capability and features.
ChatGPT itself is free to use which is powered by the GPT-3.5 Turbo model. If you want to access GPT-4 for free, you can check out Microsoft Copilot. Check out how to get access to GPT-4 right now and get started.
Previously known as Code Interpreter, Advanced Data Analysis is a separate mode that allows ChatGPT to run code in an isolated Python container. It can perform mathematical calculation, run code to check for correct output, and more. Users can use it to debug Python code as well.
Google’s equivalent to ChatGPT is Gemini, which was earlier known as Bard. Gemini is powered by the Gemini 1.0 Pro model for free users. And paid users can use Gemini Advanced that hosts the Gemini 1.0 Ultra model and it rivals the GPT-4 model.
While both ChatGPT and Gemini are capable AI chatbots, based on several metrics, benchmarks, and personal experience, the paid version of ChatGPT is more powerful than Gemini Advanced. ChatGPT is more intelligent, and can do a lot more. However, in creative tasks, Gemini is better than ChatGPT.