All three answer almost anything, for about $20 a month. What differs is the plan. ChatGPT never caps plain text chat but may show ads on its two cheapest plans. Gemini is a Google bundle with storage, images and video. Claude makes no images, shows no ads and puts its coding agent in the $20 plan.
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Pick Claude if most of what you do is writing, long documents or code, you want a coding agent in the same $20, and you would rather wait for a reset than see an ad.
Pick ChatGPT if you want one app for a bit of everything, pictures and voice included, and you chat a lot, because everyday text chats are not capped on any plan.
Pick Gemini if your mail, files and photos already live in Google, or you want the cheapest step up, because Google AI Plus is $4.99 and AI Pro includes 5 TB of storage.
Pick neither if you would open it a few times a week, or you are about to add a second subscription, because the free plans of the other two already cover the gap.
prices checked 2026-10-13 · by dan scutaru
| Claude | ChatGPT | Gemini | |
|---|---|---|---|
| price | free tier · from $20/mo | free tier · from $8/mo | free tier · from $4.99/mo |
| free tier | Chat, web search, file creation, code execution, memory and up to 5 projects, on Sonnet and Haiku, with a rolling five-hour usage window. No Claude Code, no Research, no Opus or Fable models, no image generation. | Unlimited text chats with GPT-6 Luna (subject to abuse guardrails), with limited uploads, image generation, voice, deep research, memory and Codex access. | Free with a Google account: Gemini Flash, varying access to the Pro model, image generation and editing, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas and Gems. 32K token context window, compute-based limits that refresh every 5 hours until a weekly limit is reached. No video generation on the free plan. |
| runs on | web, ios, android, mac, windows, linux | web, ios, android, mac, windows | web, ios, android, mac, windows |
| the $20 plan | Pro, $20 a month, or $200 for a year ($17/mo). | Plus, $20 a month. No annual billing. | Google AI Pro, $19.99 a month, with 5 TB of storage. |
| plans above it | Max at $100 (5x Pro) or $200 (20x). | Pro at $100, $200 or $500. | Ultra at $99.99 (5x AI Pro) or $199.99 (20x). |
| when you hit the limit | Wait for the five-hour or weekly reset, or pay for usage credits. | Everyday text chat has no cap on any plan. Images, uploads, deep research and reasoning models are metered. | Paid plans carry on with the smaller Flash-Lite model. Extra AI credits are for sale. |
| images and video | Neither. Charts and diagrams as code only. | Images on every plan, limited on Free. | Images on every plan, video from AI Plus. |
| ads | None on any plan, a written commitment since February 2026. | May appear below answers on Free and Go, unless you pick a no-ads free mode with tighter limits. None on Plus or Pro. | Google says your Gemini chats are not used to show you ads. |
| training on your chats | Only with the setting on. Kept up to 5 years if on, 30 days if off. | On by default. Opt-out on every plan, and your history stays. | On by default through Keep Activity. Reviewed chats kept up to 3 years. |
Pay for one, chosen by what you do besides chat. Code or long documents: Claude Pro. Images, voice and text chat that never runs out: ChatGPT Plus. Mail, files and photos already in Google: Google AI Pro, where storage and Gmail are part of the price.
Keep the other two free, as the backup. One Hacker News commenter said their company stopped paying for all three for everyone: cheap Gemini with Workspace for all, high-end plans for power users only. When the $20 pays off: Claude Pro, ChatGPT Plus.
Same price, three products. Claude Pro buys more of one tool: at least 5x the free usage per session, Claude Code, Research and the Opus models. The newest Fable models cost extra, on usage credits. ChatGPT Plus buys depth: GPT-6 reasoning models, expanded deep research and Codex, projects, custom GPTs, no ads. Google AI Pro buys a bundle: 4x the free limits, a 1 million token window, video, Gemini in Gmail and Docs, 5 TB of storage.
The pairs, in depth: Claude vs ChatGPT, Gemini vs ChatGPT, Claude vs Gemini.
Gemini's free plan has the most features, ChatGPT's has the most chat, and Claude's comes with a written promise of no ads. Gemini includes image generation, Deep Research, Gemini Live and 15 GB of storage, on limits cut first when Google is short of capacity. ChatGPT never caps everyday text but limits uploads, images, voice and deep research, and may show ads. Claude has web search, files, memory and five projects, no images, and a five-hour window.
All three ship a coding agent, metered in different places. Claude Code needs Pro and spends your chat allowance. Codex comes with every ChatGPT plan, Free included, and Plus gets published estimates per five hours. Google splits it in two: Antigravity, with a free tier on "basic weekly rate limits" that AI Pro raises, and Jules, which prints its limits: 15 tasks a day free, 100 on AI Pro. Gemini CLI was replaced by Antigravity CLI for free and Google One users on 18 June 2026.
We print no benchmark. Give each the same real bug before you pay.
All three can train on what you type until you switch it off. ChatGPT's opt-out keeps your history, but Free and Go may show ads picked from the chat you are in. Gemini trains through Keep Activity, on by default for adults. Turning it off disconnects most connected apps, and chats a human reviewer read stay up to three years even after you delete them. Claude keeps chats five years if you allow training, 30 days if not.
None wins everything, and on everyday questions most people cannot tell the answers apart. Choose by what surrounds the chat: ChatGPT for images and uncapped text, Claude for long writing and code without ads, Gemini for Google's apps and the cheapest paid plan.
Yes, on every plan including the free one, and it edits them too. Video starts at Google AI Plus. ChatGPT also makes images on every plan, limited on Free. Claude is the odd one out: Anthropic says it does not generate photos or illustrations.
For US college students aged 18 and over, yes, for a year if redeemed by December 31, 2026, with a card on file and $19.99 a month after. OpenAI gives them four free months of ChatGPT Plus until October 31, 2026. Anthropic has no student price; Claude for Education is bought by universities.