ChatGPT is the biggest name in AI chatbots, but it's far from the only one around. And depending on what you're trying to do, it might not even be the best option for you. It's a great general-purpose chatbot, but like most jacks-of-all-trades, it can lose out to more specific tools for certain jobs. It even had a sycophantic streak that was quite annoying. So, whether you want something that better suits your needs (or your personality), there are plenty of ChatGPT alternatives to consider.

I've been using and writing about ChatGPT since it launched—and have been writing about developments in AI for the last decade. My job is now figuring out what AI is good at—and where it falls short. That also means I've spent a lot of time testing all the ChatGPT alternatives out there. So, let's get into it.

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The best ChatGPT alternatives

Claude for professionals
Google Gemini for Google integrations
Zapier Agents for creating an AI agent
Microsoft Copilot for an integrated experience
DeepSeek for a free reasoning model
Perplexity for searching the web
Meta AI for social integrations
Zapier Chatbots for building your own shareable chatbot
Grok for integrating with X

What makes the best ChatGPT alternative?

What makes ChatGPT great is that it's actually useful and usable. When you're using ChatGPT, you don't have to frame your questions in weird ways or cram in certain keywords to get it to answer your questions correctly (or at least, mostly correctly). You can just talk to it the same way you would another person. Sure, the clearer you are, the better the results you'll get—but that's true with people, too.

For any chatbot to be a legitimate alternative to ChatGPT, it has to capture this same chatbot magic. Using it needs to be easy and seamless, and you have to be able to just chat away to it, confident that it understands what you're asking.

Over the past year, chatbots have generally become more similar. Most of my top picks can search the web, work with documents and images, and have some kind of reasoning model for tackling harder problems. If they don't have these features, they really have to stand out in some other way.

So, to be a great ChatGPT alternative, an app needs to:

Do something better than ChatGPT. ChatGPT is still the best general-purpose chatbot, so to make this list, an AI chatbot had to be the best at something else specific.
Be easy to use. AI tools are rapidly developing. Some of the best ones require you to run your own AI models, either locally or on a cloud computing platform. While this gives you a lot of options, it's a lot harder than signing up for ChatGPT. To make this list, an app needs to be as easy as signing up and starting to chat. Some have more customization options or a steeper learning curve, but none of them require technical expertise to use.
Be widely available. Similarly, some widely touted AI tools are locked away in closed betas or have a long waiting list. I was only looking for apps that you can sign up for right now and start using.
Work reliably. Some AI tools I've tested are constantly offline or throwing errors. To make this list, the chatbots had to work reliably so you can count on them when you need them.

Over the past few months, I've tested all these apps extensively, and the Zapier team has spent hundreds, if not thousands, of collective hours in them.

We'll continue to test these apps because they keep getting better and adding new features. But fair warning: this means that some details of this list will be out of date the second we hit publish. But we still stand over all these picks being great at what they do—and if the model numbers go up a digit or the number of parameters gets larger, we're confident the apps will only be better.

Which ChatGPT alternative should you use?

Which ChatGPT alternative is right for you really depends on what you need an AI chatbot for. If you want something similar to ChatGPT with a bit more focus on safety and professional features, Claude is your best bet. On the other hand, if you use Google's Workspace apps, browser, and smartphone OS, Gemini is an obvious choice. If you want a chatbot to help you get work done, go with Zapier Agents or Chatbots. Honestly, there's a case for every app on this list—that's why they're on the list.

While paid plans are now standard, each chatbot has some kind of free plan or trial. So, if you're not sure which one is the best alternative to ChatGPT for you, give a few of them a go and find out.

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