Use case 03 of 10 · last checked 14 Oct 2026
The best general AI assistants tools
Five tools worth your time. Order is provisional until we publish test results. How we'll score them.
- 01 Free; Go $8/mo; Plus $20/mo
ChatGPTProvisional
OpenAI's all-round assistant for chat, research, images and agents.
- 02 Free; Pro $20/mo
ClaudeProvisional
Anthropic's assistant, strong at writing, analysis and code.
- 03 Free; Google AI Pro $19.99/mo
GeminiProvisional
Google's assistant, tied into Search, Gmail and Workspace.
- 04 Free; SuperGrok $30/mo
GrokProvisional
xAI's assistant with real-time access to X.
- 05 Free; Pro $20/mo
PerplexityProvisional
Answer engine that searches the web and cites sources.
Get the Shortlist every Tuesday.
New releases with a Try / Watch / Skip verdict, ranking changes, and one "best tool for…" pick. Five minutes, free.