We're going to talk about Chat GBT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude. You're probably using the free versions, and you might even be wondering if you should upgrade to the paid. Well, I've spent my hard-earned money on all of these tools, and I've been using them for months. And I found something surprising. There's no such thing as a best tool. The smartest move you can make is investing in the one that you'll actually use every day. So, in this video, I'll share my real thoughts on each tool and help you find your perfect match so that your money is well spent. First up, CH GBT, which is the earliest and probably the most popular AI tool out there. Recently, there's been a lot of upgrades. Now, people have access to multiple models like the 40 model. There's also the 03 model, which is designed for deeper reasoning, and the O4 mini, which is a bit faster to generate results, but not as in-depth as the 03 model. Now, I use Chat GPT regularly, and I think its strength is really being a jackof alltrades kind of tool. It's decent for general tools like writing emails, brainstorming ideas, and less complicated data analysis. It also supports file uploads like PDFs, images, Excel files, and Word documents. They've also rolled out some new features that make AI automation more accessible even if you're not super tech-savvy. What are these features? Well, the 03 model now has the ability to schedule tasks. This combined with the fact that it can remember things about you means that you can now schedule tasks for yourself based on what it knows about you. So, for example, getting it to create a report for you about your competitors and send it to you every week or sending you the latest AI news every morning at 8 a.m. I've also really been enjoying using their 40 image generator model. The images look a lot better than their old Deli3 model. Another big bonus is customization. There are so many GPTs to choose from for things like market research or writing content. Or if you can't find exactly what you need, then you can create your own GPT with the paid version. Now, let's talk about some of the limitations that I've noticed from using it over the past couple of months. One is that when you've been chatting with it for a long time in one conversation, sometimes you have to remind it about things that you talked about at the beginning of the conversation. So, it tends to forget things sometimes. I've also noticed that it can hallucinate sometimes. So, sometimes I'll ask it how confident it is in a response if I suspect that maybe it's not exactly right. But, this can be frustrating sometimes when you're really looking for accurate information. Now, when it comes to the deep research feature, I find it does a pretty good job overall, and I really like the fact that it will ask clarifying questions before it actually goes and does the research, but it doesn't seem to use as many sources as a Gemini or Perplexity, for example, using their deep research features. Now, in terms of when you might want to consider upgrading, I would say if you really want a good all-around tool that can handle different types of tasks, give you a good amount of flexibility, and offers ways of automating some of your daily routines, then upgrading to chat GPT would be a great option. It's especially worth considering if you plan on using the image generation feature often, if you want full access to all the models and the features without hitting limits quickly, or you want to access the memory and scheduled tasks feature for a more personalized, proactive AI assistant. Now, if you're looking for lots of power in your go-to AI tool, then this next one is going to be a strong contender for you. Next up is Google Gemini. This is one of my favorite tools. I use it every single day for things like content ideas, writing, deep research, analyzing documents, and so many other things. They recently came out with their 2.5 Pro and Flash models, which I believe are some of the most powerful AI models out there right now. They also recently launched their deep research feature with their 2.5 Pro model, and in my opinion, it's absolutely amazing. It's super in-depth. It looks like an academic paper, and it's quite accurate. Now, access to the 2.5 Pro and Flash model is only available under the Google 1 AI premium plan, which costs $19.99 per month and comes with two terabytes of storage, plus access to Gemini Advanced. And the deep research feature itself is actually free to use with some of the older models like the 2.0 model. Now, I personally find that Google Gemini hallucinates less than Chachi PT does, and it doesn't seem to forget as much stuff either. And it has a huge context window of 1 million tokens, which makes it really powerful. That's roughly 1,500 pages of text that you could potentially process in one go. That is huge. I find it really great at analyzing data like Excel spreadsheets or more complex documents. I also like the fact that it's Google, so its ability to search the internet to find information in real time is pretty amazing. Now, its superpower is its deep Google Workspace integration. using AI inside workspace apps like Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Sheets. So, if you're deep into the Google ecosystem, then you would strongly want to consider upgrading if you haven't already. And they're pushing boundaries with features like V2 for short video generation, which they just rolled out. And you can also generate images right inside Gemini now, too. I think the image quality is actually really good, and I honestly think it could hold its own against the chat GPT 40 image generator quality. They've also rolled out some cool new features like the ability to remember things about you similar to chatbt, but of course you're in control over whether you turn this feature on or off. Now, let's talk about some of the limitations of Gemini. I would say if you're using this for writing, then sometimes the output can have a more formal or academic kind of feel to it and more AI than some other tools like Claude, for example, which I'll talk about a little bit later. So, I usually have to prompt it to write in a way that feels like I'm speaking to a friend or in a more casual tone to get exactly the tone I'm looking for. If you're using Gemini more for work purposes though, like writing work emails or research papers for school or more technical documents, then Gemini is perfect for that. So, in terms of when you'd want to consider upgrading to the paid version, if you deal with a lot of big documents that you need to analyze, if you're already part of Google's ecosystem, if you want a really powerful AI model with a large context window that can do really complicated tasks, then you really cannot go wrong with Gemini. It is well worth the $20 per month. I can tell you that. Now, if you really like speed and accuracy in your AI tool of choice, then this next one might be worth the upgrade. Next up, Perplexity. This is another favorite of mine on the list. I use it daily as well. It's quickly becoming my search engine of choice. I hardly Google these days. Why? Because of its ability to search the web in real time for concise, accurate answers. It generates a summary of all the sources in seconds instead of me having to comb through a whole bunch of search results and it has them all in one place so I know exactly where the information is coming from. And if I want to dig deeper, I can go to the source website. I really like it as a quick fact-checking tool or a place where I can go to gather really good uh references for any research that I'm doing. For example, if I'm making a decision on buying a new piece of technology, I'd probably go to Perplexity first to see what it says. Perplexity's deep research function is also excellent as well. I found that it's also fantastic for competitor research if you're thinking about launching a new product or new service or if you just want to stay updated with what's going on in your industry. Another thing that's neat about it is an area called discover, which is basically like a news dashboard that keeps you updated on what's going on in the world. And I use that for AI news. So to stay updated on what's going on in the AI world, which is always changing so fast. That's something that's unique to Perplexity. I don't think any of the other tools have this feature. I like the fact that you can also select the types of sources where you want the information to come from. So, for example, if you want it to come from web, which is just internet or academic for more academic paper type sources, or social, which usually pulls mainly from Reddit based on my experience. So, that gives you more flexibility depending on what you're using it for. You can also upload files into Perplexity like images, PDFs, and have it analyze them for you, which is very handy. Now, it does have an image generator, although it does use the old Dolly 3 model, and some of the other models on there look to be older as well. So, in my opinion, the images don't look very realistic, so it's not something that I would use it for. I think that there's better image generators out there, but it does have one. Now, in terms of pricing, it's $20 per month for Perplexity Pro. Now, with the paid plan, you get access to a whole selection of different advanced AI models like GPT4.1, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Gro 3 beta. With the free version, you only get five pro searches per day. And the pro search is a little bit more robust than the free search, a little bit more in-depth, more sources. And with the paid version, you get access to 300 pro searches a day. I have never gone over that limit. By the way, you also get unlimited file uploads with the paid version. With the free version, you only get to ask like five follow-up questions every 4 hours to refine your answers. So, if you're using it regularly, you could see how you'd hit that limit pretty quick. Now, let's talk about some limitations of perplexity. I would say that it's less suited for purely creative writing, open-ended brainstorming, or complex ongoing conversations compared to a chat GPT or a Claude, for example. And it seems to have a smaller context window than some of the other tools on this list, but it really depends on which model you select for your searches. And again, that image generator is not great. So, in terms of when you'd want to consider upgrading to the pro version, if you're looking for an everyday enhanced search engine and research tool that can quickly gather information, synthesize them quickly, and have all the sources laid out for you, then you should strongly consider Perplexity. It's super valuable if you need to do research on competitors, if you want to stay updated on specific topics, fact check really quickly, or frequently analyze documents. But if your main thing that you need help with is creative writing or brainstorming ideas, then there's other tools on this list that would suit your needs more. And that's the perfect segue to the brainstorming and creative writing master on this list, which is Claude. I'll admit that this tool is the one that I actually use the least on this list. But I have been using it for brainstorming, creative writing, and strategic thinking for my business. I have to say that the responses are quite useful and it feels like a friend when you're interacting with it compared to some of the other AI tools on this list. I really enjoy the back and forth. Its writing style definitely has more of a human touch than Gemini, which is a little bit more formal, which I think is definitely a superpower of Claude. So, if you're writing a lot of content like blogs, social media posts, and even YouTube stuff, then you should definitely look at Claude. Another strength of Claude is its large context window, which is 200,000 tokens. So if you analyze lots of documents, Claude can help you do that. It can accept multiple file formats like PDFs, Word documents, Excel, images, etc. Now, one of the Claude features that I really like is the projects feature, which is basically like a file where you can have all of the information on one particular topic. So let's say you're doing market research, you can put all your uploaded files in one place, you can do all your searching in one place, and you can give it custom instructions in terms of what you're actually looking for from the output. The nice thing about projects is that it already has all the contacts so that you don't have to repeat yourself every time you start a new chat. And on Anthropic's website, there's actually a prompt library designed specifically to be used with Claude, which is also super helpful, too. Now, let's talk about some of the weaknesses of Claude. One thing that used to be a weakness that they fixed a little bit over a month ago is actually that you're able to do realtime web searches now, which you couldn't do before. So, previously, information that you would get from it would be a little bit outdated. it was maybe a couple of months behind. So, you couldn't ask it questions about current events, which was pretty frustrating at times. So, I'm happy that they've updated. Really pleased with that. One limitation is that it doesn't have any image generation capabilities. So, if that's something that's important to you, you're going to need to switch to a different AI tool to do that. This is another reason why I typically gravitate towards Gemini because it can do everything that I need. Now, in terms of pricing, it's $20 for the pro plan for Claude. With the pro plan, you get 45 messages every 5 hours, which totals around 216 messages per day. Now, this compared to the free version, which only gives you about 30 to 40 messages per day, which can be pretty restrictive. You know, the pro plan gives you quite a bit more. So, if you use it a lot, that's when you would want to consider upgrading. Now, another thing with the pro version of Claude is that you actually get to choose from multiple Claude models. So, it gives you more flexibility than the paid version. and you get access to the projects feature, which I was talking about before, with a shared knowledge base of information, keeping everything organized. The free version doesn't come with that. So, the biggest reason I think you'd want to upgrade to the Cloud Pro, is if you really use it a lot for things like brainstorming, content writing, things where having a more natural humanlike interaction is important, or if you want access to the project feature to organize your work. It's also great if you frequently need to analyze large documents, too. Other than that, if you only use it occasionally or your usage never hits the caps or you don't need the projects feature, then the free version should actually do just fine. So, here's my final thoughts on all four of these tools. Really think about all your important factors and what you really need the AI tools for and see if you can actually get by on the free plans first. Think about which tools you're currently using most often to get a hint at which one might be actually worth upgrading to. And in my opinion, the monthly plans always give you the most flexibility because things are changing. so quickly in this AI space. So, just in case you started and you just say, "I'm not even actually using it." You have more flexibility to cancel than you do if you actually signed up with the annual plan. If you enjoyed this video, then please show me your support by hitting the like button. And if you want to know more about how you can use AI everyday, then click this next