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A Simple Guide: ChatGPT vs. Perplexity vs. Gemini vs. Claude vs. DeepSeek vs. Qwen

By Tharaka with help of AI | Last Updated on November 15th, 2025 6:09 pm

AI is moving fast, and it's hard to keep up. You've probably heard of ChatGPT, but what about the others? This guide uses simple English to compare the biggest AI models today, what they're good for, and how you can use them.

Quick Comparison Table

Feature ChatGPT Perplexity Gemini Claude DeepSeek Qwen
Best For Creativity & Chat Research & Facts Google Integration Reading Long Docs Coding & Math Multilingual Tasks
Shows Sources? No Yes Sometimes No No No
Live Web Access Yes (Paid) Yes (Always) Yes (Always) Yes (Paid) No Yes (Paid)
Specialty Human-like chat Factual answers "All-in-one" Google tool Safe & thoughtful writing Open-source code logic "Sees" images, many languages
Context Window (Memory) 128K tokens N/A (Uses other models) 1M+ tokens 200K tokens 128K tokens 128K+ tokens
Understands Images? Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Open-Source? No No No No Yes (Lite) Yes (Smaller)

What is ChatGPT (from OpenAI)?

This is the famous "all-around" AI. It's known for being very creative, helping you write code, and having natural, human-like conversations. It can also understand images, hear, and talk back to you.

Pros

  • ✔ Very creative, great for brainstorming and writing stories.
  • ✔ Easy and fun to talk to, feels very natural.
  • ✔ Excellent at helping to write and debug computer code.

Cons

  • ✘ Can sometimes "make up" facts (called a "hallucination") if it doesn't know the answer.
  • ✘ Free version can be slow or unavailable during busy times.

Pricing

Offers a powerful free version. A paid "Plus" plan (around $20/month) gives access to the newest models (like GPT-4o) and faster speeds.

What is Perplexity?

This is the "answer engine." This AI is built to search the web and give you direct answers. Its best feature is that it shows you its sources (links to websites) so you know where the information came from. It's perfect for research and getting up-to-date facts.

Pros

  • ✔ Amazing for quick, factual answers with sources.
  • ✔ Always uses live, up-to-date web information.
  • ✔ Simple, clean interface focused on giving answers.

Cons

  • ✘ Not very creative. You wouldn't ask it to write a poem or a story.
  • ✘ Not designed for long, back-and-forth conversations.

Pricing

Has a great free version. The "Pro" plan (around $20/month) lets you use more advanced models like Claude 3 and GPT-4 for deeper answers.

What is Gemini (from Google)?

This is Google's powerful AI. It's built right into Google Search and other Google products (like Docs and Gmail). Its biggest strength is its giant "memory" (context window) and its direct connection to Google's live web information.

Pros

  • ✔ Giant "memory" can analyze entire books or hours of video.
  • ✔ Deeply integrated into Google apps (Search, Gmail, Docs).
  • ✔ Excellent at handling multiple types of info at once (text, images, audio).

Cons

  • ✘ Because it's so big, it can sometimes be more complex to use.
  • ✘ Being so new, some features are still in "preview" or experimental.

Pricing

A very powerful version is free (Gemini 1.5 Flash). The most powerful models are available with the "Gemini Advanced" subscription.

What is Claude (from Anthropic)?

This is the "safe and thoughtful" AI. It's known for being very good at understanding long and difficult documents (like legal contracts or whole books). It writes in a very clear, reliable, and friendly way, and it's designed to be extra safe and helpful.

Pros

  • ✔ The best at summarizing and understanding long, complicated documents.
  • ✔ Writes in a very clear, professional, and reliable tone.
  • ✔ Designed to be very safe and to avoid harmful or untrue answers.

Cons

  • ✘ Can sometimes be *too* safe or "wordy," and may refuse some sensitive topics.
  • ✘ Can be slightly less creative than ChatGPT in some tasks.

Pricing

Offers a great free version (Claude 3.5 Sonnet). The "Pro" plan (around $20/month) gives you access to their top models and more usage.

What is DeepSeek?

This is the "coder's AI." It's an open-source model that is specially trained to be amazing at writing and understanding computer code and math. It's known for its powerful logical reasoning abilities.

Pros

  • ✔ One of the best AIs in the world for coding and math problems.
  • ✔ It's open-source, meaning it's free for developers to use and build on.
  • ✔ Excellent at complex logic and reasoning.

Cons

  • ✘ Not designed for general chat or creative writing.
  • ✘ More technical and less user-friendly for non-coders.
  • ✘ Doesn't have live web access.

Pricing

Free to use as it is open-source. Using it requires technical knowledge and your own computer (or a paid hosting service).

What is Qwen (from Alibaba)?

This is a powerful "all-in-one" AI from the tech giant Alibaba. It's a strong competitor to ChatGPT and Gemini. It's "multimodal," meaning it can understand text, pictures, and sound all at once, and it's especially good at understanding many different languages.

Pros

  • ✔ Excellent at understanding and speaking many languages.
  • ✔ Can "see" and analyze images you upload.
  • ✔ Smaller versions are open-source for developers.

Cons

  • ✘ Less known outside of Asia.
  • ✘ The most powerful versions are only available through their paid cloud service.

Pricing

It has a mixed model. Smaller versions are open-source (free for developers), while the most powerful models are accessed via Alibaba's paid API.

Which AI is Best for Me?

There is no single "best" AI. The best one depends on what you want to do.

  • For Creative Writing & Chat: Use ChatGPT or Claude.
  • For Facts, Research & Sources: Use Perplexity.
  • For Analyzing Big Documents: Use Gemini or Claude.
  • For Coding & Math: Use DeepSeek or ChatGPT.
  • For Multilingual or Image Tasks: Use Qwen or Gemini.

The best way to find your favorite is to try them all. Since most have great free versions, you can ask them all the same question and see which one gives you the best answer for your needs.