The best AI chatbots of 2025: I tested ChatGPT, Copilot, and others to find the top tools now

Total rating: 109

One factor I seen is that about half of my text-based prompts have been dealt with practically completely by virtually the entire chatbots I examined. These included the flexibility to elucidate a primary tutorial idea to a toddler, do math and evaluation, present a cultural dialogue with context, carry out a fast literary evaluation, and translate textual content and supply context. ChatGPT aced all of those.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s guardian firm, filed an April 2025 lawsuit towards OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI methods.)

Additionally: How to use ChatGPT: A beginner’s guide to the most popular AI chatbot

The place ChatGPT fell down was its means to find and summarize a present occasion. My take a look at sends the AIs to have a look at a Yahoo Information article in regards to the flu and supply a abstract. Maybe as a result of I used to be working it in an incognito window and hadn’t logged in, ChatGPT despatched me to Yahoo’s Taiwanese information portal and offered its leads to conventional Chinese language (particularly utilized in Taiwan).

ChatGPT constructed an excellent tour for the journey itinerary take a look at. It included lots of the acceptable stops. It additionally included photos for every day’s itinerary, and a few clothes suggestions for March within the Northeast.

ChatGPT additionally aced my primary coding take a look at. We’ll topic the chatbots to a complete set of coding checks in a special article, however coding is price ten factors of the 100 textual content factors awarded on this analysis.

For the long-context story project, ChatGPT misplaced just a few factors as a result of it did not produce the 1,500 phrases required. Additionally, whereas it advised a narrative with the correct tone and magnificence for the project, it offered a lot of the story as virtually an overview, with headings for every primary character.

Whereas the picture high quality is subjective, ChatGPT did an excellent job with the picture assignments. The character produced for the Again to the Future project is only a random child, but it surely did present the right textual content brand, a DeLorean, and the child holding a skateboard.

Additionally: Is ChatGPT Plus still worth $20 when the free version offers so much – including GPT-5?

Total, because the OG AI chatbot, ChatGPT’s free tier is a strong providing with a bunch of added options like standalone apps, a recently announced browser, and a variety of functionality as you scale into its increased tiers.

Textual content rating: 91 out of 100
Picture rating: 18 out of 20

Premium choices: ChatGPT gives a Plus plan for $20-per-month and a Professional plan for $200-per-month. Each supply most of ChatGPT’s higher-end mannequin options, however scale up the useful resource availability based mostly on which plan you employ.

Photos generated utilizing ChatGPT:

Total rating: 97

Copilot (previously a part of Bing) integrates with Microsoft merchandise. Whereas that is the above-the-fold headline, the free model of Copilot can be a reasonably good standalone chatbot providing. Operating logged out, in an incognito/non-public shopping mode, Copilot was the least naggy of all of the AIs. It requested me to log in simply as soon as, and allowed me to proceed utterly by my checks with out both requiring me to log in or asking me once more.

Additionally: How to remove Copilot from your Microsoft 365 plan – before you have to pay for it

Copilot’s free tier efficiently did internet entry and regarded up a present information story in regards to the flu, though it pulled knowledge from different articles, together with a chicken flu article in Canada, and one thing about an Australian girl who had an bronchial asthma flare-up. Each have been associated tales, however the AI did deviate from the project and misplaced factors there.

It competently dealt with explaining an educational idea, recognized a math sequence, mentioned a cultural challenge with context, and analyzed the important thing themes from a well known ebook.

When it got here to my trip journey itinerary take a look at, it not solely identified acceptable stops and factors of curiosity, however picked up on the immediate’s point out of getting into March and recognized some occasions taking place in Boston in March. Nevertheless, it didn’t advocate visiting the USS Structure, which is a top-line historic focal point, and it did not advocate something concerning climate or clothes for the windy, chilly month.

For my emotional help job interview jitters take a look at, the chatbot gave a variety of constructive strategies, but in addition really helpful doing all your homework and totally researching the corporate earlier than the interview.

Copilot misplaced some factors in coding. It not solely missed edge instances, it additionally had some string dealing with errors and wrote code that had notable efficiency points. For the corporate that produces the VS Code improvement surroundings, it’s kind of of a disappointment.

Copilot wrote a captivating, participating long-form story, absolutely assembly the necessities of the immediate, apart from being 187 phrases wanting my specified minimal. Nonetheless, it was an entire story that was effectively written and completely acceptable to the model implied by the immediate.

Picture era took a loooong time, greater than 5 minutes every. The standard of pictures was good. The image received the child’s baseball uniform fairly proper, together with the brand on the cap and even correctly spelling “New York” on the shirt (one thing AIs have had problem with). It failed on the fourth Again to the Future-themed problem, with a “I can not generate that picture as a result of it could violate copyright insurance policies” message. It did, nevertheless, create a fourth picture (of a techno-witch), which means I did not hit any useful resource limitation partitions on the free tier.

Additionally: College students can get Microsoft Copilot free for a year – here’s how

 In case you’re an energetic Microsoft person, you should not hesitate to make use of Copilot. In case you’re simply occupied with a free AI chatbot, Copilot will do it for you as effectively. It is our second-best-ranked AI chatbot total.

Textual content rating: 87 out of 100
Picture rating: 10 out of 20

Premium choices: Copilot has a $20-per-month Professional plan that gives entry to extra capabilities and supplies AI options inside Microsoft 365 purposes. There are additionally enterprise plans, a $10-per-month Professional plan for builders, and an ever-increasing set of tiers and choices for enterprise customers.

Photos generated utilizing Copilot:

Total rating: 96

Grok was undoubtedly an underdog on my record. I actually did not anticipate it to earn the third-place place on the winner’s podium. However it did.

Grok’s free providing completely aced the journey itinerary take a look at query. It did not embrace pictures, however gave essentially the most private and usable itinerary of the entire chatbots. It included normal pricing for numerous sights, an excellent mixture of sights and consuming (mentioning my private favourite, the Union Oyster Home), mentioned planning for the climate, and defined why sure objects have been chosen for every day. The response simply felt essentially the most “human” of all of the itineraries I’ve seen.

Grok additionally displayed an fascinating quirk that was type of charming. The second take a look at query in my sequence of ten asks the AI to elucidate instructional constructivism to a five-year-old. AIs are sometimes advised to imagine a method, and a traditional take a look at is “clarify it such as you would to a five-year-old.” On this take a look at, Grok gave a brief however usable reply to that query, however then went on to append explanations for five-year-olds to many of the different questions requested, together with coding.

Its coding response is price taking an additional second to debate. Code was generated by the AI, but it surely had just a few minor bugs, together with a whitespace bug, a number one zero bug, and a decimal bug. Nevertheless, it added an evidence of the issues it was making an attempt to repair, geared toward a five-year-old, which made the problem fairly clear.

Additionally: Why xAI is giving you ‘limited’ free access to Grok 4

I nonetheless cannot determine if I feel persevering with the explain-to-a-five-year-old theme all through the session was good conversational consciousness, or overdone. For instance, it accurately recognized the Fibonacci sequence, after which went on to elucidate it at a five-year-old stage. It did the identical when it analyzed the themes in Recreation of Thrones’ A Music of Ice and Hearth, which was considerably unusual contemplating how darkish these themes are.

Grok skipped the kid-friendly dialogue when it translated a sentence to Latin. It gave an excellent rationalization of the relevance of Latin in right this moment’s society.

Grok was the one AI to report phrase rely (1,512) for the long-form story undertaking. It additionally hit on the right themes, but it surely misplaced factors as a result of it appeared to strive somewhat too onerous to include the immediate components with out really integrating them into the story. On the finish, it gave a abstract of what it was about for a five-year-old.

When working in incognito mode and logged out, the picture generator refused to do any picture era in any respect, saying it could not. After I tried utilizing Grok from my Twitter/X account, it produced all 4, however they may have been higher. The baseball participant regarded like he was in a Medieval Occasions restaurant reasonably than in precise medieval instances. And whereas the Again to the Future take a look at produced a child in a puffy vest with a DeLorean and skateboard (and a Doc Brown peeking out from behind), it was positioned in entrance of a home proper out of Nineteen Eighties Bergen County, New Jersey, reasonably than Fifties Hill Valley, California.

Additionally: X’s Grok did surprisingly well in my AI coding tests

Nonetheless, I can declare Grok to be a completely aggressive AI chatbot. Are you able to grok it? Which well-known creator originated the time period “grok”? Remark along with your reply under.

Textual content rating: 86 out of 100
Picture rating: 10 out of 20

Premium choices: A few of Grok’s premium options are tied to premium X/Twitter plans. However there’s additionally a SuperGrok service with entry to extra highly effective fashions that is available in at both $30-per-month or $300-per-month relying on how far you wish to go (the $300-per-month plan supplies a preview of Grok 4 Heavy, a “heavier” mannequin).

Photos generated utilizing Grok:

Total rating: 95

Google Gemini (previously Bard) is displaying up throughout Google’s choices, together with inside Chrome. On this rating, we’re not wanting on the numerous implementations and supply modes. As an alternative, we’re sticking to my strategy of doing hands-on testing of precise AI efficiency with precise questions.

Gemini’s take a look at outcomes have been one other shock, however not for an excellent purpose. Going into my testing course of, I absolutely anticipated Gemini’s free tier to come back in at #2, proper after ChatGPT. However it landed at #4, under even Grok. That is simply embarrassing.

I’ve to start out by telling you the place Gemini misplaced factors, as a result of it is amusing. Nicely, amusing to me. I am certain there is a product supervisor at Google who shall be something however amused. For every chatbot, considered one of my checks is translating a sentence into Latin. Since I do not do Latin, I feed the outcomes of every translation to Google Translate for translation again to English. Have you learnt which chatbot translation Google Translate could not translate? The one one? Yep. Google Gemini.

Past treasured irony, the AI did fairly effectively on questions that required factual outcomes, but it surely appeared to wrestle a bit at any time when it was requested for subjective suggestions like a journey itinerary or explaining an educational idea to a toddler. For the latter, it did present a strong sufficient reply however went very a lot overboard on analogies. Worse, the analogies did not fairly match the examples it used.

It scored 10 out of 10 on the mathematics sequencing immediate, on the Recreation of Thrones theme evaluation, and on my take a look at immediate in regards to the influence of social media on society. It additionally did fairly effectively in my job interview query. Gemini was way more sensible in its recommendation than ChatGPT, providing tangible suggestions for interview success and for rising confidence going into the interview.

Additionally: Gemini arrives in Chrome – here’s everything it can do now

Gemini supplied a difficult-to-read desk for the seven days of journey. The immediate requested for an itinerary of Boston tech and historical past themes, however Gemini determined that historical past was all the time within the morning and tech all the time within the afternoon, whatever the location or distance between factors of curiosity.

My current-events web-access query not solely failed to drag data from the positioning I requested, but in addition went out and pulled data from websites I did not request. After I requested a abstract of a particular article, it didn’t really give a synopsis of knowledge from the specified article, however as an alternative gathered data from different tangentially associated articles. It clearly didn’t do what I requested. Lots of the AIs appeared to overlook the essential level when requested to summarize a particular article.

The Gemini take a look at code was typically strong, though it missed some points which are fairly mainstream and will hardly be thought of edge instances. This could seemingly have triggered some failures for customers.

Additionally: Gemini Pro 2.5 is a stunningly capable coding assistant – and a big threat to ChatGPT

For my long-form story request, the AI first thought I used to be asking for a picture. I corrected it and gave it the immediate once more. Weirdly, the AI boldfaced random phrases all through the story. I discovered the three,379-word story ok, however somewhat onerous to comply with. The story additionally appeared to attempt to force-fit random ideas into the general narrative, as if the AI wasn’t fully certain the best way to knit the entire piece collectively.

Picture era itself was good, however there have been problems. The AI insisted I sign up to check pictures. I attempted to sign up utilizing my take a look at account, however the AI would not even spin up the chatbot immediate interface. I attempted in each incognito mode and with an everyday window, to no success. I even tried it with Safari as an alternative of Chrome.

Additionally: Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image ‘nano banana’ model is generally available

I lastly determined to strive with my private account. I am not paying for Gemini in that account, however my private account does have some Google paid options connected to it. That was the one manner I might get Gemini to provide pictures. It additionally would not run persevering with my earlier session, so there was no method to inform whether or not I might have worn out my welcome by including picture requests.

That stated, as soon as I received it working, it took far much less time than ChatGPT to generate pictures, perhaps 5 – 6 seconds all advised. Gemini created all 4 pictures. The Again to the Future picture regarded very very similar to Marty McFly with a skateboard, with a DeLorean ripped from the film set. Gemini used the brand new Nano Banana picture mannequin, which is sort of good.

Total, Gemini is handy as a result of it is proper there in all you do with Google. In case you do a Google search, it is often on the high of the search outcomes, able to siphon off traffic from the sites it scraped for its answers. Picture era is first-rate, however total efficiency might and ought to be higher from Google.

Textual content rating: 77 out of 100
Picture rating: 18 out of 20

Premium choices: The $19.99-per-month Google AI Pro plan offers you entry to its higher-end AI fashions, together with entry to an entire host of extra AI options, together with expanded use of Google’s enormously helpful NotebookLM tool. The $249-per-month Google AI Ultra plan offers you way more useful resource utilization, plus free YouTube Premium.

Photos generated utilizing Gemini:

Total rating: 93

Rounding out the highest 5 is Perplexity, which payments itself as an AI search engine. My first take a look at ought to have been Perplexity’s core competency, but it surely did not do what was requested of it.

Perplexity did clarify the flu story on the Yahoo Information website, but it surely additionally went significantly past what was requested, to debate Japan’s early flu epidemic and somebody who virtually died after the flu put him in a coma. Neither was a part of the principle story Perplexity was requested to summarize.

I did like how Perplexity presents sources in entrance of its solutions. That helps you get a greater really feel for what it is utilizing to formulate your solutions, and offers you locations you’ll be able to go for extra analysis.

Perplexity did a high-quality job explaining an educational idea, recognized a math sequence, mentioned a cultural challenge with context, and analyzed the important thing themes from a well known ebook. Having the sources up entrance and visual was good, too.

Additionally: Want Perplexity Pro for free? 4 ways to get a year of access for $0 (a $200 value)

When it got here time to assemble a journey itinerary, Perplexity confirmed just a few pictures originally of its response, however the solutions virtually appeared phoned in. The primary day, it instructed just a few smaller museums, however by no means received to recommending visiting the USS Structure. By Day 4, it appeared to lose the desire to stay, suggesting only one museum. On Day 5, it instructed visiting Google’s workplaces in Cambridge.

For my job interview help query, it did say, actually, “You have received this!” There have been just a few primary strategies, however they have been simplistic pointers like “put together totally” and focus in your physique language and voice. Curiously, all of the chatbots under the highest 5 used the phrase “You have received this!” of their solutions to my query.

Additionally: Inbox swamped? Perplexity’s new Email Assistant works for Gmail and Outlook

Latin translation and cultural context have been good. Perplexity additionally did an excellent job coding. It not noted some very edge instances, however what it generated was ok to ship.

My large-context story take a look at resulted in 925 phrases, effectively below the quantity requested. Perplexity returned much less of a narrative and extra of a scene setting. There was no battle past a little bit of a regurgitation of the character descriptions. The AI even described the story as “out of Diagon Alley,” virtually word-for-word from the immediate. It produced some components which may have shaped themselves into a pleasant story, but it surely undoubtedly got here throughout way more like a not-completely-finished scholar project.

Picture era with out sign-in resulted in Perplexity returning pictures it discovered on the internet with no AI era in any respect. As soon as I signed in, I used to be allowed three pictures, which have been actually what it thought of to be three professional searches.

The Again to the Future take a look at was undoubtedly evocative of the film, besides the child was dressed in a different way and the underside of the skateboard had a large “McFly” painted on it. The DeLorean wasn’t movie-perfect, but it surely match the theme. The child in King Arthur’s courtroom was just about excellent. The enormous robotic was very cool, though a few of the textual content on the signage was indecipherable.

Additionally: How to get Perplexity AI Pro for free on your Samsung TV – and what it can do

I used to be not all that impressed with Perplexity. I do know some of our editors choose Perplexity for looking out, however I used to be underwhelmed. Its internet search (each in my checks and in different random searches I’ve carried out previously) simply did not appear any higher than a typical Google search. Different AI options have been sufficient, however I did not discover something that made this stand out higher than the instruments that scored increased. You possibly can play with it free of charge, so give it a try to let me know when you agree within the feedback under.

Textual content rating: 81 out of 100
Picture rating: 12 out of 20

Premium choices: Perplexity gives a range of plans, beginning at $20-per-month for Perplexity Professional. Not like the free tier, the Professional plan gives “virtually limitless” Professional searches, amongst different useful resource boosts. There’s additionally a Max plan for $200-per-month that gives entry to early AI fashions and much extra assets. One good possibility: Perplexity gives its Professional plan for $5-per-month to college students who can show they’re college students.

Photos generated utilizing Perplexity: