You must have seen how explodingly popular ChatGPT has become on the internet. The chatbot is based on OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, allowing users to converse with the AI. But that also brought a big downside with ChatGPT’s servers being overloaded with users. This has locked users out of using the handy bot when needed. So, if you are one of the folks who find ChatGPT frequently down, you can follow our list of the best ChatGPT alternatives in 2025.

1. Google Gemini: A Powerful ChatGPT Alternative for AI Tasks

Key Features:

Excels at creative tasks
Upload and generate images
Upload files including PDFs, Documents
Google Search Integration for latest information
Chat with YouTube videos, Docs, Google Drive Files
Powered by Gemini 1.5 models (Flash and Pro)

Google Gemini is considered one of the closest competitors of ChatGPT. Just like ChatGPT, Gemini is also free to use and the free version is powered by the Gemini 1.5 Flash model. It’s very good at creative tasks and outperforms ChatGPT. However, in reasoning and coding tasks, the paid version of Gemini (powered by Gemini 1.5 Pro) ranks slightly below ChatGPT Plus (powered by GPT-4o).

To test Gemini’s capability against ChatGPT, we performed a simple reasoning test on both AI chatbots. The free version of ChatGPT gives a wrong answer whereas the free version of Gemini responds with a correct answer. It goes on to show that Google has done a great job at offering a capable model even for free users.

Apart from that, you get image generation on Gemini, image analysis, file uploads, extension support, and more. You can also use Gemini to chat with YouTube videos which is not available on ChatGPT.

Pros	Cons
Great at creative writing; a solid tool for researching on any subject	Commonsense reasoning is slightly weak
Fast response time
Image analysis and generation
File uploads
Extensions support, chat with YouTube videos
Google ecosystem advantage

Pricing: Free, Gemini Advanced starts at $20 per month, Offers a free trial of one month with Google One benefits

2. Claude: ChatGPT Alternative for Coding and Reasoning

Key Features:

Limited free access to the top-tier Claude 3.5 Sonnet model
Large context window of 200K tokens
Upload PDF files, spreadsheets, and documents
Image analysis

ChatGPT has no shortage of rivals in the AI space. Anthropic released its most powerful Claude 3.5 Sonnet model which is even better than OpenAI’s GPT-4o model in coding and reasoning tasks. In our comparison between Claude 3.5 Sonnet and ChatGPT 4o, Claude performed impressively well. In case you didn’t know, Anthropic is backed by Google and Amazon, making it a solid OpenAI competitor.

Moreover, Claude 3.5 Sonnet has a context length of 200K tokens, much higher than ChatGPT’s 32K context window. It means that Claude can handle large volumes of data with ease. Apart from that, Claude models are fluent in non-English languages including Japanese, Spanish, and French. It also brings vision capability and can process complex graphs, diagrams, and charts.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is also very good at code generation, and you can even upload documents and PDFs and have Claude summarize them for your convenience. The Claude 3.5 Sonnet model powers the free version of Claude Chat, which has a capped limit. If you want to use Claude without limitations, you must subscribe to Claude Pro, which costs $23.60 per month.

Pros	Cons
200K context length	Cannot access the Internet
Upload images, documents including PDFs	Message capping for free users
Free version powered by the top-tier Claude 3.5 Sonnet model
Based on Constitutional AI to deliver a safer experience

Pricing: Free, Claude Pro starts at $23.60 per month

3. Microsoft Copilot: ChatGPT Alternative Packed with GPT-4 Turbo

Key Features:

Free GPT-4 Turbo access during non-peak times
Bing integration for latest information
Free image generation via DALL-E 3
Free image analysis
Cites sources

Microsoft Copilot is one of the best competitors to ChatGPT because it offers free access to the GPT-4 Turbo model. And now the company has announced Copilot Pro which costs $20 per month but brings priority access to GPT-4 Turbo model. It also lets you use Copilot features in Office apps. Bear in mind, free Copilot users will only get responses from the GPT-4 Turbo model during non-peak hours.

To compare Microsoft Copilot to ChatGPT, I used the same prompt. And, well, Copilot nailed it, whereas the free version of ChatGPT struggled to provide the correct response. As previously stated, the free version of Copilot includes the GPT-4 model, making it far more capable than the free tier of ChatGPT.

Besides that, Copilot has access to the internet via Bing, can analyze and generate images as well. Furthermore, Copilot even allows users to plan trips, get recipes, seek out advice, and a lot more, just like ChatGPT. Finally, you also get a handful of plugins on Copilot.

Pros	Cons
Offers free access to GPT-4 Turbo during non-peak hours	Responses could be faster
Image generation and analysis	No file uploads for free users
Credits sources	No GPT-4o access yet

Pricing: Free, Copilot Pro starts at $20 per month

Meta recently released its Llama 3.1 models and introduced the largest 405B model. It has also come up with a ChatGPT-like platform for chatting with AI models. You can use Meta AI on the web and also generate images. Unlike ChatGPT, Meta AI is completely free to use and it’s powered by the smaller Llama 3.1 70B model.

Apart from that, you can also chat with Meta AI on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. It uses the Llama 3.1 70B which has shown great promise. We recently compared Llama 3.1 405B with ChatGPT’s GPT-4o model and it did a pretty good job, except in coding and reasoning tasks.

Although the model performed poorly on the same reasoning test we provided to Llama 3.1 70B, it performed exceptionally well on numerous other tests. Additionally, Meta AI provides image generation, which is good. However, at this time, it does not support file or image analysis. According to Meta, a multimodal model that supports speech and vision will be available soon.

Pros	Cons
Impressive results despite the smaller size	Cannot access the Internet
Performs great at challenging tasks	Can’t process images and files
Supports image generation	Requires a Facebook account
Open-source

Pricing: Free

5. Mistral Chat: Multilingual Chat GPT Alternative Powered by Mistral Large 2

Key Features:
Powered by Mistral Large 2
Advanced reasoning capability
Fluent in English, French and other European languages
Built-in function calling support

In case you are not following news, Microsoft invested close to $16 million investment in a young French AI startup called Mistral AI, overshadowing its close partner, OpenAI. Mistral AI has been gaining recognition in the open-source community for developing powerful AI models, closely competing against OpenAI’s GPT-4 model.

Its newly-announced Mistral Large 2 model is one of the flagship AI models out there, scoring 84% in the MMLU test (GPT-4o scored 88.7%). According to the company, Mistral Large 2 is very good at advanced reasoning, supports a context length of up to 128K tokens, has function calling support just like GPT-4o, and natively fluent in various popular international languages.

I posed the advanced reasoning question to Mistral Chat and it performed accurately. I have personally used Mistral Chat on many occasions in the past and have found it on par with ChatGPT. You should definitely try it as it performs better than the free version of ChatGPT.

With the help of the Mistral Large 2 model, the company launched Mistral Chat, also referred to as Le Chat. With a GPT-4 class Mistral Large 2 model, Mistral Chat is a great choice if you’re searching for ChatGPT alternative without having to pay for GPT-4 access.

Mistral Chat is a great tool for users who want AI models that understand French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Pros	Cons
Powered by a GPT-4 class Mistral Large 2 model	No extra features like plugins and code interpreter
Great at complex reasoning, and coding	No internet access
Fluent in English, French and many European languages
Simple and easy-to-use UI

Pricing: Free

6. Perplexity AI: ChatGPT Alternative for Real-Time Information and Insights

Key Features:
Limited GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 access to free users
Good for product recommendations
Choose your source; Cites sources
Find latest information
Upload PDFs, images, and text files

Perplexity AI is a ChatGPT alternative users have always loved because it combines a search engine experience with an AI tool like Copilot. The bot hosts OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Claude 3 models. While the tool can converse with you, it even cites a variety of sources for its answer. The best thing about Perplexity is that it can find latest information on any subject and it does a great job at finding suitable products.

Besides searching the Internet, Perplexity can comb through various sources like Reddit, academic sources, YouTube, and more. Perplexity AI even has a handy co-pilot mode that uses the power of GPT-4 to dive deep into your questions and come up with the best answers. However, you only get five queries for GPT-4 which refreshes every four hours.

Perplexity was unable to provide a valid response to the reasoning question in my test. However, since I was using the free version, complex reasoning is not its strong point. However, you should absolutely check out Perplexity for web searches.

Pros	Cons
Holds good conversations without being confused	Might accidentally copy from sources
Offers free GPT-4 access with limited queries	Reasoning is weak
Cites sources with answers
Revamped layout is appealing
Co-Pilot mode finds even more detailed answers

Pricing: Free, Perplexity Pro costs $20 per month

7. Grok 2: ChatGPT Alternative with Reasoning Excellence

Elon Musk-led xAI released their Grok-2 model recently and it performed exceptionally well on benchmark tests. The Grok-2 model scored 87.5% on the MMLU benchmark, and ChatGPT’s GPT-4o model got 88.7%. It’s almost on par with ChatGPT. The Grok-2 model is available on x.com (formerly Twitter), but you will need a X Premium subscription to access it, starting at $8 per month.

To test the Grok-2 model, I tried one of the tricky reasoning questions, and Grok-2 aced it. Bear in mind that x.com currently hosts the smaller Grok-2 mini model which is much smaller than Grok-2. Despite that, it performed pretty well.

Grok-2 also supports image generation, but it’s under fire for generating harmful and provocative images. If you are not concerned about image generation, you can very well try Grok-2 on x.com. It’s a capable alternative to ChatGPT.

Pros	Cons
Performs really well in reasoning tests	Uncensored on many contentious topics
Strong performance on several benchmark tests	Image generation ignores safety guardrails
MMLU score of 87.5%

Pricing: Paid, Grok-2 requires X Premium subscription that costs $8 per month

8. GroqChat: A High-Performance ChatGPT Alternative for AI Enthusiasts

Key Features:
Lightning fast output generation
Hosts open-source models including Llama 3 70B and Mixtral 8x7B
Free to use

Groq is an AI-first hardware company that has developed a specialized chip for AI inference called an LPU (Language Processing Unit). The company has taken the AI industry by storm by offering 10x better performance than Nvidia GPUs. To showcase its LPU’s prowess, the company has launched GroqChat where you can run your prompts on open-source models and generate results in a jiffy.

It currently houses Mistral AI’s open-source model, Mixtral 8x7B, and Meta’s amazing Llama 3.1 70B. Although both models are excellent, I choose to use the Llama 3.1 70B because it is more powerful even if it is smaller. I used the identical logic problem on Groq, and while Mixtral 8x7B provided the right answer, Llama 3.1 70B was unable to guess it.

In short, GroqChat is a good choice if you’re looking for a quick AI chatbot that works similarly to ChatGPT. Additionally, GroqChat’s lightning-fast performance will astound you.

Pros	Cons
Lightning fast output generation	Limited models available
Hosts open-source models like Mixtral-8x7B
Clean interface

Pricing: Free

9. HuggingChat: ChatGPT Alternative with Web Access

Key Features:

Hosts multiple latest open-source models
Check out Llama 3.1 405B, 70B, Command R+, Mixtral 8x7B, Phi-3 mini
Web access for latest information
Free to use

One of the best open-source ChatGPT alternatives, HuggingChat is an AI chatbot created by HuggingFace, one of the premier websites hosting many AI models and datasets. This chatbot was previously based on the Meta AI (LLaMA) LLM but has since evolved where it lets you choose from a variety of language models.

This includes the recently-released Llama 3.1 405B, 70B, Mixtral-8x7B, Command R+, Phi-3 mini, and more. You can select one of the models and produce interesting blog posts and jokes, generate HTML code for websites, recipes, and much more. There is also a handy toggle to enable web access.

This will allow the bot to gather information online to supplement its answer. However, the bot has network errors from time to time, which might hinder you. Nonetheless, try this ChatGPT alternative if you want to check out open-source AI models for free.

Pros	Cons
Fast and snappy replies	Prone to network errors
Users can choose from multiple LLMs including Llama 3.1 405B, Mixtral-8x7B
Can perform a variety of functions
Can search the web

Pricing: Free

10. Pi, your personal AI

Key Features:
Personal AI chatbot
Emotionally intelligent
Listen to custom podcast
Audio chat
Engaging and conversational

Among all the other ChatGPT alternatives, Pi is possibly the only one that will provide you with a different experience altogether. Based on being a supportive and smart AI, Pi is a chatbot that follows a unique design. Instead of full-blown chats, conversations on Pi happen dialogue by dialogue. What makes it more interesting is that Pi is also one of the only assistants who talks back. The website has eight different voices; each is eerily realistic and oddly comforting.

Pi initiates the dialogue and attempts to understand each message you send. Speaking in a manner close to that of a therapist, the ChatGPT alternative is highly curious and makes an effort to comprehend and reciprocate. If it weren’t for the sporadic mistakes, one may almost forget this is an AI.

So, while it can get tedious if you keep talking, Pi is one of the best ChatGPT alternatives if you want some mental relief. However, you need an account to sign up, which can be a downside for some. Nonetheless, check it out.

Pros	Cons
Quite effective at mental health conversations	Needs an account
Realistic and comforting voice
Free to use

Pricing: Free

BONUS: Poe

Key Features:

One-stop platform to access a variety of models
Limited access to GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 models for free users
Hosts bots having different characters
Create your own bot
Image generation
Upload images, documents, and files
Web search

Introduced in early 2023, Poe by Quora is not an AI itself but more of a platform where you can talk to AI chatbots. Poe stands for ‘Platform for Open Exploration.’ True to its name, Quora Poe is a place where users can talk to and experiment with various AI chatbots. Quora mentions that Poe lets people ask questions, get instant answers, and have back-and-forth conversations with several AI-powered bots.

Poe’s website is neatly packaged and currently allows users to talk with AIs like ChatGPT, even GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Llama 3.1 405B, Gemini 1.5 Pro, and more. All told, the platform allows access to over 100 different LLMs. However, access is limited for GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet, so you must get a subscription for the same.

Quora Poe is incredibly effective and has very little downtime while you interact with the different AI bots. But in order to access it, you must first make an account. Fortunately, the good news is that you don’t have to make individual accounts for each service. Poe may be the ideal platform for you if you like to communicate with various AI personalities.

Pros	Cons
All-in-one platform to access almost all AI bots	Limited access to GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet for free users
Talk to AI characters
Create your own AI bot
Little to no downtime

Pricing: Free, Paid plan costs $19.99 per month