ChatGPT
The default general-purpose assistant, now with agents and deep research.
Use it for
One subscription that also covers images, voice, and browsing
Skip it if
Long documents where instruction-following matters more than breadth
What it is
The product that set the baseline for everything else on this list. Its strength is breadth: writing, analysis, images, voice, code, and a growing set of agentic modes that browse and run multi-step tasks. Its weakness is that the free tier and the paid tier are genuinely different products, and the gap has widened every year.
Pricing
Free tier available; paid plans from about $20/mo
Who it suits
The default general-purpose assistant, now with agents and deep research. If the constraint above matches how you work, this is a safe default. If it does not, check the alternatives below before committing to a subscription.