A guide for everyday people

Which AI should you use?

Pick what you want to do below and we'll show a best pick, a budget pick and a free option, with what each costs for everyday jobs.

Last updated October 16, 2026.

What do you want to do?

WriteEmails, essays, posts, cover letters.ResearchFinding answers, with sources.StudyExplaining ideas, math, science, homework help.CodeWriting, fixing and explaining code.Make imagesCreating and editing images.Work documentsSummarizing reports, contracts and PDFs.TranslateTurning text into another language.

What does it cost, in real terms?

Instead of technical price lists, we show what three everyday jobs would cost: 1,000-word essay, 100 chat messages, 50-page PDF summary. Here are a few popular picks.

What a 100-message chat costs

Across these 10 models, a 100-message chat costs from $0.10 to $5.25. The priciest is about 55 times the cheapest.

Bar scale

Hy-MT2-7B$0.10

Claude Haiku 5.5$0.13

GPT-6 Luna$0.13

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash$0.19

Gemini 3.8 Flash$1.08

Claude Sonnet 5.5$2.62

Gemini 4 Argon$2.62

GPT-6.1 Sol$2.62

Sonar Pro$3.94

Claude Opus 5.5$5.25

Show the data as a table

Model	Cost of a 100-message chat
Hy-MT2-7B	$0.10 (about 10 cents)
Claude Haiku 5.5	$0.13 (about 13 cents)
GPT-6 Luna	$0.13 (about 13 cents)
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	$0.19 (about 19 cents)
Gemini 3.8 Flash	$1.08
Claude Sonnet 5.5	$2.62
Gemini 4 Argon	$2.62
GPT-6.1 Sol	$2.62
Sonar Pro	$3.94
Claude Opus 5.5	$5.25

Bars use a straight scale: a bar twice as long means twice the cost. Models shown are the ones we name in our picks. Source: OpenRouter list prices and the assumptions on How we work.

These costs use the prices AI companies charge software developers, so they show relative cost, not your monthly bill. See what ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini charge you.

Compare them side by side

Sort by

Model and our take (editorial)	Type	Smartness	Reads at once*	Essay	Chat	PDF
Claude Sonnet 5.5 Made by Anthropic, the company behind Claude.The sensible default: close to the top tier for writing, fixing code and everyday work, at about half the price of Claude Opus 5.5.	Most capable	★★★★★	1,500 pages	$0.01	$2.62	$0.07
Gemini 4 Argon Made by Google, the company behind Gemini.Google's top model. It can read text, pictures, audio, video and files, at a mid-range price.	Most capable	★★★★★	1,570 pages	$0.01	$2.62	$0.07
GPT-6.1 Sol Made by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.Good value from OpenAI: strong at programming and working through long documents, at a mid-range price.	Most capable	★★★★★	1,580 pages	$0.01	$2.62	$0.07
Claude Opus 5.5 Made by Anthropic, the company behind Claude.The strongest all-round pick when quality matters more than cost, especially for big, complicated jobs like long coding projects.	Most capable	★★★★★	1,500 pages	$0.03	$5.25	$0.15
Claude Haiku 5.5 Made by Anthropic, the company behind Claude.The cheap and fast Claude. Great for summaries, quick questions and anything you do a lot of.	Everyday and cheap	★★★★☆	1,500 pages	<1¢	$0.13	<1¢
Gemini 3.8 Flash Made by Google, the company behind Gemini.Google's best fast model: a middle ground between cheap and capable. It understands audio and video too.	Everyday and cheap	★★★★☆	1,570 pages	$0.01	$1.08	$0.03
GPT-6 Luna Made by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.OpenAI's fast, cheap model for chat, sorting things into groups and light tasks.	Everyday and cheap	★★★☆☆	1,580 pages	<1¢	$0.13	<1¢
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash Made by DeepSeek.Very low price, can be downloaded and run yourself, and reads a very large amount at once. Hard to beat for big batches of work.	Everyday and cheapfree to download	★★★☆☆	1,570 pages	<1¢	$0.19	$0.01
Sonar Pro Made by Perplexity, the company behind Perplexity.Answers questions by searching the web and showing its sources. A research helper rather than a general chatbot.	Single-purpose	★☆☆☆☆	300 pages	$0.02	$3.94	$0.11
Hy-MT2-7B Made by Tencent.A model built only for translation, with options for glossaries and writing style. Covers 33 language pairs plus some Chinese dialects.	Single-purposefree to download	Not rated yet	10 pages	<1¢	$0.10	<1¢

Essay = a 1,000-word essay; Chat = a 100-message conversation; PDF = summarizing a 50-page PDF. *A rule of thumb: one page is about 500 words, and a model "reads" about 0.75 words per token. Smartness is our 1 to 5 banding of the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (how); "Not rated yet" means no score is available. Costs are computed from list prices using the assumptions on How we work.

See all 32 models · Advanced table (raw prices, sortable)

What should I pay?

Free is enough to try; about $20 a month is for daily use; $100 to $200 is for people who hit limits every day. See plans for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and more.

Common questions

Which AI is best for writing?
Our editorial pick for everyday writing is Claude Sonnet 5.5, with Claude Haiku 5.5 as the cheaper choice. We have not run our own writing tests yet. See /for/write.

Is ChatGPT or Claude better?
It depends on the job. We compare OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol with Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 5.5 side by side on cost, smartness rating and what each is best for. See /compare/chatgpt-vs-claude.

Which AI is the cheapest?
Among general-purpose models we track, the cheapest are in our "Cheapest good AI models" list. Costs are developer prices, not app subscription prices.

Do these prices match what I pay for ChatGPT or Claude?
No. The task costs are the prices companies charge software developers. What the apps charge each month is on our What should I pay page: free to try, about $20 for daily use, $100 to $200 if you hit limits every day.

How much does ChatGPT Plus cost?
ChatGPT Plus is listed at $20 a month in the US (checked Oct 16, 2026; confirm at checkout). See /plans/chatgpt.