# WHICH AI SHOULD I USE? **A plain-English decision guide. Find your answer in under five minutes.** From alchemy-ai.dev — free forever, no affiliate links, no sponsored rankings. Last updated: July 2026. --- ## HOW THIS WORKS Don't read every AI review on the internet. Instead, find the sentence below that sounds like you, and follow it. Every recommendation includes a free way to start — never pay before you've tried. --- ## "I WANT TO BUILD AN APP OR WEBSITE" **→ Use Claude (with Claude Code) as your builder, ChatGPT free as your debugger.** This is the core workflow this whole site teaches: 1. Fill out the CLAUDE.md template (free download on the site). 2. Open your project in VS Code with the Claude Code extension. 3. Claude builds step by step; when errors get circular, paste them into ChatGPT free, bring the fix back. - **Start free:** Claude's free tier + ChatGPT free. Short sessions, but it works. - **Worth paying?** Yes — Claude Pro ($20/month) is the single highest-value purchase in this guide if you're building something real. - **"I don't want to install anything":** try Lovable or Bolt.new (browser builders) to validate your idea first, then graduate to the real workflow. --- ## "I'VE NEVER USED ANY AI — WHERE DO I START?" **→ ChatGPT free, or Gemini free.** Both are forgiving, general-purpose, and free. Spend two weeks just… asking things. Draft an email. Plan a trip. Ask it to explain something you never understood. You'll learn more by using one than by reading ten comparisons. - Pick **ChatGPT** if you want the biggest community and the most "how do I…" answers online. - Pick **Gemini** if you already live in Gmail and Google Docs — it's the most generous free tier right now. --- ## "I NEED HELP WRITING" (emails, essays, business docs, a book) **→ Claude.** Claude's writing is consistently the most natural — less robotic filler, better at matching the tone you ask for, and it can hold a very long document in its head while you revise it together. - **Start free:** claude.ai free tier. - **Runner-up:** ChatGPT — very good, slightly more "AI-flavored" output. --- ## "I NEED TO RESEARCH THINGS AND TRUST THE ANSWERS" **→ Perplexity.** It answers with numbered citations linking to real sources, so you can check its work. That's the feature that matters for research. - **Start free:** perplexity.ai free tier covers everyday research. - **For live/breaking topics:** Grok sees X (Twitter) in real time. - **For huge documents** (contracts, reports, books): Gemini — its giant context window swallows documents the others choke on. - **Rule for all of them:** if the answer matters, click the source. AIs can misread their own citations. --- ## "I WANT AI IN MY OFFICE APPS" (Word, Excel, Outlook / Docs, Sheets, Gmail) **→ Whichever ecosystem you already live in.** - Microsoft person? **Microsoft Copilot** (free tier first; Pro at $20/month if you use it daily). - Google person? **Gemini** (free tier first; AI Pro at $19.99/month). Don't switch ecosystems for AI. The integration is the whole point. --- ## "I'M ON A ZERO-DOLLAR BUDGET" **→ Stack the free tiers. In 2026 they're genuinely good.** - **Gemini free** — most generous overall right now. - **ChatGPT free** — best all-rounder. - **Claude free** — best quality per message; save it for what matters. - **DeepSeek free** — unlimited-feeling strong reasoning, BUT never paste anything private into it (data goes to servers in China). - **Perplexity free** — research with sources. The move: spread your work across all five. When one cuts you off, rotate to the next. Total cost: $0. --- ## "PRIVACY IS MY #1 CONCERN" **→ Run AI locally with Ollama or LM Studio (Llama and other open models).** Local AI runs entirely on your computer. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. It's less capable than the big cloud AIs and needs a decent machine, but it is the only *true* "my data never leaves my house" option. - **Middle ground:** every major AI has settings to opt out of your chats being used for training. Go flip those switches today — takes two minutes each. - **Hard rule regardless of tool:** never paste passwords, API keys, or other people's private info into ANY cloud AI. --- ## "I JUST WANT SOMEONE TO TALK TO" **→ Pi (heypi.com), or a voice conversation with ChatGPT or Claude.** Pi is free and was built specifically to be a warm, judgment-free listener. It's genuinely good at it. One honest caution: an AI that feels human is still not a human — or a therapist. Use it as a supplement to real support, not a replacement. If you're in crisis, call or text **988** (US) — real people, 24/7. --- ## "I'M A DEVELOPER PICKING A DAILY CODING TOOL" Short version (the full Coding Tools Deep Dive guide has the detail): - **Want an agent to drive whole builds?** → Claude Code ($20/mo via Claude Pro). - **Want AI woven through your editor?** → Cursor ($20/mo) or Windsurf (best free tier). - **Want the cheapest paid option?** → GitHub Copilot Pro ($10/mo). - **Want open source + pay-per-use control?** → Cline (VS Code) or Aider (terminal). - **Student?** → GitHub Copilot is free for verified students. Start there today. --- ## "WHICH ONE IS SMARTEST?" Wrong question — and the honest answer changes every few months as new models leapfrog each other. As of mid-2026 the top models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google sit within a few points of each other on benchmarks. The differences that actually affect your day: what it costs, how fast you hit usage limits, what tools it plugs into, and how it handles YOUR kind of work. That's what the rest of this guide sorts by. Test the top two candidates on a real task from your life for a week each — that beats any benchmark. --- ## THE CHEAT SHEET | You are… | Use this | Pay this | |---|---|---| | Building an app | Claude + Claude Code, ChatGPT free debugging | $0–20/mo | | Brand new to AI | ChatGPT free or Gemini free | $0 | | A writer | Claude | $0–20/mo | | A researcher | Perplexity (+ Gemini for big docs) | $0 | | An office worker | Copilot (Microsoft) or Gemini (Google) | $0 at first | | Broke but motivated | All the free tiers, rotated | $0 | | Privacy-first | Ollama / LM Studio, local models | $0 | | Lonely at 2am | Pi | $0 | | A developer | See Coding Tools Deep Dive | $0–20/mo | **And the one rule that outranks the whole table: start free, prove the value on YOUR real work, then pay. Never the other way around.** --- *From alchemy-ai.dev — a free AI education platform by Stacked Alchemist LLC. No course to sell. No paywall.*