ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini: which one should you try first?

You have now met the three main tools one by one. The next question is the one almost every beginner asks: which one should I actually use?

The short answer is that it matters less than you think. All three can answer questions, explain things, help you write, and summarise a long document. All three have a free version. The differences are real, but they are about feel and fit, not about one being right and the others wrong.

The three in one minute

• ChatGPT, made by OpenAI. The best known of the three, and the one with the most features under one roof: voice chat, images, file uploads and more. If you want "the AI everybody talks about", this is it. More in What is ChatGPT?
• Claude, made by Anthropic. Known for calm, natural writing and for coping well with long documents. Often the favourite of people who write a lot or read a lot. More in What is Claude?
• Gemini, made by Google. The one that lives inside Google's own products: Search, Gmail, Google Docs and Android phones. More in What is Gemini?

Which one fits you?

• You use Gmail, Google Docs or an Android phone every day. Try Gemini first. It is already there, and it can work with the things you already keep in Google.
• You write a lot, such as emails, letters, speeches or reports, or you want help with a long document. Try Claude first.
• You want one app that does a bit of everything, and a very large crowd of people to swap tips with. Try ChatGPT first.
• You are not sure. Start with whichever one you can open in the next minute. You can try a second one next week. Nothing is lost.

What all three have in common

• They can be wrong, and sound sure about it. All three sometimes make things up. When a fact matters, such as a date, a dose, a price or a law, check it somewhere else.
• They are not private diaries. Treat the chat box like a postcard, not a sealed letter. Do not type passwords, bank details or anything you would not want a company to read.
• They are free to start. You do not need to pay to learn what AI is like.

Things that change quickly

These tools are updated every few weeks. A weakness this month can be gone next month, and a feature that only one of them has can show up in all three. So do not treat any comparison, including this one, as final. When a detail matters, such as a price, a limit or a feature, look at the official website of the tool: chatgpt.com, claude.ai and gemini.google.com.

Do you need to pay?

Not at the start. Most beginners never need more than the free version. If you find yourself running into the daily limit again and again, that is the moment to look at the paid plans, and the official website will show the current prices.

Try this: a ten-minute test

The best way to choose is to let all three do the same job, then pick the one you would happily ask again. Open two or three of them, in the free version, and give each one the same two requests.

First, a writing request:

"Write a short, friendly message to my neighbour asking them to keep the noise down after 10 pm."

Then an explaining request:

"Explain what a mortgage is as if I were twelve. Five sentences."

Then ask yourself:

• Which answer was easiest to understand?
• Which one sounded like something you could send without changing much?
• Which one made a mistake, or was vague?
• Which one would you like to talk to again tomorrow?

That last answer is your answer. If two of them are close, use both. Plenty of people do.

You can use any of them well. Next, the questions people actually lose sleep over, starting with the big one: your job.