ChatGPT
General-purpose AI assistant for writing, analysis, coding and research.
- AI
- Assistants
- Productivity
- Development
- from $8/mo
ChatGPT is a conversational AI assistant built by OpenAI, launched publicly in November 2022. It handles writing, summarising, data analysis, image generation and code, with file uploads and web browsing available on paid tiers. It is the default consumer entry point to large language models and the reason most organisations first encountered them.
ChatGPT ranking and coverage
- In AI
- #4 of 9
- Overall
- #37 of 122 tied
- Terms score
- 6.5 /10
- Referenced here
- 8 pages
Cost position 7.5 · Portability 5 · Subscription flexibility 7 - Ranked on published terms only: entry price against category peers, portability and subscription flexibility, equally weighted. This is not a quality score.How the rank is calculated.
ChatGPT: the short answer
Every line below is drawn from facts verified on 19 August 2026.
- What it is
- General-purpose AI assistant for writing, analysis, coding and research
- Best for
- Drafting, editing and summarising written work
- Starts at
- Free; Go from $8/month, Plus $20/month
- Free option
- Free plan available, no trial
- Biggest strength
- Widest capability range of any single AI product
- Biggest drawback
- Confidently produces incorrect facts and plausible fake citations
- Based on
- Primary-source research, not hands-on use
- Closest alternative
- Claude - Stronger at long documents and careful reasoning; smaller consumer ecosystem
- True annual cost
- from $96 a year on Go, the cheapest paid tier ($8 a month)
ChatGPT at a glance
| Best for | Drafting, editing and summarising written work, Ad-hoc data analysis and spreadsheet work, Learning unfamiliar subjects quickly |
|---|---|
| Category | AI, Productivity, Development |
| Starting price | Free; Go from $8/month, Plus $20/month |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | No trial offered |
| Pricing model | freemium |
| Company | OpenAI |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Founders | Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba |
| Platforms | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android |
| Public API | Yes |
| Browser extension | No |
| Mobile apps | iOS + Android |
| Self-hosting | No |
| Affiliate programme | No |
| Data source | Vendor pricing page and public records |
| Last checked | August 2026 |
ChatGPT pricing
Prices below were read from the vendor's own pricing page on 19 August 2026. Pricing model: freemium. No free trial is offered.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | per month | Rate-limited access to current models |
| Go | $8 | per month | 1 user |
| Plus | $20 | per month | 1 user |
| Pro | $100 | per month | Extended access to the heaviest reasoning models |
| Business | Per user | per month | Admin console and workspace data excluded from training by default |
| Enterprise | Custom | Negotiated | - |
What ChatGPT actually costs over a year
A monthly price is not the same thing as a monthly contract. These are the plans above resolved both ways, per seat or unit where the plan is charged that way. Where a vendor quotes only a yearly figure it is divided by twelve rather than left out, and the Quoted column says which figure the vendor actually publishes.
| Plan | Quoted | Monthly | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go1 user | per month | $8 | $96 |
| Plus1 user | per month | $20 | $240 |
| Pro | per month | $100 | $1,200 |
Which ChatGPT plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You want to find out whether it helps at all | Free | Rate-limited access to current models. Enough to judge before paying anything. |
| You use it most days for writing and analysis | Plus | $20 a month is the standard working tier, and the one most people should start with. |
| You want a cheaper paid tier than Plus | Go | $8 a month sits between Free and Plus if Plus is more than you need. |
| You run heavy reasoning tasks all day | Pro | $100 a month. Only worth it if you are genuinely hitting Plus limits, which most people are not. |
| Your company needs data excluded from training | Business | Workspace data is excluded from training by default and you get an admin console. The consumer tiers are not the right purchase for a company. |
| You mainly work with very long documents | Consider Claude instead | Long-context handling is stronger, which matters more than ecosystem for that job. |
Verdict by who you are
Knowledge worker writing dailyYes
Plus at $20 pays for itself quickly on drafting, editing and summarising. The most broadly useful subscription in this category.
Company deploying to staffYes
Business, not Plus. Individual consumer subscriptions across a team leave you with no admin control and no data guarantees.
Developer writing codeCompare first
Capable, though Claude is generally stronger on code and long files. Try both.
Anyone needing guaranteed factual accuracyNo
It states incorrect things fluently. Any output that matters must be checked, and no plan changes that.
Organisation that cannot use third-party processorsNo
Data leaves your infrastructure. No tier makes this a self-hosted product.
Should you buy ChatGPT?
Buy ChatGPT if…
- Drafting, editing and summarising written work
- Ad-hoc data analysis and spreadsheet work
- Learning unfamiliar subjects quickly
Do not buy ChatGPT if…
- Anything requiring guaranteed factual accuracy without checking
- Regulated workflows needing full audit trails on the consumer tier
- Teams that cannot send data to a third-party processor
Key features
- Conversational assistant across text, images and voice
- File and document upload with analysis
- Code interpretation and chart generation
- Web browsing for current information
- Custom GPTs for repeatable task-specific assistants
- Projects and memory for persistent context
- Deep research mode producing long cited reports
Integrations
- OpenAI API
- Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace connectors
- GitHub
- Slack
- Model Context Protocol
ChatGPT screenshots
Captured by us in August 2026 at 1440px, unedited. Interfaces change, so these show the product as it looked on the date we verified this profile. Pricing pages are captured from a US vantage point, so the currency shown matches the USD figures recorded above.
Our assessment
ChatGPT is the most broadly capable consumer AI product and the safest default recommendation for someone who has not used an assistant before. The free tier is genuinely useful, and the $20 tier is one of the easier software purchases to justify on time saved alone. The caveats are unchanged since launch: it states wrong things confidently, and the consumer tiers are not built for regulated or audited work. Treat output as a fast first draft that a human still owns.
What works in ChatGPT
- Widest capability range of any single AI product
- Excellent mobile and desktop applications, not just a web app
- Custom GPTs make repeated workflows reusable without any code
- Free tier is usable rather than a token demo
What doesn't
- Confidently produces incorrect facts and plausible fake citations
- Rate limits on paid tiers are not published precisely and change without notice
- Consumer tiers lack the audit and retention controls regulated teams need
- No affiliate or partner programme for independent publishers
EveryAny Decision Score
3 of these 8 dimensions are calculated from verified facts; the rest are our judgement, shown as a band rather than a figure unless something specific sits behind them. How each score works.
- Cost position7.5/10
derivedentry tier at $8 a month against a category median of $17 a month across 8 comparable tools
- Portability5/10
derivedpublic API
- Subscription flexibility7/10
derivedfree plan, freemium, monthly billing
- Feature depthVery high
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- Ease of learningVery high
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- CollaborationHigh
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- AI capabilityVery high
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
- Professional adoptionVery high
editorialour judgement, with no measurement behind it
What leaving ChatGPT would cost
moderate lock-in
ChatGPT scores on public API. Portability 5/10 ; lock-in is the inverse. How this is calculated.
ChatGPT competitors and alternatives
| Alternative | Why you might pick it instead |
|---|---|
| Claude | Stronger at long documents and careful reasoning; smaller consumer ecosystem. |
| Google Gemini | Tightly integrated with Google Workspace and free at a generous tier. |
| Perplexity | Better if what you want is a cited answer engine rather than an assistant. |
Claude
AI
AI assistant built by Anthropic, strongest on long documents, careful writing and code.
Checked Aug 2026
What it replaces
For most teams ChatGPT quietly absorbs four jobs: the first draft, the summary of something long, the quick script nobody wanted to write, and the explanation of a concept outside your field. None of those were previously a software category. That is why adoption ran ahead of procurement.
The accuracy problem, stated plainly
Large language models generate fluent text, not verified text. ChatGPT will invent statistics, misattribute quotes and produce citations to papers that do not exist. Browsing reduces this but does not remove it. The workable rule: use it where you can check the answer cheaply, and avoid it where you cannot.
Free versus Plus versus Business
The free tier is fine for occasional use. Plus is worth it once you use the assistant most working days, primarily for access to the stronger reasoning models and higher limits. Business exists for one reason that matters to companies: workspace data is excluded from model training by default and an admin can see and control the account. If your organisation has a data-protection review, start at Business rather than retrofitting it.
Compared with Claude
Claude tends to be preferred for long-document work, careful editing and codebase-scale reasoning; ChatGPT has the larger ecosystem, better image generation and stronger mobile apps. Many people who work with AI daily pay for both, which is a reasonable signal that the two are not interchangeable.
ChatGPT questions, answered
- Is ChatGPT worth it?
- ChatGPT is the most broadly capable consumer AI product and the safest default recommendation for someone who has not used an assistant before.
- How much does ChatGPT cost?
- Free; Go from $8/month, Plus $20/month. The cheapest paid tier we recorded is Go, published at $8 a month, which works out at $8 a month or $96 over a year. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does ChatGPT have a free plan or free trial?
- ChatGPT has a free plan. No free trial is offered.
- What is the best ChatGPT alternative?
- It depends on the job. Claude: Stronger at long documents and careful reasoning; smaller consumer ecosystem. Google Gemini: Tightly integrated with Google Workspace and free at a generous tier. Perplexity: Better if what you want is a cited answer engine rather than an assistant.
- Can I self-host ChatGPT?
- No. ChatGPT is a hosted service only, so your data lives on the vendor's infrastructure.
What this profile is based on
Every claim below is about our work, not about ChatGPT. A "no" is recorded rather than omitted, because the difference between a tested review and careful desk research is the reader's to weigh. How we research a profile.
-
Prices read from the vendor : yes
Read from ChatGPT's own pricing page on 19 August 2026
-
Plans and terms recorded : yes
6 rows, each with its billing period
-
Original screenshots : yes
2 captured by us: homepage, pricing page
-
Sources cited and dated : yes
2 primary sources, each with the date it was read
-
Product used first-hand : no
Not tested. This profile is desk research from primary sources
-
Alternatives used first-hand : no
None, so comparisons here rest on published facts rather than use
-
Vendor contacted : no
Not contacted for this profile
Desk research from OpenAI's own ChatGPT pricing page, read on 19 August 2026 through a United States egress. Nobody here has used ChatGPT for a documented test, and no model quality was benchmarked. The business tier exists but its per-seat price was not readable from a server-side read of the pricing page.
Where ChatGPT appears on this site
8 other pages here reference ChatGPT. Every one is listed below, so the figure can be checked rather than taken.
- Buyer guide Best AI assistants for work in 2026, by what you can buy and predict ranked #4
- Another profile Claude names it as a competitor
- Another profile DeepSeek names it as a competitor
- Another profile Google Gemini names it as a competitor
- Another profile Grok names it as a competitor
- Another profile Microsoft Copilot names it as a competitor
- Another profile Mistral names it as a competitor
- Another profile Perplexity names it as a competitor
Counts pages on this site that name the product by choice - buyer guides, articles, deal records and other profiles. Category and directory indexes list everything automatically and are not counted.
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Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details
What has changed
-
August 2026
- Prices re-read for the AI assistants guide; Free, Go at $8, Plus at $20 and Pro from $100 unchanged
- Recorded that plan allowances are described in adjectives rather than published figures
-
August 2026
- Plan ladder re-verified, including the Go tier
- Added plan picker and verdicts
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- ChatGPT pricing page - checked 19 August 2026
- OpenAI enterprise privacy commitments - checked 19 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.
