One AI Chatbot is like one pair of Shoes: Technically Possible, Practically Stupid!
If you’re using ChatGPT-5 Pro at $20/month and never run into issues, chances are you’re not pushing the technology hard enough, and that means you’re already behind. My own daily setup includes ChatGPT-5 ($20), Claude Opus 4.5 Max ($110), Google Gemini 2.5 Pro ($0), and Perplexity Pro ($16), not to mention an additional ~$500/month in API costs. It sounds excessive, but in reality, it reflects what it takes in 2025 to operate at the edge of what these systems can actually deliver. The decision to rely on more than 1 chatbot has been made over months of experience.
Here is what I found out:
- Performance of any bot is not consistent in terms of latency and output quality
- Benchmarks that rank bots are useless and checking leader boards is a waste of time
- Incremental performance between model releases is disappointing, pointing to a plateau in Chatbot performance
- So-called ‘thinking’ models are frustratingly slow
- Models, during processing, will tell you that they are ‘thinking’ but we all know that LLMs cannot think! LLMs only predict the next word
If you've dabbled with AI chatbots recently, you've likely experienced that moment of frustration when ChatGPT starts 'thinking' for what feels like an eternity, or when Claude suddenly tells you it can't continue your conversation because you've hit some invisible wall. Welcome to the reality of AI chatbots in 2025, powerful, transformative, and occasionally maddening.
After months of juggling between ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity for everything from coding to creative writing, I've learned a truth that the marketing materials won't tell you: no single AI chatbot can do it all. In fact, if you're serious about leveraging AI for work or personal projects, you'll probably need at least two paid subscriptions. Let me explain why, and more importantly, help you figure out which ones you actually need. https://medium.com/%40agault/comparing-the-potential-of-chatgpt-perplexity-claude-and-gemini-4ff3eaeadee0
The Free Tier Reality Check
Let's start with what most people don't realize about free versions. Yes, you can use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity without paying a dime, but the experience varies wildly, and the limitations can be deal-breakers depending on your needs. If you are a professional using these tools on a daily basis, the free tier will not satisfy your needs, and if it does, you are probably behind and need to rethink how you will catch up.
ChatGPT's free tier gives you access to GPT-4o mini, which is competent but noticeably less capable than the full GPT-4o model. More frustratingly, during peak hours (think weekday afternoons in the US), you might find yourself waiting in queues or getting kicked out mid-conversation. The message limits are also restrictive, you'll hit them faster than you think, especially if you're working on something complex.
Claude's free version is generous in terms of model quality, you get access to Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Anthropic’s Claude products are probably the best chatbot can offer when it comes to text generation. However, the daily message limit is brutal. You might get through 10-20 messages before hitting the wall, and then you're locked out until the next day. For any serious work, this is essentially a trial version. Even the first tier paid version of Claude is brutal and will not satisfy your needs if you are a regular user.
Gemini is surprisingly robust, hence a must have! I am using Gemini 2.5 Pro and do not pay anything. You will get a massive context window of 1 million tokens. This means you can paste entire documents, code repositories, or lengthy conversations without issues. Gemini is also able to absorb multi-modal data. It is relatively fast and a great 2nd opinion, it is truly multi-modal and it will transcribe large audio files.
Perplexity's free version offers 5 searches every 4 hours, which sounds limited but is actually quite usable for research tasks. The key is understanding that Perplexity isn't trying to be a general-purpose chatbot, it's a research assistant, and it excels at that specific job and that is why it should be in your portfolio. I also recommend the paid version but am aware that some of you will be fine with free version.
The Context Window Conundrum
One of the most overlooked aspects of choosing an AI chatbot is the context window, essentially, how much information the AI can 'remember' and process in a single conversation. This becomes painfully apparent when you're working on coding projects or long documents. It is the sole reason why I am on the expensive Claude Max plan. In addition, Claude offers tight integration with n8n, a workflow tool that I am using frequently in my AI business.
Claude, despite being brilliant at code analysis and writing, has a context window that feels restrictive when you're deep into a project. Picture this: It's 2 AM. you are knee-deep in debugging a complex software application. You and Claude have been going back and forth for two hours, building context, understanding the architecture, zeroing in on the issue. You are so close,.....so close...then suddenly the message appears: 'You've reached your message limit.' No warning,...just digital death mid-conversation. All that context? Gone. The nuanced understanding of your specific edge case? Vanished. You have to switch to ChatGPT and start over, re-explaining everything like teaching a new consultant about a project on their first day. This isn't a one-time thing, it is maddening and it pisses me off on a daily basis!
ChatGPT handles this better with a larger effective context window in practice, though it can start 'forgetting' earlier parts of very long conversations. The real champion here is Gemini, with its massive context window that can handle entire codebases or book-length documents and code. For example, when you want to extract the style of a complex html page, you will fill up the context window quite fast. Claude and ChatGPT for example, may not even accept it.
The Speed and Reliability Roller Coaster
Performance consistency is where the frustrated sighs begin. ChatGPT's 'thinking' feature, while sometimes producing better responses, can be painfully slow. I've watched that spinning circle for over a minute while ChatGPT contemplates what should be a straightforward coding question. The worst part? Sometimes after all that thinking, the response isn't noticeably better than what it would have produced instantly.
Claude tends to be consistently fast. Over the past few weeks however, I noticed that Claude makes mistakes and hallucinates, even on the Max plan. This is exactly the reason why you cannot afford to rely on one chatbot only.
Gemini's speed is generally good, but response quality can vary wildly. One query might give you a brilliant, comprehensive answer, while the next produces something oddly generic or even incorrect. It's like having a brilliant assistant who occasionally phones it in.
Perplexity is usually quick for web searches but can slow down when generating longer responses or when its source-fetching gets ambitious. Still, for research tasks, the wait is usually worth it for the cited sources.
Multi-Modal Mayhem: Text, Voice, Images, and Video
The chatbots are no longer just about text, and this is where things get interesting, and complicated.
ChatGPT's voice mode is impressively natural. You can have actual conversations, and the new Advanced Voice Mode is eerily human-like. Image generation with DALL-E 3 is well-integrated but the output could be better, and GPT-4o can analyse images effectively. Video however, is still mostly off the table. Claude excels at image analysis, it can read handwritten notes, analyse charts, and even help with visual design feedback. However, it can't generate images, and voice features are limited compared to ChatGPT. Gemini, theoretically should dominate multimedia, and it does handle images and audio well. It can analyse video frames and has decent image understanding. Perplexity focuses on being excellent at one thing, research, rather than trying to do everything. It can analyse images in the context of research queries, but it's not trying to be your creative partner.
Why I Pay for Multiple Subscriptions (And You Should Too)
Here's my controversial stance: if AI is actually important to your work, you need at least two paid subscriptions. Not because it's optimal, but because relying on one is setting yourself up for failure.
When Claude crashes during a critical project, ChatGPT is my backup. When ChatGPT starts hallucinating confidently, Claude provides the sanity check. When both are struggling with recent information, Perplexity grounds me with actual sources. When I need to process massive documents, Gemini steps in. This isn't about having toys. It's about redundancy and leveraging strengths:
- Claude Max ($110/month): My primary coding partner and technical writer. Worth the premium for extended conversations without arbitrary cutoffs
- ChatGPT Plus ($20/month): The Swiss Army knife, decent at everything, excellent at creative tasks
- Gemini Pro 2.5 (free): solid option for when other bots fail, especially for long and complex interactions
- Perplexity Pro ($16/month): My research department where every claim is cited and real
Total monthly cost, ...less than my coffee budget, with infinitely more impact on my productivity.
The Bottom Line
The AI chatbot scene in 2025 is both brilliant and broken. ChatGPT is versatile but slow. Claude writes beautifully yet hits context walls. Gemini handles huge inputs but swings between genius and generic. Perplexity is great for research, not creativity.
Stop expecting one model to do it all. Using multiple chatbots isn’t excess, it’s efficiency. Yes, it means more subscriptions, but it also means precision. In today’s world, that’s not luxury, it’s survival.
Push all four hard, find where they fail, and invest in the ones that don’t. The perfect AI doesn’t exist. The future belongs to those who build their own AI stack.
