ChatGPT Alternatives: Free and Paid Options in 2024

ChatGPT is the most popular AI model, but users in the US often face challenges with access. That's why it's crucial to find alternatives. We conducted a mini-study: we explored alternative platforms and analyzed their capabilities. This article includes both paid and free AI models.

ChatGPT Pros and Cons

ChatGPT from OpenAI is one of the most popular tools for text generation.

ChatGPT Advantages:

• Supports multiple languages, including English. This makes the AI model a versatile tool for creating different types of text, from marketing strategies to scripts and emails.
• Works well in various fields — generates content, assists in writing code, answers questions, and creates chatbots for customer service.
• Available through an API, simplifying integration into business processes and platforms.
• OpenAI actively updates the model, making AI responses more accurate.

ChatGPT Disadvantages:

• The subscription is expensive for small businesses and freelancers.
• ChatGPT sometimes generates inaccurate information — you need to double-check the results.
• Despite supporting English, there are occasional difficulties with interpreting cultural context and linguistic formulations.

When choosing an alternative, consider local developments.

Free AI Models

5th Place — Rytr

Rytr's free plan allows you to send requests and receive responses in only one language. After registration, users see a short tutorial video and a control panel where they can organize all projects into folders and documents.

Working with Rytr is simple: you specify the type of content required, paste the source data, and the AI generates text. The generated response can be edited in the built-in text editor. Additionally, the site not only creates new content but also helps improve existing content — it corrects grammatical errors, shortens or lengthens sentences, and changes wording.

In addition to text creation, Rytr offers several useful tools for SEO and content marketing: SERP analysis and keyword generator.

An interesting feature is Magic Command: the user enters a custom request, and the AI generates text based on the given instructions.

Overall, Rytr users have access to:

• AI-powered text generator;
• Text editor;
• Keyword and search results analysis;
• Image and diagram generator;
• Plagiarism checker;
• Script writing;
• Text improvement;
• Profile creation for professional writers and content marketers.

4th Place — Elicit

Elicit is a research tool. The platform optimizes working with scientific articles and documents. This is useful not only for researchers: journalists and marketers can use it to find relevant information and delve deeper into a topic. The AI can also help with brainstorming: it quickly gathers information, which you can then use as a starting point.

Elicit automates the main stages of the research process: literature review, finding relevant materials. And it does this not only by keywords: it checks for similar ones itself.

Elicit's main features:

• Searching for articles and documents by keywords and thematic queries;
• Summarizing information from found articles;
• Ability to filter results by publication date, number of citations, and type of research;
• Exporting data to reference managers in CSV or BibTeX formats.

3rd Place — h2oGPT

h2oGPT is an open-source GPT model. This means that any user can create their own tool based on it. h2oGPT itself is great for small projects and testing in data analysis. The platform works quickly even on older hardware.

The AI is "friendly" with different types and formats of files: CSV, DOCX, PDF, MP3, ZIP, TXT, PPT, and WAV. It even processes links to YouTube videos. It understands Markdown and HTML markup and emails. The system includes a language model, embedding, document databases, a command line, and a user-friendly graphical interface.

The chatbot supports integration with servers:

• HF TGI server;
• vLLM;
• Gradio;
• ExLLaMa;
• Replicate;
• OpenAI;
• Azure OpenAI;
• Anthropic.

In h2oGPT, you can enable access to internet search so that the bot uses up-to-date information. To do this, simply activate Include Web Search.

2nd Place — Mistral

Microsoft invested around $16 million in the French startup Mistral AI. It's no surprise that their new Mistral Large 2 model is now one of the flagship AIs. The developer claims that Mistral Large 2 handles advanced tasks and retains context up to 128,000 tokens.

Pros:

• Based on the Mistral Large 2 model, a GPT-4 class.
• Ability for complex reasoning and programming.
• Fluent in English, French, and many European languages.
• User-friendly interface.

Cons:

• No additional features — plugins and code interpreters.
• No access to search engines.

1st Place — Jadve AI

Jadve AI is a powerful AI that offers tools for all work areas. It translates text and helps generate comments and ideas for YouTube videos. In customer interaction, Jadve AI can create informative emails, assist in communication, analyze, rewrite, and edit text. In SEO, the AI optimizes titles and meta tags, and can analyze the sentiment in text.

In SMM, Jadve AI creates social media posts, engages in naming, and writes scripts. Developers have paid special attention to text analysis and refinement: the AI corrects grammar, edits essays, rewrites fiction, generates prompts for AI art, and suggests strategies for marketing campaigns. It can even write ads for Google Ads.

The AI can generate unusual ideas for fiction, develop new concepts, and explain complex terms in an understandable way. It can analyze characters from works and make movie recommendations based on user preferences and mood.

Jadve AI generates travel guides: it finds interesting places, historical landmarks, and restaurants. The AI can search for recipes and plan meals based on dietary preferences. In programming, the AI explains code, converts it from one language to another, and optimizes it. It offers advice on website and app design.

For businesses, Jadve AI conducts KPI analysis, creates resumes, writes cover letters, and conducts pre-testing for interviews.

Paid AI Models

5th Place — Grok-2

Grok is a chatbot from xAI, Elon Musk's startup. Grok is based on the same-named family of language models and is available in two versions: Grok-2 and Grok-2 mini. The mini version provides faster responses with lower accuracy, while Grok-2 can compete with ChatGPT.

Grok-2 accesses up-to-date information through tweets on the social network X (formerly Twitter). This is the main difference - competitors use search engines. Accordingly, access to the chatbot is only available through X.

Information from the social network allows Grok to generate more relevant responses to current events. But this is also a drawback — such an approach spreads inaccurate information because there is no fact-checking on X.

Grok can create images. Unlike ChatGPT, which uses its own version of DALL-E 3, Grok uses the FLUX.1 model. It more accurately depicts human anatomy, such as fingers.

4th Place — Perplexity AI

The AI is directly focused on search, meaning it provides accurate and up-to-date information from search engines. It also indicates all sources. Perplexity works through both a browser and a mobile app.

If you're looking for videos on a specific topic, select the Focus option and specify YouTube as the source. Then ask a question, and the tool will scan the video hosting platform to find suitable materials. If you prefer personal stories, you can search on Reddit. Searching for academic sources and other resources works similarly.

The AI uses GPT-4 and large language models Claude 3 (LLM), which is why Pro Search from Perplexity provides longer and more comprehensive answers. Although this takes five to ten seconds longer. But Perplexity will explain, step by step, how it obtained the information.

3rd Place — Compose AI

Compose AI is a Chrome extension that speeds up writing with auto-completion and generation. According to reviews, Compose AI can turn bulleted lists into emails. It takes tone and context into account, summarizing long email chains for convenience.

The extension offers users prompts as they type, which speeds up work. Additionally, the AI generates interesting ideas for text structure and meaning. The AI can write in various formats: storytelling, blogs, web content, research papers.

One drawback: complex setup. You need to disable "Writing Suggestions" in Gmail, then add the extension through the Google Chrome Web Store. However, the interface itself is intuitive; and users immediately receive instructions from the program.

2nd Place — Gerwin

Gerwin is a convenient copywriting service. It creates ads, articles, social media posts, product descriptions, and much more. For example, the "AIDA Marketing Model" template helps you write text according to the scheme: attention, interest, desire, action. Created materials can be used freely — without copyright restrictions.

After logging in, visitors are greeted with a step-by-step guide on how to use all the features and tools. The main panel contains those templates and work statistics. Edits can be made in the built-in editor. You can also add snippets from other templates, create clickbait headlines, rewrite text, or generate new phrases. The AI checks the uniqueness of the text — users write that other services confirm 100% originality from Gerwin.

Gerwin also automatically blocks prohibited content, including pornography, violence, and extremism.

1st Place — Jasper.ai

Jasper AI is an advanced copywriting tool. It helps marketers, content managers, and entrepreneurs effectively create content at scale. It's suitable for writing SEO-optimized articles, ad copy, social media posts, marketing emails, and integrated marketing campaigns.

Key Tools

• Templates: For different types of text, from posts to email newsletters.
• Custom Settings: To customize workflows and maintain a consistent style in texts.
• Translator: To translate into over 80 languages.
• SEO Integration: To integrate with Surfer SEO - a service for text optimization.

Jasper AI offers a Google Chrome extension that integrates AI features into your browser. Another feature is Jasper Art, which turns text into images. There are also downsides: users notice repetitive phrases and template structures, and the pricing is quite high.

Summary

Name	Purpose	Price
Jadve AI	Content generation for SMM, SEO, business tasks, and programming; entertainment formats; educational.	Free
Rytr	Creating and improving existing texts. Working with different formats: from marketing plans to scripts.	Free
Elicit	Research, search, and analysis of scientific articles.	Free
h2oGPT	Data and text processing, file format support, and server integration.	Free
Mistral	Complex tasks, reasoning, and programming.	Free
Gerwin	Copywriting, creating advertising and marketing texts.	Paid
Jasper AI	Marketing, SEO optimization, and content creation at scale.	Paid
Grok-2	Current news and events, image creation.	Paid
Perplexity AI	Searching for accurate information through search engines and YouTube; analysis and detailing.	Paid
Compose AI	Text completion and editing, creating email newsletters, and generating ideas.	Paid

Choosing the right AI depends on your needs — whether it's getting fresh information, in-depth research, or optimizing your workflow. Save this article to choose the right assistant for different tasks.