ChatGPT
The all-rounder everyone knows. Still the default assistant for most people — the smoothest app, voice and image tools built in, and the biggest ecosystem of integrations.
Claude
The deep thinker for serious work. The model professionals quietly switch to.
Gemini
Lives inside everything Google. The most generous free tier of any frontier lab, a 2M-token context window that swallows whole books, and it’s already woven through Gmail, Docs and Android.
Grok
Fast, irreverent, wired into X. The only assistant with a live feed of the world’s conversation.
DeepSeek
Frontier power at pocket prices. The model that made the whole industry cut prices.
Llama
The open one you can run yourself. The backbone of half the AI products you use without knowing it.
Mistral
Europe’s efficient challenger. Small, sharp models that punch far above their size — and Europe’s only frontier lab, which matters if EU data residency is on your checklist.
Qwen
The open powerhouse from the East. Quietly tops open-model leaderboards while the West looks elsewhere.
Can’t pick between two? We already did the arguing.
ChatGPT is the better all-round app; Claude produces better work.
VSGemini wins on free value, context size and Google integration; ChatGPT wins on app polish and ecosystem.
VSClaude for output quality, Gemini for scale and price.
VSDeepSeek delivers a startling share of ChatGPT’s capability for exactly $0 — the best value in AI.
VSGrok owns “right now” — real-time X grounding no rival matches.