Claude
AI Assistants & Search
A general AI assistant that is strongest on long documents, careful reasoning and writing.
$17/moRead review
AI Assistants & Search
General-purpose assistants and answer engines, compared on reasoning, citations, context limits and what each plan actually unlocks.
2 reviews · how we test
Perplexity
AI Assistants & Search
An answer engine that returns cited, source-backed research instead of confident prose.
$20/moRead review
AI Assistants & Search: common questions
Is a paid AI assistant worth it?
If you use it daily for work, yes — the free tiers are rate-limited exactly when you need them most. If you use it a few times a week, the free tier of ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini is genuinely capable.
Which AI assistant cites its sources?
Perplexity is built around citations, which makes it the safer choice for research you need to verify. Even then, open the source before you rely on it.
Do assistants train on my data?
Consumer plans may use conversations for training unless you opt out; business and enterprise plans generally do not. Check the specific plan settings before pasting confidential material.