Explore the Best AI Conversational Agents Beyond ChatGPT

I’ve usedChatGPT a lot, and while it’s definitely a powerful AI chatbot that can hold conversations, generate text, and translate languages, it’s not the only option on the market.Loads of similar websites and apps have cropped up since its inception, each with unique strengths and weaknesses.

I tested and chatted with dozens of options to come up with these top choices that I think you’ll also love. If you want an alternative to ChatGPT because of capacity issues, lack of features, or no real-time internet access by default, you’ve got several to choose from. If you’d just like to try new AI tools, use this list for that, too!

01

of 10

Gemini: Best for Real-Time Information From the Web

What We Like

• Accesses the internet by default.
• Optional voice-to-text input.
• Can display photos from web search results.
• Conversation history.
• Extension options.

What We Don’t Like

• You must have a Google account.
• Extensions are limited to Google services.

ChatGPT vs. Gemini: What’s the Difference?

Gemini is Google’s AI chatbot. It’s fun to play with and easy and intuitive to use. Like ChatGPT, it accepts text input to help you write code, generate stories, look up information, and more. It’ll even analyze an image you send, meaning you can ask questions about a photo.

This is my #1 choice for the best alternative to ChatGPT because it’s always connected to the web (no plugin needed!) and feels straightforward to use.

Here are some other things I appreciate:

• Precise location access provides relevant responses to where I am.
• Results can be converted into a new Gmail message or exported to Google Docs or Sheets.
• Previous chats can be pinned at the top of the page for easy retrieval.
• Results can be read aloud.
• Conversations can be shared via a link.
• Images can be generated.
• Pick a different response without typing everything out again.
• The extensions are free and easy to turn on and off.

Visit Gemini

02

of 10

Character.AI: Best for Character-Based Conversations

What We Like

• Saves conversation history with each character.
• Start using it without an account.
• Lots of help docs if you need them.
• Speech-to-text lets you talk to your characters

What We Don’t Like

• Free users are locked out during high traffic times.

Character.AI lets you chat with an agent that’s preconfigured as someone specific—celebrities, religious figures, and game characters are a few neat ones I tried. The chatbot gives off the illusion that you’re chatting with that character.

Some characters are built for fun; talk to Shakespeare, Einstein, Harry Potter, and Bill Gates. But there are also so-called “helpers” that can be used as psychologists, creative guides, trip planners, spirituality coaches, etc. Other topics include language learning, philosophy, and history. There’s a lot to pick from!

If you’re interested in building your own character, you can spin up a new agent in no time (it took me about a minute). Character.ai also lets you create voices based on short audio clips. Creations can be private or public.

You can pay if you want priority access, faster response times, and a few other features.

Visit Character.AI

03

of 10

Copilot: Best for Windows Users

What We Like

• Built-in to Edge and Windows 11.
• Lets you edit the conversation style.
• Cites its sources.
• Supports interactive results.
• Can generate and analyze images.

What We Don’t Like

• Responses occasionally include ads.

Microsoft’s AI chatbot is called Copilot (formerly Bing Chat). It’s a combination ofOpenAI’s GPT-4 and the Bing search engine, so it’s always accessing the internet to give updated results.

Although it’s similar to Gemini, I like that with Copilot, it’s easy to switch from a normal Bing search to AI if a traditional search isn’t helpful.

There are three conversation styles to pick from, depending on how you want the chatbot to respond. I like_Balanced_ for most situations because it blends the other two nicely, but_Precise_ is good for when I want a straightforward answer, and_Creative_ is just fun to play around with.

In most cases, you can get more information about a response by clicking through the sources and additional information provided below each result. Plugins like Instacart, Kayak, and OpenTable are supported for more features. There’s even one called Phone that can communicate with your Android phone to get contact information and read and send texts.

Copilot works in Edge and most other browsers, including Chrome. There’s also a shortcut to it on the Windows 11 taskbar.

Visit Copilot

04

of 10

Phind: Best for Learning How to Code

What We Like

• Live connection to the internet.
• Helpful shortcut to test the fixed code on Replit.
• Detailed and accurate answers.
• Keeps track of previous threads.
• Share a link to the thread.

What We Don’t Like

• Can’t export to a file for offline access later.

Sure, ChatGPT can help with your broken code or general programming questions, but Phind takes it to the next level with constant access to the internet for up-to-date help and filters to adjust how results are ranked.

In my example in the screenshot above, I learned I missed a character in my code. Phind identified what I was trying to do with that code, searched the internet for reasons it doesn’t work, and fixed it. If I wanted to learn more about how the answer was found, I could dig into the sources that were provided.

Before you ask Phind something, you can force it to ignore search results if you prefer. It also accepts image input. If you make a user account, you can access Code mode to chat side-by-side with your Python code.

This is a great resource for beginners, and I can see myself using it more as I dive deeper into software development. It’s free but there are pro plans for more flexible usage.

Visit Phind

05

of 10

Copy.ai: Best for Summarizing Text

What We Like

• Pulls live information from the web.
• Prompt library built-in.
• Includes other amazing writing tools.
• Free option and affordable paid plan.
• Supports several languages.

What We Don’t Like

• There’s a learning curve, so you might need the help docs.
• Free version limited to 2,000 words.

Copy.ai offers way more than just text summarizations, but I mention this first because it’s awesome at it. I have found it super useful for really long essays, blog articles, and lists I just don’t have the time to fully read.

As you can see in the screenshot, I fed it a URL, and it quickly and accurately read and understood the task. I got the same results with countless articles I tested. You’ll love using this if you find yourself skipping interesting articles just because they’re too long to get into right now.

Check out Copy.ai, and you’ll find it’s like ChatGPT on steroids, chock-full of countless valuable qualities. Below are some of the coolest features I found to help me write social media descriptions, generate blog ideas, and even write a birthday card.

• Create your own brand voice to generate content in line with your brand.
• Easily reuse important data by adding text or uploading files to your Infobase.
• Build workflows. One example lets you turn a content brief into a full blog post with a relevant meta description.
• Attach Word documents or PDFs
• Organize everything into project folders.

The free plan is fine if usage stays below 2,000 words in the chat. Paid plans include GPT-4 and Claude 3 access, plus unlimited words, projects, brand voices, and more.

Visit Copy.ai

06

of 10

AnonChatGPT: Best for Using ChatGPT Without an Account

What We Like

• Anonymous ChatGPT access.
• Doesn’t feel as ‘locked down’ as when using OpenAI’s website.

What We Don’t Like

• Can’t share or easily copy responses.
• Supports only one conversation at a time.
• ChatGPT limitations (e.g., it isn’t up to date).

If you want to use ChatGPT without logging in, AnonChatGPT is your best bet. It simply forwards all your prompts to OpenAI’s servers and then displays the responses. I like this because my personal information isn’t shared with the makers of ChatGPT, but I still get all the basic benefits.

AnonChatGPT is based on OpenAI’s GPT-3 model, but the user interface isn’t quite the same. Only one conversation can be held at a time, so past responses aren’t stored to look through later. Just refresh the page to start a new conversation.

Visit AnonChatGPT

07

of 10

ChatPDF: Best for Answering Questions From PDFs

CollageIt Pro

What We Like

• Quick to analyze the document.
• Supports follow-up questions.
• Open online and local PDFs.

What We Don’t Like

• DOCX support would be nice.
• $20/mo for extra features is excessive.

Most free AI chatbots are useless if you need to analyze text from a document. ChatPDF can help by first identifying what in the document your question most likely is referring to, and then it leverages ChatGPT’s power for the answer.

All you have to do is upload a PDF and then ask a question, just like you would in ChatGPT. You can also share a URL to the document so someone else can run questions by it.

I tried this with a 115-page document about something notoriously confusing— health insurance policy details— and it worked quite well! It only took a few seconds to come back with an answer. I had a few questions for it, and each time I was given helpful and factual answers (I looked manually to verify). It even tells you which pages it found the answers on.

You can use this alternative to ChatGPT on two documents per day as long as they don’t exceed 120 pages. Paying users don’t have a daily limit or question limit, and can get answers from PDFs as large as 32 MB.

Visit ChatPDF

08

of 10

Chatsonic: Best for Writing Assistance

What We Like

• Chrome extension integrates with other websites.
• Can create digital artwork.
• Lots of other AI features on the site.

What We Don’t Like

• Extension-triggered summaries sometimes don’t work.

Chatsonic calls itself the best ChatGPT alternative for content creation. It uses Google to access the web automatically, so its content is always fresh. I also tried the Chrome extension to help me write directly in Gmail and other places like X (formerly Twitter) without having to leave the page.

Here are some features worth mentioning:

• Includes a plagiarism checker.
• There’s a Chrome extension for content suggestions anywhere you write online.
• Suports image generation.
• Feed it documents, images, audio files, and URLs.
• Custom directions to personalize all the responses.
• Zapier and WordPress integrations.
• GPT-3.5 for free users.
• Download results as a DOCX file.
• View sources to verify answers.

Free users are limited to 10,000 words per month. Additional features are available with the Freelancer and Small Team plans.

Visit Chatsonic

09

of 10

Flawlessly.ai: Best for Quick Grammar Fixes

What We Like

• Incredibly easy to use.
• Doesn’t require a user account.
• Lets you pick the tone.

What We Don’t Like

• Produces only English results.

The idea behind this free ChatGPT alternative is simple: It makes any writing_flawless_ .

To use it, just paste your previously written content (or type something new) into the provided box. It can be any text, including notes, stories, emails, blog posts, etc. Then, pick conversational, formal, or semi-formal for the writing style. It’ll spit out the same stuff you wrote in just a few seconds, but this time you can feel confident that it’s grammatically correct.

I tried this several times with completely different text, both long and short samples, and it did surprisingly well. I recommend this for anyone who struggles with general grammar rules or who isn’t quite fluent in English. The result can be copied to the clipboard.

Visit Flawlessly.ai

10

of 10

iAsk.AI: Best AI Search Engine

Click here

• Several ways to target specific sources for better results.
• Easy to share or copy the results.

What We Don’t Like

• Could be better at using relevant sources.
• Concise answers are too long.

Some AI tools that can search the web don’t discriminate, meaning they use the whole internet in each search. This might be helpful sometimes, but other times it doesn’t make much sense. iAsk.AI is built differently to target forums, academic sources, news, books, and more.

Just type something into the box, pick the length you want the response to be, and choose a category so that it uses specific kinds of sources to generate results. I’ve been getting great answers using it for all sorts of queries.

For example, I was curious about how a specific medical procedure works, so I searched only for academic sources. Conversely, I used the forums tab to get a list of gift ideas for a woman who likes cats, so it referenced Reddit and some pet-focused websites for answers from real people.

Another tool on this website, called Summary, makes consuming long text much easier. It will build bullet points for any text or URL you give it.

Visit iAsk.AI

The 8 Best Free AI Tools

FAQ

• What is artificial intelligence?
  Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term that isn’t well defined (meaning folks can use the term liberally). It’s generally accepted that a machine or software can make decisions based on data (whether a person has entered that data or just collected from sensors, like temperature, etc.). If you want to dive in more, check out our articleWhat Is Artificial Intelligence ?
• How is artificial intelligence different from machine learning?
  Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence. So, under the big umbrella of artificial intelligence, you’d find machine learning, deep learning, transfer learning, etc. Here’s a little more information explainingWhat Is Machine Learning .

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