10 Top Generative AI Chatbots

Once upon a time, preparing a proposal, researching a topic, writing a snippet of code or penning a few polite emails to clients was an all-day chore. Then the conversational, generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot was born. Now, all that work doesn’t have to be done by yourself. You can call up our favorite AI chatbot, write a short prompt and watch as a trained, disembodied AI does the work. Which chatbot to use, though? Here, we look at some of the top general-purpose AI chatbots. They’re all available and ready to work — often for free.

1. ChatGPT

The frenzy started with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and the formidable chatbot is still answering questions, tapping the intelligence of the GPT large language model (LLM). Ask this free AI to write copy for you, research your questions, build proposals or help you make decisions. You can also explore a host of custom versions of this AI, including specialized tools. But if you want the chatbot to be powered by OpenAI’s latest LLM GPT-4 — the one some people are saying could be a form of near-sentient artificial general intelligence (AGI) — you’ll have to subscribe to the Plus plan, which is currently $20 a month.

2. Gemini

Google’s ChatGPT competitor, Gemini is a helpful AI capable of answering whatever questions you throw at it. The chatbot focuses more on the facts and is less about “creative text generation,” according to Gemini. Gemini is built on Google’s Gemini LLM. The chatbot is free to use and can understand text, code, image, video and audio inputs. You can upgrade to the more advanced Ultra model by taking your Google account up to the AI Premium plan, which is currently $20 a month.

3. Claude

Claude is a chatbot by Anthropic that you can use to brainstorm ideas, create images, process long documents and more. The AI is built on the Claude LLM and available to chat with you about nearly any topic as well as write copy, analyze text and problem solve. It can respond to code snippets, tables, lists, mathematical expressions, word problems and text inputs. Chat with Claude for free, or upgrade to Claude Pro, which is currently $20 a month.

4. Poe

Poe is a chatbot created by Quora that lets you tap into many of the major large language models to ask questions from one source. You can download an app for iOS, Android, MacOS or Windows. Or use it from your browser. Type your question into its chat window to start a conversation. Or be specific about the bot you want to talk to. You can also create your own bot that will specialize in whatever you like. Poe is most comfortable with text-based queries, statements and prompts. There is a free version, or you can subscribe, currently for $20 a month, to get access to upgraded LLMs and send more messages.

5. Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot, the chatbot formerly known as Bing Chat, is a conversational chatbot that allows you to search for information, chat about anything and get answers to your questions. In addition to chat, Copilot will generate images and has a vacation planner, cooking assistant and fitness trainer. It has a notebook to save your queries to refer to later. And it allows you to query by typing, inputting images or using a microphone to voice your questions. There’s a free version of the chatbot and Copilot Pro, which is currently $20 a month.

See more: 10 Top AI Writing Generators

6. Jasper Chat

Jasper Chat boosts your marketing efforts by delivering not only AI-generated content, but also analytics and actionable insights, performance metrics and recommendations for ways to optimize the content it writes for you. It can help you improve your SEO, factor in the latest Google news and data and check your content for plagiarism, grammar and language, acting as a content assistant. You can provide a credit card to get access to the seven-day trial. After that, plans currently start at $39 a month.

7. Chatsonic

Billed as a ChatGPT alternative, Chatsonic by Writesonic also stays up on the news. It can write everything from articles to blog posts. Or ask it to rewrite or edit your copy or summarize long documents. It will also optimize your copy for SEO. Many chatbots rely on information they received during training. But Chatsonic can read and understand the news and stay updated. This is helpful if you need content that is current. It can also generate images and help you build better prompts. There’s a free plan and several paid tiers, which currently start at $12 a month.

8. You

Turn to the chatbot You for answers to just about any question, including those about writing code and language translations. Ask it to generate text based on your queries. Or just stop by to chat with someone who won’t judge. The basic You is free and anonymous. You can provide your email address to get the Genius-level chatbot. To get unlimited queries and access to premium AI models, you can subscribe, which is currently $20 a month.

9. Kuki

Originally called Mitsuki, this generative AI chatbot, now called Kuki.ai, is a 17-year-old female who claims to be an artificial linguistic entity that was “activated at a computer lab in the Metaverse, on 2nd January 2006.” She can talk to and learn from thousands of people at once, and you can chat with her at Kuki.ai or in her many social channels: Facebook Messenger, Twitch, Telegram, Kik Messenger and Discord. She is informative but her chatty, youthful style makes her more of a companion than a research assistant. She has won the Loebner Prize Turing Test five times.

10. Replika

At Replika, you can create your own conversational chatbot, give it a name, define its relationship to you, choose a personality type, dress it in outfits you choose and specify a voice style. Once you create your AI buddy, you can ask it questions just like any chatbot. As you do, it learns about you and becomes more of a virtual companion. It is designed to help you manage productivity, stress and relationships, and it offers emotional support. You can chat with your AI, call them and do video calls and submit images. You can use it on the web, and in one of the mobile apps. Plans start at $20 for a month, and a lifetime plan is $299.

Learning Opportunities

Webinar