Comparison
How to compare generalist models without missing out?
Don't choose only by brand. Choose by task, cost, privacy, limits, and quality in your own examples. Recommendations must be reviewed because models change quickly.
How to read this comparison
A unique ranking is short. To choose well, compare response quality, file reading, long context, privacy, ease of use, price, and how much you correct afterwards.
Quick selection by case
General Option: ChatGPT if you want a versatile tool for writing, reasoning, creating drafts, analyzing files, and testing various tasks.
Long text and careful review: Claude if working with extensive documents, delicate tone writing or analysis where losing nuances matters.
Google Workspace and long content: Gemini if you already have documents, email, Drive or workflow within Google.
Microsoft 365: COPilot if the value is in Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and corporate permissions more than using another chat besides.
Search with sources: Perplexity when the main task is to locate web information and compare visible sources.
Minimum trial
Use three equal tasks in each tool: improve a real text, summarize a document, and help you decide between two options. Don't use fictional examples from the brand: use something that resembles your work or daily life.
What criteria to compare?
Quality: Look if it understands the task, responds with structure and needs many corrections. Context: https://www.clarumia.com/ Files: Check if it can read PDF, images, spreadsheet sheets or code. Cost: Look at limits, free plan, monthly fee, API and renewals.
Privacy: Before uploading personal data, contracts, clients or internal documents, review options for history, training and deletion. If you don't know what happens to the data, do not use this tool for sensitive information.
How to score without deceiving yourself?
1 to 5 points in five blocks: precision, usefulness, clarity, speed and cost. Add a free note: 'I would use it for...' or 'I wouldn't use it for...'. That sentence is worth more than a pretty rating, because it turns the result into a decision.
Good signal
A good tool for you is not the one that impresses once, but the one that fails less in your repeated tasks. If a model saves you twenty minutes each week and another only surprises in demos, the first wins.
Next step
Read also What difference is there between ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot? I use it Template for comparing tools Before paying another installment.