Best for Research & Writing

Think faster, write better, cite sources. Ranked by us; featured spots are labeled.

ChatGPT

Best all-rounder. GPT-6 with interactive answers makes it the default assistant.

Free / paid

Claude

Best writer and best for long documents. Our go-to for anything you'll publish.

Free / paid

Perplexity

Fastest cited answers from the web. Replaces most Google searches.

Free / Pro

Gemini

Best if you live in Google Workspace; Deep Research is excellent.

Free / paid

NotebookLM

Drop in your sources, get a grounded expert plus audio overviews. Criminally underrated.

Free

Grok

Best for real-time takes on what's happening on X right now.

Free / paid

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Every new AI tool and model worth your time, with a verdict. The Crunch lands every Thursday.