Compare AI tools

	DALL-E 3 B	Perplexity S	Qwen A	DeepSeek S
Tagline	OpenAI's image model. Built into ChatGPT Plus.	AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater.	Alibaba's open chat model. Multilingual + agentic.	Chinese open-weight powerhouse. Crazy cheap, genuinely smart.
Category	Image	Research	Chatbots	Chatbots
Pricing	Included with ChatGPT Plus $20/mo	Free + $20/mo Pro	Free web + API	Free web + ultra-cheap API (~$0.14/M input tokens)
Best for	ChatGPT Plus users who want images without paying extra.	Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds.	Vietnamese/Chinese content, SEA multilingual use, developers wanting open-weight tool-use.	Developers + cost-conscious builders. Anyone fine with self-hosting.
Strengths	Excellent prompt understanding Built into ChatGPT — no extra subscription Good at composition + concepts	Sources every claim Fast, current answers Pro Search runs multi-step research Spaces for persistent context	Excellent Chinese + Vietnamese + SEA languages Strong at tool-use + agentic workflows Open weights (Qwen2.5, Qwen3)	Open weights you can self-host Strong reasoning + math Near-free API pricing DeepSeek-V3 / R1 are serious models
Weaknesses	Aesthetic ceiling below Midjourney + Ideogram Text rendering worse than Ideogram No fine control	Not a general chatbot Answers can be shallow on complex topics	English quality behind Claude/GPT Less well-known outside Asia	Data goes to servers in China — privacy concerns for business use Chinese policy filters English polish trails Western models
Kai's verdict	B-tier standalone, A-tier value if you already pay ChatGPT. Don't pay for it separately.	S-tier for search. I use it before Google now. If you're still Googling everything, try this for a week.	A-tier. The best open model for Vietnamese + Chinese. Don't sleep on it if you work in SEA.	S-tier for price/performance. A-tier for consumer use. If you build apps, this is the budget pick.
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