Compare AI tools
Side-by-side: what they do, what they cost, what Kai actually thinks. Pass up to 4 tools via
?tools=claude,chatgpt,gemini.Pick tools (4 selected)
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Elicit S | Ideogram S | Perplexity S | NotebookLM S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tagline | AI research assistant for academic literature. | The one that actually gets text in images right. | AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater. | Google's research notebook. Turns your docs into a podcast. |
| Category | research | image | research | research |
| Pricing | Free + $12-$42/mo | Free + $8/mo + $20/mo + $60/mo | Free + $20/mo Pro | Free |
| Best for | Grad students, researchers, anyone doing literature reviews. | Anything with text — posters, ads, album covers, slide decks. | Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds. | Students, researchers, anyone with a stack of PDFs or a topic to learn. |
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| Kai's verdict | S-tier for academic research. Nothing else comes close for systematic reviews. | S-tier for text-in-image. Use this for posters, Midjourney for art. | S-tier for search. I use it before Google now. If you're still Googling everything, try this for a week. | S-tier for study. The Audio Overview is a killer feature. Try it with three of your favorite PDFs. |
| Link | Open → | Open → | Open → | Open → |