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)
coding
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Fathom S | Cursor S | Elicit S | Perplexity S | |
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| Tagline | Meeting notes, free forever for individuals. | VS Code fork that made AI coding actually work. | AI research assistant for academic literature. | AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater. |
| Category | meeting | coding | research | research |
| Pricing | Free for individuals + $15-$29/user/mo teams | Free + $20/mo Pro + $40/mo Business | Free + $12-$42/mo | Free + $20/mo Pro |
| Best for | Solo operators, freelancers, small teams on a budget. | Developers. Non-developers who want to ship working code. | Grad students, researchers, anyone doing literature reviews. | Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds. |
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| Kai's verdict | S-tier for solo + free. The best free option, hands down. | S-tier for coding. If you write code of any kind, this pays back the $20 in a day. | S-tier for academic research. Nothing else comes close for systematic reviews. | S-tier for search. I use it before Google now. If you're still Googling everything, try this for a week. |
| Link | Open → | Open → | Open → | Open → |