Compare AI tools

	Grok A	OpenRouter S	Gemini A	Perplexity S
Tagline	xAI's chatbot. Real-time X/Twitter data + fewer refusals.	One API, every model. Pay-as-you-go, no subscriptions.	Google's answer. Best integrated with Workspace + free for a lot.	AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater.
Category	Chatbots	Dev Platform	Chatbots	Research
Pricing	Free + $30/mo SuperGrok + included with X Premium	Pay per token — model-dependent	Free + $20/mo Advanced (bundled with 2TB Drive)	Free + $20/mo Pro
Best for	Breaking news, live event tracking, users already on X.	Developers experimenting across models. Apps that want fallback logic.	Anyone already on Google, research tasks, summarizing long documents.	Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds.
Strengths	Live access to X posts for real-time events Less restrictive on edgy questions Fast inference on Grok-3 and up	300+ models from one endpoint Automatic fallbacks between providers No subscription — just pay what you use	Native Google Workspace integration Very long context (1M+) Deep Research feature Free tier is generous	Sources every claim Fast, current answers Pro Search runs multi-step research Spaces for persistent context
Weaknesses	Writing quality trails Claude/ChatGPT Political bias debates Ecosystem is just X	Slight markup over direct API Some provider features not exposed	Writing quality trails Claude Over-refusals on edge content UI is cluttered	Not a general chatbot Answers can be shallow on complex topics
Kai's verdict	A-tier for real-time. B-tier for everything else. Worth checking when news breaks.	S-tier for model-shopping. I use this for every prototype before committing.	A-tier. The Deep Research feature is genuinely useful. Don't sleep on it if you're already paying Google.	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 →