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
image
productivity
writing
marketing
Ideogram S | Perplexity S | Adobe Firefly A | Elicit S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tagline | The one that actually gets text in images right. | AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater. | Commercially safe image gen, deeply integrated with Photoshop. | AI research assistant for academic literature. |
| Category | image | research | image | research |
| Pricing | Free + $8/mo + $20/mo + $60/mo | Free + $20/mo Pro | Free + included with Creative Cloud | Free + $12-$42/mo |
| Best for | Anything with text — posters, ads, album covers, slide decks. | Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds. | Anyone in Creative Cloud. Brands that need copyright clarity. | Grad students, researchers, anyone doing literature reviews. |
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| Kai's verdict | 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 inside Photoshop (Generative Fill). B-tier standalone. | S-tier for academic research. Nothing else comes close for systematic reviews. |
| Link | Open → | Open → | Open → | Open → |