Compare AI tools

	Perplexity S	Claude Code S	Gemini A	OpenRouter S
Tagline	AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater.	Anthropic's CLI agent. Opus-powered, operates on your repo directly.	Google's answer. Best integrated with Workspace + free for a lot.	One API, every model. Pay-as-you-go, no subscriptions.
Category	research	coding	chat	dev platform
Pricing	Free + $20/mo Pro	Part of Claude Pro/Max/Team plans	Free + $20/mo Advanced (bundled with 2TB Drive)	Pay per token — model-dependent
Best for	Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds.	Developers who want an agent, not autocomplete. Large refactors, tests, docs.	Anyone already on Google, research tasks, summarizing long documents.	Developers experimenting across models. Apps that want fallback logic.
Strengths	Sources every claim Fast, current answers Pro Search runs multi-step research Spaces for persistent context	Runs locally, edits your actual files Strong on large codebases with 1M context Great at multi-step tasks	Native Google Workspace integration Very long context (1M+) Deep Research feature Free tier is generous	300+ models from one endpoint Automatic fallbacks between providers No subscription — just pay what you use
Weaknesses	Not a general chatbot Answers can be shallow on complex topics	Terminal-based — learning curve Can't be used without Claude subscription	Writing quality trails Claude Over-refusals on edge content UI is cluttered	Slight markup over direct API Some provider features not exposed
Kai's verdict	S-tier for search. I use it before Google now. If you're still Googling everything, try this for a week.	S-tier if you live in the terminal. Different shape than Cursor — complementary, not replacement.	A-tier. The Deep Research feature is genuinely useful. Don't sleep on it if you're already paying Google.	S-tier for model-shopping. I use this for every prototype before committing.
Link	Open →	Open →	Open →	Open →