Compare AI tools

	Perplexity S	OpenRouter S	Gemini A	Claude Code S
Tagline	AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater.	One API, every model. Pay-as-you-go, no subscriptions.	Google's answer. Best integrated with Workspace + free for a lot.	Anthropic's CLI agent. Opus-powered, operates on your repo directly.
Category	Research	Dev Platform	Chatbots	Coding
Pricing	Free + $20/mo Pro	Pay per token — model-dependent	Free + $20/mo Advanced (bundled with 2TB Drive)	Part of Claude Pro/Max/Team plans
Best for	Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds.	Developers experimenting across models. Apps that want fallback logic.	Anyone already on Google, research tasks, summarizing long documents.	Developers who want an agent, not autocomplete. Large refactors, tests, docs.
Strengths	Sources every claim Fast, current answers Pro Search runs multi-step research Spaces for persistent context	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	Runs locally, edits your actual files Strong on large codebases with 1M context Great at multi-step tasks
Weaknesses	Not a general chatbot Answers can be shallow on complex topics	Slight markup over direct API Some provider features not exposed	Writing quality trails Claude Over-refusals on edge content UI is cluttered	Terminal-based — learning curve Can't be used without Claude subscription
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 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 if you live in the terminal. Different shape than Cursor — complementary, not replacement.
Link	Open →	Open →	Open →	Open →