Compare AI tools

	Perplexity S	Recraft S	Claude Code S	Claude Agent SDK S
Tagline	AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater.	Vector + raster AI for designers. Actually controls the output.	Anthropic's CLI agent. Opus-powered, operates on your repo directly.	Anthropic's SDK for building your own agents on Claude.
Category	Research	Image	Coding	Agents
Pricing	Free + $20/mo Pro	Free + $12-$48/mo	Part of Claude Pro/Max/Team plans	API usage + SDK is free
Best for	Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds.	Designers, brand teams, anyone needing vector output or tight style control.	Developers who want an agent, not autocomplete. Large refactors, tests, docs.	Developers building custom agents for their own company/product.
Strengths	Sources every claim Fast, current answers Pro Search runs multi-step research Spaces for persistent context	Exports SVG vectors — rare in AI image gen Strong style control + consistency Brand kit for consistent outputs	Runs locally, edits your actual files Strong on large codebases with 1M context Great at multi-step tasks	Production-grade agent primitives Built on Claude (best reasoning) Full control — build exactly what you need
Weaknesses	Not a general chatbot Answers can be shallow on complex topics	Less hyped than Midjourney Learning curve for non-designers	Terminal-based — learning curve Can't be used without Claude subscription	Developer-only You build the UI
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 designers. The only one that takes vectors seriously.	S-tier if you live in the terminal. Different shape than Cursor — complementary, not replacement.	S-tier for builders. The right primitives. What Kai is built on under the hood.
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