Compare AI tools

	Perplexity S	Windsurf A	Ideogram S	Sora A
Tagline	AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater.	Codeium's agentic IDE. Cascade agent + strong free tier.	The one that actually gets text in images right.	OpenAI's video model. Long clips, cinematic quality.
Category	research	coding	image	video
Pricing	Free + $20/mo Pro	Free + $15/mo Pro	Free + $8/mo + $20/mo + $60/mo	Included with ChatGPT Plus/Pro
Best for	Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds.	Developers who want Cursor-like power for less money.	Anything with text — posters, ads, album covers, slide decks.	ChatGPT subscribers experimenting with cinematic shots.
Strengths	Sources every claim Fast, current answers Pro Search runs multi-step research Spaces for persistent context	Cheaper than Cursor Cascade agent for multi-file tasks Solid free tier	Best text rendering in the game Strong free tier Good for logos, posters, thumbnails	Up to 20-sec clips at 1080p Strong physics + scene composition Storyboard feature for longer narratives Remix existing videos
Weaknesses	Not a general chatbot Answers can be shallow on complex topics	Smaller community Model selection more limited	Aesthetic ceiling below Midjourney Less style variety	Stricter content policy than competitors Hit-or-miss on complex motion Text-in-video still struggles
Kai's verdict	S-tier for search. I use it before Google now. If you're still Googling everything, try this for a week.	A-tier. Close second to Cursor. If $5/mo matters, start here.	S-tier for text-in-image. Use this for posters, Midjourney for art.	A-tier. Amazing when it works, frustrating when it doesn't. Runway still more reliable for pros.
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