By Google DeepMindLondon, United Kingdom6 products across 6 categories
Built for this. Sits inside Gmail, Docs and Drive, so it already has your context. Very large context windows and a generous free tier.
Free plan
Yes
Free tier with generous limits
Month to month
$4.99/mo
Google AI Plus
Billed yearly
$4.17/mo
$49.99 a year, Google AI Plus plan −16%
Watch out: Which underlying model you get varies by tier, and quality varies with it. Plus and Pro were both showing introductory offers when checked — a fraction of the price for the first three months, or a discount on the first year — so the number on the page is not the standing price, and the rows here quote the standing one.
By QuoraMountain View, United States1 product across 1 category
Built for this. One subscription across most of the major models, so you can put the same question to several and compare rather than committing to one lab.
Free plan
Yes
Free tier with a daily points allowance
Month to month
$4.99/mo
Subscription
Billed yearly
—
No yearly price published
Watch out: Points, not messages, and different models burn them at wildly different rates. Heavy use of a frontier model empties an allowance faster than the plan name suggests.
All plans (2)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free tier with a daily points allowance
Subscription
$4.99/mo
annual billing is ten times the monthly rate, from $49.99 to $2,499.99 a year
By KagiPalo Alto, United States1 product across 1 category
Strong fit. Sits on top of a search engine you pay for rather than one funded by advertising, so the results behind an answer are not ranked by who bought them.
Free plan
Yes
Trial tier, 100 searches with the Assistant included, no card needed
Month to month
$5/mo
Starter
Billed yearly
$4.50/mo
$54 a year, Starter plan −10%
Watch out: The free tier is a 100-search trial. Beyond that you are buying the search subscription, and the assistant comes with it rather than being sold on its own; prices exclude sales tax.
All plans (8)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Trial tier, 100 searches with the Assistant included, no card needed
Starter
$5/mo · $4.50/mo yearly
300 searches a month and the Assistant in Quick mode
Professional
$10/mo · $9/mo yearly
unlimited searches and a larger Assistant allowance
Ultimate
$25/mo · $22.50/mo yearly
adds Research mode and flagship models
Duo
$14/mo · $12.60/mo yearly
two Professional accounts, each upgradable to Ultimate for $15 more
Family
$20/mo · $18/mo yearly
Professional for up to six people, each upgradable to Ultimate for $15 more
By Venice AISan Francisco, United States1 product across 1 category
Strong fit. Conversations stay in your browser rather than on its servers, and it runs open-weight models. The default choice if you want an assistant that keeps no history you cannot delete.
Free plan
Yes
Free tier with a daily prompt limit
Month to month
$18/mo
Pro
Billed yearly
$15/mo
$180 a year, Pro plan −17%
Watch out: Open models trail the frontier ones on hard reasoning. The company also issues a crypto token, which is a business model worth understanding before you depend on it.
All plans (4)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free tier with a daily prompt limit
Pro
$18/mo · $15/mo yearly
all models, unlimited text, 1,000 images a day, $1 in credits a month, API access
Pro+
$68/mo · $61.25/mo yearly
adds $75 in credits a month, 10% credit bonus, video generation and higher API limits
Max
$200/mo · $180/mo yearly
$225 in credits a month, 12.5% credit bonus, highest API limits and priority support
By You.comPalo Alto, United States1 product across 2 categories
Strong fit. Search and assistant in one window, with the sources listed alongside the answer rather than after it.
Free plan
Yes
Free tier of 100 web search queries a day, no API key required
Month to month
None
Not published
Billed yearly
—
No yearly price published
Watch out: The pricing page now sells only APIs, billed per thousand calls with $100 of free credit each. The consumer assistant has changed shape several times as the company has moved toward developers and enterprise.
All plans (6)
Plan
Price
What you get
Free
$0
Free tier of 100 web search queries a day, no API key required
Web Search API
$5 per 1,000 calls, 1 to 100 results a call, news included
$100 free credit
Contents API
$1 per 1,000 pages extracted as Markdown or HTML, several URLs a request
$100 free credit
Answer API
$5 per 1,000 calls for a cited, synthesised answer
$100 free credit
Research API
from $12 per 1,000 calls on Lite, rising through Standard, Deep, Exhaustive and Frontier tiers
$100 free credit
Finance Research API
from $110 per 1,000 calls on Deep, with an Exhaustive tier above
Voice generation, transcription, music, dubbing, sound cleanup and podcast production.
What this leaves out
These 21 are on the
site and may be excellent, but not tagged for a beginner — usually price, an enterprise
sales process, or the technical knowledge assumed.
General-Purpose AI Assistants tools not tagged for a beginner.
What is the best AI for general-purpose ai assistants if you are a beginner?
10 of the 31 tools we track for this category are tagged as suiting a beginner: ChatGPT, Gemini, Poe, DeepSeek, Grok, Kagi Assistant, Meta AI, Venice AI, You.com, Character.AI. 3 of them are built for this kind of work.
Which general-purpose ai assistants tools are not for a beginner?
Claude, Amazon Q, Chorus, DapperGPT, Duck.ai, Easy-Peasy.AI, Genspark, Jan, Le Chat (Mistral), LM Studio, Merlin, Microsoft Copilot, MyShell, Nova, Qwen, TypingMind, Arvin AI, Manus, Mobile GPT, Monica, Text GPT — 21 of the 31. They are on the site and may be excellent, but not tagged for this reader, usually because of price, an enterprise sales process, or the technical knowledge assumed.
