The best AI chatbots in 2025

ChatGPT was the first widely used AI chatbot, but now it's just one of dozens of really solid options. That's great, but it also makes it hard to figure out where to start.

I spent time talking to some of the best AI chatbots to see how they measure up. You'll find a bit of everything here, including ChatGPT alternatives that'll help you build interfaces, do research, create images, and generally speed up your work. You'll even see how you can build your own AI chatbot if you don't find what you're looking for here.

The release rate of new AI chatbots has decreased, but the feature sets of existing apps are evolving. It's likely that between the time I write this and the time you read it, all of these chatbot apps will have new tools or models associated with them—pretty exciting, if you ask me.

Table of contents:

• The best AI chatbots at a glance

• How do AI chatbots work?

• LLMs vs. reasoning models

• How I selected the best AI chatbots

• Other role-specific AI chatbots

• What's the best AI chatbot for you?

The best AI chatbots at a glance

How do AI chatbots work?

AI chabots take the prompts you write and pass them to their AI model. This model runs the prompt through its systems and returns the results back to the app, so you can read them in a conversational chatbot style.

While the app takes care of the features—for example, saving your conversation history—the AI model takes care of the actual interpretation of your input and the calculations to provide an answer. (Take a look at our breakdown of ChatGPT vs. GPT for more details.)

Many of the apps on this list are powered by multiple models. And either way, app developers can pass additional commands to configure how the models reply, so you may see different results when you try each chatbot, even if they're running on the same engine.

Want to do a deeper dive? Learn how ChatGPT works.

LLMs vs. reasoning models

One of the biggest leaps in AI chatbots recently was the release of reasoning models, like OpenAI o3 and DeepSeek R1. 

LLMs are designed to understand and generate human language by predicting the next word in a sequence after your prompt. They're trained with vast amounts of data, uncovering patterns that help them achieve this objective. This pattern-recognition focus means they're not good at solving problems they have limited training data or context on.

Reasoning models, on the other hand, simulate logic processes to solve complex problems. They break down problems into steps, evaluate how to proceed, and show their thought process as they do so. Unlike LLMs, they're trained with less overall data, instead focusing on tasks requiring deduction and chain-of-thought prompting techniques to improve analytical capabilities. This means they don't have as much knowledge and take longer to create a response due to the extra time needed to "think."

Optimists state that reasoning models mark the birth of artificial general intelligence (AGI). But not everyone is on board. There's still a ways to go in AI technology, which means better models, better tools to help them interact with the world, and more advanced learning systems to give them autonomy.

How I selected the best AI chatbots

I've updated this list quite a bit—since this category is evolving so fast, I'm only featuring tools that are adapting to the changes in the technology as fast as possible. Beyond that, here's what I was keeping an eye out for as I tested each AI chatbot online:

• AI model quality. The engine behind the app needs to produce consistently good answers, with fluency and decent accuracy.

• Conversational experience. The combination of the app and the AI model needs to create an experience that feels good to use, from the kind of output you'll receive to the flexibility in completing the tasks you put forward.

• Chat app tools. Does the app offer more than just a message back-and-forth? Can you search the web, generate images, create charts, or build mini-dashboards?

• Extra features. Anything on top of entering your prompt and receiving the output is welcome: this includes everything from canvas-like features to solid chat management, and anything in between.

Based on my research and experiences interacting with them, here are the best AI chatbots for you to try. Have fun—I know you will.

The original AI chatbot

ChatGPT

AI model: OpenAI GPT models, o1 and o3 models, and DALL·E 3

ChatGPT pros:

• Easy and fun to use

• Powerful

ChatGPT cons:

• You have to pay at least $20/month for the best features

ChatGPT is the original AI chatbot. After its late 2022 release, it took the world by storm in 2023 and put AI back in the news. It's very simple to use: start a conversation by writing your prompt at the bottom of the screen. As the output comes back, a new entry is created on the left-side menu, so you can keep all your threads separate and interact with them later. If any of these is particularly interesting, you can share a link and show it to others (and they can start where you left off).

You can do everything from text-to-image prompting to data analysis to voice conversations—and it's impressively fast.

ChatGPT remembers what you've said within each conversation, using it as context to provide more accurate output as it moves forward. And it's extremely flexible, tackling tasks in any discipline with an acceptable level of accuracy. You can share your conversations with others and add custom instructions to customize the bot even further. And with the release of the latest o3 model family (currently available in all plans, including free), OpenAI is forcing the AI to slow down and work through complex problems, rather than just running with the first idea it has.

But the innovation doesn't stop here:

• The Search tool searches the web based on your prompt and uses the content of all pages to generate the answers, offering the sources both as a list and in a link after every key claim. Watch out, Google.

• One step further, Deep Research acts like an AI agent that reads all the search results, understands what it's reading, and makes additional searches to uncover more insights. The result is an in-depth report with a full list of sources.

• Projects is a simple interface where you can upload documents about a project and set a system instruction to direct how ChatGPT should respond. It also keeps track of the conversation history for context.

• Canvas is a new output mode where you can co-write with ChatGPT. It will use the entirety of the content in the canvas and the attached conversation as context, and the changes smoothly render into view as you keep prompting.

• Advanced Voice Mode adds real-time voice interaction to ChatGPT. It honestly feels like you're having a pretty normal conversation.

• Give the Operator AI agent a goal, and it will open its dedicated browser window to achieve the task by browsing the web. Still a bit rough around the edges, but it has amazing potential.

• Sora, OpenAI's much-hyped AI video model, is only accessible to Pro users in the United States for now.

• You can even build your own customized ChatGPT on the platform.

You can also build ChatGPT into your existing workflows with Zapier's ChatGPT integration—that way, no matter where you are, you can use ChatGPT to summarize, generate replies, or anything else you can dream up. Learn more about how to automate ChatGPT, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Want to build with the GPT models? Brainstorm your prompts in the OpenAI Playground, and follow Zapier's guide to the OpenAI API.

The best open source reasoning AI chabot

DeepSeek

AI model: DeepSeek V3 and R1

DeepSeek pros:

• Free

• Highly intelligent R1 reasoning model

DeepSeek cons:

• Using the original app may have data privacy issues

DeepSeek R1, the newest reasoning model in town, stunned everyone by showing impressive problem-solving abilities comparable to OpenAI's o3 series. Originally trained in China, it's fully open source: you can use it for free via the web app and download the model to run it on a local computer or server—provided it's powerful enough to do so.

Model intelligence is the main course, as both the web and mobile apps are basic. You can send your text prompts, ask for web search, upload documents (which only extracts the text from them; it can't understand images), and browse your conversation history.

The app is hosted in China, and it isn't clear how the data you send through DeepSeek is processed, making it a potential privacy problem. If you're concerned, you can still use the model in other apps: for example, Perplexity (which I'll talk about in a bit) offers DeepSeek model access hosted in the United States, which means that your data won't make it to the original company.

Oh, and don't ask about Tiananmen Square.

The best AI chatbot for creating interfaces

Claude

AI model: Claude Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus series

Claude pros:

• Tends to respond more empathetically than ChatGPT

• Large context window

Claude cons:

• Context window and daily message limit vary based on demand for users on a free plan

Meet Claude. Anthropic's Sonnet chatbot is now at its 3.7th version, aiming to be helpful, harmless, and honest. The context window length is pretty good: Claude can remember up to 150,000 words per conversation, great for uploading PDFs and asking questions or chatting away until the morning sun.

But the best feature is Artifacts, hands down. With just a few prompts, you can create a dashboard page to display your data, with buttons to change it if needed—like this personal budget planner. Some users were even able to create animations and simple games (check out this physics game created with Claude). These creations are accessible as you chat, so you can change them with prompts and interact with them in real time.

And with the Computer Use API in beta, Claude may get some AI agent features soon.

The free plan used to be limited to 25 messages per day, but now it seems this varies depending on demand—the app will let you know when you're close to the limit. You can unlock more by subscribing to the Pro plan for $20 per month. Once you remove that cap, you can integrate Claude with Zapier to automate your tech stack. Learn more about how to automate Claude, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Want to build with the Claude models? Refine your prompts in the Anthropic Console, and follow Zapier's guide to the Claude API.

The best AI chatbot for social media

Meta AI

AI model: Llama series

Meta AI pros:

• Can create images and animate them for free

• Ability to chat with it directly from WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook

Meta AI cons:

• Limited extensibility

Meta offers Meta AI as a standalone app and as a built-in part of most of its major social platforms. Log in with your Facebook or Instagram account, and start chatting. You can ask for generated images and even small animations—there's the option for creating short videos, but the system still doesn't seem to be working great.

Meta AI can search the web, but it doesn't do so nearly as well as, say Gemini or ChatGPT, so be sure to fact-check everything to the letter if it's important. Because of this, it feels like a more vanilla model ready to be tuned and adapted to specific use cases or business needs.

Which brings us into the generous open licensing framework.

If you're a developer, you can use the Llama models to empower or build your apps and pay nothing until you reach a very high revenue level. These terms were designed to keep other big tech companies away from Llama, so most businesses of all sizes could use this AI model without having to pay any access costs—just the cost of having hardware running the calculations.

If you're curious about how it stacks up against other models, read the ChatGPT vs. Meta AI comparison to learn more.

The best AI chatbot for integrating with Google products

Google Gemini

AI model: Gemini and Imagen series

Google Gemini pros:

• Solid integrations with other Google apps, including Gmail, Google Docs, Maps, and YouTube

• Long conversation memory for deep contextual understanding

Google Gemini cons:

• Response quality is inconsistent

Google has been in the AI race for a long time, with a set of AI features already implemented across its product lineup, and its Gemini chatbot is one of the major players now.

The chatbot offers a handy button that lets you Google things yourself if you don't like or trust the answer. And it has the longest available context window at the moment, capable of holding the entire Harry Potter saga, able to retrieve and use details with precision.

But here's what I love most: it integrates deeply with your Google account and with other Google products such as Hotels, Flights, and YouTube. Want to search your Gmail file jungle with one prompt? Do it. Summarize files inside your Google Drive? Yes, please. Check real-time flight and hotel prices as the AI builds your trip? Schedule that time off: it even gives you a packing list. You can also use Gemini from inside all your Google Workspace apps, including Docs and Gmail.

It used to be hard to customize, but Gemini now has Gems: these are the equivalent of ChatGPT's GPTs, letting you add instructions to change the original experience. To read more about their differences, here's a direct comparison: ChatGPT vs. Google Gemini.

And with Zapier's Google Vertex AI and Google AI Studio integrations, you can access Gemini from all the apps you use at work. Here are a couple of examples to get you started.

Want to build with Gemini? Start creating your prompts in Google AI Studio, get your free development key, and follow Zapier's guide to the Gemini API.

The best AI chatbot for integration with Microsoft products

Microsoft Copilot

AI model: OpenAI's models

Microsoft Copilot pros:

• Built into Microsoft Edge and Office, providing a more integrated search experience

Microsoft Copilot cons:

• Feels like a ChatGPT-lite

Early in 2023, Microsoft upped its investment in OpenAI and started developing and rolling out AI features into its products. First, AI was fully integrated into Microsoft Edge, the native Windows browser. Now, it's finally getting to the point where it's genuinely useful inside your Microsoft apps.

Copilot can help you draft documents in Word, analyze data in Excel, and tighten up your presentations in PowerPoint. I'd argue that's the main reason to choose it over, say, ChatGPT, but you can also use it as a standalone chatbot on the web.

Here's a full rundown of ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot.

The best AI chatbot and agent

Zapier Agents

AI model: OpenAI's models

Zapier Agents pros:

• Ability to set up each agent to perform specific actions in response to triggers from other apps

• Easy to build custom AI agents with simple prompts

Zapier Agents cons:

• Not as feature-rich if you're not utilizing automation and app integration

Zapier Agents is an experimental AI workspace where you can teach AI agents to work across thousands of apps. But the interface is a chatbot, which means that creating your own AI agent is as simple as using ChatGPT.

Start by giving your agent access to your company's source of truth in apps like HubSpot, Notion, Zendesk, and more. Then, you can ask it about that data as well as all the data in your apps—and data sources will sync automatically. You can train your agents to work while you're not there: they can write, send and update information, crawl the web, analyze data, and everything in between.

And because it works across all your apps—Gmail, Facebook Lead Ads, Google Sheets, Airtable, Shopify, you name it—you can trigger behaviors based on anything that happens in your tech stack.

Think of these agents as mini teammates who help you with specific tasks, like analyzing your spreadsheets, searching the web, or drafting responses to customers. By chatting directly with AI, you can train them by showing them the exact behaviors to follow—without using a line of code.

It's AI chat, automation, and data analysis all in one place. Learn more about Zapier Agents, and then get started for free.

The best AI chatbot for trying lots of AI models

Poe

AI model: Includes OpenAI's models, StableDiffusionXL, Claude, Gemini, Llama, Mistral, and more

Poe pros:

• Access to multiple AI models under one platform

• Ability to monetize custom-built chatbots

Poe cons:

• Message limits apply to higher-quality models

GPT, Claude, and Stable Diffusion walk into a bar. That bar is called Poe, which acts as a kind of AI model aggregator. Instead of paying a fixed-price subscription, you buy compute points. These are consumed as you use the available models. And, just like in a bar, you can get models to talk to each other: generate the text for a good image prompt with a GPT model, send it to a Luma image-generation model, and then animate it with Runway in the same conversation thread.

When you're done chatting, you might want to try creating your own bot. You can set its system prompt, add a knowledge base, and configure a greeting message. This feels like one of OpenAI's GPTs, with two key differences: you can pick which AI model you want to use as a base, and you can monetize it by setting up your creator account. If you create a good one, maybe your Poe subscription can pay for itself multiple times over.

The best AI chatbot for internet deep dives

Perplexity

AI model: OpenAI, Claude, and DeepSeek models

Perplexity pros:

• Great for deep internet searches with a list of sources provided

• Offers follow-up prompts and suggested related searches for continuous exploration

Perplexity cons:

• Interface can feel cluttered when displaying multiple search results and sources

Perplexity is another take on AI internet-connected chatbots for handling more information and longer, less organized searches. Here's why: when getting the output, you'll see a list of all the sources below it. Then, you can add a new prompt to continue that search, or pick one of the suggested related search terms. All the results will stack on the bottom, so you can scroll up or down to read everything.

You can tick Copilot in the search bar to get some help with product recommendations, best healthy recipes, or hotel search results powered by Tripadvisor, for example. Once you enter your prompt, Perplexity will ask you a set of qualifying questions to home in on your intent. The resulting output summarizes all the key information, acting as a good starting point for a deep dive.

When you share your chats with others, they can continue the conversation you started without limitations. On your end, you can see the views for shared conversations, likes, and follow-up questions, making the experience more interactive.

The Discover feature rounds up popular searches into one short, snappy article. For example, did you know there are ancient beaches on Mars? Don't pack a swimsuit. These pages can be curated by humans, another example of how teamwork makes the dream work.

Now better prepared for advanced tasks like solving equations and processing real-time data by leveraging Wolfram Alpha, Perplexity is positioning itself more and more as a powerful and straightforward search tool. Learn more about how it compares to ChatGPT.

The best AI chatbot for a simple experience

Le Chat Mistral

AI model: Mistral model series

Le Chat pros:

• Provides concise, to-the-point responses for easy reading

• Free to use

Le Chat cons:

• Struggles with complex tasks

Ouh là là. The appropriately-named Le Chat is out to show Mistral's high quality models, with a simple conversation experience. The French startup has been hard at work improving the app:

• Canvas and Code Interpreter offer a Claude-like interface, where Mistral codes interfaces and simple apps, displaying the results on a side tab.

• There's now high-quality image generation available.

• It can see and understand uploaded images, so you can ask questions about them.

But this is just Le Chat. Looking at the placeholder text on the input field, I found a rabbit hole that leads to Le Platforme, a place where you can access more Mistral services and features. You can create agents, customized versions of Mistral models with a system prompt and data examples, as well as manage datasets and fine-tuning in the platform. This opens the field for customizing the way AI works here—but the learning curve is still a bit steep.

The company behind the models is made up of professionals from both Google's DeepMind and Meta AI. A small company, they're rising to prominence—and their model is featured in other chatbots due to the high quality results. With a focus on providing open generative models to empower devs and businesses, it's another big play against the closed-model framework of OpenAI.

The easiest way to build your own shareable chatbot

Zapier Chatbots

AI model: OpenAI's models via your own API key

Zapier Chatbots pros:

• Connects chatbot conversation data to thousands of apps

• Easy to use

Zapier Chatbots cons:

• If you aren't interested in automation features, it's a bit more limited than some other options

With Zapier's free Chatbots tool, you can create custom and shareable AI-powered chatbots with the power of AI and Zapier automation.

Creating a chatbot is easy: scrape web pages like your help center or website, upload documents, or connect Zapier Tables to train your chatbot on existing information about your business in just a few minutes.

You can also customize the look and behavior of your chatbot. Edit the AI prompt to create its personality, update the colors and logos to match your brand, and add logic that gathers information from leads throughout the conversation so you can follow up easily.

When you're ready to share, give it a unique URL or embed the chatbot on your website to handle customer support and generate new leads. Because it's built on Zapier, it's connected to thousands of other apps, meaning you can create Zaps to track leads, analyze conversations, and share insights with your team. Read more about how to build your own AI chatbot with Zapier, or get started with one of these templates.

Sales Support AI Chatbot Template

Answer prospect questions quickly and close more deals with an OpenAI-powered chatbot.

Try it

AI Chat for Lead Generation Template

Increase lead engagement with a conversational chat experience embedded on your website.

Try it

The best AI chatbot for leveraging open source models

HuggingChat

AI model: Open source models

HuggingChat pros:

• Open source, with support for multiple models like Llama and Mistral

• Free to use

HuggingChat cons:

• Can't upload documents into its knowledge base

Presenting HuggingChat, an open source chatbot assembled by Hugging Face. It used to have a cheery model that could hold the conversation for a few dozen turns before breaking down into an incoherent jet of nonsense. That's the past: now HuggingChat is now powered by multiple high-quality open models from Meta, Mistral, and even Microsoft's Phi.

The image above is the model selection pop-up. Each has a different number of parameters—which dictates their flexibility, among other things—so be sure to read the description to understand which would be best for the task at hand. You can add a system prompt to change the core behavior of the model too, helping you tune it to your workflow.

Like ChatGPT, you can also use Assistants here. These will change the system instructions, add start messages, and determine whether there's internet access or not. Unlike GPTs, you can't upload documents into the knowledge base, which limits the flexibility of these tools.

It feels great to use HuggingChat. It now includes tools for image captioning, document parsing and analyzing charts. It's something to compare ChatGPT to, revealing a bit about how these models take your inputs and calculate the outputs. You can definitely add it to your brainstorming toolkit, and start testing it for more important workflows over time.

You can also connect Hugging Face to Zapier, so it can talk to all the other apps you use. Here are some examples of how to automate Hugging Face, or you can get started with one of these templates.

The best AI chatbot for an X integration

Grok

AI model: Grok series

Grok pros:

• Advanced reasoning and intelligence

• Image generation available

Grok cons:

• Facing accuracy accusations around politically-charged topics

Grok, a verb that means "to understand intuitively" and the name of xAI's model series, has been evolving quickly. Version 3 was released in February 2025 and is already at the top of the App Store and the Chatbot Arena leaderboard, adding another chapter to the Sam Altman vs. Elon Musk feud.

Previously, you could only access Grok within X with a paid plan. And you can still use it inside the platform to ask questions about real-time trends and get answers as topics evolve. But now you can also access Grok via its web and mobile apps—and, so far, it looks like it's completely free.

There are four suggested actions below the input field: DeepSearch to dive into a topic, Brainstorm to go on a creative jam, Analyze Data to get to the bottom of your documents, Create Images to draw otters playing ukulele, and Code to get assistance with programming tasks. Although online coverage says the model's writing style has an edgy sense of humor baked in, I didn't find it too on the nose: it does feel more informal than GPT-4o, but in very subtle touches, not over-the-top zaniness.

Read more in our comparison of Grok vs. ChatGPT.

The best AI chatbot for personal use

Pi

AI model: Inflection-2.5

Pi pros:

• Engaging and supportive chatbot focused on personal well-being and short conversations

• Minimalistic design with animations that enhance the user experience

Pi cons:

• No ability to browse the internet

Pi: with a short name that stands for personal intelligence, Inflection AI's chatbot sets out to be engaging and supportive. It may not be as flexible as ChatGPT—it can't write articles or search the internet—but it offers a fresh user experience that's worthy of mention.

The app is minimalistic and filled with loads of cute details and animations. You'll find that Pi isn't tuned for long answers. Instead, it prefers shorter bursts of conversation and loves asking questions. It wants you to share your day, mention difficulties you're having, or talk through problems in your life. It's friendly, and while vague at times, it always has nice things to say.

In addition to the standard chat mode, you can switch to SupportPi to talk things through, get advice, or just get a sounding board for stuff on your mind. You can combine these models with the Discover section, where you can choose a conversation type, with options such as "practice a big conversation," "get motivated," or "just vent."

No big productivity use cases, sure. But maybe there's no productivity if you don't keep your personal stuff in order, and that's exactly Pi's angle. 

It's free to use at the moment, so you can jump right in. To keep track of your conversation history, you'll have to provide your name and phone number. This way, Pi will be able to text you from time to time to ask how things are going, a nice reminder to check in and catch up.

The best AI chatbot for an alternative to GPTs with lots of models

you.com

AI model: OpenAI models, Claude, Llama, DBRX, and others

you.com pros:

• Combines AI with web search, offering context from multiple sources

• Ability to switch between various AI models

you.com cons:

• Interface can feel crowded compared to other AI chatbots

you.com, formerly YouChat, used to look like a Google Search results page. Then, it looked like Perplexity for a time. Now, it's closer in user experience to a reasoning model interface: it shows steps taken during research and any thinking done to get to the answer.

Beyond searching the web, you.com introduced a new feature called Agents. This is similar to ChatGPT's GPTs, a customized version of the chatbot based on a system prompt, with a collection of conversation starters to get you going. You can quickly switch between agents by clicking on the pills on top of the input field.

Another upgrade is in uploading files, here called source management. Instead of uploading a single document for the current conversation, you can upload multiple files and manage them from a pop-up. You can also activate or deactivate web search, and soon you'll be able to connect with premium data sources such as LinkedIn, G2, or Yahoo Finance.

You can swap out you.com's brain, too, with dozens of AI models available—from GPT and Claude classics to DeepSeek's R1 and Alibaba's Qwen.

The best AI chatbot for training AI personas for business use

Personal AI

AI model: Proprietary GGT-P, OpenAI's models, Claude

Personal AI pros:

• Learns and adapts to your communication style for more personalized interactions

• Can set chatbot on autopilot on a conversation-by-conversation basis

Personal AI cons:

• The personalization process may take time to fully adapt to your style

It's difficult to get GPT-4o to communicate exactly like you do. Personal AI helps fix that. It's based on a proprietary model with a memory layer, storing all your messages, documents, or favorite links. Then, when you start asking questions to your AI, it will surface those memories with very high accuracy.

It doesn't require a massive amount of data to start giving personalized output. To make each response more flexible, it uses other LLMs such as GPT to plug in the gaps, creating a mixture between a general and a personal response. You can see how much of each it is by taking a look at the Personal Score percentage.

While you're training this massive brain with your data, you can create AI personas to extend your human workforce with a virtual one. This means that, if you choose to train an AI CMO, you can store everything your marketing team knows and use it to create campaigns, explore statistics, and see growth over time—the model is timeline-aware.

Personal AI is great for messaging others, writing emails, or creating content in your own voice and starting from your own knowledge. It will suggest replies in your conversations that will start sounding more and more like you over time. Once you're confident it represents who you are and what you know, you can set it to Autopilot on a conversation-by-conversation basis to let it take over.

You can also connect Personal AI to Zapier, so you can automatically create memories for your chatbot as you're going about the rest of your day. Discover the top ways to automate Personal AI, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

The best AI chatbot in a browser extension

Merlin AI

AI model: OpenAI models, Claude, Gemini, Mistral

Merlin AI pros:

• Shortcuts available for common tasks like email writing and web browsing

• Integrates with a variety of AI models

Merlin AI cons:

• Best used as a browser extension

Merlin AI feels like a vaguely cluttered version of any other AI chatbot, but its biggest selling point is its browser extension. (ChatGPT has one, too, but it feels like more of an afterthought there.) You can chat with web pages, upload a PDF and ask questions to it, and summarize Google searches with a couple of clicks.

It's a Swiss army knife of AI actions, helping you write emails in Gmail, summarize YouTube videos, and quickly comment on tweets as you read them. Another interesting possibility here is creating a double of any public person's tweets: you're basically training a chatbot with their past posts so you can ask questions to it.

It integrates with most of the top AI models available, including OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, and Mistral. If you're not sure which one is best for each task, the Merlin Magic feature can pick the best one for you—which is also good to help you try out new models from time to time.

The best AI chatbot for personal productivity

ZenoChat

AI model: Sophos 2, OpenAI's models, Claude, Llama

ZenoChat pros:

• Extensive prompt templates

• Ability to expand brief prompts into more detailed queries

ZenoChat cons:

• The proprietary model can be less versatile compared to more established models

TextCortex is a content generation app that has a collection of templates to turn your prompt into a first draft quickly. Within this app, you'll find ZenoChat, the chat experience powered by Sophos 2, an in-house model. OpenAI's models, Claude, and Llama are also available if you're looking for something more familiar.

The proprietary model improved a lot since I last tested it. It can generate good output, leaning on brevity and straightforwardness. You can tune its base personality in the chat box dropdown, enable or disable web search, add a knowledge base to it, or set it to a different language.

It has a good collection of prompt templates in the marketplace. Simply browse and pick the one that best matches the task at hand. If you're too brief when writing prompts, ZenoChat has a unique feature that expands your prompt with as much detail as possible. This way, when you send it over, you can be sure you covered all the bases to get the best possible answer.

The best AI chatbot for learning

Khanmigo

AI model: Proprietary

Khanmigo pros:

• Covers a wide range of educational subjects from history to mathematics

• Asks guiding questions, encouraging critical thinking

Khanmigo cons:

• Limited application outside educational contexts

Khan Academy has built a reputation for offering high-quality learning resources for free. As AI opens up new avenues in learning, Khan Labs is working on Khanmigo, an AI-powered tutor to help you master complex topics.

It will offer one-on-one tutoring on topics ranging from history to mathematics, helping you wrap your mind around the core issues. What I like about it is how it doesn't tell you the answer to an exercise—instead, it asks you a set of questions and provides hints to get you to think your way to it. It never, ever yields the answer, not even if you beg.

As you progress through Khan Academy's curriculum, you can review topics, see what's next, and hop on interactive quizzes to keep knowledge fresh. This interactivity is a breath of fresh air in the familiar online course experience, making the material more approachable and fun to engage with.

Other role-specific AI chatbots

Need something special? Here are some great AI chatbots that are purpose-built for specific roles and use cases.

For coding

• GitHub Copilot acts as an AI-powered autocomplete for coding, integrating seamlessly into your IDE to suggest relevant code as you type. While it includes security filtering to reduce risks, developers still need to review suggestions for efficiency and accuracy.

• Amazon Q Developer (formerly CodeWhisperer) is an AI coding assistant designed for the AWS ecosystem. It personalizes suggestions based on open source and AWS usage data, though it supports fewer languages than GitHub Copilot and primarily integrates with Amazon-based IDEs, JetBrains, and VS Code.

• Tabnine is a team-focused AI coding assistant designed for enterprises, ensuring code generation stays free from copyleft license risks. With adaptable AI models, strong security features, and a Chat beta for technical queries, it's a powerful but premium option, with a limited free plan.

• Codeium is a highly rated coding assistant with a generous free plan, offering more than just code completion. With support for over 70 languages and integration with 40+ IDEs, it also features a chatbot for project scoping, code explanations, and improvement suggestions.

For marketing and sales

• Jasper Chat is part of Jasper, an AI-powered content creation platform designed for businesses that offers templates for various content types. With internet connectivity for fact-checking, AI image generation, and workflow automation, it's a robust tool for high-volume content production.

• Chat by Copy.ai now helps B2B sales teams streamline lead research, qualification, and outreach with AI-powered workflows. The chatbot and automation tools enable data-driven prospecting, personalized communication, and even content creation.

• HubSpot Breeze Copilot (formerly ChatSpot) integrates AI into HubSpot's CRM, enabling users to manage contacts, run reports, conduct research, and generate content using natural language prompts. 

• Salesforce Einstein Copilot brings AI-powered interaction to your Salesforce CRM, streamlining data access and analysis with natural language. With a dedicated prompt engineering interface and customizable AI actions, it enhances efficiency—though you may need some technical knowledge for full customization.

For customer experience and support

• Intercom Fin handles repetitive inquiries using knowledge bases and scripted flows. It's easy to set up, crawls your website for training, and does seamless handoff to humans, while providing good analytics to keep improving.

• Ada is a customer service agent that integrates with various data sources to provide personalized, multi-channel support. With low-code API connections and structured AI guidance, it automates routine inquiries across chat, phone, and messaging platforms while maintaining brand consistency.

• Botsonic is a versatile chatbot builder that integrates with top AI models and allows training on website data, documents, and cloud storage. You can use it to create personalized customer and shopping experiences, with good controls for branding, response guidelines, and agent actions.

• Sendbird AI Chatbot is part of a communication platform that enables live chat, video calls, and messaging. In the AI chatbot builder, you can customize AI models, create structured workflows, and use analytics to build a better experience for your customers.

What's the best AI chatbot for you?

As ChatGPT itself would tell you, "The answer to this question really depends on what you want to use the chatbot for. There are many different AI chatbots available, and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses." Nailed it.

The biggest thing to remember is that all of these chatbots are using state-of-the-art models, and they all sound pretty similar...at least if you squint. Most of the differences are in how the apps are to interact with, what extra features they offer, and how they connect to the other tools you use. Almost all of these AI chatbots are free to test, so take a day and give them all a spin. At the very least, it'll be an experience.

Related reading:

• The best AI productivity tools

• How to use AI to spark content ideas

• How to build a custom version of ChatGPT with OpenAI's GPT builder

• The best AI search engines

• The best free AI tools

• AI by Zapier: Easily add AI steps to your workflows

This article was originally published in April 2023. The most recent update was in March 2025.