Lesson 4 of 9 · AI Basics
The tool landscape
Four big names, all with real free tiers. You don't need to pick the perfect one, you need to pick one and start.
Every tool below wraps a top-tier model family in a polished harness, and every one of them has a free tier that is genuinely useful, not a crippled demo. Prices and models change fast in this business, so treat the details here as a snapshot from August 2026. The advice on which tool fits which person changes much more slowly.
Tap a tool to compare (prices as of August 2026)
- Free
- Unlimited everyday chats on the standard model (GPT-5.6 Luna). US free tier shows ads.
- Paid
- Plus, $20/mo: the stronger GPT-5.6 Sol model, Deep Research, and Agent Mode.
- Best fit
- The safe default. Biggest ecosystem, most tutorials, good at nearly everything.
All four are solid. Start with the free tier of whichever fits your day, and pay only when you hit its limits.
How to actually choose
Ignore the leaderboards. The differences that matter day to day are about fit, not IQ points. Live in Google Workspace? Gemini. Live in Microsoft Office? Copilot. Want the biggest ecosystem of guides and plugins? ChatGPT. Care most about writing quality and giving the AI standing instructions? Claude.
And the honest secret: for everyday questions, all four will serve you well. The skills in the rest of this course, asking well, managing context, checking facts, transfer to every one of them.
Last updated August 11, 2026