AI Assistants & Agents
Chatbots, AI search engines, browsers, extensions and autonomous agents for everyday work.
Best AI Chatbots
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity and 6 more AI chatbots ranked on answer quality, features, free plans and price. Updated September 2026.
Best AI Apps
The 11 best AI apps for phone and desktop in 2026. ChatGPT is the best all-rounder, with Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Granola and Wispr Flow for specific jobs.
Best Free AI Tools
ChatGPT Free is the best free AI tool, with unlimited text chats. Gemini gives the most features free, and Claude the best quality per message. 11 ranked.
Best AI Agents
ChatGPT Work is the best AI agent for most people, included in the $20 Plus plan. We rank 8 agents, including Claude Cowork, Manus and Claude Code.
Best AI Search Engines
Perplexity, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Kagi, Brave and more, ranked on cited accuracy, freshness, research depth, privacy and price. September 2026.
Best AI Browsers
Perplexity Comet is the best AI browser for most people: free on every platform, with a strong research agent. 8 ranked, including Chrome with Gemini.
Best AI Chrome Extensions
Claude in Chrome is the best AI Chrome extension if you pay for Claude, and ChatGPT for Chrome is the best free one. 7 ranked on usefulness, privacy, price.
Best AI Companions
The best AI companion apps ranked on safety, privacy and pricing. Replika is the best dedicated companion; Claude and ChatGPT are the safest to talk to.
Best AI Girlfriend Apps
Replika is our top AI girlfriend app for adults: 18+, clearly priced and the most established. Kindroid, Character.AI and Nomi ranked on privacy and safety.
What Is the Best AI Right Now? The 10 Best AI Assistants Ranked
The best AI right now is ChatGPT for most people, Claude for writing and hard problems, Gemini for free use. See 10 AIs ranked and the best AI for every job.
Best AI Tools in 2026: The Top Pick for Every Job
The best AI tools of 2026: ChatGPT for everyday help, Claude for writing, Claude Code for coding, Gemini Notebook for study, plus our pick for 40+ other jobs.
Best AI Personal Assistants
Gemini is the best AI assistant for most people and ChatGPT is a close second. We rank 8 AI personal assistants, including Alexa+ and the new Siri.
Best AI Productivity Tools
The best AI tools for work and productivity in 2026: ChatGPT, Gemini in Workspace and Microsoft 365 Copilot lead, plus Granola, Zapier and Notion.
Best AI Subscriptions: Which Paid AI Plan Is Worth It?
The best AI subscription is Google AI Pro for value and ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro for power users. 12 paid AI plans from $4.99 to $100 compared on value.
Best AI Apps for iPhone
The best AI apps for iPhone in 2026, ranked with App Store ratings. ChatGPT leads, followed by Gemini, Apple's new Siri AI in iOS 27, Claude and Perplexity.
Best AI Apps for Android
The best AI apps for Android in 2026, ranked with Google Play ratings. Gemini leads, then ChatGPT, Circle to Search, Samsung Galaxy AI, Perplexity and Claude.
Best AI Roleplay Chatbots
The best AI chatbots for roleplay and AI friend apps in 2026, ranked on story quality, memory, safety and price. Claude, Character.AI and AI Dungeon lead.
Best AI Agent Builders
Zapier Agents, Copilot Studio, n8n, ChatGPT workspace agents, Workspace Studio and more no-code AI agent builders ranked on ease, apps, control and price.
Best AI Prompt Generators
ChatGPT is the best AI prompt generator for most people, and Claude writes the best system prompts. Anthropic's Console tool and PromptPerfect have closed.
Best AI Recipe Generators and Meal Planners
Samsung Food, ChatGPT, Gemini, Eat This Much and Ollie ranked on recipe quality, diet and allergy controls, grocery lists and price. Checked September 2026.
Tool reviews, pricing and alternatives
Character.AI
Character.AI is a free app and website where adults chat, call and build stories with millions of AI characters made by its users, with paid plans that cut ads and add memory.
ChatGPT
OpenAI's AI assistant for chat, search, images, voice and coding, with plans from free to $200 a month.
Claude
Anthropic's AI assistant for writing, analysis and coding, with the Claude Code agent included from the $20 Pro plan.
DeepSeek
A free AI chatbot from China's DeepSeek, with one of the cheapest pay-per-token APIs and open-weight models anyone can download.
Gemini
Google's AI assistant, sold through Google AI plans that bundle Gemini with Google storage, from free to $199.99 a month.
Grok
SpaceXAI's chatbot with live access to posts on X, image and video creation, and plans from free to $300 a month.
Manus
Manus is a general AI agent that works in its own cloud computer to research, build websites, slides and reports, paid for with credits from a free plan up.
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft's AI assistant: free in Windows, Edge and the Copilot app, and built into Word, Excel and Outlook with a Microsoft 365 plan.
Perplexity
Perplexity is an AI search engine that answers questions from the live web with numbered sources, free for everyday use and from $10 a month for students.
Wispr Flow
Wispr Flow is an AI dictation app that turns natural speech into clean, punctuated text in any app on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android.
Other categories
AI Models & LLMs
Frontier and open-weight language models, APIs and embedding models, ranked on independent benchmarks, price and real-world reliability.
Writing & Content
Tools for drafting, editing, paraphrasing, summarising and polishing text, from essays to cover letters.
Image & Design
Image generators, photo editors, upscalers, headshots, logos and design tools.
Video, Voice & Music
AI video generation and editing, voice synthesis and cloning, music generation and transcription.
Developers & AI Infrastructure
Coding assistants, code review, agent frameworks, vector databases, observability, automation and website builders.
Business & Productivity
AI for marketing, sales, SEO, CRM, finance, legal, meetings, documents and data work.
Education & Learning
AI tutors, study tools, homework and maths help, research assistants and tools for teachers.
Detection & Trust
AI text detectors, image and deepfake detectors, and plagiarism checkers, ranked on independent accuracy tests.
Healthcare AI
AI for clinicians, hospitals and health businesses: scribes, revenue cycle, CRM, imaging, neurology, decision support and patient access, judged on clinical evidence, regulation and privacy.
Customer Service & Voice Agents
AI voice agents, receptionists, support agents and contact-center platforms that talk to your customers, ranked on resolution rates, latency, integrations and cost per conversation.
HR & Recruiting
AI for hiring and people teams: sourcing, screening, interview intelligence and HR assistants, with bias-audit and employment-law compliance weighed heavily.
Security & IT
AI for defenders and IT teams: threat detection, security operations (SOC) automation and IT service management.
Learn AI
The best courses, certifications, podcasts and newsletters for learning AI, from complete beginner to practitioner, judged on quality, cost and how current they are.
AI Hardware & Devices
AI glasses, wearables, voice recorders, phones, laptops, GPUs, robots and smart-home devices, ranked on what the AI features actually do, battery life, privacy and price.