Grok, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude: Full Comparison of Top AI Chatbots (2026)

In this article

All four vendors replaced their flagship models between July and October 2026. OpenAI split its lineup into Astra, Sol, Terra, and Luna tiers, and xAI folded Grok into The X Subscription together with Cursor and X Premium. If you want a broader framework beyond these four, see our guide on how to choose the right AI model for your use case.

Grok: Overview

Grok's current flagship is Grok 4.7, which xAI released in September 2026 and describes as its most capable model for coding and knowledge work. It follows Grok 4.5 (July 2026) and Grok 4.6 (August 2026), and all three continue the Grok 4 family that xAI introduced in July 2025. The company now publishes under the SpaceXSI name, and Grok runs on grok.com, in the iOS and Android apps, and inside X.

Grok 4 launch benchmarks from July 2025. Source: grok.com

Grok 4.7 uses a larger base model than Grok 4.6 and a longer reinforcement learning run weighted toward tasks that take many hours, according to xAI. The API version has a 500K-token context window, accepts text and images, returns text, and offers four reasoning effort levels: low, medium, high (the default), and xhigh.

For integration work, Grok 4.7 offers tool use and image input, and the xAI API adds Web Search and X Search tools. Learn more about Grok use cases in our blog.

Grok pricing and plans

For developers, Grok 4.7 costs $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens for prompts under 200K tokens, and $4 / $12 above that threshold. xAI also serves a fast variant with twice the output speed at twice the price, currently limited to Cursor and Grok Build. The older Grok 4.3 stays on the API with a 1M-token context window at $1.25 / $2.50 for prompts under 200K tokens, which still suits very long documents.

Consumer pricing changed on October 12, 2026, when xAI introduced The X Subscription. One plan now covers Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor, and X Premium: Plus costs $8 a month, Premium $30, Super $100, and Ultra $200. Usage ranges from the Plus base allowance to 50 times that amount on Ultra. Grok Bot starts on Premium, and existing SuperGrok subscribers can keep their current plans.

Grok features

• Web and X search. The xAI API exposes Web Search and X Search tools, so Grok can ground answers in live web pages and in posts on X.
• Grok Imagine. Creates images and video from text prompts.
• Voice. Supports hands-free voice conversations in the apps, and xAI shipped Grok Voice 3.0 in October 2026.
• File uploads. Analyzes PDFs, images, spreadsheets, code, and audio files.
• Connectors. Links Grok to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Salesforce.
• Grok Bot. Gives you AI teammates that work on a persistent cloud computer, included from the Premium plan.
• Grok Build and Cursor. Grok 4.7 runs in xAI's Grok Build coding tool and in Cursor, which The X Subscription bundles in.

What Grok is best for

Grok can be used for:

• Social media writing and research. Direct access to posts on X makes Grok useful for anyone who works with social content, and you can push its output straight to Telegram through Albato.
• Real-time research. Live web and X search help with breaking news and public reaction to a launch or an event.
• Coding on a budget. Grok 4.7 has the lowest output price of the four flagships, and X Subscription plans share one Grok usage pool across the Grok apps and Cursor.
• Team assistants. Grok Bot lets a team share one bot with the same files, apps, and context.

Grok weaknesses

• Elon Musk's influence. Shortly after the Grok 4 launch in July 2025, TechCrunch reported that the model appeared to consult Musk's posts on X when answering controversial questions. Treat answers on political and historical topics with extra care.
• Smaller flagship context. Grok 4.7 handles 500K tokens, half of what Grok 4.3 and the flagships from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google accept.
• Text-only output from the API model. Images and video go through separate Grok Imagine models.
• Bundled pricing. Paid plans include X Premium and Cursor, so you pay for both even if you only need a chatbot.
• Data privacy. Users should remain cautious about sharing sensitive information, as data handling follows xAI's privacy policies.

Community reaction to Grok 4 in 2025. Source: reddit.com

Community feedback on Grok 4 was mixed at launch. On r/singularity, users asked why strong benchmark results did not translate into better everyday coding, and several said Claude still did that job better.

Grok speed

xAI positions Grok 4.7 as twice as fast as comparable models at half the price, and the fast variant doubles output speed again for twice the token price. Higher reasoning effort takes longer by design, so xhigh answers arrive slower than the default high setting. Super and Ultra subscribers get faster responses and priority model access at peak times.

Grok accuracy

Grok grounds its answers in live web and X data when search is on, which helps with breaking news but also exposes it to unverified posts. xAI says Grok 4.7 checks its own work more carefully than Grok 4.6, and on CursorBench 4.0 it reports 46.3% for Grok 4.7 at xhigh effort against 40.4% for Grok 4.6.

Grok trustworthiness

xAI says Grok 4.7 ships with an entirely new safeguard stack and is the strongest model it has tested on refusals and jailbreak resistance. On xAI's own HackerBench v0.3, the model let 3.3% of risky dual-use prompts through.

Grok's past alignment with Musk's worldview can still make answers on politically charged topics feel opinionated. This contrasts with ChatGPT, which aims for neutrality but risks being overly diplomatic, so compare sensitive answers with a second source.

ChatGPT: Overview

ChatGPT now runs on OpenAI's GPT-6 generation. GPT-6 Astra, released in September 2026, is OpenAI's flagship for complex reasoning and coding and the model behind Pro reasoning in ChatGPT. GPT-6.1 Sol followed later that month as a cheaper option with near-Astra performance. GPT-6.1 Terra arrived in October 2026 for visual reasoning, computer use, and writing, and GPT-6 Luna covers focused, high-volume tasks.

Humanity's Last Exam scores from the GPT-5 launch, the generation before GPT-6. Source: openai.com

In ChatGPT, the model you get depends on your plan. Free and Go users chat with GPT-6 Luna, Plus adds GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra, and Pro gets expanded Astra access plus Pro reasoning. Model availability changes during rollouts, so check the model picker for the options on your account.

ChatGPT plans and API pricing

All four GPT-6 API models share a 1.05M-token context window and a 128K-token output limit. API prices per million tokens are $10 input and $50 output for Astra, $2 / $10 for GPT-6.1 Sol, $1 / $5 for GPT-6.1 Terra, and $0.10 / $0.50 for GPT-6 Luna.

On the consumer side, OpenAI offers Free ($0), Go ($8 a month, a plan that may include ads), Plus ($20 a month), and Pro tiers at $100, $200, or $500 a month. Business costs $20 per user per month billed annually or $25 billed monthly, and Enterprise pricing goes through sales. Among individual plans, only the $500 Pro tier includes Ultrafast mode.

ChatGPT features

• Deep research. Runs multi-step web research and returns a sourced report, with limited use on Free, expanded use on Plus, and maximum use on Pro.
• Reasoning models. Plus includes advanced reasoning with GPT-6, and Pro adds Pro reasoning powered by GPT-6 Astra.
• Image creation. Turns text prompts into images, and OpenAI introduced Images 2.6 on November 4, 2026.
• Codex. A coding agent that writes, tests, and debugs code, with limited access on Free and expanded usage on Plus.
• ChatGPT Work. An agent workspace for longer tasks, on desktop for Free users and across desktop, web, and mobile on Plus.
• Projects, scheduled tasks, and custom GPTs. Organize ongoing work and automate recurring prompts, with limits that grow by plan and the most room on Pro.
• Voice and memory. Voice chats are available on every plan, and memory and context grow with each tier.

What ChatGPT is best for

ChatGPT is the best tool on the market for writing texts, emails, and social media posts, in my experience as a content marketer who tests different AI models for various types of content. Its texts feel more natural, and the model is relatively good at adjusting style.

You can also build ChatGPT automations for customer service and customer support, as the answers generated by this model will sound less robotic. Routing those replies into Slack posts them where the team already works.

ChatGPT weaknesses

ChatGPT has improved at coding with the GPT-6 generation and Codex, but it still occasionally introduces bugs while fixing other problems. For production-grade code, pair it with a dedicated IDE and code review.

The lineup also changes quickly. OpenAI released the GPT-5.6 family in July 2026 and GPT-6 Astra in September. GPT-5.5 left Codex with ChatGPT sign-in on October 14, 2026, so workflows pinned to one model need regular checks.

ChatGPT speed

ChatGPT speed depends on the model you pick. GPT-6 Luna is OpenAI's most efficient model for high-volume tasks, GPT-6.1 Terra is built to be fast and efficient, and GPT-6 Astra spends more time on the hardest problems. Long reasoning runs and image generation take longer than standard chat replies.

ChatGPT accuracy

ChatGPT can search the web and run deep research to ground its answers in sources, which reduces outdated facts. Even with search, AI-generated reading lists can include books that do not exist.

ChatGPT trustworthiness

OpenAI applies safety filters and other controls, and in November 2026 it introduced GPT-6 Cyber, a model for aligned cybersecurity agents. There are still caveats: the model can be overly agreeable, which raises concerns for use in consulting, education, or psychotherapy, and any chat you share by link should not contain sensitive data.

Claude: Overview

Claude Opus 5.5 is Anthropic's recommended starting model for most workloads, released on September 22, 2026 as the first model in the Claude 5.5 family. Anthropic says it roughly matches Claude Fable 5.1 on most tasks and costs 40% less to run than Opus 5 at default settings. Fable 5.1, released in September 2026, sits above it for demanding reasoning and long-horizon agentic work, Sonnet 5.5 balances speed and intelligence, and Haiku 5.5 handles high-volume, latency-sensitive jobs.

Every current Claude model has a 1-million-token context window and 128K max output tokens on the synchronous Messages API. That is enough to process entire codebases, full-length research papers, or extensive datasets in a single session.

Claude API pricing and benchmark results

API prices per million tokens are $4 input and $20 output for Opus 5.5, $10 / $50 for Fable 5.1, $2 / $10 for Sonnet 5.5, and from $0.10 / $0.50 for Haiku 5.5. Batch requests are 50% off, and Opus 5.5 cache reads cost 5% of the base input price. The models run on the Claude API, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Foundry.

On Anthropic's published results, Opus 5.5 scores 66.4% on Terminal-Bench 4.0 against 57.9% for GPT-6 Astra, and 81.8% on a partial OSWorld 2.1 run. Anthropic also notes that benchmark gaps are a less reliable guide at this capability level.

Thinking is adaptive and always on for Opus 5.5, steered by an effort setting with medium as the API default. A fast mode in Claude Code and the Claude Platform runs up to 2.5x faster at $8 / $40 per million tokens.

Anthropic says Opus 5.5 scores best on its automated behavioral audit to date and matches or beats Opus 5 on prompt injection resistance in every setting Anthropic tested. Because of its biology and cybersecurity skills, Opus 5.5 ships with the same biology safeguards as Fable 5.1, and most cybersecurity tasks are rerouted to Opus 4.8.

For ready-made workflows, see the best Claude AI automations.

Claude features

Claude offers these core features across its plans:

• Adaptive thinking. The model decides how long to reason based on problem complexity, and the effort setting shifts the balance between speed and depth.
• Claude Artifacts. A workspace for building documents, visualizations, and interactive apps directly in conversation, available on the Free plan.
• Claude Code. An agentic coding tool for refactoring, debugging, and building across large repositories, included from the Pro plan.
• Search, files, and code. Free users can search the web, create files, and run code, and Pro, Max, and Ultra add Research for longer multi-source reports.
• Connectors. Connects Claude to your apps and tools, and Pro adds Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365.
• Tasks and projects. Pro lets you hand off and schedule tasks and organize work in Projects (Free also includes up to 5 Projects).

Source: claude.ai (earlier interface)

Claude runs on the web, desktop, and mobile, and memory across conversations is available on every plan, including Free.

What Claude is best for

Claude Opus 5.5 is particularly well-suited for:

• Software development. Anthropic positions Opus 5.5 as the leader in agentic coding, and one early tester audited and fixed a 200,000-line codebase in under three hours, where Opus 5 took over 20 hours.

• Research and analysis. The 1M-token context window allows handling long academic papers, datasets, or legal documents in a single session.

• Data-heavy projects. Summarizing and analyzing complex, multi-part datasets or large archives of information. You can send each Claude summary straight to Google Docs so the analysis lands where the rest of your documentation already lives.

• Agentic work. Long-horizon, multi-step tasks where the model needs to plan, use tools, and self-correct over many interactions.

Claude weaknesses

• No image generation. Current Claude models take text and images as input but return only text.

• Tokenizer overhead. The tokenizer introduced with Opus 4.7 fits about 555,000 words into 1M tokens, compared with about 750,000 words on earlier models, so the same text uses more tokens.

• Fable costs extra on Pro. Pro subscribers pay for Fable 5.1 with usage credits, while Max ($100 a month) and Ultra ($200 a month) include it up to half of the weekly limit.

Claude speed

Claude's speed depends on the model tier. Anthropic rates Haiku 5.5 as the fastest, Sonnet 5.5 as fast, Opus 5.5 as moderate, and Fable 5.1 as slower. Adaptive thinking also adjusts response time: simple queries get quick replies, while multi-step reasoning needs more time.

Claude accuracy

Anthropic reports that Opus 5.5 leads on the GDPval-AA v2.1 knowledge-work benchmark with a score of 1846, against 1542 for GPT-6 Astra, and reaches 67.7% on Humanity's Last Exam with tools. These are vendor-published results, so test the model on your own tasks before relying on it.

Claude trustworthiness

Anthropic emphasizes safety and reliability, publishes system cards for its models, and offers zero data retention for Opus 5.5.

Gemini: Overview

Gemini 4 Argon is Google's current flagship model, released broadly on October 13, 2026 for developers and enterprises through the Gemini API. It reached the Gemini app the same day for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, and Google describes it as built for multi-step work in coding, finance, legal, cybersecurity, and science.

Gemini is a multimodal AI system developed by Google DeepMind, succeeding earlier models such as LaMDA and PaLM 2. Through the Gemini API, Argon has a 1-million-token limit shared by input and output, so a single response can run far longer than the 128K-token output cap on current Claude and GPT-6 models. Introductory API pricing is $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, rising to $4 / $20 from December 1, 2026.

Gemini models and plans

Google announced Gemini 4 Carbon, its next frontier model, on October 28, 2026, but access is limited to selected cyber defenders and trusted partners, with no date yet for developers or consumers. For everyday speed, Gemini 3.8 Flash is Google's most intelligent Flash model, and free Gemini app users get the Flash-Lite model.

Gemini functions as both a standalone chatbot and an assistant inside Google products, with Gemini in Gmail, Docs, and other Google apps. In the Gemini app, Argon can run tasks and connect to more than 40 apps. Consumer plans cost $0 (Free), $4.99 (Google AI Plus), $19.99 (Google AI Pro, with 5 TB of storage), and from $99.99 a month for Google AI Ultra.

The model is multimodal, capable of processing text, images, audio, and video, which allows you to automate content creation with Gemini.

Gemini features

• Deep Research. Runs iterative web searches and compiles a source-backed answer, available on every plan, including Free.
• Canvas. Provides an interactive workspace where you can develop, edit, and organize text or visual content within a persistent project view.
• Image generation and editing. Creates and edits images with Google's Nano Banana models, with limited Nano Banana Pro access on the free plan.
• Video generation. Ultra includes Veo 3.1, and Pro includes a limited trial of Veo 3.1 Lite.
• Gemini in Google apps. Drafts and organizes content directly in Gmail, Docs, and other Google apps.
• Text-to-speech. Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Flash-Lite TTS models handle speech generation through the Gemini API.

What Gemini is best for

Gemini's strength lies in its deep integration with the Google ecosystem. Google says Argon excels at multimodal document comprehension and longitudinal data analysis, which makes it an effective tool for research across text, images, and video. Developers can build with Argon through the Gemini API in AI Studio and Android Studio. You can also log Gemini's output to Google Sheets to keep a record of every response.

Gemini weaknesses

Gemini's free plan runs on the Flash-Lite model, and Gemini 4 Argon in the Gemini app starts with Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month. API users should also budget for the end of introductory pricing: from December 1, 2026, Argon's input and output rates double.

Gemini 4 Carbon, Google's strongest announced model, is not yet available to developers or consumers. Gemini's reliance on Google's ecosystem can also be a limitation for users who prefer different platforms.

Gemini speed

Gemini covers different speed needs with separate models: Flash and Flash-Lite variants target low latency, while Argon handles long, multi-step work. Response times grow for complex reasoning tasks and very long outputs, and image or video generation can take longer during periods of high demand.

Gemini accuracy

Google says Gemini 4 Argon follows instructions better than earlier versions, with more direct answers and less hedging, and it reports 87% on the ERQA embodied reasoning benchmark.

Gemini trustworthiness

Google calls Gemini 4 Argon its most resilient model yet against indirect prompt injections, with a 0.7% attack success rate on the Gray Swan benchmark across 15 adaptive attempts. Privacy remains a discussion point, so privacy-conscious teams should review how Gemini Apps activity is stored before sharing sensitive data.

Put any of these models to work with Albato's AI Agent

Chatbot answers still have to reach a CRM, a doc, or an email, and Albato's AI Agent handles that step inside an automation. It reads the data from earlier steps, decides what to do, and runs the action itself, so you skip the manual filters and branches. Once several of these models run across teams, one place to govern the agents and track LLM costs across teams keeps spend and access under control.

You set it up in plain language. The prompt holds the task and the data from earlier steps, the agent instructions describe its role, and guardrails define the limits. Then you connect the tools the agent is allowed to call. Albato exposes roughly 5,000 actions from its connected apps as tools, so the agent can create a record, send a message, or update a sheet on its own.

The agent runs on a model you pick: Albato AI (built in, no separate account), ChatGPT (OpenAI), Google Gemini, Claude (Anthropic), or DeepSeek. The chatbots in this comparison also connect as apps, so ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude, and 1,000+ other services can feed their output straight into the next step of a workflow.

Teams usually hand the agent jobs like lead qualification, data enrichment, routing notifications to the right channel, and chat-style assistants with optional memory. Each run costs 3 transactions no matter how many tools it calls, plus 1 transaction per 2,000 tokens when it runs on the built-in Albato AI model. If you want the full setup, see our step-by-step guide on how to build an AI agent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which AI model is best for coding in 2026?

Claude Opus 5.5 is the strongest all-round coding pick in this comparison. Anthropic reports 66.4% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, ahead of GPT-6 Astra at 57.9%, and recommends Opus 5.5 as the default for agentic coding. GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol are close alternatives inside ChatGPT and Codex, Grok 4.7 is the budget option at $2 / $6 per million tokens, and Gemini 4 Argon suits teams already working in Google tools.

How much do Grok, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude cost?

ChatGPT runs from free to $500 per month: Go costs $8, Plus $20, and Pro $100, $200, or $500. Claude Pro costs $20 per month, with Max at $100 and Ultra at $200. Google AI Plus costs $4.99, AI Pro $19.99, and AI Ultra starts at $99.99. Grok now comes through The X Subscription: Plus $8, Premium $30, Super $100, and Ultra $200. Prices shift often, so check each provider before you commit.

Which model has the largest context window?

The GPT-6 models list the largest input window at 1.05M tokens, and every current Claude model accepts 1M tokens. Gemini 4 Argon has a 1M-token limit shared by input and output, which allows far longer answers than the 128K output cap on GPT-6 and Claude. Grok 4.7 handles 500K tokens, while the older Grok 4.3 still offers 1M.

What is Grok best at compared to the others?

Grok is strongest for real-time research and social content, since its X Search tool reads live posts on X that the other models do not reach directly. Grok 4.7 also has the lowest flagship output price at $6 per million tokens, and The X Subscription bundles Grok with Cursor for coding. If you do not need live social data, this comparison favors ChatGPT for general writing and Claude for coding.

Can I use these models inside an automation instead of a chat window?

Yes. ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Claude all connect to Albato as apps, so their output can flow straight into the next step of a workflow. You can also drop an AI Agent into an automation to read data, pick an action, and run it across roughly 5,000 available actions, with Albato AI available as a built-in model.

Which one wins: the short verdict

Each of the newest flagships (GPT-6 Astra, Grok 4.7, Claude Opus 5.5, and Gemini 4 Argon) has a clear identity. ChatGPT remains the most versatile general-purpose assistant with strong writing and a broad plan range. Gemini works best when you are already inside Google's ecosystem. Grok excels at real-time research and social media content, with live access to X data and the lowest flagship output price. Claude leads in agentic coding and long-horizon work, with 1M tokens of context on every current model.