C
CGeneral-purpose AI chat assistant for writing, research, coding and everyday tasks
Free, from $8/mo
Gemini vs Perplexity AI
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
G
Choose Gemini if…
- you want a free plan to start with
- you're in its core audience: google account users, students and researchers
P
Choose Perplexity AI if…
- you're in its core audience: researchers, knowledge workers
Side by side
Feature Gemini Perplexity AI
Pricing modelFreemiumPaid
Starting price——
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CategoryAI ChatbotsAI Search
CompanyGooglePerplexity
Based in——
Founded—2022
Part of——
Key features
G Gemini
- Chat with Gemini models
- Deep Research reports
- Image generation and editing
- Gemini Live voice conversations
- Canvas for writing and coding
- Custom Gems
- Video generation on paid plans
- Gemini in Gmail, Docs and Vids
P Perplexity AI
- Answers questions using live web search
- Search API with Standard and Fast Search modes
- Agent API running OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other models
- Built-in tools: web, image, people and finance search
- Code sandbox sessions for agents
- pplx-embed embedding models
- Orchestrator API with per-token billing
- Decisions API that charges for input tokens only
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
Gemini
Free£0
Google AI Plus£4.49/mo (UK pricing)
Google AI Pro£18.99/mo (UK pricing)
Google AI UltraFrom £79.99/mo; £189.99/mo for 20x tier (UK pricing)
Gemini Enterprise BusinessFrom $21/seat/mo
Gemini Enterprise Standard/PlusFrom $30/seat/mo
Perplexity AI
Search API$5.00 per 1K requests (Standard); $1.00 per 1K (Fast Search)
Agent API toolsFrom $0.50 per 1K calls
Embeddings API$0.004–$0.05 per 1M tokens
Decisions API$0.01–$0.02 per 1M input tokens
Strengths and limitations
Gemini
- Free plan includes Deep Research, Gemini Live and Canvas
- Paid plans bundle 400 GB to 20 TB+ of storage
- Business edition available from $21 per seat per month
- Developer access through AI Studio and a usage-based API
- Free plan limits are not specified exactly
- Personal plan prices on the page fetched were shown in GBP only
- Paid prices for AI Studio and Antigravity are not listed
Perplexity AI
- Published per-request and per-token API pricing
- Requests rejected with a 429 error are not billed on the Orchestrator API
- Access to models from several vendors through one Agent API
- Decisions API output tokens are free
- Search API bills successful requests even when they return no results
- Per-token model rates are on separate pages rather than in the main pricing overview
More comparisons
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C
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M
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M
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G
GxAI's chat assistant for questions, writing and research, with free and paid tiers
Free, from $30/mo
G
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G
xAI's chat assistant for questions, writing and research, with free and paid tiers
AI ChatbotsFree planAPI
C
CC
Free, from $17/mo
D
DD
Paid
N
NN
Freemium
N
AI research notebook that answers questions from the sources you upload
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Built from each vendor's public website; we haven't tested them hands-on. Editorial policy