Free AI assistants: what each free plan allows
Every major free AI assistant now searches the web with sources, but the limits differ. ChatGPT Free allows unlimited text chats and rations tools such as file uploads; Claude Free counts usage in five-hour and weekly windows; Gemini’s free plan includes Deep Research and image generation; Copilot is free with an optional sign-in; and Perplexity’s free Standard plan centers on search.
What you get from a free AI assistant
For occasional drafting and a few questions a day, a free plan is enough; for daily work with files, long documents, or weekly research reports, you will hit the limits. That is the practical side of the right assistant for your work, and the limits are set out in each company’s help pages, starting with OpenAI’s FAQ on the free tier.
Free plans changed a lot in 2025 and 2026, and they keep changing: limits move with demand, and features arrive on paid plans first. The table below shows what each company published as of November 10, 2026.
The free plans side by side
| ChatGPT Free | Claude Free | Gemini (no plan) | Microsoft Copilot (free) | Perplexity Standard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Usage limits | Unlimited text chats within abuse limits; separate limits per tool | Limits every five hours and every week | Limits by computing load, refreshed every five hours up to a weekly cap | No figures published | Practically unlimited basic searches; three Pro Searches a day |
| Ads | Possible, in some regions | None | Not published | Not published | None found in its help center |
| File uploads | Three a day | Up to 20 per chat | Up to 10 per message, 100 MB each | Not published | Yes, 40 MB per file, weekly quota |
| Web search with sources | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Deep research reports | Limited | No | Yes | Not published | One a month |
| Image generation | Limited | No | Yes | Yes, when signed in | No |
| Voice | Limited | Yes, in beta | Yes, Gemini Live | Yes, when signed in | Not on the web |
| Projects or saved setups | Unlimited projects, five files each | Up to five projects | Gems | Not published | Unlimited projects |
“Not published” means we found nothing on the company’s pages, not that the feature or limit does not exist.
How each one runs out
- ChatGPT never stops you mid-conversation on text alone, but tools run out separately: three file uploads a day, for example, and a context of about 12 pages of text on the free plan.
- Claude counts everything together in five-hour and weekly windows, and the number of messages depends on demand.
- Gemini measures by computing load: a long conversation or a heavy feature uses more of the allowance, and Google says features such as Deep Research may be unavailable to free users at busy times. Its usage limits page gives a context of 32,000 tokens without a plan.
- Copilot publishes no numbers for its free app; signing in with a Microsoft account unlocks history, images, voice, and longer chats.
- Perplexity is generous with basic searches and strict with everything else: three Pro Searches a day and one Research report a month.
ChatGPT Free vs Plus
The most searched comparison deserves its own table. Prices are in a separate guide of this series; here is what changes, according to OpenAI:
| Free | Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Ads | Possible in some regions | None |
| File uploads | Three a day | 80 every three hours |
| Context for quick replies | About 27,000 tokens | About 54,000 tokens |
| Files per project | Five | 25 |
| Image generation | Limited | Included |
| Scheduled tasks | No | Yes |
Free plans and work data
A free plan is a personal account, and personal accounts have personal rules. OpenAI trains its models on free and other personal plans unless you turn that off, and Anthropic lists training on its personal plans as opt-out; Google says some conversations on personal accounts are read by human reviewers. None of this makes a free plan dangerous, but it does mean client names, personal data, and anything confidential stay out of it. Business plans handle data differently, and a separate guide of this series covers those rules.
When free stops being enough
Upgrade when a limit costs you time you would otherwise bill, when you need the same deep research every week, or when several people need to share projects and settings. Before paying, check whether your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 plan already includes an assistant.
Comparing the two best-known free plans
ChatGPT Free and Claude Free run out in different ways. Our page on how ChatGPT and Claude differ for work puts them side by side with a one-week test.
Free tools by task
Some free plans are strong in one area and weak in another. See which AI is best for writing, research, and images.