ChatGPT vs Gemini: which free plan is better?
Which one to pick
Both let you chat without an account. ChatGPT's free plan has no fixed cap on text messages; Gemini uses limits that refresh every 5 hours but includes image creation and Deep Research, and its paid plan starts cheaper.
| Free plan | ChatGPT | Gemini |
|---|---|---|
| What's free | Everyday text chats with no fixed message cap (with abuse protection). File uploads, image creation, voice and deep research are limited, with no numbers published. | Standard usage limits refresh every 5 hours up to a weekly cap, with no usage numbers published. Context window of 32k tokens. Deep Research may be unavailable at peak demand. |
| Account | not needed | only for some features |
| Minimum age | 13+ | 13+ |
| What it does | text, images, files, voice, code, web search | text, images, files, voice, code, web search |
| Paid plan | Go / Plus: $8 / $20 | AI Plus / AI Pro: ₹399 / ₹1,950 |
| Checked on | 16 October 2026 | 17 October 2026 |
We compare what the official pages say about each free plan; we don't rate which AI is "smarter".
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