ZDNET recently conducted a comprehensive hands-on evaluation of eight of the most prominent free AI chatbots available in 2024. As AI chatbots continue to revolutionize various industries and everyday tasks—from education and coding to travel planning and creative writing—ZDNET set out to determine which options deliver the best performance without requiring users to pay for a premium plan. Their goal was to provide an objective, practical guide to help consumers make informed decisions about which chatbot best suits their needs.
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**Why Compare AI Chatbots?**
Since the arrival of ChatGPT in 2022, AI chatbots have rapidly grown in popularity and capability, transforming fields like education, software development, and creative writing—while also raising new concerns about automation and job displacement. Today, the leading chatbots are not just technical novelties but are practical tools for millions of people. But with so many options—each offering different features, capabilities, and user experiences—ZDNET’s in-depth comparison aims to cut through the hype and marketing claims to assess real-world performance.
**Testing Methodology**
To ensure fairness, ZDNET subjected each chatbot’s free tier to 112 individual tests, covering a broad range of real-world tasks. Each chatbot was asked ten text-based questions—such as summarization, web access, explaining academic concepts, mathematical analysis, cultural and literary discussion, travel itinerary planning, emotional support, translation, coding, and long-form storytelling. Four image generation prompts were also included, testing each chatbot’s ability to create visuals like a flying aircraft carrier or a Back to the Future homage.
Each chatbot was scored out of 100 points for text-based tasks and 20 points for image generation, for a maximum possible score of 120. ZDNET avoided focusing on technical model versions (like GPT-4 vs. Gemini Pro) because free tiers often serve users with whatever models are available at the time, making experiences variable. Instead, the emphasis was on hands-on results that reflect what users can realistically expect.
**Key Findings: The Top Five Free AI Chatbots**
**1. ChatGPT (Score: 109/120)** ChatGPT remains the top choice, excelling in most tested categories. It performed exceptionally well on tasks such as explaining academic concepts to children, math analysis, cultural and literary discussions, translation