Anthropic
AI research company that makes the Claude models, the Claude apps and the Claude API.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $20 a month for Claude Pro; API from $1 per million input tokens (Haiku 4.5)Open source noStars 2.1knpm a week 54M
Perplexity AI alternatives
10 tools you can use instead of Perplexity AI, ranked by live GitHub stars and npm downloads. Anthropic, OpenAI and OpenAI API are the most used. Stats updated 5 hours ago.
Perplexity is an answer engine, so the closest alternatives here are the chat apps from model makers: OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude apps and Mistral AI's Le Chat. All three can be used for free.
When Perplexity AI is not a good fit
Perplexity AI is an AI-powered answer engine that searches the web in real time and returns cited answers rather than a simple list of links. It has a free tier, a Pro plan around $20 a month with access to more capable models and deeper research features, and a Max plan around $200 a month for the highest usage tier.
It is a weaker choice for:
- Users who specifically want a traditional search engine's full list of results rather than a synthesized answer
- Heavy users needing certainty on exact current pricing, since figures here are drawn from third-party reporting
- Tasks requiring extensive private or paywalled information Perplexity can't access on the open web
The alternatives
Most used first.
View Anthropic
OpenAI
AI research company behind ChatGPT and the GPT model family, accessed through apps and an API.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus; API pricing varies by modelOpen source noStars 11.2knpm a week 51M
OpenAI API
Pay-per-token API access to OpenAI's GPT models for building AI into your own applications.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $0.10 input / $0.50 output per million tokens on GPT-6 LunaOpen source noStars 11.2knpm a week 51M
Ollama
Run open source AI models locally, with an optional hosted cloud and Pro plan.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $20 a month for the Pro plan, including $60 of usage credit for cloud modelsOpen source yesStars 182knpm a week 896k
Hugging Face
Hub for open source AI models, datasets and demo apps, plus paid hosting for inference and Spaces.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $9 a month for a PRO accountOpen source yesStars 167knpm a week 441k
Mistral AI
French AI company building open-weight and proprietary language models, accessed via API or Le Chat.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $5.99 a month for Le Chat Pro (student pricing), $14.99 a month standardOpen source nonpm a week 9.4M
Replicate
Run and deploy machine learning models in the cloud through a simple API, billed by the second.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from about $0.000025 a second for small CPU instances, varying by model and hardwareOpen source noStars 598npm a week 705k
Cohere
Enterprise-focused AI company offering language, embedding and rerank models through an API.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $0.30 input / $0.60 output per million tokens on Command-light; current flagship Command A models are priced on requestOpen source nonpm a week 556k
Together AI
Cloud platform for running and fine-tuning open source AI models, with serverless inference and GPU clusters.
Pricing Pay as you goPaid from $0.09 per million input tokens (lowest-cost serverless models)Open source nonpm a week 120k
LM Studio
Desktop app for downloading and running open-weight language models locally, with a chat UI and local API.
Pricing FreemiumOpen source nonpm a week 68.6k
Perplexity AI and its alternatives, side by side
| Tool | Pricing | Free plan | Paid from | Open source | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity AI | Freemium | Yes: free tier available with standard search and limited access to advanced features | About $20 a month (Pro plan) | No | None |
| Anthropic | Pay as you go | Yes, in the Claude apps. The API is billed per token. | $20 a month for Claude Pro; API from $1 per million input tokens (Haiku 4.5) | No | 2.1k |
| OpenAI | Freemium | Yes, in ChatGPT. The API has no free plan and is billed per token. | $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus; API pricing varies by model | No | 11.2k |
| OpenAI API | Pay as you go | No, the API has no free tier and is billed per token from the first request | $0.10 input / $0.50 output per million tokens on GPT-6 Luna | No | 11.2k |
| Ollama | Freemium | Yes, running models locally is always free | $20 a month for the Pro plan, including $60 of usage credit for cloud models | Yes, MIT | 182k |
| Hugging Face | Freemium | Yes: unlimited public model, dataset and Space hosting, free CPU and limited ZeroGPU compute | $9 a month for a PRO account | Yes, Open source libraries (e.g. Transformers) are Apache-2.0; hosted models and datasets carry their own individual licenses | 167k |
| Mistral AI | Pay as you go | Yes, in Le Chat, with limited usage and $10 a month in API credits | $5.99 a month for Le Chat Pro (student pricing), $14.99 a month standard | No | None |
| Replicate | Pay as you go | No ongoing free plan; billing is pay-as-you-go with no monthly minimum | about $0.000025 a second for small CPU instances, varying by model and hardware | No | 598 |
| Cohere | Pay as you go | Yes: evaluation API keys are free but limited in usage | $0.30 input / $0.60 output per million tokens on Command-light; current flagship Command A models are priced on request | No | None |
| Together AI | Pay as you go | Limited free credits are typically available for new accounts to try the platform | $0.09 per million input tokens (lowest-cost serverless models) | No | None |
| LM Studio | Freemium | Yes, the core app and running local models is free | Not listed | No | None |
Pricing facts come from each tool's official pricing page, with the checked date on the tool's own page.
Questions
What is the most popular alternative to Perplexity AI?
By GitHub stars, Anthropic is the most used alternative to Perplexity AI listed on ScratchDB, with 2.1k stars.
Which Perplexity AI alternatives are open source?
Ollama and Hugging Face are open source.
Which Perplexity AI alternatives have a free plan?
Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama, Hugging Face, Mistral AI, Cohere and LM Studio have a free plan. The table on this page shows what each one includes.