Beyond ChatGPT — Ten Rising Chatbots You Can Put to Work Today
ChatGPT changed online work almost overnight, but the field hasn’t stopped growing. New chat tools now cover fresh news, bigger documents, and plenty in between. I rotated ten of them for a week—coding, researching, and drafting—to see which deserve a spot in your bookmark bar.
Free plans only • Same 12 prompts across bots • Rated on speed, accuracy, and tone.
1. Google Bardlive search
Bard pulls answers from current Google results, so pricing, release dates, and news stay up-to-date. One-click export to Docs or Gmail turns a reply into a working draft instantly. The best way to picture Bard is a friendly librarian who lives inside Google Search. Ask about tomorrow’s weather in Nairobi or the latest MacBook specs and it checks the web before it answers, slipping in source links so you can verify. Exporting to Docs feels like cheating—click once and your draft is half-written. The flip side? When I pushed it for deep technical trivia (obscure Python edge-cases), it sometimes punted with a polite shrug. Still, for anything newsy or fact-based, Bard is the speed runner—and it’s free if you already have a Google account.
➔ Prompt example
“What percentage of global energy came from solar in 2023? Provide sources.” Bard answered 6.4 % and linked directly to IEA and BloombergNEF.
2. Claude 2huge context
Claude ingests up to 100 000 words in one go. It summarised a 120-page PDF policy paper in two paragraphs and kept every statistic intact. Claude is the calm colleague who reads the whole brief before speaking. I dropped a 120-page policy PDF into the chat; thirty seconds later I had a crisp two-paragraph summary with every statistic intact. That wide context window means fewer “What were we talking about again?” moments. You do wait an extra beat for those long answers, and there’s no art generator tucked inside, but when accuracy over volume matters, Claude’s measured voice is worth the pause. Everyday use sits behind a free quota; power users tap a pay-as-you-go API.
3. HuggingChatopen source
Community models like Llama 2 and Mistral rotate in and out. Perfect for testing how open-weights compare to commercial giants. Think farmer’s market for language models—fresh, local, sometimes experimental. One week you’re chatting with Llama 2-70B, the next it might be Mistral-7B-Instruct. Transparency is unbeatable; you can click through to the exact training details. The trade-off is consistency: occasionally a model swaps out and the new one feels less polished. For tinkerers curious about the open-weights universe, HuggingChat is a playground that costs nothing more than your curiosity.
4. POE by Quoramulti-bot hub
One interface flips between GPT-3.5, Claude, and niche personas. Mobile app is clean and fast. Imagine Slack, but every channel is a different AI. In the morning I’m drafting tweets with GPT-3.5; after lunch I flip to Claude for long-form edits—all without leaving the same window. The mobile app is silky, perfect for commuter-train brainstorms. Heavy GPT-4 or Claude usage drains the daily allowance unless you spring for POE Pro, but casual users barely notice the cap.
5. Bing ChatGPT-4 + images
GPT-4 brain inside the Edge sidebar. Adding /image to a prompt spins up DALL·E art without leaving the chat. Microsoft crammed GPT-4 into the Edge sidebar, tossed in live web search, and stapled on DALL·E. Type <kbd>/image retro cafe logo</kbd> and watch four concepts arrive before your coffee cools. Rates are generous, although marathon sessions trigger a temporary slowdown. Full feature set hides behind the Edge browser—worth installing if free GPT-4 appeals.
6. YouChat 2.0citations
Answers arrive with numbered footnotes linking to source pages—useful for quick fact-checks. YouChat has a simple promise: every statement comes footnoted. Need the 2024 global avocado export numbers? YouChat returns them with a superscript [1] linking straight to FAO. It can miss nuance in creative tasks, but when raw facts and receipts matter, the service feels refreshingly accountable—and completely free.
7. Perplexity AIasks follow-ups
Perplexity clarifies your intent, then fetches concise answers with citations. Saves time on rewrites. Perplexity behaves like a thoughtful analyst. Ask a broad question and it fires back a clarifier—“Do you need global figures or U.S. only?”—before chasing sources. The result is concise, citation-rich text that lands closer to what you meant. Heavy research sessions bump into a soft daily limit; paid Pro removes the ceiling and unlocks larger models.
8. Character AIrole-play
Build and share personas—from historical figures to custom branding voices—for creative brainstorming sessions. While other bots aim for accuracy, Character AI goes full improv theatre. I interviewed an imaginary Agatha Christie about plot twists and left grinning at the wit. Responses skew dramatic rather than precise, and the free queue can test patience during peak hours. Creative writers or marketing teams hunting tone ideas will eat it up; everyone else may visit for laughs and move on.
9. Vicuna Demoresearch benchmark
An open-source showcase of fine-tuned Llama weights. Good place to compare community models against proprietary systems. Vicuna lives in a university demo site, letting you compare community-tuned Llama models against your favourite proprietary giant. It’s slower and a bit academic in tone, but invaluable if you want to feel the difference between open-source and commercial LLMs—no login required.
10. ChatSoniccontent templates
Pre-built templates for blog intros, ad copy, and meta descriptions—plus WordPress export built in. ChatSonic feels like a Swiss Army knife for content creators. Need a meta-description, ad copy, or blog intro? Templates fill the blanks and export straight to WordPress. The catch is a credit system that evaporates fast when you request long outputs, so either ration carefully or climb to a paid plan starting around sixteen dollars a month.
Which Two Bots Should You Keep Long Term?
| Goal | Best Match |
|---|---|
| Fresh news & prices | Bard or Bing Chat |
| Digest long PDFs | Claude 2 |
| Open-source testing | HuggingChat or Vicuna |
| Marketing content | ChatSonic |
Keep one research bot and one drafting bot; any more and tab fatigue kicks in. Rotate quarterly—trade out the slowest performer for a newcomer to stay sharp.
Next Steps
The chatbot you rely on today could be old news in six months. Treat your lineup like a playlist: swap songs, discover new artists, repeat. Curiosity beats fear of missing out every time.
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