Best AI Subscription in 2026: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and Copilot, Priced by Use

I read the pricing pages of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity, xAI, Microsoft and Notion on 16 October 2026, and five plans sat within $3 of $20 a month.

Same money. Different bundles. ChatGPT Plus ($20) comes with Codex, OpenAI's coding tool. Claude Pro ($20) includes Claude Code. Google AI Pro ($19.99) adds 5 TB of storage. Microsoft 365 Premium ($19.99) sits inside a Microsoft 365 subscription with 2 TB of storage. Perplexity Pro shows $17 a month, billed annually, for search that cites its sources. All US list prices, as of October 2026.

You get every consumer tier in one dated table, each vendor's usage limits in its own words, and a route by the work you actually do.

One disclosure. I run Gravity, a task agent platform in public beta. It is not a chat assistant and includes none of these models, so it gets one row at the bottom of the table and one callout. AI agent vs chatbot explains the difference.

How I compared them

Every plan got the same five checks:

• Price on every billing basis the page offers. Microsoft and Notion open on yearly prices, grok.com/plans opens on monthly, and Perplexity shows only annual equivalents.
• The whole ladder, from free to the top tier, because a $20 plan only makes sense next to its neighbours.
• Usage limits in the vendor's own words. Google multiplies against Free or AI Pro, xAI against its own $8 Plus, Anthropic against Pro per five-hour session. I never put them on one scale.
• What comes bundled. Storage, a coding tool or a Microsoft 365 licence can be worth more than the chat itself.
• Who gets the AI. Google shares AI Pro with family; Microsoft keeps Copilot for the owner.

I read every price on vendor-owned pages on 16 October 2026, and the feature wording on ChatGPT's and Claude's pages on 13 October and Google's and Notion's on 14 October. I did not subscribe to any plan or run a single prompt, so there are no quality scores in this post.

AI subscriptions compared: every tier at a glance

Seven vendors, US list prices per month unless marked, read on 16 October 2026. Notion and Gravity sit in their own group at the bottom.

Prices as displayed on each vendor's pricing page on 16 October 2026; Notion's are per member. Multipliers do not share a base (Google counts from Free and AI Pro, xAI from Plus), so read each row on its own. Grok's row is The X Subscription, which puts Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor and X Premium features on one plan. Gravity is my company and includes none of the models above.

1. ChatGPT Plus: $20 a month, monthly only

ChatGPT Plus costs $20 a month as of 16 October 2026, and monthly is the only way to buy it. OpenAI's pricing FAQ says it offers "monthly plans for Go, Plus and Business and annual plans for Business and Enterprise".

The card lists "Expanded Codex usage", "Expanded deep research" and "Projects, scheduled tasks, and custom GPTs", and OpenAI says Plus accounts "will not have ads". On limits, OpenAI prints estimated message ranges per five-hour window, then adds "These estimates are not fixed message limits" and "Weekly limits may also apply." Hit the ceiling and you can "purchase additional credits to continue working".

The neighbours: Go at $8, which "may include ads", and Pro "From $100", with plans "at $100, $200, or $500 USD per month", all billed monthly. The full ChatGPT pricing breakdown covers every tier.

2. Claude Pro: $20 a month, or $200 a year up front

Claude Pro and ChatGPT Plus cost the same $20 a month, but only Claude, of the two, sells a discounted year. As of 16 October 2026 that year is $200, billed up front, and the card displays it as "$17 Per month". Nobody is billed $17 a month.

Coding tool

Claude Code, which "is included in all paid plans" and draws on the same usage pool as chat.

Research and scheduling

Research, marked "No" on Free, and a card bullet that reads "Hand off and schedule tasks".

Limits

A rolling five-hour session window with weekly limits on top, and "no fixed message count".

Next tier

Max at $100 or $200 a month, for 5x or 20x Pro's usage per session, monthly only.

The full Claude pricing breakdown covers Max and Team. At the limit, a paid plan can wait for the reset, move up, or "turn on usage credits to keep working at standard API rates." Set a monthly spend limit before you switch that on.

3. Google AI Pro: $19.99 a month with 5 TB of storage

Google AI Pro costs $19.99 a month as of 16 October 2026, and Google's plan pages show no annual price for it. It is the plan for people who already live in Gmail and Google Drive.

Storage sets it apart: "5 TB of cloud storage", against 2 TB on Microsoft 365 Premium. The card adds "Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Vids, and more", Jules with "Higher limits to our asynchronous coding agent", a "YouTube Premium Lite plan" and "4x higher usage access than Free". Google's footnote says the limit "refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit". Two clocks, like Claude.

Family plan members on AI Pro "can enjoy AI benefits and features at no extra cost", per Google's FAQ. The full Gemini pricing breakdown covers every tier. Below Pro, AI Plus costs $4.99; above it, Ultra costs $99.99 for 5x AI Pro's usage or $199.99 for 20x.

4. Perplexity Pro: $17 a month, billed annually

Perplexity's free plan already puts "Citations in every answer". Pro shows "$17 /month when billed annually" as of 16 October 2026, and that is the only Pro price Perplexity prints: no month-to-month price and no annual total appeared on any Perplexity page I read that day.

Pro lifts Free's 3 Pro Searches a day to "Weekly limits (average use)" and adds "Deep research" and "the ability to select a preferred model per query". Paid Pro plans also include weekly usage of Perplexity Computer, but Perplexity says that allowance "is rolling out gradually", so some accounts do not have it yet.

Max shows $167 a month billed annually, and its help article prints "$200/monthly or $2000/annually". The full Perplexity pricing breakdown covers credits and Enterprise.

5. Grok Premium: $30 a month, bundled with X and Cursor

SuperGrok is gone for new customers. On 12 October 2026 xAI replaced it with The X Subscription, which "brings together Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor, and X Premium in one plan". Existing SuperGrok subscribers can keep the plan they have.

The $30 tier is Premium, marked "Most popular" and recommended by xAI "for new AI users". On 16 October 2026 it cost $30 a month, or $300 a year on grok.com/plans ($25 a month billed annually). xAI describes it as "The benefits of SuperGrok, Cursor Pro, and X Premium+, previously $90/month combined", with 4x Plus's usage from a weekly pool shared across Grok and Cursor.

Two costs sit outside the $30: "API usage is billed separately at standard model rates", and third-party models in Cursor "must be purchased separately". Around it, Free is $0 with "Limited AI usage", Plus $8 ($80 a year), Super $100 ($1,000 a year) and Ultra $200 ($2,000 a year). Mind the names: this $30 Premium is a different plan from X Premium, and the $8 Plus carries the "Premium checkmark". The annual prices, Teams seats and what happened to SuperGrok are in my Grok pricing breakdown.

6. Microsoft 365 Premium: $19.99 a month, Copilot for the owner only

Microsoft sells its consumer Copilot inside Microsoft 365, and the compare page opens on "Paid yearly". As of 16 October 2026, Premium costs $199.99 a year or $19.99 a month, the same monthly price as Google AI Pro.

Premium's card promises "Advanced Copilot chat with extensive usage" and "Agentic AI features that get things done for you, including advanced research and analytics". Microsoft's support page names those features: Researcher and Analyst get "Extensive usage" on Premium and are "Not available" on Personal ($9.99 a month) or Family ($12.99).

Then comes footnote 1: "AI features only available to subscription owner and cannot be shared; usage limits apply." Premium covers apps and storage for up to six people, and only the owner gets Copilot. (Yes, I read the footnotes.) The Copilot Pro store page now redirects to Premium, and every card offers "Try free for 1 month".

7. Notion AI: priced per member, inside a workspace plan

Notion AI comes with a workspace plan, priced per member, and Notion's pricing page lists no Notion AI add-on for Free or Plus. Full Notion AI starts at Business: $20 a member a month billed yearly, or $24 monthly, as of 16 October 2026.

Free and Plus

A "Trial of Notion AI", which Notion's FAQ describes as "a limited number of complimentary AI responses". Plus costs $10 a member yearly or $12 monthly.

Business

Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes and Enterprise Search (Beta), inside an allowance whose size Notion does not publish.

Custom Agents

"Free to try, then $10 per 1,000 monthly Notion credits." Notion's help center estimates a status-update agent at about $0.08 to $0.18 per run (read 14 October 2026).

The full Notion AI pricing breakdown has the credit rules, and what Notion's agents actually do covers the product. One October change ties two vendors together: since Notion 3.8 on 13 October 2026, Business and Enterprise members with ChatGPT Plus, Pro or Go can connect their ChatGPT account, and Notion Agent can use that plan whenever they select a GPT model. Custom Agents are excluded.

The cheapest AI subscriptions, and what they leave out

Four of the chat plans compared here cost under $10 a month as of 16 October 2026. Each one trims something the $20 tier gives you.

• Google AI Plus, $4.99. The cheapest paid tier on any page I read: twice Free's usage, 400 GB of storage and "Family sharing with up to five others". Google's help page shows it without the Pro model.
• ChatGPT Go, $8. More messages, uploads and image creation than Free, plus scheduled tasks, while Codex and deep research stay "Limited". "This plan may include ads," and Go is "available in select regions".
• Grok Plus, $8 or $80 a year. "Our introductory plan"; Premium carries 4x Plus's usage, and xAI recommends Plus "for social creators with limited AI usage".
• Microsoft 365 Personal, $9.99 or $99.99 a year. Copilot chat "with higher usage than free" for one person and 1 TB of storage, with Researcher and Analyst listed as "Not available".

Go and Grok Plus tie at $8, so Google AI Plus undercuts both by $3.01 a month. Claude lists nothing between its free plan and Pro, and Perplexity lists nothing for general buyers between Free and Pro.

Which AI subscription should you pick?

No single AI subscription is best. At $20 the bundle decides, so start from your own work. One note for anyone on a student budget: student offers are left out of this page, and the guide to AI agents for students covers them.

For writing and everyday thinking, choose on billing

I did not compare the writing of any model, so I would choose this one on billing. Plus and Claude Pro are $20 and Google AI Pro is $19.99, and of those three only Claude sells a year: $200 paid up front. Microsoft 365 Premium's $199.99 year saves a similar $39.89, as of October 2026.

The best AI subscription for coding has a coding tool inside it

Three plans on the $20 shelf bundle one, as of October 2026. Claude Pro includes Claude Code on the same usage pool as chat. Plus has "Expanded Codex usage", and OpenAI's Codex card for Plus reads "Power a few focused coding sessions each week." Google AI Pro raises the limits on Jules. Grok Premium carries Cursor Pro's benefits at $30, with third-party models in Cursor billed separately. For heavier use, compare Claude Code against Cursor and Copilot pricing.

For research, decide how much the citations matter

Perplexity Pro is built around cited search, with a choice of model per query. Plus has "Expanded deep research", Claude Pro adds Research, which Free lacks, and Microsoft 365 Premium includes Researcher, which Personal and Family do not. The AI research assistant guide sorts the tools by type.

For personal use, try the free tiers before you pay

Every chat vendor here except Microsoft describes a free plan on the page I read. ChatGPT Free promises "unlimited everyday text chats, subject to abuse-prevention safeguards", and Perplexity Free gives 3 Pro Searches a day. For a household, Google is the generous one: AI Pro's family members get its AI benefits at no extra cost, while Microsoft keeps Copilot for the owner even on Family and Premium. The personal AI assistant guide goes beyond chat.

If you work in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, buy through the suite

Google AI plans are for personal accounts; Google's FAQ says "Workspace customers can sign up for a Gemini add-on to their existing subscription." Microsoft's business Copilot is a separate product from the consumer plans priced here. For ChatGPT or Claude, a standard team seat costs $25 a month on both, or $20 billed annually, as of October 2026. Per-seat business prices live in AI assistants for work, priced per seat.

Recurring chores: a chat plan only gets you part of the way

If you want an agent that does recurring work rather than a chat subscription, the cheapest platforms are priced side by side in a separate post. Take the same question there that you brought here: what needs doing every week?

ChatGPT Plus vs Claude Pro

On price this pair is a draw: $20 a month each, as of 16 October 2026. I have not run them side by side; this is what each plan commits to in writing.

Prices re-read on OpenAI's and Anthropic's pages on 16 October 2026; feature wording from their pricing pages, FAQs and help articles read 13 October 2026.

Over a year, the gap opens. Twelve months of Plus is $240, and Claude Pro paid up front is $200. Both next tiers start at $100, and both bill monthly only.

ChatGPT vs Claude pricing, tier by tier: the plans meet at $20, $100 and $200

Go, at $8, has no Claude twin on Anthropic's pricing page. At the top, ChatGPT Pro comes in $100, $200 and $500 plans and Claude Max in $100 and $200, and that $500 is the highest consumer price in this post, as of October 2026.

Team seats match to the dollar. ChatGPT Business and Claude Team both charge $25 a user a month billed monthly or $20 billed annually for a standard seat, and $125 or $100 for a premium seat with 5x a standard seat's usage. Both need at least two seats. Enterprise splits again: OpenAI quotes custom pricing, while Claude Enterprise is $20 a seat a month billed annually, with a 20-seat minimum, plus usage at API rates.

Perplexity Pro vs ChatGPT Plus

These two share no billing basis. Perplexity prints Pro only as "$17 /month when billed annually", and OpenAI sells Plus only at $20 a month. As of 16 October 2026 you cannot buy them on the same terms.

The free tiers differ more than the paid ones. ChatGPT Free gives unlimited everyday text chats under abuse-prevention safeguards. Perplexity Free gives 3 Pro Searches a day and one Research query a month, with citations in every answer.

Pro adds "the ability to select a preferred model per query" and "premium data sources like PitchBook and Statista".

Both sell overflow. Perplexity's Computer runs on credits ("Today, 100 credits equals $1"), and "A quick fact or definition uses about 15 to 70 credits. Bigger projects use more." Ordinary Ask searches use none, and Pro starts with 4,000 bonus credits, one-time, that expire in about 30 days. Plus can buy credits once it reaches its limit.

Is an AI subscription worth it?

Pay when a free-tier limit blocks something you do every week. Hitting a cap once a month is a reason to wait for the reset. Hitting it every Tuesday is a reason to pay.

Here is the $20 shelf over twelve months, as of 16 October 2026. The totals are my arithmetic on the list prices.

US list prices read 16 October 2026. "Paid monthly" is twelve times the monthly price; "paid yearly" is the yearly price as printed. Perplexity's $17 is a rounded annual equivalent, so I compute neither of its totals.

Annual billing saves $40 on Claude Pro, $39.89 on Microsoft 365 Premium (the same figure as Microsoft's own "Save $39.89" badge) and $60 on Grok Premium. Buy the year only after a month of steady use. The full ChatGPT Plus worth-it breakdown runs this question for one plan.

FAQ

Sources