The Battle of AI Chatbots: ChatGPT vs. Google Gemini vs. Meta AI Comparing the top AI chatbots.

The AI Chatbot Battle: ChatGPT vs. Google Gemini vs. Meta AI

ChatGPT vs. Google Gemini: Which Chatbot Wins?

The ChatGPT AI has ruled the era of AI. It appears, though, that Google's Gemini has finally hit its stride
Hand holding a cellphone with the Google Gemini logo on the phone screen.

Gemini vs chatgpt

Getty Images/Viva Tung/CNET

Whether to use ChatGPT or Google Gemini is a passing consideration. Businesses such as OpenAI and Google refresh their AI chatbots regularly, and therefore the quality of responses you receive can vary from month to month. Moreover, every question posed to an AI chatbot provides a different response, so comparing responses directly is more elusive.

In the war of free AI chatbots, Gemini's broader feature set renders it the one to choose over ChatGPT. Gemini comes with image generation and a connection to Google's other products, such as Maps, while ChatGPT doesn't have such niceties.
In the past, Google Gemini fared poorer than ChatGPT, Microsoft CoPilot, Anthropic's Claude, and Perplexity, as outlined in our Gemini and Gemini Advanced reviews from earlier this year. But as of September 2024, Google has patched some of the hallucination bugs that have been bedeviling its AI chatbot. In quality of output, hallucination rate, and features, the free version of Google Gemini is matching or, in a few instances, beating the freely available ChatGPT-4o mini, OpenAI's light-as-air AI model that's fast and has an open internet connection. An LLM, or large language model, is a computer trained on enormous amounts of text that can subsequently create original text similar to a sophisticated version of autocomplete. At the bare minimum, both Gemini and ChatGPT Free are linked to the open internet and can largely respond to topical queries.
Let's put ChatGPT and Google Gemini side by side so that you can decide which AI chatbot is appropriate for you.

ChatGPT Free vs. Google Gemini: What's included with each?

ChatGPT Free, based on the GPT-4o mini model, and Google Gemini, based on the 1.5 Flash model, are both free-to-use AI chatbots. You must log in to Gemini with your Google account, while ChatGPT is accessible immediately. Nevertheless, ChatGPT claims that logging in will provide better results. I remained logged out for my test purposes.

Both chatbots can write, brainstorm, answer general questions, and provide travel and shopping suggestions. But there are some distinctions between the two. ChatGPT doesn't feel as self-censoring as Gemini, happily responding to questions about politics and the news. In light of Google's previous gaffes, such as representing people of color as Nazis, it's understandable that Gemini has been set to err on the side of caution. Gemini can create images with the Imagen 2 model. It has an option for uploading images for analysis, which is not available in ChatGPT Free but is included in the paid version of ChatGPT Plus. Both AI chatbots impose a limit on how many questions you can ask within one session if traffic is heavy. In my testing, I did not encounter these limitations. Unless you are a person who has to do a great deal of data analysis or have an AI chatbot read through hundreds of pages of text, the free versions will not be limiting for most general questions and questions.

ChatGPT vs. Google Gemini: What do you receive on the paid tiers?

ChatGPT Plus and Google Gemini Advanced are the paid plans of these AI chatbots. They are a little slower in responding but produce more accurate and wordy responses. The paid plans also provide for more upscale image generation -- and, with ChatGPT, you can only generate images using the paid tier.
Both of the paid levels of ChatGPT and Google Gemini give you access to specially tuned models, which OpenAI refers to as GPTs and Google refer to as Gems.
The models also let you feed them much more data if necessary, with Gemini Advanced claiming to eventually support up to 2 million tokens, which is roughly 1,500 pages of text. ChatGPT Plus limits you to 64,000 tokens, for comparison. There's also uploading audio and video to be analyzed and converse with sophisticated voice modes that are closer to sounding human. For general questions, the majority will be satisfied with the free versions of ChatGPT and Gemini. When you do need more detailed answers with upper-level thinking, it's well worth paying for ChatGPT Plus or Gemini Advanced. How do the answers compare?

Free Versions: What’s Included?

ChatGPT Free (GPT-4o Mini) vs. Google Gemini (1.5 Flash)

Google Gemini and ChatGPT Free trade punches when it comes to providing precise product and shopping suggestions. Both chatbots experienced moments of providing incorrect responses. In certain cases, ChatGPT would provide more elaborate or complex information, while Gemini would sometimes be more precise. Overall, though, both provided good enough information to be sufficient for simple questions, from shopping to travel.
Gemini hallucinated slightly less,but didn't always provide the correct details
W.hile requesting shopping suggestions on a mid-range turntable that comes in red, ChatGPT suggested units that weren't even produced in the cardinal colorway, while Gemini directed to the sparse red options directly. 

Even then, Gemini suggested one which wasn't available in red. Regarding cartridge suggestions, when I asked specifically for ones that emphasized a neutral sound which strives to be an accurate representation, both chatbots leaned towards products that delivered "warm" tones. The application of "warm" or "smooth" is a frequent reminder heard in cartridge reviews on the internet. It is no wonder that both chatbots mentioned this word as it is typical terminology used in describing tonal texture, but it should not have been included in the responses because the emphasis should be on neutral sound and not on warm or smooth. And it does reflect some of the shortcomings of relying on AI chatbots for facts, which is an average of words found online. However, both chatbots also underscored other cartridges that were tuned for accuracy. When comparing two of the greatest OLED TVs for gaming -- the LG OLED G4 and the Samsung S95D -- both Gemini and ChatGPT Free accurately compared the two, focusing on their response times and color accuracy. 

ChatGPT made more specific nuances clearer, such as the Samsung S95D's higher reflection blocking. ChatGPT actually informed me about the input response times in games, while Gemini told me that it was hard to give me that information. ChatGPT is more authoritative-sounding -- even if it isn't While both AI chatbots excel in offering shopping suggestions, ChatGPT outshines in answering philosophy questions. Put bluntly, ChatGPT sounds like it is speaking authoritatively. Gemini is too obsequious, as though it doesn't have a precise answer. Yet by repeating certain phrases from the query posed, it can offer a general enough reply to serve as good enough. Gemini is totally useless when you ask it questions regarding the next presidential election, strangely. Asking it to provide opinions on the debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, it replied, "I can't assist with answers on elections and political leaders at the moment. Although I would never intentionally post something that's not accurate, I can make errors."
Finally, Gemini just told Google it instead.
ChatGPT, however, was able to easily vomit out a rundown of what pundits were saying after the debate.
Not that Gemini avoids all of the most hotly discussed topics. It candidly discussed abortion rights and presented arguments on both sides of the issue.
ChatGPT and Gemini both shared some commonalities in their generative text output.
Bizarrely, I asked both of the chatbots to compose a short story along the lines of All The Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler, and both produced short stories on the topic of chocolate and other sweets.
Handler's novel is not about sweets; instead, it is a coarse and disgusting depiction of teenage sex relationships and depravities without much censorship.
This might have been a mistakeinn the training data, or perhaps both chatbots were sidestepping getting into the explicit sex imagery in Handler's novel.

Perhaps that task was too complex for Gemini and ChatGPT to understand. I instead had them write a Dr. Seuss-style short story. Gemini might have plagiarized with its tale entitled, The Whos of Whoville and the Whos of Where. ChatGPT, however, composed a playful tale of Fizzle McSound.
A Google Search of Fizzle McSound did not yield any similar results, indicating that McSound is an original character. At least, both stories sounded like they were out of the school of Seuss. Gemini has images even on its free plan The other big benefit Gemini has over ChatGPT is that it can create images on the paid version -- ChatGPT's Dall-E 3 image generation is only available on the premium ChatGPT Plus subscription. Gemini does have some restrictions, such as the inability to create images of human beings. It's making use of the less capable Imagen 2 model, but Imagen 3 support will be available shortly. But at least it's an option nonetheless. When requesting it to create images of kittens devouring spaghetti, they were sufficient. There's definitely some AI oddness at work, such as the fur appearing too scattered and with Cheshire Cat-like eyes from Alice in Wonderland. It's decent but not ideal. Generative AI image of kittens eating spaghetti created with Google Gemini Screenshot/CNET

ChatGPT vs. Google Gemini: Final thoughts

After testing several AI chatbots this year, it's astonishing to see how much improved Google Gemini has become. In comparison with ChatGPT-4o mini, Gemini hallucinated less and provided competitive responses. Yet, Google has calibrated Gemini to be a tad too sanitized, with it refusing point-blank to respond to questions that could land it in trouble with politicians, such as not wanting to summarize the latest presidential debate. ChatGPT did not share such qualms.
Gemini is also integrated with Google's other applications, such as Maps and Search so that it can provide you with directions if you plan on taking a pizza tour around Brooklyn.
True, it has its flaws.
Gemini's pizza tour around Brooklyn had me beginning in Manhattan and zig-zagging around distant neighborhoods that would have consumed too much travel time in the subway.
Though ChatGPT couldn't immediately produce a map of a Brooklyn pizza tour path, it also had me bouncing around isolated neighborhoods.
In the end, although the suggestions were acceptable, it's still best for you to chart out the locations on Google Maps yourself.
At least, it's convenient that Gemini supports image creation -- something that is not available with ChatGPT Free -- even if it is only for animals, cartoons, and inanimate objects. Google found itself in a bit of hot water when trying to interpret historical figures back in earlier this year. Even then, since ChatGPT Free and Google Gemini have similar performance, I would eventually recommend Gemini because it possesses more features. Although it doesn't answer everything, it properly answers most things. And in case it declines to answer anything, ChatGPT is a click away. 

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