ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot: what the free versions cost you

The four big AI assistants can all be used without paying, and every one of them is good enough for everyday questions. Each one still takes something in return. Depending on the provider, that is ads, your chats as training material or a smaller model than subscribers get. Our guide to AI subscriptions covers the paid tiers and who they are worth it for. This article looks at the free plans and the settings they ship with. Everything below comes from the providers' pricing and help pages and from checks in our own accounts in early October 2026. All prices are US prices.

ChatGPT: ads and training are on by default

According to OpenAI's pricing page, ChatGPT Free includes unlimited text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna plus limited uploads, image generation, voice chats, deep research and memory. The newer GPT-6 Luna is available to free users only in the desktop app so far. The context window is 27,000 tokens, half of what Go and Plus get, which OpenAI puts at roughly 12 pages of text. A long contract or a term paper will not fit in one go. More room costs $8 a month for Go or $20 for Plus.

The first trade-off is ads. Since late August, ChatGPT has been showing ads in Germany on the Free and Go plans. They are not personalized in the European Economic Area or Switzerland for now, and OpenAI says it does not show ads to accounts identified as belonging to people under 18. There is an ad-free option on the free plan. You find it under Settings and Ads controls, where "Reduce message limits" removes the ads. The catch is fewer messages and no access to tools such as image generation or deep research.

Your chats also go into training by default. The "Improve the model for everyone" toggle is under Settings and Data controls. In a free German account we checked in late September, it was switched on. The new privacy center did not change that. If you would rather leave the toggle alone, a temporary chat works for individual questions. OpenAI says temporary chats are not used for training. It still keeps a copy for up to 30 days for safety reasons.

Gemini: a strong free model, long data retention

Google has the most generous free plan. Its subscription page lists Gemini 3.6 Flash, limited access to 3.1 Pro, Deep Research, image generation, Gemini Live, Canvas and Gems. Google AI Plus costs $4.99 a month and mainly doubles the limits, while AI Pro costs $19.99. Google's Privacy Hub says Gemini chats are not used to show you ads.

With Google, the trade-off is data. Keep Activity is on by default for users aged 18 and over. Human reviewers read some of the chats, including reviewers at outside service providers. Reviewed chats are kept for up to three years, even if you delete your activity. Google itself asks users not to enter anything confidential. With Keep Activity off, Google still holds new chats in your account for 72 hours, the same as temporary chats. For the occasional sensitive question, a temporary chat does the job without turning Keep Activity off altogether. Before you switch it off, note that Gems turn into skills in November, and skills require Keep Activity.

Claude: a new model and a training toggle to check

Anthropic has just upgraded its free plan. Since Sept. 28, free users have Claude Sonnet 5.5, alongside Haiku 4.5. The top model, Opus 5.5, stays with paying customers. According to the pricing page, memory across conversations, artifacts and connected apps are part of the free plan too. Pro costs $20 a month, or $17 a month when billed yearly.

Whether your chats are used for training depends on the "Help improve our AI models" toggle under Settings and Privacy. Anthropic's help pages do not say what the default is, so it is worth checking your own settings. Once the toggle is off, Anthropic stops using new chats for training. Anything already used in finished or ongoing training runs stays there. Chats flagged by a safety filter can still be used for Anthropic's own abuse detection.

Copilot: fewer features, ads based on your chat history

Microsoft has been trimming the free Copilot rather than expanding it. Deep Research left the consumer app on Aug. 18, and its successor requires a subscription. According to Microsoft's privacy FAQ, conversations are stored for 18 months by default. You can turn off model training at any time, and the same goes for personalization based on memory. Ads are the bigger issue. Microsoft's privacy page says personalized ads in Copilot can draw on your chat history and saved memories. You can turn that off in Copilot under Settings, Personalization and "Allow ads personalization". The Microsoft privacy dashboard has a separate toggle that covers all Microsoft services at once. Users under 18 never get personalized ads in Copilot.

Five minutes in the settings

All four free plans are fine for occasional questions. Before you type in health questions, contracts or company details, the five minutes in the settings are still worth it. ChatGPT and Gemini have their data-collecting options switched on out of the box. Copilot's ads can draw on your chat history, and with Claude you have to look up the toggle yourself. On Gemini, turning Keep Activity off costs something, because skills will depend on it. If you already use more than one assistant, you can send sensitive questions to the one where training is off and keep the others for everyday tasks.