ChatGPT Plus vs. Perplexity Pro: Which $20 AI Plan Fits You Better?

If you’ve been thinking about buying a paid plan for one of the AI tools, I’d say it’s totally worth it. But which one should you choose?

Here is an in-depth comparison of ChatGPT Plus and Perplexity Pro — and honestly, these tools are like two AI cousins with totally different vibes. Let’s dive in.

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Pricing

• Both cost $20/month, but only Perplexity Pro offers a $200/year option (2 months free).
  → Perplexity Pricing Plans
  → ChatGPT Plus pricing

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Core Model Differences

• ChatGPT Plus gives you GPT-4 (multimodal, fast, and creative). It runs on OpenAI’s own model.
  → GPT-4 overview

• Perplexity Pro switches between multiple models — OpenAI (o3-pro), Anthropic (Claude), etc. It automatically chooses a model depending on the type of query—unless you manually select a specific model.
  → Supported models

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Usage Limits

• ChatGPT Plus: No strict daily cap, but GPT-4 used to have soft limits (~50 messages/3 hours). That’s been relaxed.

• Perplexity Pro: ~300+ queries/day is the realistic ceiling. Most users never hit it.

  

  
  → Perplexity query cap

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Web Browsing & Research Modes

• ChatGPT now has an optional "Deep Research" mode — it can crawl the web, read PDFs, click links, and return a 20+ page report with sources.
  → Deep Research overview

• Perplexity is always browsing by default. It gives you cited answers automatically and feels like Google + ChatGPT in one.
  → How Perplexity handles citations

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Tools & Features

• ChatGPT Plus comes with:

  • Built-in file analysis (upload PDFs, ask questions)

  • Code Interpreter (for data files, charts, file manipulation)

  • DALL·E 3 for image generation (50 images per 3 hours)

  • Sora for video generation (short clips!)
    → DALL·E in ChatGPT
    → Sora video model

  • Can generate downloadable non-binary files pretty well (read more about that in my other post below).

    You Can Ask ChatGPT to Generate Downloadable Files (CSV, JSON, XML, and More)

• Perplexity Pro has:

  • Built-in file analysis (upload PDFs, ask questions)

  • Built-in image generation

  • "Labs" for dashboards, code, and charts
    → Labs explained

  • No plugins or video gen in Perplexity (yet).

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Autonomous Agent Features

• ChatGPT Agent can fill forms, book hotels, and navigate websites in a virtual browser — kind of like an executive assistant.
  → Introducing ChatGPT Agent

  (Note: As of July 23rd, ChatGPT Agent is not available in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.)

• Perplexity Comet (Beta for Max users): An AI web browser that can buy things, reply to emails, manage calendars. Think: Siri + Chrome.
  → Comet AI browser homepage

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Who Should Use What?

Use ChatGPT Plus if:

• You write, code, or analyze data.

• You want creative outputs (stories, essays, mockups).

• You like the idea of an AI doing things for you (e.g., form submissions, generating videos).

Use Perplexity Pro if:

• You value quick, trustworthy answers with sources.

• You do a lot of research, comparison, or summarizing work.

• You want something more “search engine + citations” than “chat assistant + creativity.”

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Final Thought

Want both? You’re not alone. A lot of people use Perplexity for fact-finding and ChatGPT for creation and execution. They complement each other well.

But if you're picking just one:

• ChatGPT is an AI co-creator.

• Perplexity is an AI research librarian.

Either way, you’re getting cutting-edge AI for $20/month — not bad for tools that can write code, summarize PDFs, book travel, or even generate videos.