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Student Guide to ChatGPT

Beyond ChatGPT: other useful language models

These are several other useful large language models (LLMs) that you may want to try.

Large Language Models (LLMs)

ChatGPT logo ChatGPT

Open AI
Free

As of April 2024, you can use it without creating an account.

Additional features (with usage rate limits)

  • Search the web
    (be sure to click on the globe icon in the search box to activate it)

  • Upload images in your prompts and ask questions about them

  • Generate images

  • Provide support files in your prompts

  • Discover and use GPTs

  • Canvas: a new way of working with ChatGPT to write and code

  • "Reasoning" 
    click the "reason" button in the search box to get it to "think before responding"
ChatGPT Plus logo ChatGPT Plus

Open AI
$20/mo
Includes:

  • a new ChatGPT Search (as of Oct. 31, 2024)
  • data analysis
  • coding
  • vision (upload images and ask questions about them)
  • Image generation with 4o
  • Canvas: a new way of working with ChatGPT to write and code
  • GPT 4o with scheduled tasks (it can send you reminders)
  • GPT 4.5 research preview (for writing & exploring ideas)
  • o3 - advanced reasoning
  • o4-mini - fast advanced reasoning
  • o4-mini high - good at coding and visual reasoning

Build chatbots without using code. These are called "GPTs."

Enterprise edition for large businesses. Teams account for small business.

"Reasoning" models can spend time trying different solutions before responding.

Starting December 5, 2024, there is a $200/month version called ChatGPT Pro.
"ChatGPT Pro provides a way for researchers, engineers, and
other individuals who use research-grade intelligence daily to accelerate
their productivity and be at the cutting edge of advancements in AI."
Microsoft Copilot Microsoft
Free
Includes web search results from Bing and image generation.

You can also generate images with
 Bing Image Creator or Microsoft Designer 
(log in with a personal Microsoft account)
  If you log on to Copilot with your UA NetID, your privacy will be protected
   (they won't use your input for training future models)
Google Bard logo Gemini

Google
Free
Includes web search results from Google.

Gemini Advanced is also available with more features ($20/mo).

Both free and paid versions include:

  • 2.0 Flash for everyday tasks
  • 2.0 Flash Thinking (experimental) - uses reasoning
  • 2.5 Pro (experimental) - best for complex tasks
     
  • Deep Research - for multi-page research reports
  • Personalization (experimental) - help based on your search history
     
  • Very large context window: Upload and analyze
    personal files, whole books, or lengthy reports
    - up to 1,500 pages of text.
Claude logo Claude

Anthropic
Free. Also available in Slack.
Claude 3.7 Sonnet includes:

  • data analysis
  • coding
  • vision (upload images and ask questions about them)
  • "Artifacts" - these allow Claude to share standalone content
    in a dedicated window separate from the main conversation.
  • Tailor Claude’s responses to your personal style,
    generate a custom style based on your own writing.

Pro version ($20/mo) 

Focused on reliability and safety.

Web search has been added to paid version (as for March 20, 2025)
No web search results in free version (yet). Trained on data through April 2024.
Perplexity AI Perplexity
Free. Includes web search results, with citations.
Offers "Focus" choices such as web, academic, or social.

You can use it without creating an account.

The feature called Spaces makes it easy to create your own
knowledge base where you can search through your
class notes, syllabus, and course materials.

Generate practice exams or collaboration guides for group projects.
See A student's guide to using Perplexity Spaces.


Both free and Pro accounts ($20/mo) allow a choice between several models:
Sonar, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, GPT-4.1, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Grok-2, R1-1776, o3-mini, etc.
Meta AI

Meta
Free, built on Meta Llama 4
Includes web search results. 

Log in with your Facebook or Instagram account.

You can also access the chatbot on WhatsApp, Instagram,
Messenger, or Facebook, by typing "@meta ai" within chats.

Learn more.

For a list of more AI tools, see AI Tools Landscape by Carlos Lizarraga-Celaya.

Other useful tools based on LLMs

These tools are based on language models, like those from OpenAI.

Elicit
Find answers from 200 million research papers. Elicit uses semantic similarity, which finds papers related to your question even if they don't use the same keywords. See Getting Started.

NotebookLM
Google's tool for saving and working with your own notes. You can include links to websites, Google Docs, Google Slides, YouTube, or paste in any text and then get useful summaries, quiz questions, and even a simulated podcast based on your content. Learn more in this video. Also, Google never uses your data to train NotebookLM: "your uploads, queries, or the model's responses remain private to you."

Explainpaper
Upload a PDF, highlight confusing text, and get a simpler explanation. Useful for reading research papers outside your field. You can also get explanations in languages other than English.

Inciteful
Build a network of academic papers and it will analyze the network to help you discover the most relevant literature. Select two papers and it will show how the literature connects them together.

Petal
Reference manager and more. Ask the AI to explain your selection, translate it into another language, or identify key points.

Scite AI assistant
A conversational tool made by Scite that lets you ask questions in simple language and get answers backed by real, up to date references. Think of like ChatGPT with real, up to date references, tailor-made for anyone discovering, understanding, or writing research.