Standalone lesson.
Lesson 2109 of 2116
Subscription Tier Literacy
Claude Free/Pro/Max, ChatGPT Plus/Pro, Gemini Advanced — what you're actually buying.
Every AI you can pay for has three or four tiers. The tiers are deliberately a little confusing — because the companies want you to upgrade. This module is here to make the buying decision obvious.
Pricing is changing monthly. What doesn’t change: the questions to ask
Every tier bundles some combination of these levers:
- Which model you can talk to (small / large / reasoning).
- How long your context window is (more = remembers more of your chat).
- Rate limits (messages per hour / per day).
- Extras (image gen, voice, file upload, computer use, agents).
- Privacy — whether your chats are used to train the next version.
Snapshot as of this quarter
Prices shift often. Consult each provider’s current pricing page before buying.
Claude (Anthropic)
ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Gemini (Google)
Microsoft Copilot
Which one should your family pick?
If you’re under 18, you probably shouldn’t pick one — most of these require you to be 18 to sign up, and for kid use the library tier on this portal is safer. For the grown-ups:
- Writer / researcher / developer. Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus.
- Office worker in Google Workspace. Gemini AI Pro.
- Office worker in Microsoft 365. Copilot 365.
- Power user / developer. Claude Max or ChatGPT Pro.
The unwritten rule
You almost never need two paid subscriptions. Pick one. Use the free tiers of the others to double-check important answers.
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