Best AI assistants for marketers
For: Solo marketers and small agency owners who pay for an AI assistant out of their own budget.
Short answer: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok and Perplexity all offer a paid plan for individuals, and some also offer a free tier. They differ on price, on what the free tier allows and on the work they suit. This page lays out each tool's facts side by side, checked against the vendor's own pages. Kerry's pick appears here after he has reviewed the tools.
Facts only. No pick yet.
Every row below was checked against the vendor. Kerry has not reviewed all of these tools, so this page makes no ranking. See how we check prices and label pages.
How do the options compare side by side?
Best AI assistants for marketers compares 4 tools on price, free plan and fit: Claude and Claude Code, ChatGPT and Codex, Grok and Perplexity. We checked every price against the vendor on November 5, 2026. Tools are listed alphabetically, and the order is not a ranking. Each name links to a page with the full plan table.
| Tool | Headline price | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude and Claude Code | Free plan. Pro $20 per month | Yes | Marketers and teams that want one assistant for writing, research, and files |
| ChatGPT and Codex | Free plan. Go $8 per month. Plus $20 per month | Yes | Marketers who want a general assistant for writing, images, and research |
| Grok | SuperGrok $30 per month. API is usage-based | Not confirmed | Users who want answers that draw on live X posts |
| Perplexity | Free plan. Pro $17 per month billed annually | Yes | Marketers who need fast, sourced answers during research |
Prices last checked November 5, 2026. Tools are listed alphabetically. The order is not a ranking.
How do we compare them?
We compare these tools on 4 points: cost of the entry paid plan, free plan or trial, fit for marketing work and how sure we are of the price. Each point comes from the vendor's own pages, and we label anything the vendor does not state. The cards explain why each point matters for a small team.
- Cost of the entry paid plan
- Most solo marketers start on the lowest paid plan, so that is the price that matters first.
- Free plan or trial
- A free tier lets you test a tool on real work before you pay.
- Fit for marketing work
- Each tool is built around different strengths, so we list who it suits and who should skip it.
- How sure we are of the price
- Vendors change plans often. Any figure we could not confirm is marked, so you know where to double check.
Who does each one fit?
Each card names who a tool fits and who should skip it, taken from the vendor's own description of the product. The tools covered are Claude and Claude Code, ChatGPT and Codex, Grok and Perplexity. These points are not reviews. A review needs Kerry to have used the tool and written a verdict and a flaw.
Claude and Claude Code
Anthropic's AI assistant for everyday work, plus Claude Code, its coding agent.
Best for: Marketers and teams that want one assistant for writing, research, and files. Developers and technical marketers who want a coding agent. Teams that need SSO, admin controls, and no training on their content.
Skip it if: Buyers who want fixed API costs, since API use is billed per token. Heavy daily users on the Free plan, since usage is limited and Claude Code is not included.
ChatGPT and Codex
OpenAI's AI chatbot for everyday tasks, plus Codex, its coding agent.
Best for: Marketers who want a general assistant for writing, images, and research. Developers who want a coding agent tied to a chat subscription. Teams that need SSO and admin controls through Business or Enterprise.
Skip it if: Teams that want a fixed bill, since heavy use may need extra credits. API-key users who want cloud features, since those do not include GitHub review or Slack.
Grok
An AI assistant that chats, makes images, writes code, and uses live web and X data.
Best for: Users who want answers that draw on live X posts. Developers who want a usage-based API with text, voice, and image options. People who want one assistant for chat, images, and code.
Skip it if: Buyers who need a confirmed free plan or Lite and Heavy prices, since the pages opened did not show them. Teams that need documented admin controls, since none were found.
Perplexity
An AI answer engine that searches the web and gives answers with sources.
Best for: Marketers who need fast, sourced answers during research. Teams that want shared research projects with admin controls. Developers who want a pay-as-you-go search API.
Skip it if: Buyers who need a confirmed monthly-billing price for Pro, since only the annual-billing rate was confirmed. Work that needs structured SEO data such as keyword volumes or backlinks.
What does the cheapest paid plan cost a team?
For 5 people, the lowest cost among these tools is ChatGPT and Codex at $40 a month, using its cheapest paid plan at list price. Each row multiplies a plan's list price by team size on monthly billing, checked November 5, 2026. Tools with no fixed list price show a dash. Tools priced per channel count channels, not people.
| Tool | Plan | Priced per | 1 person | 3 people | 5 people | 10 people |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude and Claude Code | Pro | person | $20 | $60 | $100 | $200 |
| ChatGPT and Codex | Go | person | $8 | $24 | $40 | $80 |
| Grok | SuperGrok | person | $30 | $90 | $150 | $300 |
| Perplexity | Enterprise Pro | person | $40 | $120 | $200 | $400 |
What plans does each tool offer?
This section lists every plan on file for Claude and Claude Code, ChatGPT and Codex, Grok and Perplexity, with the vendor's price and billing basis. We checked the figures against each vendor's pricing page, most recently on November 5, 2026. Vendors count different things, so a lower headline price does not always mean a lower bill.
Claude and Claude Code
Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant. The product page says users hand it a task and it produces editable files such as documents, spreadsheets, and slides. It runs on web, desktop, and mobile. It can search the web, use connectors for apps like Slack, Gmail, and Google Drive, and run scheduled tasks. Claude Code is the coding product. It works in the terminal, in VS Code and JetBrains, in the browser, and in Slack. It reads a codebase, edits files, runs commands, and opens pull requests. Individual plans are Free, Pro, Max, and Ultra. Team and Enterprise plans add admin controls. The API is billed by usage.
- Free: $0. Limited usage. Claude Code is not included.
- Pro: $20 per month, or $17 per month billed annually. Per user. Includes Claude Code.
- Team Standard seat: $25 per seat per month, or $20 billed annually. Per seat. Includes Claude Code and up to $500 per month in pooled API credits. A Premium seat costs $125 monthly or $100 annually.
- Max: $100 per month. Per user. 5x Pro usage. Ultra costs $200 per month. Enterprise is listed at $20 per seat with a 20-seat minimum, and usage is billed separately.
ChatGPT and Codex
ChatGPT is OpenAI's AI chatbot. The site describes it as an AI chatbot for everyday use. Users can chat, create images, upload files, run deep research, and use voice. Codex is the coding agent inside ChatGPT plans. It runs on the web, in a CLI, in IDE extensions, and on iOS. Plus and above add cloud features such as automatic code review and Slack. Plans include Free, Go, Plus, and Pro for individuals. Business and Enterprise plans add admin controls, SAML SSO, and larger cloud machines. Anyone can also use Codex with an API key billed at standard API rates.
- Free: $0. Limited Codex access in the desktop app.
- Go: $8 per month. Lightweight coding tasks in the desktop app.
- Plus: $20 per month (per month). Codex on web, CLI, IDE extension, and iOS. Extra credits can be bought after the limit.
- Pro: From $100 per month. Plans at $100, $200, or $500 per month. Enterprise has no public price.
Grok
Grok is an AI assistant. The Grok site says it can chat, create images, write code, and give real-time answers from the web and X. The site's page description says Grok is built by SpaceXSI. Developers can use the API, which is billed by usage. The docs also list a Voice API and an Imagine image API. The consumer pricing page lists SuperGrok at $30 per month on monthly billing and names SuperGrok Lite and SuperGrok Heavy without prices. Marketers might use Grok for trend checks on X and quick drafting.
- SuperGrok: $30 per month. Billed monthly, per the consumer pricing page. SuperGrok Lite and SuperGrok Heavy appear on the same page with no prices shown.
- API: Usage-based, from $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 per 1M output tokens. Text rates for Grok 4.7 on the docs page. The Voice API and the Imagine API have their own rates.
Perplexity
Perplexity is an AI answer engine. The homepage describes it as a way to get accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question. People type a question and receive a written answer based on web search. The paid plans add advanced models, extended research, image and video generation, and higher file upload limits. Enterprise plans add seat management, shared projects, internal file search, and admin billing. Perplexity also sells an API Platform with pay-as-you-go billing. Marketers can use it for market research, competitor checks, and quick fact finding.
- Free: $0. Basic searches with a very small number of Pro Searches.
- Pro: $17 per month billed annually. Monthly-billing price not confirmed. The $17 figure is the annual-billing rate from Perplexity's pricing page.
- Max: $200 per month, or $2,000 per year. Perplexity's help center lists $200 per month or $2,000 per year. Its pricing page shows $167 per month when billed annually. Annual billing is only on the web app.
- Enterprise Pro: $40 per seat per month, or $400 per seat per year. Per seat. Perplexity's help center also lists Enterprise Max at $325 per seat per month or $3,250 per seat per year.
Common questions
How are these tools ordered?
Alphabetically. The order is not a ranking. A ranking would need Kerry's reviewed verdicts, and this page adds a pick only after he has written them.
How often are the prices checked?
Each row shows the date its price was last checked against the vendor's own page. We plan to recheck every month, and the date shows when a check really happened.
Do any of these links earn Better Apps money?
Affiliate links are off at this time. If that changes, the page labels every affiliate link and the disclosure page explains the terms.