Two powerful AI tools are making waves in the world: NEW ChatGPT Search and Perplexity AI. But which one is better for you? I've tested them and want to share my results.
What is ChatGPT Search
ChatGPT Search is a feature in OpenAI's ChatGPT that allows it to look up current information on the internet. This means ChatGPT can provide up-to-date answers on topics like news, weather, and sports scores.
This feature will initially be available to ChatGPT Plus and Teams subscribers, with plans to expand access to all users in the future.
What is the Perplexity AI
Perplexity AI is a search engine that uses artificial intelligence to provide direct answers to your questions, instead of just giving you a list of links. When you ask something, it searches the internet and gives you a clear, conversational response with sources you can check. This makes finding information faster and easier.
ChatGPT Search vs. Perplexity AI
I’m going to try different versions of prompts to see how well these tools handle them.
General Search Tasks
Prompt: Tell me about proflead.dev website
Both answers are almost perfect, but Perplexity gives more descriptive information. You can also select different AI models inside Perplexity.
Prompt: Find for me the best Thai restaurants in Chiang Mai city.
Both AIs give good answers and even provide maps with the restaurant locations. But the visual map inside ChatGPT looks and works better. Both of these AI use multiple sources to search for the information.
For instance, ChatGPT uses about 12 sources.
And Perplexity used nine sources.
Real-Time Search Tasks
Let's try some real-time queries.
Prompt: What is the weather and air situation in Chiang Mai today?
In this prompt, I asked two questions—about the weather and air quality. ChatGPT provides answers for both, while Perplexity only responds about the weather. However, Perplexity offers better visual graphics.
Prompt: What is the traffic situation in Chiang Mai now?
ChatGPT's response was more accurate, while Perplexity's answer reflected information from three weeks ago. I'd say ChatGPT passed this test, while Perplexity may need a more specific prompt to improve its response.
Prompt: What are the Apple stock prices?
ChatGPT's response was more concise and did not include any graphics, whereas Perplexity provided a more detailed answer along with an impressive interactive chart.
Topic Specific Tasks
I also asked the AI a few programming questions. They might sound simple, but in the past, some AIs struggled to answer them correctly.
Prompt: Is this expression true in JavaScript true == "true"?
This time, Perplexity's response was better because it provided explanations along with code examples, whereas ChatGPT only gave explanations.
Prompt: how about 0 == "0"?
Both AIs maintained context very well, allowing for follow-up questions.
Again, Perplexity provides answer with the code example and ChatGPT just simple reply. Plus Perplexity also provide some follow up questions to ask. It's really useful sometimes.
Video Comparison
You can find all these examples, along with a few more, in my YouTube video.
Watch on YouTube: ChatGPT Search
Conclusion
It’s really hard to pick a winner because both tools are excellent, and the subscription prices are the same (20 USD/month). I’ll keep using both for now and after a couple of months, I’ll decide which one becomes my favorite.
If you’ve tried them, please share your experience and let me know which one you prefer.
Cheers!
