The free plans for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and Perplexity differ in how they limit chat usage.
ChatGPT currently provides unlimited everyday text chats on its standard Free plan. Claude uses a session allowance that resets every five hours, and Gemini uses a compute-based allowance with five-hour refreshes and a weekly limit. Perplexity sets published quotas for some advanced search and research features. Grok offers free access with no fixed public chat allowance.
Text chat is only one part of a free plan. File uploads, image generation, web search, and research have their own limits, and those limits use different units.
Below, you can compare the current limits for chat, file uploads, image generation, search, and research, followed by detailed limits for each service.
Last updated: September 10, 2026.
Free chat limits and reset cycles
| Platform | Free model access | Main free chat/search allowance | Reset or quota system |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | GPT-5.6 Luna | Unlimited everyday text chats on the standard Free experience | No general text-chat reset; advanced features have individual limits |
| Claude | Sonnet and Haiku | Session-based allowance; no fixed message count | Resets every 5 hours |
| Gemini | Gemini 3 Flash-Lite, Flash, and Pro | Compute-based allowance; no fixed prompt count | Refreshes every 5 hours until the weekly limit |
| Grok | Free model entitlement not published | Free-tier chat access; no fixed chat count | Free-tier reset schedule not published |
| Perplexity | Best automatic model selection | Basic searches: Practically unlimited; Pro Search: 3/day | Pro Search: Daily; Research: Monthly |
Free file, image, search, and research limits
| Platform | File uploads | Image generation | Search and research |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 3 uploads/day; 512 MB/file maximum; lower type-specific caps | Limited Free access | Search: Available; Deep Research: Limited, with remaining tasks shown in-product |
| Claude | Up to 20 files/chat; 500 MB/file; no fixed Free upload frequency published | No native image generation | Web search: Available and counts toward usage; Research: Paid plans |
| Gemini | Up to 10 files/prompt; 100 MB/file for most types; 2 GB/video | Nano Banana 2 available on accounts without a Google AI plan | Deep Research: Available; Google Search is a default research source; no fixed Free Research count |
| Grok | Web: About 100 files at once; 150 MB/file for most files; no fixed Free upload frequency published | Grok Imagine available; no fixed Free Imagine count | Web and X search are available; no fixed Free search count |
| Perplexity | 3 uploads/day | Newer plan table: No; July image-generation help page: Limited Free generations | Basic search: Practically unlimited; Pro Search: 3/day; Research: 1/month |
How to read these limits
A quota number only makes sense with its unit. Claude’s 20-file figure is a per-chat attachment limit. Gemini’s 10-file figure is a per-prompt attachment limit. Grok’s roughly 100-file figure is a web attachment-capacity limit. ChatGPT publishes a daily Free upload quota of three files.
Chat usage and advanced features also use different counters. Reaching ChatGPT’s file-upload limit does not end ordinary text chat. Claude web search counts toward the account’s usage allowance. Gemini calculates usage from prompt complexity, model choice, conversation length, and feature use.
ChatGPT free limits
ChatGPT Free uses GPT-5.6 Luna. The standard Free experience currently includes unlimited everyday text chats under OpenAI’s abuse-prevention safeguards.
Free accounts receive three file uploads per day. Each file has a 512 MB hard limit. Text and document files have a 2 million-token limit per file. Spreadsheets are limited to about 50 MB, and images are limited to 20 MB. OpenAI reserves the right to lower upload limits during peak hours.
Search is available on Free. Image generation and Deep Research have limited Free access. OpenAI does not publish one fixed Free image-generation count. Deep Research shows the remaining task count inside ChatGPT.
In regions where OpenAI is testing ads, Free accounts can switch to an Ads-Free experience. Ads-Free lowers message limits and removes access to some features, including image generation and Deep Research.
Claude free limits
Claude Free includes access to Sonnet and Haiku. Its session-based usage allowance resets every five hours. Anthropic does not publish one fixed message count for the Free plan. Message capacity changes with conversation length, attached files, model choice, feature use, and demand.
Chat uploads accept up to 20 files per chat at 500 MB each. Project Files use a different 30 MB per-file limit. Anthropic does not publish a fixed Free upload frequency.
Web search is available on Free and counts toward Claude usage. Claude analyzes uploaded images. Native image generation is not available. Research requires a paid Claude plan.
Gemini free limits
Personal Gemini accounts without a Google AI plan have access to Gemini 3 Flash-Lite, Gemini 3 Flash, and Gemini 3 Pro under standard compute-based limits. The allowance refreshes every five hours until the weekly limit is reached.
Google calculates usage from prompt complexity, model choice, thinking level, conversation length, and feature use. There is no fixed prompt count for the standard Free allowance.
Gemini accepts up to 10 files in one prompt. Most file types have a 100 MB per-file limit, and each video can be up to 2 GB. Free video analysis is limited to five total minutes, and audio analysis is limited to ten total minutes.
Nano Banana 2 image generation and Deep Research are available on accounts without a Google AI plan. Google does not publish one fixed Free count for either feature.
Grok free limits
Grok is free to start. xAI confirms that free-tier Chat and Voice limits exist. It does not publish the Free chat count, Free model entitlement, or reset schedule for the standalone consumer service.
Grok accepts file uploads on the web, iOS, and Android. The web app accepts about 100 files at once. Most files have a 150 MB per-file limit. xAI does not publish a fixed Free upload frequency.
Grok Imagine handles image and video creation. Grok also has web search and X search. xAI does not publish fixed Free counts for these features.
This comparison refers to Grok on grok.com and the Grok mobile apps. Grok inside X and X Chat use different access rules and quotas.
Perplexity free limits
Perplexity Standard Free includes practically unlimited basic searches, 3 Pro Searches per day under its newer plan comparison, 1 Research query per month, and 3 file uploads per day. The Best setting chooses a model automatically. Manual selection of advanced models requires a paid plan.
Which free plan fits your task?
These recommendations use only the published quota structure. They do not rank model quality, answer accuracy, writing quality, or reasoning performance.
| Your main task | Free plan to check first |
|---|---|
| Everyday text chat | ChatGPT |
| Frequent basic web search | Perplexity |
| A predictable chat reset window | Claude |
| Free image generation | ChatGPT or Gemini |
| Research reports | ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity |
Related resources
- ChatGPT Token Limit: Free, Plus, Pro, and OpenAI API Limits
- LLM Context Window Comparison: GPT, Claude, Gemini & More
- AI LLM API Pricing: GPT, Gemini, Claude & More
