Pick ChatGPT if
everyone who wants a hosted general assistant — writing, Q&A, light research, images.
Read the ChatGPT pageChatGPT vs Elicit
Our take
Pick ChatGPT if everyone who wants a hosted general assistant — writing, Q&A, light research, images. Pick Elicit if researchers and analysts who want an evidence table, not a chatbot essay. Skip ChatGPT if teams that cannot send prompts to OpenAI, or developers who need a repo-aware IDE (Cursor) or a local runtime (Ollama). Skip Elicit if people who want a cited web answer (Perplexity) or a general assistant
Best for
ChatGPT A general-purpose conversation
Elicit A literature question with papers behind it
Free plan
ChatGPT $0 · unlimited everyday text chats (abuse guardrails). Limited uploads, images, voice, deep research, memory, Codex, and desktop Work. Confirmed as the free plan on chatgpt.com/pricing copy and Help
Elicit No free plan
Lowest paid
ChatGPT Plus $20/mo, monthly only
Elicit Other toggle in the HTML $11/user/mo yearly
Next step up
ChatGPT Pro $100 / $200 / $500 per month
Elicit Pro (Industry, yearly display) $49/user/mo
Coding agent
ChatGPT Codex, rate-limited on Free
Elicit Research agent composer
Runs where
ChatGPT Local or hosted
Elicit Hosted
Watch out
ChatGPT chatgpt.com/pricing HTML still hides $
Elicit Audience and yearly/monthly toggles change the dollars
Last checked
ChatGPT 2026-10-19 · help.openai.com
Elicit 2026-10-19 · elicit.com/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Elicit if
researchers and analysts who want an evidence table, not a chatbot essay.
Read the Elicit page