Quick Answer
Perplexity for research, Claude for essay help, and ChatGPT for its free tier and versatility.
Detailed Answer
Students benefit from different AIs for different tasks. Perplexity provides sourced research, teaching proper citation habits. Claude excels at explaining complex concepts and helping with essay structure without just giving answers. ChatGPT offers the best free tier with Code Interpreter for math and science. Gemini integrates with Google Workspace, which many schools use. Most students are best served starting with free tiers of two or three models.
Find Your Own Answer
The best way to decide is to try them yourself. Council lets you compare multiple AI responses to the same question.