Up To Speed With AI homeUSD · CAD

Find my AI

What do you want to do with AI? Pick a goal, then a budget and country. We'll show three plans, ranked by independent leaderboards and official prices only. How we rank.

1. What do you want to do?
2. Budget and country

In Canada we show plans with an official CAD price first, then plans that only publish a US price (clearly labelled). We never convert.

3. One optional extra

Best AI for writing and email, up to $30, USA

  1. Best pick Google AI Plus Google
    US$4.99/mo
    Gemini 4 Argon (High) is #1 on Arena Text (overall) (1524±9).
  2. Also strong Claude Pro Anthropic
    US$20.00/mo · Annual billing US$17.00/mo
    Claude Opus 5.5 (High) is #3 on Arena Text (overall) (1508±7).
  3. Also consider ChatGPT Plus OpenAI
    US$20.00/mo
    GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is #22 on Arena Text (overall) (1484±8).

Any chat plan can write. Sorted by human preference votes on Arena's text leaderboard.

Full list: Best AI for writing

Monthly prices; annual billing is cheaper on some plans. Always check the provider's page before you pay.

Email me if any of these three plans change price.

We'll send a short note when a plan on your shortlist changes price, plus the weekly round-up. Free.

First issue in November. Sign up now and you'll get it first. Sign-up opens soon. Until then the button opens your email app with a pre-filled request to [email protected], and we'll add you when the first issue goes out.

How we rank

For each goal we keep plans within your budget that include the features that goal needs, then sort them by where the plan's best included model ranks on one leaderboard for that goal, and break ties by price. Nothing is blended or averaged. If a provider doesn't say which plans include a ranked model, we say so, and that plan sorts just behind plans that do. Free tiers are never credited with a provider's top model unless the provider says they include it. One plan per provider.

GoalLeaderboard usedPlan must include
Write & emailArena Text (overall)Any chat plan can write. Sorted by human preference votes on Arena's text leaderboard.
ResearchLiveBench 2.0 ReasoningNeeds web search or deep research. Sorted by LiveBench Reasoning.
StudyLiveBench 2.0 OverallNeeds file uploads, study mode or notebooks. Sorted by LiveBench Overall.
Code & appsLiveBench 2.0 CodingNeeds a coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Jules, Vibe). Sorted by LiveBench Coding.
ImagesArena Text-to-ImageNeeds image generation. Sorted by Arena Text-to-Image.
VideoArena Text-to-VideoNeeds video generation. Sorted by Arena Text-to-Video.
Voice chatNo suitable leaderboard yet: sorted by priceNeeds a voice mode. There's no clean voice leaderboard yet, so these are sorted by price.
Office & docsNo suitable leaderboard yet: sorted by priceNeeds AI inside Word/Excel/Outlook or Gmail/Docs. Feature-based, sorted by price.
Agents & automationNo suitable leaderboard yet: sorted by priceNeeds an agent, scheduled tasks or a browser agent. No agent leaderboard on our site yet, so sorted by price.
Free onlyArena Text (overall)Free plans only. Sorted by Arena Text.

Plain-English glossary

Token
A small chunk of text (roughly ¾ of a word in English). API prices are per million tokens.
Context window
How much text the AI can consider at once, including your files and the conversation so far.
5-hour limits
Some plans (like Claude) give you a usage allowance that resets on a rolling five-hour window, with weekly caps on top.
Usage credits
Extra usage you can buy or turn on after hitting your plan's limit, billed at API rates.
API vs subscription
A subscription is a flat monthly fee for the app. The API is pay-as-you-go access for developers, priced per token.

Prices change often. Get the changes by email.

New models, price changes and the best deal of the week. One email on Fridays. Free.

First issue in November. Sign up now and you'll get it first. Sign-up opens soon. Until then the button opens your email app with a pre-filled request to [email protected], and we'll add you when the first issue goes out.

AI moves fast. We'll keep you up to speed.

New models, price changes and the best deal of the week. One email on Fridays. Free.

First issue in November. Sign up now and you'll get it first. Sign-up opens soon. Until then the button opens your email app with a pre-filled request to [email protected], and we'll add you when the first issue goes out.