Choose AI

Choose AI for your workflow.

There is no universally best AI. The right choice depends on your work, workflow, tools, limits, and preferences.

principles to test yourself against: 6principles to test yourself against
job categories to start from: 7job categories to start from
subscription checks to run: 8subscription checks to run
tasks for your trial: 5tasks for your trial
metrics to record: 7metrics to record

Start with the job

What do you actually do?

Your first question

Can it understand your repository and help you ship without taking over the whole loop?

repository contextedit and terminal flowverification

Look in: coding tools

Before you choose

Six principles for making a decision you can explain, test, and change later.

Principle 01

Don't copy someone else's choice.

Someone else's best AI may be a poor fit for your work. Start with your own tasks, tools, limits, and preferences.

A friend's workflow is not your workflow.

Principle 02

Benchmarks are evidence, not answers.

Benchmarks can show reasoning, coding, latency, context, or tool-use performance. They cannot tell you whether a tool feels right for your daily work.

Benchmark ≠ your workflow.

Principle 03

Start from your workflow.

Name the job before naming the model: coding, research, writing, math, documents, search, office work, or long-running agents.

Ask what you actually do.

Principle 04

Evaluate the ecosystem, not only the model.

A tool's value can come from how deeply it connects to the apps, editor, files, and services you already use.

Integration is part of capability.

Principle 05

Measure friction, limits, and reliability.

Rate limits, reset windows, queues, context limits, tool access, and usage policies shape the work you can actually finish.

A tool that interrupts your workflow may be worse than a slightly weaker tool that stays available.

Principle 06

Use community experience as evidence, not truth.

Read Reddit, GitHub issues, Discord, forums, and release discussions for real workflows, bugs, support, and breaking changes. Look for patterns, not consensus.

Community opinion has hype and selection bias.

Start with the job.

These categories solve different problems. Treat the names below as places to investigate, not a ranking.

General assistants

Do you need one flexible place for many kinds of work?

Examples to examine

ChatGPT · Claude · Gemini

Compare tools side by side

Coding tools

Do you want AI inside an editor, terminal, or repository?

Examples to examine

Cursor · coding agents · editor extensions

Build an agent on top

Research & search

Do citations, source discovery, and current information matter?

Examples to examine

Perplexity · search assistants · research tools

Learn the methods

Office & ecosystem AI

Will the tool work inside the documents, mail, or files you already use?

Examples to examine

Google Workspace · Microsoft 365 · connected apps

Learn the methods

Developer APIs

Are you building a product, service, or repeatable workflow?

Examples to examine

Model APIs · gateways · hosted inference

Design the provider layer

Local AI

Do privacy, offline access, control, or predictable cost come first?

Examples to examine

Open-weight models · local runtimes · private servers

Run on your computer

GPU & cloud compute

Do you need to run, fine-tune, or serve models at a larger scale?

Examples to examine

Workstations · rented GPUs · cloud clusters

Size your hardware

Don't compare tools built for different jobs as if they were interchangeable.

Provider notes

Facts to investigate, not scores to follow.

Gemini

Category: General AI
Ecosystem example: Google services
Things to evaluate: integrationsmodel accessusage limitsworkflow fit

Example only — not a recommendation.

Claude

Category: General AI
Ecosystem example: Anthropic products and developer tools
Things to evaluate: writing and coding flowmodel accesscontext limitsreliability

Example only — not a recommendation.

ChatGPT

Category: General AI
Ecosystem example: OpenAI products and API
Things to evaluate: available toolsmodel accessprivacy controlsportability

Example only — not a recommendation.

Evaluate a subscription

A monthly price is only one line in the decision. Check the whole service.

Price

What does it cost over the way you actually use it?

Access

Which models, tools, files, and modes can you really use?

Limits

How often can you use them, and when do limits reset?

Workflow

Does it fit the apps, editor, files, and habits you already have?

Reliability

Does it interrupt your work with queues, errors, or throttling?

Privacy

Where does your data go, and which controls can you verify?

Portability

Can you export your work and leave without rebuilding everything?

Community

What recurring problems do real users report?

Keep all eight checks open while you compare — then score your shortlist in the 7-day test below.

Trial method

The 7-day test

Bring five real tasks to the tool before you pay. Keep notes while the experience is fresh, then choose from the pattern in your own work.

Test the workflow, not just the first impressive answer.

Score your shortlist

Five tasks from your week

AShort daily taskDoes it remove a small, repeated chore?

BDifficult taskCan it handle the work you would actually pay to accelerate?

CLong taskDoes it stay coherent across a larger piece of work?

DSearch or researchAre the sources useful, current, and easy to check?

ETool or integration taskDoes it fit the tools and files around your work?

Same five tasks for every candidate, so the notes stay comparable.

The pattern, not a verdict

The 7-day scorecard

Score each metric from the notes you took. The panel turns your week into a readable pattern — no opinion of ours attached.

Rate from your notes

0/7 scored

Tool you are testing

Quality
Did the work finish correctly?
not scored
Friction
How often did you need to fix or repeat instructions?
not scored
Speed
Did the whole workflow become faster?
not scored
Reliability
How often did it fail or behave unexpectedly?
not scored
Limits
Did rate limits or missing access interrupt you?
not scored
Integration
Did it fit the tools you already use?
not scored
Cost
Is the real usage worth the price?
not scored

The pattern so far

—

Tap the dots to score a metric.

Rate the metrics you recorded during the 7-day test. The panel turns your notes into a readable pattern.

Quality—

Friction—

Speed—

Reliability—

Limits—

Integration—

Cost—

A patterned snapshot of your notes — not a verdict about the tool.

The numbers, compared.

Independent measurements of intelligence, output price, and speed, ranked into one readable chart. Switch the metric to compare, hover a model for its full numbers, and decide which trade-off your workflow can live with.

Higher is more capable. Showing 20 models ranked by intelligence index.

Source:Artificial Analysis — models comparisonIntelligence Index v4 plus list prices and measured output speedsnapshot 2026-08-31

Cheva Labs principle

We don't tell you what to buy. We teach you how to choose.

Use the information here to form a shortlist, test it with real work, and keep your reasoning visible.

Score your shortlist Keep learning