Best Free Utility Apps on Mobile, Ranked
Google Translate is the best free utility app: it translates text, speech and camera images, works offline once you download a language, and has no ad
Editorial Team · 2026-10-11
Best Free AI Chat Apps on Mobile, Ranked by Our Scores
By Editorial Team · published 2026-09-15 · updated 2026-09-15
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ChatGPT and Gemini tie at 7.7 on our scores, and the tie-break is the one that matters on a phone: Gemini sells nothing inside the app and carries no advertising badge, while ChatGPT's Play listing now says it contains advertising. Five assistants were installed, scored on five criteria and reviewed on this site — Claude, Grok and Meta AI follow — and the spread between first and last is only four tenths of a point. What separates them is not how well they answer but what they collect while answering: privacy marks run from 6.5 down to 3.5, the lowest of any product in our catalogue. Prices as of September 2026.
How we ranked them
Each app has a full review with five sub-scores — core function, ease of use, monetisation, performance, and privacy and permissions — and the number at the head of each entry is the weighted result. For an assistant app the free tier is the product for most people, so we recorded what it covers and where the paid ladder goes; four of the five reach $199.99 a month or more at the top.
We also read Apple's privacy label and the Google Play data safety card for each one, because an assistant sees more of your life than almost any other app. Every entry states how many data categories are collected and whether any are named as advertising data.
One thing to say plainly: the answers themselves are close. All five score 8.0 to 9.0 on core function. The ranking is decided below that line.
1. Gemini — the only one of the big three that sells nothing in the app
Gemini scores 7.7. It answers, generates images and short video, identifies what the camera is pointed at, and schedules tasks that run daily without being asked again. Its Play listing shows no in-app purchases and no advertising badge — an 8.0 for monetisation, the highest here — because the paid tiers are sold through Google One instead: AI Plus at $4.99, AI Pro at $19.99, and Ultra at $99.99 or $199.99 depending on the limit multiplier, per Google's plan page. It has passed a billion Android installs.
The 5.0 for privacy is thirteen collected data categories, and the briefing feature works precisely because it reads your calendar, reminders and mail.
Good for: an Android phone where Google already has the calendar. Not for: anyone who wants to buy an upgrade without leaving the app.
2. ChatGPT — the one to try first, with a new advertising badge
ChatGPT also scores 7.7 with a 9.0 for core function: questions, photo understanding, image generation and a voice mode good enough to replace typing, all in the free tier with limits. It holds 4.8 stars across 55.8 million Google Play reviews.
What changed in 2026 is the commercial layer. Google Play now flags the listing as containing advertising, Apple's card lists data used for third-party advertising, and four paid tiers run from $8 to $200 a month with usage credits sold on top — a 5.0 for privacy and 6.5 for monetisation.
Good for: the widest set of things done well from one text box. Not for: anyone who keeps personal questions in it without reading the data card first.
3. Claude — the assistant whose answer can be a file
Claude scores 7.6 and carries the best privacy mark on the list, 6.5: seven collected categories, no advertising anywhere in the app. What sets it apart is output — it produces downloadable presentations, documents and spreadsheets, connects to Slack, Notion and Google Drive to work from your own documents, and runs longer jobs in the background with a notification when they finish. It is also the lightest install of the five.
Pro is $20 a month, ordinary for the category; the Max tiers reach $249.99. Apple rates it 18+, the strictest of the assistants here.
Good for: work that needs to end as a file, or answers drawn from your own documents. Not for: a teenager's phone.
4. Grok — knows what happened an hour ago, and shows you the posts
Grok scores 7.5 with 8.5 for both core function and ease of use. Its distinguishing feature is sourcing: it quotes live X posts, with engagement counts, when a question is about something current, and its Imagine mode applies styles to your own photos and generates video. It holds 4.9 stars across 3.77 million Play reviews, the highest rating here.
The reservations are the same feature seen from the other side. The sourcing inherits whatever X is amplifying that day, the app is rated 16+, photos and videos are among the data shared with third parties, and the paid ladder reaches $300 a month, the steepest of the five.
Good for: questions about what is happening right now. Not for: anyone who wants sources beyond one platform.
5. Meta AI — the best briefing, paid for in advertising data
Meta AI scores 7.3, and the reason to install it is genuinely good: a morning briefing pulled from calendar and inbox, free, with no subscription pushed. It also recommends local places on a map, edits images from presets and controls Ray-Ban smart glasses.
The 3.5 for privacy is the lowest mark of any product in our catalogue. Fourteen collected data categories, and Apple's listing names precise location, contacts, photos and browsing history as advertising data — the answers feed the same profile as Facebook and Instagram.
Good for: anyone who already accepts that trade in Meta's other apps. Not for: anyone who does not.
What we left out and why
Nothing was left out: these are the five assistant apps in our catalogue with a score. Copilot, Perplexity and Character.AI are not yet reviewed, and this list will be revisited when they are.
Bottom line
Gemini and ChatGPT are level on what they can do, and Gemini takes first place for what it does not do: no purchases in the app, no advertising badge. ChatGPT remains the one to try first if you want the broadest free tier, with the data card read. Claude is the pick when the output has to be a file or come from your own documents, and it collects the least. Grok is a news tool with an assistant attached, and Meta AI is a good briefing that costs your location and contacts. None of them needs a subscription for ordinary use — the free tiers are the product, and the ladders above them are for people who already know why they are climbing.
