The best ChatGPT alternatives for planning your life

The short answer

There’s no single best alternative; it depends on where your life already lives. Gemini is the natural pick if you use Gmail and Google Calendar, Copilot if you use Outlook and Microsoft 365, and Claude if you want careful help with your inbox and calendar. Muse from Meta goes furthest at doing errands for you, in the US for now, and Perplexity is quickest for answers with sources. All of them are general assistants: they help when you ask. If you want your everyday questions answered by something that already knows you, and your outfits, meals, training, rest and plans looked after and planned around each other, that’s what we’re building Retenna to do, with its own AI, built deeper for everyday life.

Why people look for a ChatGPT alternative

ChatGPT is still the assistant most people start with, but a few things have changed this year:

• Ads. OpenAI started testing ads in ChatGPT in the US in February 2026, and they now run in 89 countries. They appear on the Free and Go plans; Plus and above stay ad-free.
• Proactive updates went away. Pulse, which researched personal updates for you overnight, was retired in June 2026. You can still ask ChatGPT to schedule a daily briefing.
• Price. Plus is $19.99 on the App Store, and Pro now comes in $100, $200 and $500 tiers.
• Where you live. Some of OpenAI’s newest features aren’t everywhere: personal Pro accounts can’t use Dots, its always-on agents, in the UK, the EEA or Switzerland.

And there are everyday reasons: wanting an assistant that already knows your Google or Microsoft apps, different privacy terms, a style of answer you prefer, or something that does more than talk.

When you’re choosing one to plan your life with, look for five things: memory you can see and change, your calendar and email connected, reminders and routines, whether it gets ahead of you or only answers, and what it does with what you tell it.

The alternatives at a glance

We looked at the biggest general assistants people use to plan their days, chosen by reach and by what they can do with your calendar, email and reminders. ChatGPT is included, fairly, for comparison.

Assistant by assistant

ChatGPT: what it still does well

Maker

OpenAI

Cost

Free; Go $8, Plus $19.99, Pro $100 to $500 on the App Store

App Store

4.8 from 11.6M ratings

Best for

An all-rounder for anything you ask

ChatGPT is still the one to beat for breadth. It can remember what you tell it and draw on past chats, connect to Gmail and Google Calendar, and run scheduled tasks such as reminders, a daily briefing or something to keep an eye on. Voice conversations, photo uploads and image generation are built into the app. Ask, and it will plan a week of meals, a workout or a trip in seconds.

Worth knowingAds appear on the Free and Go plans. Free and Go can run three scheduled tasks at a time, and Free runs them in broad windows such as the morning rather than at an exact time. On personal plans your chats can be used to train OpenAI’s models unless you turn off “Improve the model for everyone” in data controls. For a head-to-head on outfits, meals, workouts and plans, see Retenna vs ChatGPT.

Google Gemini

Maker

Google

Cost

Free; Google AI Plus $4.99, Pro $19.99, Ultra $199.99 on the App Store

App Store

4.7 from 2.4M ratings

Best for

People whose life runs on Google’s apps

Gemini’s strength is your Google account. Google says you can connect more than 40 apps and services, including Gmail, Calendar, Photos, YouTube and Search. It can add and change calendar events when you ask, run up to ten schedules, such as a morning digest, and remember what you’ve told it. In the US, Daily Brief sums up what needs you each morning from Gmail, Calendar and your chats, and learns from what you mark helpful or dismiss. Gemini Spark, an agent that manages tasks for you, is for Google AI Ultra subscribers.

Worth knowingPersonal Intelligence, which lets Gemini draw on your connected apps, isn’t available in the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or Nigeria, and Daily Brief is US-only, in English. With Keep Activity on, your chats can help train Google’s models and some are read by human reviewers; Google says your Gemini chats aren’t used to show you ads. More in Retenna vs Gemini.

Claude

Maker

Anthropic

Cost

Free; Pro $20 a month ($17 a month yearly); Max from $100 a month

App Store

4.7 from 286K ratings

Best for

Careful help with your inbox, calendar and big decisions

Claude calls itself a “thinking partner”, and its memory is on by default on every personal plan, including Free: you can browse what it remembers by topic, edit it or delete it, or just tell it to forget something. Connect Gmail, Google Calendar and Drive, which every plan can do, and it can search your email, draft, send and reply, and create, change or delete events, asking for your approval before each action by default. Pro adds research, task handoff and scheduling.

Worth knowingSearching your past chats is for paid plans. You choose whether your chats help train Claude, and incognito chats never do. Its proactive app, Claude Duet, is a research preview for invited Pro and Max subscribers in the US; we cover it in our AI agents comparison.

Meta AI and Muse

Maker

Meta

Cost

Free; Muse has paid plans for heavier use

App Store

Meta AI 4.7 from 283K; Muse 4.9 from 350K

Best for

Errands done for you, and help inside WhatsApp

Meta has two. Meta AI is the assistant in WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Facebook, and in its own app, and can now give you daily briefings with scheduled tasks and reminders, connect to your email and calendar, and build shopping lists and workout plans. Muse, launched on 8 September 2026, is a personal AI agent with its own cloud computer. Its App Store page says it manages scheduling conflicts, books reservations, sets reminders, follows up with people, tracks your budget and price drops, and can build a workout or meal plan from data you choose to share, track calories and adjust your training day by day. It checks with you before sensitive actions, such as sending an email or making a purchase.

Worth knowingMuse is rolling out in the US, is rated 18+, and warns that it “may be inaccurate or take unexpected actions”. Since 16 December 2025, Meta has used people’s chats with its AI to personalise the content and ads they see in most regions, though it says chats about health, religion, politics and other sensitive topics aren’t used for ads. Meta says Muse doesn’t share your conversations, or the data on its computer, with its ad systems.

Microsoft Copilot

Maker

Microsoft

Cost

Free with limits; Microsoft 365 Personal $99.99, Family $129.99, Premium $199.99 a year

App Store

4.7 from 1.4M ratings

Best for

Homes that run on Outlook and Microsoft 365

In August 2026 Microsoft merged its personal Copilot app with the work one, and the app now calls itself “the AI built for work”. With a personal account you can still chat, create images and upload files for free within limits, and connect Outlook.com, Gmail, Google Calendar and Contacts, OneDrive and Google Drive, so it can find your emails, files and events. With personalisation on, it remembers details such as your name, interests and goals. A Microsoft 365 plan brings Copilot into Word, Excel, Outlook and OneNote, with higher limits.

Worth knowingGroup chats, podcasts and Deep Research were retired for personal accounts on 18 August 2026, and Copilot Tasks moved to Cowork, which needs Microsoft 365 Premium; Personal and Family subscribers lost access. Your conversations can be used to train Microsoft’s models unless you opt out, and if personalised ads and personalisation are both on, your Copilot history helps personalise the ads you see.

Perplexity

Maker

Perplexity AI

Cost

Free; Pro $20 and Max $200 on the App Store

App Store

4.8 from 518K ratings

Best for

Quick answers and research, with sources

Perplexity is an answer engine: every answer comes with its sources. It keeps a memory of your preferences and past searches, which you can view and delete, and its Assistant can draft emails, schedule appointments and book reservations. Connect Gmail and Google Calendar, and it can search your inbox and see and change your calendar; sending emails and creating events from the Assistant happens in its Comet browser.

Worth knowingIt can only work with one primary calendar, not shared or secondary ones. Perplexity says it may use what’s in your memory to improve its models unless you turn off AI Data Retention.

Retenna Ours

Maker

Retenna, that’s us

Cost

Free early access, with founding pricing for life

Where

Coming to iPhone, Android and the web; the UK among the first countries

Best for

Everyday questions and running every part of your life

Retenna is more than a chat assistant. It runs its own AI, built deeper for everyday life, and it’s every lifestyle expert in one app: a stylist, a beauty and grooming expert, a personal trainer, a nutritionist, a wellbeing coach, a planner for your days, occasions and trips, and a personal shopper, each with a full space and real tools of its own. They remember what matters to the people you love, share one living model of you, and plan your week together inside your rules. An assistant runs through all of them and answers your everyday questions already knowing you: ask in a few words, and it knows the rest. It shares a calendar and lists with your partner or household, and it brings your history over from other apps, such as your food diary, your workout history and your wardrobe.

Worth knowingIt isn’t out yet. Everything here is what it’s built to do, and early access is open now. Retenna is coming to iPhone, Android and the web. The UK will be one of the first countries, and we’ll confirm the others nearer the time. A general assistant stays useful for broader questions outside everyday life, such as work, research and study.

Others you’ll come across: Grok, from xAI, is popular for real-time news and conversation from X. The always-on agents, Grok Bot, OpenAI’s Dots, Claude Duet and Muse, are compared in Muse vs Dots vs Grok Bot vs Claude Duet.

Side by side: what each can do for your life

The top rows are where the assistants have caught up with each other. The lower rows are where planning a life needs more than a chat. The key is under the table.

Yes

The maker documents it.

Condition

Only on a certain plan, app or country: Claude’s scheduling on Pro; Copilot’s Cowork on Microsoft 365 Premium; Gemini’s Daily Brief in the US and Spark on Google AI Ultra; Claude Duet as a US preview; Muse in the US; ChatGPT’s Dots on Pro and Business Premium; Perplexity’s actions in its Comet browser.

Partly

A lighter version: briefings you schedule yourself, now that ChatGPT’s Pulse has gone; turning Copilot’s memory off, which forgets everything at once, rather than changing one thing; or Muse coaching your workouts, meals and sleep in its chat, from data you share, and adjusting your training as your week shifts.

Ask in chat

It can help if you explain the rest of your week in the conversation.

–Dash

Not mentioned in the maker’s own materials. That doesn’t prove it can’t.

Memory, your calendar and your email are now standard. What none of the assistants mentions is a space of its own for your wardrobe, your training, your skin or your sleep, or a reason and an Undo for everything it does. They’re built to answer and to act when you ask, not to run the parts of your life together.

Where Retenna goes further: four words, three days planned

Any of these assistants can help you prepare for an interview if you ask, and the ones connected to your calendar can see it’s there. Retenna is built to take it from there, across your whole life. On Monday night, you type four words: “I got the interview!”

What it already knewThe interview is on Thursday at 10:00, 40 minutes away, and your dentist is at 09:30 the same morning. It has learned that you sleep badly before big days, feel sharpest in the charcoal suit, are flat the morning after a hard session and skip breakfast when you’re nervous. The 09:22 train was late four times this month. And Jo, who hires people for a living, offered to help.

A clash caught before it cost you the morning, and sleep, training, food, clothes and travel joined up, from four words. So on Thursday, all you have to do is walk in.

That’s the difference between an assistant and a team of experts. Each part of your life has its own space in Retenna, with the depth of a dedicated app: your whole wardrobe, with no limit on how much you add, plus your colours, shape and try-on; your training, with sets, reps and weights that change mid-workout, and race plans built back from race day; your meals, recipes and food shop, with meals logged from a scan of your plate, a barcode or your voice; your rest and sleep; your skin, hair and grooming; your days, occasions and trips; your shopping; and the people you love. Each has its own guide, comparing it with the top apps: stylist, beauty and grooming, personal trainer, nutritionist, sleep coach, planner, trips, personal shopper and the people you love. Our all-in-one lifestyle app comparison shows how it all compares with family and life organisers.

In Retenna, try-on from your photos, health features such as counting calories and nutrients, and buying are for adults (18+). Neither Retenna’s experts nor these assistants are doctors, registered dietitians, physiotherapists or therapists, and plans that respect allergies don’t replace checking labels.

How it learns, and how you stay in charge

Every expert shares one living model of you. It learns from what you do, what you choose and what you tell it, and each thing it learns says where it came from, such as “You feel your best in the navy blazer”, from your wear notes, or “Sore for two days after leg day”, from your training log.

1. Day one It asks. Your sister is in town on Thursday night: what would you like to do? You plan it, and it remembers.
2. Within weeks It suggests. “You always make time for family. Dinner with her on Thursday at 19:00, and move your gym session to Friday lunchtime?”
3. In time It decides the way you would. Dinner booked at the place you both like, the gym moved, and the invite for your sister waiting for your yes.

Your rulesYou choose what it simply does and tells you about after, and what waits for your yes. Your own plans and places you’ve used before start as done for you; anywhere new and new spending ask first; anything that involves another person always asks first. Every plan comes with the reason and an Undo, and if you keep undoing the same kind of plan, it notices and suggests a rule.

What it knows is yoursYou can see, change or forget anything it has learned, and export or delete everything Retenna holds about you.

What happens to what you tell it

An assistant you plan your life with will learn a lot about you. Here’s what each maker says it does with that, and where its most personal features work:

• ChatGPT. On personal plans, your chats can help train OpenAI’s models unless you turn that off in data controls. Ads appear on Free and Go.
• Gemini. With Keep Activity on, chats and information from connected apps can train Google’s models, and some chats are reviewed by people and kept for up to three years. Activity is deleted after 18 months by default, and Google says chats aren’t used for ads. Privacy hub.
• Claude. You choose whether your chats help train Claude, in its privacy settings; incognito chats never do.
• Meta AI and Muse. Meta AI chats help personalise the content and ads you see, apart from sensitive topics. Muse keeps your conversations away from Meta’s ad systems, and you can opt out of them training Meta’s models.
• Copilot. Conversations can train Microsoft’s models unless you opt out, and can personalise ads if you allow personalised ads. Privacy FAQ.
• Perplexity. What’s in your memory may be used to improve its models unless you turn off AI Data Retention.
• Retenna. Your Retenna is private to you. Everything it knows is locked to your account and walled off from everyone else’s, on Microsoft Azure’s secure cloud, encrypted when stored and on the way. We never use your information to train public AI models. We never sell your information, and detailed analytics and personalised ads are optional, for adults only, and off unless you say yes.

Where they workSeveral of the most personal features are US-first: Gemini’s Daily Brief, Muse and Claude Duet. Gemini’s Personal Intelligence isn’t in the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or Nigeria, and personal ChatGPT Pro accounts can’t use Dots in the UK, the EEA or Switzerland. Check before you pay for a feature. Retenna is coming to iPhone, Android and the web. The UK will be one of the first countries, and we’ll confirm the others nearer the time.

How to choose

Pick a general assistant by the apps you already use. If you want your everyday questions answered by something that already knows you, and the parts of your life looked after, not just talked about, that’s Retenna. It works happily alongside any of them.

For a general assistant

• ChatGPTStill the broadest all-rounder, with memory and scheduled tasksAds on Free and Go.
• GeminiIf your life runs on Gmail and Google CalendarIts most personal features aren’t in the UK or the EEA.
• ClaudeCareful help with your inbox, calendar and big decisionsMemory on the free plan too.
• Muse from MetaErrands, bookings and bills handled for you, with your OKUS only for now; Meta AI is in WhatsApp everywhere it’s offered.
• CopilotIf you live in Outlook and Microsoft 365
• PerplexityFast answers and research, with sources you can check

For running every part of your life

How Retenna works

Questions

Sources

• ChatGPT: App Store, memory, Google apps, scheduled tasks, release notes, ads in ChatGPT, ads in 89 countries, data controls, getting started with your dot
• Google Gemini: App Store, release notes, Personal Intelligence, Daily Brief, schedules, calendar actions, privacy hub
• Claude: App Store, pricing, memory and chat search, Google Workspace connectors, model training, Claude Duet
• Meta: Meta AI on the App Store, Muse on the App Store, Introducing Muse, AI chats and recommendations
• Microsoft Copilot: App Store, Copilot app changes, connectors, privacy FAQ, Microsoft 365 plans
• Perplexity: App Store, memory, Gmail and Google Calendar
• Also mentioned: Grok on the App Store, OpenAI Dots

Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we’ll fix it.