Every comparison on this site follows the same protocol. It is written down here so you can judge whether our conclusion applies to your situation, or whether we tested for something you do not care about.
1. The same task, given to every tool
Each tool in a comparison receives an identical prompt or workload. No tool gets a second attempt that the others did not get, and we do not pick the best of five generations for one product and the first attempt for another. When a tool fails, the failure is part of the result.
2. Paid accounts, used long enough to hit the limits
We pay for the plans we review. Free tiers are tested as free tiers, and paid tiers on our own subscriptions. That matters because most tools only reveal their real constraints once you pass a quota: a rate limit, a slower queue, a feature that turns out to be capped.
3. What we measure
Where a number can be measured, it goes in the article: cost per task, time to first usable output, failure rate across repeated runs, and what the monthly bill looks like at a realistic volume rather than at the vendor’s example volume. Where something cannot be measured and comes down to judgement, we say so plainly instead of dressing an opinion up as data.
4. What we do not do
We do not accept payment for a ranking position, we do not send verdicts to vendors before publication, and we do not rewrite a conclusion because a company asked. Affiliate links exist on this site and are disclosed, but they play no part in the order of a comparison.
5. When a test goes out of date
AI tools change faster than any other software category we have covered. Each comparison carries the date it was run and the version tested. When a change is significant enough to alter the verdict, we re-run the test and note what moved rather than silently editing the old page.