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I Stopped Paying for ChatGPT After This Test!

By Ani BjörkströmPublished 3 December 2025Reviewed 20 September 202610 min video + articleAI Tools

I Stopped Paying for ChatGPT After This Test!
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AI TOOLS

Can Free Gemini 3 Pro Really Replace a Paid ChatGPT Subscription?

In short: Google's Gemini 3 Pro is free; the ChatGPT 5.1 plan in this comparison costs around 20 dollars per month.

Key takeaways

  • Google's Gemini 3 Pro is free; the ChatGPT 5.1 plan in this comparison costs around 20 dollars per month.
  • Through Google AI Studio rather than the consumer app, Gemini offers a temperature control and more than a million tokens of context.
  • Across three head-to-head tests — image recognition, travel planning and email writing — Gemini matched or slightly beat ChatGPT, which also crashed once mid-test.

Many people pay for OpenAI's ChatGPT 5.1 while a free alternative exists. Ani Björkström, a Stockholm-based tech consultant, put paid ChatGPT up against Google's newly released Gemini 3 Pro in three practical tests.

Why use Google AI Studio instead of the Gemini app?

The consumer version at gemini.google.com is good but watered down: it has filters, shorter memory, and sometimes feels lazy. AI Studio exposes the full model, including a temperature setting — raise it for creativity, lower it to stick to facts — a control ChatGPT does not offer. Its token counter also shows more than a million tokens available.

Which model performed better in the three tests?

The first test uploaded a stock photo of a fridge with the prompt: identify the ingredients and create a recipe using only what you see, no shopping allowed. Both produced sensible recipes — but ChatGPT labeled one item butter when it was more plausibly cheese, which Gemini identified correctly, so Gemini took the ingredient round.

TestChatGPT 5.1 (paid)Gemini 3 Pro (free)
Fridge photo to recipeSolid recipe, but misread cheese as butterCorrectly identified the cheese; comparable recipe
Weekend trip on 800 dollarsSuggested Kiruna with valid Expedia flight links, but slower and crashed onceSuggested Tallinn with a full budget breakdown and two hotel options
Boss email replyOne usable, well-judged replyTwo reply options to choose from

The second test asked for a three-day December weekend trip from Stockholm on exactly 800 dollars — snow but no skiing, cozy vibes, hot chocolate and cheap food, with flight prices, hotel names and links. Gemini proposed Tallinn, Estonia, about an hour away, with flights at 100 to 150 dollars, an itemized budget around 500 to 570 dollars, and two named accommodations. ChatGPT proposed Kiruna with correctly pre-filled Expedia flight searches — but it took longer, and the site crashed, forcing a re-login before the answer appeared.

How did they handle the emotional-intelligence test?

Both received a late Friday-night email from the boss demanding the presentation be redone by Monday, with instructions to firmly refuse weekend work while sounding like a proactive team player, without apologizing. ChatGPT's single reply was genuinely sendable — offline this weekend, picking it up at 8:00 Monday with a polished version ready. Gemini delivered a comparable reply plus a second alternative, earning extra credit for offering a choice.

So should you cancel the ChatGPT subscription?

On this evidence, Gemini did slightly better work overall: sharper image recognition, equal planning quality, and two email drafts instead of one, with no crashes. The decisive factor is not capability but price — Gemini 3 Pro delivered this on a free plan while ChatGPT costs roughly 20 dollars every month. Björkström closes by asking viewers: is the subscription still worth paying for?

FAQ

Is Gemini 3 Pro actually free?

Yes — the tests ran on Gemini's free plan via Google AI Studio, while ChatGPT ran on the paid 20-dollar monthly plan.

What is the temperature setting in AI Studio?

A slider that controls the model's behavior: increase it for more creative output, decrease it to make the model stick to facts. ChatGPT does not expose an equivalent control.

Did ChatGPT fail any test outright?

No — its answers were solid in all three tests. Its weaknesses were operational: it was slower on the travel-planning task and crashed once, requiring a re-login before the result appeared.

Full transcript of the video (1,679 words, 13 sections)

0:00 What if I [music] tell you that a lot of people right now are paying for open eyes chat GBT 5.1. [music] However, there is another option and it is totally for free. Google just [music] released their new model that is called Gemini 3 Pro and this model is totally free. And in this video, we will put [music] Chibbit's 5.1 in a competition with Google's Gemini Pro 3 and let's see which one wins. If you go to geminog.com, this one you are getting the consumer version. It is good but it is watered down. It has filters. It has shorter memory and sometimes it feels lazy. We don't want that. You need to go I studio and look in here on the right side we have temperature.

0:51 So this means if you want the model to be more creative you can increase the temperature. But if you want it to stick to facts, we can release the temperature. This is a feature that chat GPT for example doesn't have. And if we try to send something to Gemini here, the token count. And look at this. We have more than a million tokens available. For [snorts] the first test, I will use this fridge image from iStock. and I will upload it into chat GPT with this prompt that says look at this photo. Identify the ingredients. Create a recipe that actually test code using only what you see. No shopping allowed. Then we will do the same thing with Gemini as well.

1:36 We will go to Google's eye studio and then we will use exactly the same prompt and we will upload the same picture. Here it is. And then we will hit run button. Now, if we go back to Chachi, we can see that Chachibui returned fresh herbs, lemon, grapefruit, or possibly pink lemon, but looks like grapefruit. Next, we have orange slices, yogurt jars, infused water, mint, and citrus. That's definitely correct. Then, we have eggs, butter. I would say that this one is cheese, some kind of salami, sausage, jar of mustard, then there is bottled water, which is correct, juices, soda, beer, brown, and green bottles.

2:22 Those were correct as well. So, the only difference is that it says butter, but I can't see butter in this picture. I think this one will be possibly cheese. Then, if we go down, we can see the recipe. Minty citrus yogurt breakfast bowl with savory egg and salami bite. That sounds quite solid. Then we have instructions and then final middle. Now let's go to Gemini and see what Gemini is answering. In here we have eggs, salami, hard cheese, fresh herbs, lemon, yogurt. Then we have sparkling water, beer, orange juice, tomato juice, and cola. Okay, that's interesting. Gemini is not saying that there is about her.

3:09 So it's actually saying that there is cheese as I would have also said and everything else is almost the same. Then the recipe is a zero waste salami and cheese frittata. Then we have the menu instructions. And from here, if we just think about the ingredients list, I would say that Gemini actually did a better job to identify the ingredients because it classified this one that you can see as cheese instead of butter. And on my opinion, this is cheese. So, I'd say that Gemini did a better job when it comes to identifying the ingredients. But other than that, when it comes to creating a recipe, both Chhatip and Gemini did similar work. And here we need to again remember that right now I'm using Chach GBT's paid option.

3:56 So I'm paying $20 for Chach GBT monthly while I am on a free plan when it's come to Gemini. Now let's go ahead and do the second test. For the second test, I will ask Chhat GPT to organize and plan my travel. So this is the prompt that I'm using. I have exactly $800 total. I live in Stockholm. I want a three days weekend trip in December. I want to see snow, but I hate skiing. I want cozy wipes, hot chocolate, and cheap food. Plan flight prices and hotel names. And here I will also add including links to the flights and hotel names. I think this is fine. So let's just copy same prompt. So we can use that also for Gemini. And now we will hit enter button.

4:46 Now we can go to Google I studio and use the exactly same prompt in here as well. This might take a couple of minutes. If I go back to Chip and see how Chip is doing here, we can see that it started to think back to Gemini based on Gemini. The perfect destination is Italian Estonia. It's approximately 1 hour and no skiing. Okay, that's good. That's what we asked for. Then we have flights that are between $100 and $150. Accommodation two nights, food and drinks $150. Then we have transport $50 total it will between $500 to $570 and leftover when it's come to flight. So it will suggest Stockholm Arland to Talen airline sauce or RER.

5:32 That's interesting because Sus isn't a budget aine but Rhineer is definitely a budget airline. Then we have typical prices between1 and $140 I assume. And then we have search link. We have Google flights. Let's click on this link. Here we have all the flights between Stockholm and Talin for the whole December. And because we didn't specify which weekend we want to go, it is just looking for the best price. It gives us some suggestions when it comes to price and the filtering is definitely correct. So that's I think looks fine. If we come back to Gemini, we can see two accommodations, option one and option two. That sounds great. We have the name of the accommodations and then planned for all the days. Gemini did the work. Let's go now to CHPite isn't opening.

6:17 Here we have the answer from chat GPT. Actually to be honest, I have to say that this took some time and then the whole website crashes. So I had to close Chhat GP and I had to login into CHP one more time. But right now we have an answer. So we can see that it says the budget is around $800 and that is what we asked for. Then we have our flight and here it suggests to Kiruna and it will use S or Norwegian Airlines two nights and we have also hotel in Kiruna. Here is the link to flights. It's Expedia. If we try to open that one we can see that [clears throat] now the searching details are defined Stockholm and Kiruna and even departure and returning date. So that's good. And we have some options to choose. Back to the church activity we can see the rest of the plan.

7:04 So I would say that both the church activity and Gemini had the same type of results. The only thing is that the church activity took more time to return those results and it crashed and they had to close and open it one more time. Let's go to the next test. So for the last test, we will test emotional intelligence. Let's pretend that our boss sent us this email Friday night and it says, "Hey, I know it's late, but I'm going to need you to redo the entire presentation by Monday morning. The client hates the front. Thanks. And now I will ask Chachibility to write a reply. Firmly refuse to work this weekend, but make it sound like I'm being a proactive team player. Do not apologize." I will copy this prompt to send this to Gemini as well. And here I will hit enter button. Now let's go to Gemini and send the exactly same prompt.

7:50 Here we can see the answer. It says, "Hi boss name. Thanks for flagging this. I can absolutely rebuild the presentation first thing Monday morning and make sure the font and over styling match what the client expects. Since I'm offline this weekend, I will pick it up right at 8:00 on Monday and have a polished version ready. If there are any specific design preferences or examples you want me to follow, feel free to send them over so I can hit the ground running. I think this sounds good. This is solid. We can definitely send this to our boss. And if we go back to Gemini, we have an answer from Gemini as well. Hi boss, thanks for the update. Since this is a font adjustment, I will use the global replacement tool to update the slide master first thing Monday morning. I will have the polish version ready for you to review by half 9 on Monday.

8:38 See you then. And then we have option two as well. We have two options in here while the charg we had just one. So you can give an extra credit to Gemini here as well. Now if we try to summarize those three tests during the first test we saw that Gemini could identify the ingredients a bit better than what Chachip did. For the second test where we asked to plan a budget traveling plan we saw almost the same results. However, it took longer time for Chibd to create the plan and it crashed and I had to refresh Judge Gibbt and login one more time. And when it comes to the last test here, we can see that Chbt answered us, but there was just one version compared to Gemini where we had two versions. So to summarize, I'd say that Gemini did a bit better work compared to JBT.

9:24 The thing that actually matters is that I am using free version of Gemini while I pay around $20 every month to JB. The question is, should I cancel my CHBT subscription at this point or what do you think? Comment down below.

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Ani Björkström

Ani Björkström — founder of QvantX Sweden AB, a Stockholm consultancy building AI solutions for banks, asset managers and finance teams. Anthropic partner. Every article starts from a real client build, minus the confidential parts. LinkedIn →