We get this question constantly, so here is a quick breakdown:
ChatGPT (OpenAI)
Best for: General-purpose tasks, creative writing, brainstorming
Watch out for: Can be confidently wrong, free version has limits
Teacher use case: Lesson plan drafting, generating discussion questions
Claude (Anthropic)
Best for: Long document analysis, nuanced writing, following detailed instructions
Watch out for: Can be overly cautious, less widely known
Teacher use case: Rubric creation, differentiated content, policy drafting
Gemini (Google)
Best for: Integration with Google Workspace, research tasks, multimodal (text + images)
Watch out for: Newer, still evolving
Teacher use case: Slides generation, research summaries, image analysis
The honest answer? Try all three for the same task and see which output you prefer. They are all free at the basic level.
Drop your experience below - which one do you actually use the most and why?