ChatGPT vs Google: Which One is Better? (Tests & Results)

OpenAI recently introduced SearchGPT (ChatGPT Search), which is capable of giving up to date answers with reliable sources. Since its launch, it has given a whole new perspective to searching queries. Is this an end to Google? Will ChatGPT replace Google?

There are tons of questions, so why not put it to the test?

In this article, I will compare ChatGPT and Google with real-time examples (videos of my tests are included) and help you decide which can be a better option for your queries and questions.

ChatGPT vs Google: Quick Comparison

To get a basic overview of where this comparison is headed, here’s a quick rundown of how ChatGPT (SearchGPT) and Google are different.

Feature	ChatGPT	Google
Interface	Conversational AI chatbot interface	Search engine box with list of results
Information Source	Provides real-time data with sources	Scour current live internet
Response Format	Provides direct answers and summaries	Displays links to webpages as results
Personalization	Can personalize responses based on user instructions	Customizes results based on user data and history
Speed	Super-fast response to user prompts	Instant results delivery
Accuracy	May share some incorrect or outdated data	Results are generally highly accurate
Creativity	More capable of unique content generation	Simply retrieves existing information
Subjective Topics	Attempts to provide balanced perspectives	Objectively displays website information
Pricing	ChatGPT Plus costs $20/month	Completely free to use

ChatGPT vs Google: Which is More Accurate?

While we know by now that any AI tool is not 100% accurate, they are still pretty accurate. Even chatGPT shares this disclaimer beneath its search bar: 

Since AI-powered tools are based on the knowledge they already possess or are trained on, there is room for errors. But not for long. Let’s check how: 

To test the potential accuracy of both, I’ll be conducting a recent popular test where people are asking the AI, “How many ‘R’s in the word ‘Strawberry?’ as this question is getting varied responses.

ChatGPT’s Accuracy

In order to power the accuracy of the data/result shared by ChatGPT, OpenAI has been working to crack deals with top media houses like – TIME,  Conde Nast, The Atlantic, VOX Media, Financial Times, etc. 

Google’s Accuracy

Understanding ChatGPT

Back in 2021, Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI, said, “Working at OpenAI reminds me every day of the magnitude of the socio-economic changes that are going to happen faster than most people think. Software that can think and learn will increasingly do the work that people do today.”

He warned of a technological Tsunami, and here it is – ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot trained over OpenAI’s own language models – GPT 3.5, GPT 4, and the latest GPT 4o model or the Generative Pre-Trained Transformer – OpenAI’s Generative Text Artificial Intelligence model. In short, ChatGPT exploits deep NLP and machine-learning techniques to provide human-like responses.

The mastery of ChatGPT lies in its dialogue-based interactions. Just give any text prompts to ChatGPT, and it instantly generates a human-like answer to the query.

Incidentally, the new AI voice assistance feature inside the ChatGPT mobile app has been catching a lot of attention owing to its unbelievable real-time experience.

Besides, it can also generate DALLE-powered AI images and code snippets, as well as write poetry, screenplay, stories, and even scientific essays.

The chatbot is so popular that ChatGPT has already crossed the 100 million mark in just 2 months of its launch. But this landscape is constantly evolving, so anything can happen at any time.

What Is ChatGPT Search (SearchGPT)?

ChatGPT launched its own tool, ChatGPT Search, that uses OpenAI crawlers to find relevant and real-time answers from the web. It helps with tasks like finding current news, verifying facts, exploring resources, or gathering data that isn’t part of the existing knowledge base.

The OpenAI team is working on SearchGPT, which is still in beta version. The company is planning to launch it as a fully functional search engine like Google. However, it is still a prototype, and users will have to wait until its complete launch. Till then, the ChatGPT Search is the best option you can use right now. 

How To Use ChatGPT Search?

To use ChatGPT’s newest search function, SearchGPT, you must have an active ChatGPT Plus subscription. It simply works like Google AI Overview but in a better way. Whereas Google shows ranked articles for every specific keyword, SearchGPT shows real-time answers in a conversational way. 

The search feature only works with ChatGPT-4o and ChatGPT-4o mini models. The search feature does not automatically work – you will need to enable the Global sign first.

Then, you can search for recent events or news – it will provide you with results from relevant sources. Here’s an example: 

Even if you are planning a trip or want assistance in packing for solo hiking, ChatGPT Search will help you with everything.

ChatGPT vs Google – How Do They Compare With Each Other?

On the surface, ChatGPT and Google appear to serve the same purpose – answer users’ queries – but both have different approaches. ChatGPT follows a radical course of dialogue-based, human-like interaction.

In contrast, Google tracks the traditional route – take the query, compare it with billions of web pages, and present the most relevant results. Then why is ChatGPT being projected as the Google killer? Let’s find the answer.

In the next sections, I will compare ChatGPT and Google for their positive and negative aspects, working principle, user experience, offer, and affordability. 

1. Advantages And Limitations Of ChatGPT Compared To Google

Since ChatGPT is the one that is doing all the disruption, let’s take a look at the capabilities and advantages of ChatGPT first;

ChatGPT Advantages

ChatGPT lists its capabilities and limitations on the interface, which is convenient to get the gist of, but we will go into more details.

The primary appeal of ChatGPT is its human-like response. It’s like talking to an actual expert.

Let’s take an example: ‘Explain the second law of thermodynamics in simple terms.

Hailing from a science background, I can say the answer is concise and structured.

Another advantage of ChatGPT is the precise nature of the responses.

ChatGPT replies to prompts in the most concise manner. You get the answer in the least words possible.

For example, when I ask the steps to prepare chicken nuggets at home, here’s the response I received;

ChatGPT offers steps from start to finish with no fluff. The condensed nature of the information that ChatGPT provides is particularly appealing.

Code debugging is also a glittering feature of ChatGPT that is hard to overlook

I mean, searching for code snippets is one thing, but getting actual code written is altogether a different level. It is awe-inspiring and certainly outdoes Google.

Let’s take an example of code debugging. I asked ChatGPT to correct a code that adds two numbers on Python.

Here’s the response;

ChatGPT not only corrects the code but also explains the error. Ingenious, to say the least. No such capability in Google.

ChatGPT can double up as a virtual assistant, too!

You can ask it to draft a contract, write a poem, compile a travel itinerary, and offer gift ideas. Google doesn’t work this way. Therefore, ChatGPT has the upper hand here too.

Bonus: Want to start a business using ChatGPT? Take a look at our list of ChatGPT business ideas and choose the best one to get started right away.

ChatGPT can adjust responses based on a slight variation in the text prompts.

ChatGPT is adept at understanding the context and adjusting its response. You can tweak the question to get a different reply.

ChatGPT Limitations 

ChatGPT is intuitive, but it has limitations and some with much more severe implications. Let’s take a look at them;

ChatGPT has serious accuracy issues.

This means that the information it provides cannot be assumed to be accurate. The implications of these limitations are far-reaching; therefore, I have dedicated a whole section to this later in the article.

Struggle to generate structured long-form content.

From multiple user reports, it’s come to light that ChatGPT may not be suitable for generating long-form content such as stories, blogs, articles, reviews, and more. It gives out a result but is often not up to the mark. 

ChatGPT won’t be free forever?

ChatGPT is available for free for now, but sooner or later, Open AI will monetize it. After all, it takes enormous resources to generate answers for the text prompts. When Elon Musk asked about it, Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, replied that each prompt cost around a cent.

2. Advantages And Limitations Of Google Compared To ChatGPT

Google was a revolution during the early days of search engines, which is why it evolved as an authority in the internet realm. Let’s explore the advantages and limitations of Google and compare them to ChatGPT.

Advantages

Google AI Overview

Getting in the race for AI-powered search results, Google has its own way of giving search results now with the help of “AI Overview.” This new feature summarizes the most useful information about your search query and shares a response with all the relevant links

Check this out: 

Google has a massive database with all the latest information.

Google has over a hundred billion web pages indexed in its database. With such a massive database, Google can provide the most relevant results in split seconds. That’s not the case with ChatGPT. It offers precise answers but is limited by its knowledge.

Interesting Read: The number of internet users has reached over 5.3 billion, and most of them use Google as their primary search engine. Be updated with the latest trends and facts of the internet through our Internet User Statistics post here.

Google offers you multiple avenues to seek the most suitable answer

Google, in most cases, doesn’t answer you in YES or NO. Instead, it focuses on relevance and provides results that it finds most relevant to the search query. Users have multiple avenues to seek, compare, and verify the information.

Google is capable of offering real-time information

Unlike ChatGPT, Google can provide real-time information. You can search trains and flight schedules, delays, the fastest route, real-time traffic status, and more.

Want to know which are the most searched things on Google? Check out our post to learn about the popular Google searches.

Google particularly excels in offering personalized results.

Google can offer you results based on your past choices, locations, preferences, and more. You can ask Google for gift ideas, which will provide you with the details alongside user reviews, the best sites to buy a particular product, the nearest store where the items will be available, and multiple other suggestions based on your choice. In short, it is a more comprehensive answer that ChatGPT still can’t rival.

Google is Free

The primary revenue source for Google is ads. But there’s no subscription model to avail of its service. You don’t have to pay a dime to extract information from Google. That’s not the case with ChatGPT – it’s free for now but won’t be in the future.

Limitations

Google is a search engine and doesn’t have the same language processing capabilities as ChatGPT.

As I told you earlier, the primary attraction of ChatGPT is its human-like interactions. Google doesn’t give you a single answer; instead, it presents you with different results and leaves it to users to find the most accurate answer. In contrast, ChatGPT provides a thorough and crisp response to your question in a human-like language.

Google doesn’t act as an AI-powered virtual assistant

You cannot instruct Google to draft a story. Sure, it can tell you the steps to write a good story, and all the elements needed to make it catchy and appealing, but you have to do it yourself. In ChatGPT, a few texts will be enough to get a working story.

Bonus: Though Google directly cannot take care of AI virtual assistance, it has its own AI-powered chatbot called – “Google Gemini” which gets 330.9 million monthly visits. 

3. ChatGPT Vs Google: Working

One helpful way to discern the differences between ChatGPT and Google is to understand their work. Their inherent working will also eventually play a huge part in determining which platform will triumph.

How Does ChatGPT Work?

Chat GPT exploits the various GPT models. These models are trained over an extensive amount of data from the internet. Azure AI supercomputers were used for the training. Besides, OpenAI also employs a unique Reinforcement Learning technique utilizing human feedback.

Check out this resourceful video from Wolfram explaining how ChatGPT works: 

It means that human trainers also contributed to the training of ChatGPT apart from a large data set. The ChatGPT system is designed to produce contextually appropriate responses. Besides, the AI bot focuses explicitly on ease of use; therefore, it answers instantly, admits mistakes, and denies inappropriate queries. 

How Google Works?

Google is a search engine and is radically different from ChatGPT. It scans the internet looking for URLs – the process referred to as crawling. Next, it indexes the data in its database to fetch when asked. And lastly, it provides the most relevant information based on the search query.

To know how Google works, check out this official video from the Google Search Central YouTube channel: 

Google ranks websites based on the relevance of content based on a particular keyword. When a user enters a query, Google matches it with billions of web pages and offers results in a successive order based on the relevance of their content. 

4. ChatGPT vs Google – Usability

The entire premise of ChatGPT is based on ease of use, which is reflected in its functionality. A simple text prompt will return a clear and comprehensive answer. If we take the example of writing or debugging a code, ChatGPT does it with relative ease. Besides, it explains the process for clearing the code further.

Google, on the other hand, just fetches results. It’s on users to visit the ranking web pages and search for what they are looking for. Google does have a question snippet that directly answers questions, but it’s not as comprehensive as ChatGPT’s response. 

Still, one point to consider here is that Google devices are now powered by its exclusive AI chatbot – Gemini, turning mobile devices into Google AI assistants. This has elevated the whole experience of searching with Google.

With these changes and the pace at which Google is planning to integrate this AI power, it is projected to give Google more usability. 

Google Gemini vs ChatGPT

Open AI created ChatGPT to serve as a general conversational AI assistant that is able to discuss a wide range of topics through natural language dialogs. It is trained on massive amounts of internet text data ending in 2023.

With the recent addition to browsing the internet, ChatGPT aims to share up-to-date information and works to provide helpful, harmless, and honest responses.

Google Gemini takes a more limited scope, focusing specifically on providing concise, factually accurate answers to questions rather than open-ended conversations. It is trained on Google’s latest internet data and search corpus.

Gemini, which was launched as Bard, was designed to cite its sources and admit when it is uncertain.

A key difference is that ChatGPT tries to play the role of a human chat companion, while Google Gemini focuses solely on answering user queries accurately.

While ChatGPT produces more detailed, conversational responses, they may sometimes be incorrect or biased. Google Gemini prioritizes correct, to-the-point replies over personality and elaboration.

To compete with Google Gemini (Bard) and ChatGPT, Bing search engine has also introduced its own AI chatbot called Bing AI. We have compared all three of these chatbots, which you can check here.

Conclusion: Google Is A Better Search Engine!

When looking at both from a user perspective, Google still provides a better search experience, with additional required resources always handy. That’s not the case with ChatGPT yet, even with the SearchGPT.

ChatGPT Search may be able to provide results based on recent events or news. They are pretty accurate but you won’t get too many images, videos, or images related to that.

Likewise, location-based searches and suggestions are still elusive to ChatGPT ( ask ChatGPT about good restaurants in the area). However, Google can fetch hundreds of results based on your location, past preferences, etc., with additional information like reviews, distance, direction, and more.

That said, ChatGPT is still in its early days, and the ‘SearchGPT’ feature is yet to be fully rolled out. Therefore, the field is open for ChatGPT to improve and adapt. I don’t see ChatGPT replacing Google anytime soon; however, it has shown there’s an alternative to ads-ridden text-based searches. 

Alternatively, Google is also constantly evolving and integrating AI to provide a rich user experience. I smell a new tech war brewing; what are your thoughts? 

FAQs