You’ve probably already discovered some ways AI tools like Notion AI and ChatGPT can automate parts of your work and help you do more in less time. But which tool is better for your needs (and your budget)? Find out how Notion AI stacks up to ChatGPT in our definitive comparison!
Disclaimer: Like all AI tools, Notion AI and ChatGPT are constantly evolving. All information is up to date at the time of writing.
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Table of Contents
- Notion AI Features
- Notion AI vs. ChatGPT Similarities
- Notion AI vs. ChatGPT Differences
- Which is better?
Notion AI features
Before we dive in, you should know that Notion AI runs on the ChatGPT 3 API — but that doesn’t mean Notion AI and ChatGPT are the same thing.
Here are some things you can do with Notion AI:
- Translate text into one of 14 languages
- Brainstorm ideas
- Change the tone of text
- Make text shorter or longer
- Edit, proofread, and improve text with AI
- Create blog posts, creative stories, essays, and more
- Summarize text
- Auto-fill database properties
- Ask for more information about your page content in Notion
As an AI tool, Notion AI is fairly niche — it’s only available to use within the Notion app, and it offers a limited feature set.
Now that we’ve covered some ways you can use Notion AI, let’s see how it stacks up to ChatGPT.
Similarities between Notion AI and ChatGPT
Both Notion AI and ChatGPT let you:
- generate text and code
- edit, proofread, reformat, and summarize text
- get explanations for concepts and answers to questions
Differences between Notion AI and ChatGPT
Even though ChatGPT and Notion AI both run on GPT language models, they’re very different tools. Let’s take a look at how Notion AI and ChatGPT differ from each other.
Prompts and capabilities
Notion AI’s prompt range is fairly limited. Aside from writing, editing, summarizing, and formatting blocks in your Notion pages, there’s not a whole lot more you can do with Notion AI.
That said, Notion AI’s autofill database tool can be useful for those who want to auto-generate summaries of meeting notes or deliverables.
Don’t miss our full round-up of 100+ ChatGPT prompts for prompts you can use in your day-to-day life!
Personalization
While Notion AI can provide general tips and advice, its responses aren’t as personalized as ChatGPT’s. When we asked Notion AI for some weight loss tips, it gave us this bulleted list:
But when we asked it to create a custom meal plan for us, here’s the response we got:
While this is reassuring from a liability standpoint, it also doesn’t give the user what they asked for.
Compare that to ChatGPT’s response, which delivered exactly what we asked for:
Formatting
For the most part, Notion AI’s formatting is much cleaner compared to ChatGPT. Notion AI often adds heading blocks to generated text, which makes it more scannable and easier to read. This is especially useful for generating blog posts and similar content that’s already formatted for you.
ChatGPT’s interface doesn’t include formatting options like bold, underline, italics, or headings. That said, ChatGPT’s formatting is still pretty clean — ask ChatGPT to create a meal plan for you, and you’ll get lots of bulleted lists and paragraph breaks for easy reading.
Response substance
Give the same prompt to ChatGPT and Notion AI, and you’ll notice one thing: Notion AI’s responses tend to be much shorter, more general, and not always relevant to the prompt.
ChatGPT’s replies are typically longer, meatier, and more relevant than Notion AI’s. That’s presumably because Notion AI and ChatGPT are using different models.
Notion AI uses GPT-3. The free version of ChatGPT runs on the GPT-3.5 model, which is faster and more advanced than GPT-3. OpenAI also offers GPT-4 to Plus users, which is the most advanced model to date.
Access
As we mentioned, Notion AI is exclusive to the Notion app. While you can use ChatGPT browser extensions in several third-party tools (like Google Sheets), no browser extensions are currently available for Notion AI.
Output speed
When we tested the free versions of both programs to write this post, Notion AI was considerably faster at generating responses than ChatGPT. But just because responses were fast didn’t always mean they were useful, which leads us to our next point.
Price
One of the big differences between Notion AI and ChatGPT is price. Notion AI costs $10 USD per month, while ChatGPT’s Plus plan costs $20 USD per month.
Although ChatGPT Plus is double the cost of Notion AI, it also includes more features, as well as access to GPT-4, the latest and most advanced model.
Both Notion and ChatGPT offer a free version of their products. Notion users get 20 AI prompts for free. ChatGPT is free to use as long as demand is low.
Notion AI vs. ChatGPT: Which is better?
Well, that depends on your needs, as well as how much you use Notion!
Notion AI can be a great time-saver for Notion power users who want to:
- research various topics right from the Notion interface
- format text in Notion pages in less time
- create content like blog posts, stories, and even job descriptions
- summarize notes or text from Notion content
- spend less time manually updating database properties
Overall, ChatGPT offers a wider range of use cases — it may be a better option for those who want to:
- get personalized content, like tailored meal plans
- use generative AI tools with other apps via browser extensions
- save money on subscription costs
- access a wider variety of prompts
Try out both Notion AI and ChatGPT to see which tool serves you better!
Always use AI tools with caution, particularly when generating any text that’s submitted to a third party, like your teacher or boss. There are some concerns about AI regarding intellectual property rights and ownership.
Additionally, ChatGPT’s knowledge of current events stops at September 2021 — it won’t be able to provide information on events that happened after this date.
That’s a wrap on our in-depth comparison on Notion AI and ChatGPT! Which tool do you prefer? Got any prompts or hacks to share? Sound off in the comments!
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