Google Bard vs. Chat GPT-3.5: What’s the Difference, and Which One Is Better? 

Key Points

• Google Bard and Chat GPT-3.5 are popular AI chatbots that offer similar functionality but have some differences.
• Both Google Bard and Chat GPT-3.5 are free to use, but Chat GPT-3.5 has limitations for free users and offers more features for paying subscribers.
• Google Bard has better availability and reliability compared to Chat GPT-3.5, which can be affected by network overload and has occasional errors.
• Both chatbots have their limitations and may provide inaccurate or biased information, so it’s important to verify their responses.
• Google Bard can access live information from the internet, while Chat GPT-3.5 is limited to the knowledge in OpenAI’s database.

Today, we’re comparing Google Bard vs. Chat GPT-3.5. It seems as if, overnight, the talk of the nation became a pure hype storm with the launch of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots. Some reports are fearful. How many jobs will AI make obsolete? When will AI develop a mind of its own and enslave humanity? 

Other accounts are almost comically optimistic about the possibilities. Probably the most amusing of these narratives involve supposed get-rich-quick schemes where you ask ChatGPT how to make millions of dollars, and the bot returns a fool-proof, step-by-step guide — usually involving playing the stock market. 

In this appraisal of two of the market’s most popular AI tools, we’re going to strike a middle ground. We’ll leave out the nightmare scenarios or pie-in-the-sky promises and talk about what makes Google Bard and Chat GPT-3.5 useful, in what areas they falter, and how the two services compare. Let’s dive in!

Google Bard vs. Chat GPT-3.5: Side-by-Side Comparison

Chat GPT-3.5 vs. Google Bard: What’s the Difference?

To understand what sets these AI chatbots apart from one another, we’ll compare them across similar vectors. We’ll consider how much, if anything, it costs to access these services, how quickly the two return answers, how intelligent the bots are, and how easy it is to use either service. 

At the surface level, Google Bard and Chat GPT-3.5 possess similar functionality, but the more time you spend with each, the more you notice the differences. Before we get into specifics, understand that while these technologies are indeed groundbreaking, they’re still far from perfect.

As such, it’s better to view these chatbots as your helper, not your director. Always check the bots’ responses to ensure the logic is sound and the facts add up before relying upon them in your own work. 

Pricing

If you’re having trouble making a decision about which of these chatbots to use, the cost might be the first differential that comes to your mind. Unfortunately for you, neither Google nor OpenAI makes your decision easy in that regard. That’s because both are free to use. 

Well, pretty much, anyway. Chat GPT-3.5 is available for free, but you’re limited as to how many questions you can ask and features you can access. Most significantly, OpenAI’s more sophisticated model, GPT-4, is only available to users who pay $20 a month. 

This means that free users cannot access GPT-4’s more robust neural network, nor its incredibly useful Code Interpreter, which basically performs the work of a junior data analyst. 

Free users of ChatGPT are also limited as to when they can access the service. If the servers happen to be busy — which seems to happen quite frequently — then priority access goes to paying subscribers. 

Okay, so that’s how OpenAI’s pricing works. What about Google Bard? As of right now, Google is more generous than OpenAI in that regard. Bard is free to use with no strings attached — unless you’re using it at an enterprise level. 

Google could certainly charge users for Bard in the future, but bear in mind that many of Google’s long-standing apps and services remain free — including YouTube, Gmail, and, of course, its search engine. 

Using a free service does still come with a cost, though. In the case of ChatGPT, the most glaring cost has to be the lack of access during peak periods. And when it comes to Bard, Google will certainly monetize the service by leveraging the data it gathers from users. (To be fair, OpenAI has similar plans.)

Speed and Availability

We’ve already touched a bit on availability with the above discussion about pricing. With ChatGPT, whether or not you choose to pay determines how much access you get to the service — and how quickly. 

As it stands, ChatGPT still has the best name recognition of the AI chatbots currently on the market. This means, of course, that a lot of people are clamoring to use it, which puts a huge burden on OpenAI’s servers.

Ironically, then, ChatGPT’s popularity also somewhat hinders the user experience — especially for non-paying users. Here’s a frustratingly oft-seen response when asking GPT-3.5 a question: 

And for the record, paying users aren’t necessarily safe from such error messages either. 

This issue of availability aside, GPT-3.5 delivers fast responses when it is working properly. Even when dealing with complex queries, the bot works astonishingly quickly.

Obviously, if you ask GPT to write a whole Python script or read an existing dataset, that’s going to take much longer than if you ask it something quotidian, like “five common interview questions.” 

For complex or simple queries, the user can start seeing the response being written even before the response is complete, which is not only highly convenient, but also gives you the impression that you’re chatting with an actual human.

As far as responses go, Google Bard works in a similar vein to deliver a human-quality conversational experience. Not only is Bard equally fast, but it also seems less prone to network issues. 

Perhaps this enhanced availability has to do with Google’s robust global network of servers. It could also be that Bard is simply less well-known compared to ChatGPT, and therefore not as plagued by network issues.

Whatever the case might be, it seems apparent that if you wish to avoid paying for an AI bot, and you need reliable 24/7 access to it, Bard could be the ideal choice for you. 

Reliability

This is probably the most important factor to consider when choosing which AI service to use: intelligence. How reliable are the answers that both GPT-3.5 and Bard return? Sure, they might often sound confident in their responses. But do they always have the right answers? 

Many early adopters of these AI chatbots have already revealed some occasional issues with responses that the AI returns. Both ChatGPT and Google Bard have been known to sometimes report back inaccurate or biased information.

In the case of ChatGPT, some users have criticized the bot for disseminating harmful or discriminatory ideas. Now, on the surface, this certainly appears to be a disturbing issue. But it’s important to understand how this occurs.

Both GPT and Bard access an enormous network of human knowledge and information to process responses. While sifting through all this data, the bots don’t always do the best job of vetting sources or checking for accuracy. They simply collect and synthesize. 

Most of the time, this process works quite well. On occasion, though, it does have problematic or buggy consequences. As we’ve noted previously, it’s important that the human user takes the bots’ responses with a grain of salt. Think of yourself as the expert in the field, and the AI bot as your research assistant. 

Internet Connectivity

Due to the controversies surrounding ChatGPT noted above, OpenAI has decided, for the time being, not to allow GPT to pull information directly from the internet. GPT-3.5’s knowledge is therefore limited to what’s retained in OpenAI’s database — which cuts off in September 2021. 

For many tasks, that knowledge cut-off might not be a huge deal. If you’re asking GPT when Napoleon invaded Russia, for instance, you’re going to get a pretty reliable answer. If, however, you’re a developer using the latest version of a programming language, GPT-3.5 is only going to get you so far. 

Google Bard, on the other hand, works differently. It runs primarily on Google’s LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications). But Bard is also able to bolster its responses by retrieving live information from the web.

Obviously, this makes Bard just as vulnerable to biases and misinformation. But Google has tried to assuage criticism by making Bard’s limitations clear to the end-user. 

It might make some users nervous that Google has chosen to take Bard in a direction that OpenAI has pulled back from (for now). For other users, though, being able to use AI to access live information from the internet presents a huge advantage. 

It means, for instance, that developers can use Bard to get up-to-date responses pertaining to Python, Java, C++, and other languages. Other researchers can also ask Bard to summarize entire web pages, like so: 

Here’s what happens if you attempt the same in ChatGPT: 

Although ChatGPT would not summarize the article, it did try to provide some advice for first-time homebuyers. As you can see, though, the information is pretty boilerplate. It’s certainly not as valuable as more in-depth articles you can find on the internet. 

Now, if you upgrade to Chat GPT-4, it is possible to install plugins that will allow you to search the web. But you’ll have to pay for that functionality, whereas Google builds it in.

User Interface

In terms of UI, Bard and ChatGPT are virtually identical. The majority of the page consists of the chat, with the message box being located at the bottom center.

A sidebar to the left of the chat allows you to open a new chat, see previous chats, or — in the case of ChatGPT — access your profile and settings. Conveniently, ChatGPT will also try to automatically rename conversations to a title that aligns with the conversation topic.

Bard doesn’t appear to have this capability. Instead, you can either manually rename the chat, or the chat’s title will automatically default to the first few words of your prompt. 

Some reviewers have argued that, while GPT-3.5 might have some superior features in its UI, Bard’s UI is more pleasing to the eye. Something about the flashing stars next to Bard’s name and the brighter color contrast feels more welcoming than ChatGPT’s somewhat darker interface. 

These small differences aside, we think that Bard and GPT-3.5 are both easy to use. They are not only simple in terms of UI, but also when it comes to using the bot effectively. 

Ease of Use

User-friendliness is the last aspect we’ll consider. How intuitive is the user interface, and how easy is it to figure out how to use the bot effectively? 

It’s pretty much as simple as asking the bot a question, and if it needs more context, it will guide you. Both Bard and GPT-3.5 are also able to remember previous points in the conversation. As a result, you don’t feel like you’re starting from scratch each time you ask the bot a follow-up question. 

Of course, if your needs are more complex, getting the most out of the AI will be a bit trickier. For example, if you want either Bard or GPT-3.5 to write you a Python script, or help improve an existing one, you’re going to need to know the programming language yourself.

Otherwise, you won’t know the right questions to ask, or how to steer the bot in the right direction. 

Google Bard AI vs ChatGPT-3.5: 5 Must-Know Facts

1. Both Google Bard and Chat GPT-3.5 employ their respective large language models (LLMs) to generate human-like responses to user questions. 
2. Bard and GPT-3.5 are free to use. However, free users of ChatGPT do not get priority access during peak periods. 
3. These chatbot AIs quickly generate easy-to-understand responses to queries. However, users should be wary of the risk of biases or misinformation. 
4. While both versions of ChatGPT have a knowledge cutoff in September 2021, Google Bard can access live information from the internet. 
5. Apart from some variations in color scheme and features, Bard and ChatGPT offer nearly identical user interfaces and user experiences. 

Google Bard vs. ChatGPT-3.5 Which One Is Better? Which One Should You Use?

At this point, you can probably surmise that Google Bard and Chat GPT-3.5 are fairly neck-and-neck in terms of their capabilities. That being said, if you don’t want to commit to paying $20 a month for OpenAI’s more robust Chat GPT-4, or for availability to GPT during peak periods, you might be better off using Google Bard. 

Although Bard isn’t noticeably “smarter” than Chat GPT-3.5, it does benefit from much greater availability regardless of network conditions. Free users of ChatGPT, however, are routinely blocked from using the service if the servers are full. 

Plus, Bard doesn’t suffer from the same knowledge cutoff that ChatGPT does, since Google allows its AI to access up-to-date information from the internet. 

ChatGPT and Google Bard will probably remain fierce competitors in the AI space for the foreseeable future. Both services have their flaws that need to be worked out. Plus, both companies surely will if they want to remain viable. F

or the time being, though, Google appears to have a slight edge over OpenAI — at least for those who don’t want to pay to play. If you want to check them out, visit the official websites here:

• Google Bard
• Chat GPT-3.5