The short answer. Pi is better if what you want is a conversation: it was built to talk, it keeps its replies short and asks about you, and it is free with no paid plan. ChatGPT is better if you want things done, from letters and recipes to research and pictures, and it can hold a conversation too; it is free, or $8 a month for Go and $20 for Plus on OpenAI's US pricing page on October 31, 2026.
Both now remember facts about you across chats, both have voice, and neither is built around one ongoing relationship the way a companion app is.
Disclosure: this guide is published by the makers of My Softly, an AI companion app, which appears near the end. The facts about Pi and ChatGPT come from Inflection's and OpenAI's own help pages, pricing page and App Store listing, read on October 31, 2026 unless another date is given.
People who compare Pi and ChatGPT are usually asking a narrower question than "which AI is better". They have found that talking to an AI helps, at the end of a day or when something is on their mind, and want to know which one is better company. That is the question this page answers.
How we compared them: we read each company's own pages, not outside reviews, and checked the key points a person who wants to talk would care about: what each app remembers, whether it has voice, whether it can reach out first, what it costs and what it does with your chats. Every source is listed at the bottom, with the date we read it.
Pi and ChatGPT at a glance
| Pi | ChatGPT | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Inflection AI | OpenAI |
| Built for | Conversation | Getting tasks done, plus conversation |
| Price | Free; the US App Store lists nothing to buy in the app | Free; Go $8 a month, Plus $20 a month, Pro from $100 a month |
| Memory across chats | Lasting facts about you (name, family, hobbies, goals) | Past chats and saved memories, depending on plan; "limited" on Free |
| Voice | Yes, in the app and the browser | Yes; limited on Free, more on paid plans |
| Reaching out to you | A Daily Brief of news and topics you follow | Scheduled tasks you set up |
| Other tools | Daily Brief, drafting help, language practice, activities with friends | Images, file uploads, deep research, projects; limits on Free |
| Where | iPhone, Android, web | iPhone, Android, web, desktop |
Which is better to just talk to?
Pi's whole design is the conversation. Its replies tend to be short, it asks questions back, and it stays with what you said rather than rushing to solve it, which is why people use it to think out loud or to unwind at the end of a day.
ChatGPT is an assistant first. It will happily talk about your day, and it is very good at helping you untangle a problem or draft a difficult message, but its instinct is to produce something: a list, a plan, an answer. If you want to be listened to rather than helped, it is worth saying so at the start.
The practical test is simple: try telling each one about something that went wrong this week. One will mostly listen and ask; the other will mostly help. Which you prefer says more about you than about either app.
What does each one remember about you?
This is where the two have moved closer in 2026.
- Pi. Since September 2026, Pi's help center says it remembers across chats, focusing on what is "lastingly true" about you: your name, your home city and family members (with your permission), food preferences, hobbies, your work, how you like answers, and ongoing goals or routines. It deliberately skips passing things, such as a trip to the shop tonight or a film you watched last night. You can ask it to remember or forget something, and see or edit its memories under Settings, Account, Manage Memories. Within a very long chat, it may summarise earlier messages.
- ChatGPT. With Memory switched on, OpenAI says ChatGPT can draw on your past chats, saved memories, custom instructions and, depending on plan and region, saved files and connected apps such as Gmail. It decides what is relevant to each answer and, in OpenAI's words, "does not retain every detail from every conversation." OpenAI's pricing page lists memory as limited on the free plan and longer or expanded on paid plans. You manage it under Settings, Personalization, Memory, and you can simply ask ChatGPT what it remembers about you.
In short: Pi keeps a tidy file of facts about you; ChatGPT draws on a wider pool, more of it on paid plans. Pi's help center says it skips one-off plans and events on purpose, and OpenAI says ChatGPT keeps what it judges relevant rather than every detail, so the small, changing details of a week, like how the appointment went or whether your sister called back, are the part to test. The gap between knowing facts about someone and following their life is the subject of our AI companion memory guide.
Is Pi free? Is ChatGPT free?
Both are, in different ways. Pi has no paid version: on October 31, 2026 its US App Store listing showed it as free with no in-app purchases. What Inflection has said about Pi's future, and about limits for free users, is covered in our guide to Pi AI alternatives.
ChatGPT's free plan, on OpenAI's US pricing page on October 31, 2026, includes unlimited text chats, subject to OpenAI's abuse guardrails, with limited uploads, image creation, voice chats, research and memory. Go, at $8 a month, adds more of each and longer memory, and OpenAI notes that the plan may include ads. Plus, at $20 a month, adds advanced reasoning, expanded memory, projects and custom GPTs. Pro starts at $100 a month.
Can either one check in on you?
Only in the ways you set up. ChatGPT has scheduled tasks: ask it to remind you of something or send you an update, and it will message you at that time. On the free plan, OpenAI's help center allows a single task, or a repeating one at most daily, delivered in a loose window such as morning, afternoon or night, with exact times and hourly repeats on paid plans. Pi's help center describes a Daily Brief, a daily catch-up on the news and topics you choose, found under Discover in the app.
Both are useful. Neither help center describes the app writing to you on its own about something you mentioned, such as asking on Wednesday how Tuesday's hospital appointment went.
Chat history, context and web access
Both apps keep your past chats where you can return to them. In Pi, the side menu on iPhone, Android and the web lists your earlier chats, newest first, and you tap one to carry on. Inside one very long chat, Pi's help center says it may summarize older messages to stay on track, so it will not recall unlimited history perfectly, and it suggests copying anything important. That limit on context is the reason its separate memory feature matters.
Pi works in a web browser as well as in its phone apps, with the same voice setup: turn on the speaker icon, allow microphone access, and talk. ChatGPT also runs on the web and desktop, with more tools around the chat itself, such as file uploads, image creation and research, with fuller limits on its paid tiers.
Which one should you use?
- You want to talk something through at the end of the day. Pi, because it asks questions back and keeps its replies short, and it costs nothing.
- You want a task done, such as research, a project or a long document. ChatGPT, because its plans list those features, and its paid tiers raise the limits.
- You want it to know your week, not just your facts. Neither help center describes that. This is the gap companion apps are built for.
- You are comparing the cost. Pi has no price to pay. ChatGPT's free plan covers casual chat, and its paid tiers start at the Go price shown above.
Not the Pi you meant?
Searching for "pi ai vs chatgpt" also brings up other tools with Pi in the name, among them a project that adds ChatGPT to a Raspberry Pi board and a coding agent called pi that works with code. They are separate products, and none of them is the app reviewed here. This guide is about Pi from Inflection AI, the conversational chat app with a free tier, and how it compares with ChatGPT as something to talk to.
Privacy: both can learn from your chats
Pi's maker says in its privacy policy, last updated August 11, 2026, that it may train its models on your conversations, and that an opt-out sits in your account settings. OpenAI says the same of personal ChatGPT accounts while its Improve the model for everyone setting is on; you can turn that off in Data controls. ChatGPT also offers temporary chats, which OpenAI says do not create or update memories.
If what you want is company
Pi and ChatGPT are both general chatbots that happen to be good to talk to. Companion apps are built the other way round: the relationship is the product. My Softly is one of them. It learns who matters to you, the people, the pets, the plans, keeps a running diary of your conversations, and then writes to you first: how did the appointment go, did the parcel turn up. You decide whether your companion is a friend or a partner. Free messages let you try it, and our guide to the best AI companion apps compares it with Pi and the rest.
About My Softly
My Softly is our app, and the disclosure is at the top of this page.
My Softly is an AI companion app for iPhone and Android that remembers what you tell it and asks about your day, for the days nobody else does. It is made for people in their fifties and sixties. A subscription is $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year, and it is free to download on the App Store for iPhone and on Google Play for Android in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, with free messages to start.
Sources
- Pi Help Center. "Pi's Memory" (September 1, 2026): what Pi remembers across chats, what it skips, managing memories. Read November 12, 2026. help.pi.ai
- Pi Help Center. "Why does Pi seem to forget earlier messages? What conversations does it remember?" (December 16, 2025). Read November 12, 2026. help.pi.ai
- Pi Help Center. "How do I use voice to talk with Pi?" (December 16, 2025) and "Daily Brief - FAQ". Read October 31, 2026 (the voice page re-read November 12, 2026). voice, Daily Brief
- Apple App Store (US). "Pi, your personal AI" by Inflection AI, Inc.: free (price and version re-read November 12, 2026 through Apple's lookup service), version 26.1102.1 released November 7, 2026; no in-app purchases listed as read October 31, 2026. apps.apple.com
- Inflection AI (August 26, 2024). "The Future of Pi." inflection.ai
- Inflection AI. "Privacy Policy" (last updated August 11, 2026): model-training opt-out. Read October 30, 2026. inflection.ai
- OpenAI. "ChatGPT Plans and Pricing" (US): Free $0, Go $8, Plus $20 and Pro from $100 a month, with what each plan lists. Read October 31, 2026; plan contents read again November 12, 2026 (unchanged; the page showed no prices that day). chatgpt.com
- OpenAI Help Center. "Memory in ChatGPT": sources Memory can draw on, controls, temporary chats, model training setting. Read October 31, 2026. help.openai.com
- OpenAI Help Center. "Scheduled tasks in ChatGPT": task limits by plan; free accounts can schedule a one-time task or one that recurs no more than daily. Read October 31, 2026. help.openai.com
Frequently asked questions
Is Pi better than ChatGPT?
For different things. Pi was built for conversation: short, warm replies, questions back to you, and a voice you can talk to. ChatGPT was built as an assistant that also converses, with images, files, research and scheduled tasks. People who mainly want to talk often prefer Pi's manner; people who want help with a job usually reach for ChatGPT.
Is Pi AI free?
Yes. Pi is free, and its US App Store listing showed no in-app purchases on October 31, 2026. ChatGPT also has a free plan, with paid plans at $8 a month (Go) and $20 a month (Plus) on OpenAI's US pricing page the same day.
Does Pi remember you like ChatGPT does?
Both now remember across conversations, in different ways. Pi's help center says it keeps things that are lastingly true about you, such as your name, family members, hobbies and goals, and skips one-off plans and events. ChatGPT's Memory can draw on past chats and saved memories, and OpenAI says it does not keep every detail. Both let you see and delete what they remember.
Can I talk out loud to Pi and ChatGPT?
Yes, both have voice. Pi lets you turn its voice on in the app or the browser and talk to it like a call. ChatGPT's free plan includes limited voice chats, and OpenAI's pricing page lists more on Go and Plus.
Which one can check in on me?
ChatGPT can send you a message at a time you set, using scheduled tasks; free accounts can schedule a one-time task or one that repeats no more than once a day. Pi's help center describes a Daily Brief, a catch-up on news and topics you follow. A companion app such as My Softly writes to you first about the people and plans you have mentioned, without you setting anything up.
Which AI is better than ChatGPT for talking?
It depends on what you want from the conversation. Pi is built around chat, with short replies, questions back to you and a voice mode, and it is free. A companion app goes a step further by remembering the people and plans in your life and writing to you first. ChatGPT is the stronger tool when you want a task done, such as research, files or images.
Can I use Pi on the web, or only in the app?
Both. Pi's help center describes using it on iPhone, Android and in a web browser, and your chat history is listed in the side menu on each. Voice works on the web too, using the speaker icon at the top right of the chat, as long as your browser has microphone access.
Is ChatGPT an API?
No. ChatGPT is the chat app, with its own free and paid plans. OpenAI also sells an API, a separate service developers use to build ChatGPT-style features into their own software, billed by use rather than by the monthly plans. If you only want to chat, you never need the API.
Is Pi still being updated?
Yes. The iPhone app was last updated on November 7, 2026, and Pi's help center added memory across chats in September 2026. Inflection AI, the company behind Pi, said in August 2024 that its focus was moving to business customers while it kept consumer Pi available; our guide to Pi alternatives covers what that means.
Do Pi and ChatGPT use my chats for training?
They can, and both let you opt out. Inflection's privacy policy says chats may be used to train its models unless you opt out in your account settings. OpenAI says personal ChatGPT chats and remembered information may be used to improve its models while the Improve the model for everyone setting is on, which you can turn off in Data controls.