What is Google Gemini and how is it different from ChatGPT?

Google Gemini is Google's family of multimodal AI models. Unlike early ChatGPT which was text-only, Gemini was built from day one to understand text, images, audio, and video together. It powers the Google AI assistant and is integrated into Workspace apps like Docs and Gmail.

The biggest practical difference is that Gemini has native Google Search grounding — it pulls real-time information from the web as part of its responses. ChatGPT can also browse the web but Gemini's integration with Google's index feels tighter and more reliable.

For coding tasks many developers prefer ChatGPT with GPT-4o or o1, while Gemini Ultra is strong at tasks combining reasoning with live data. Both have free tiers so the best advice is to test both on your specific use case before committing to a paid plan.