Three New Rival AIs Launch in One Week — Only One Is Free

In the last week of September 2026, three major AI companies — Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google — released new flagship models within three days of each other. For anyone trying to pick an AI assistant, this is confusing. The good news: only one of them is actually available to regular people right now. Claude Sonnet 5.5 is live on Claude's free plan and all major cloud platforms. GPT-6.1 Sol requires a paid ChatGPT subscription (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Edu). Google's Gemini 4 Argon is not public at all — it's only available to select cybersecurity defenders and Google staff.

Price-wise, all three cost the same for developers: $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. That's unusual for rival launches. But price per token isn't the whole story. A model that uses fewer tokens or finishes a task in fewer tries can be cheaper overall. Both OpenAI and Anthropic now publish cost-per-task figures to help compare real-world costs.

When it comes to performance, each company reports its own benchmark scores, often on different tests and settings. So you can't directly compare them. Google claims the strongest numbers for Argon, but since it's not available, that's hard to verify. Among models you can actually use, GPT-6.1 Sol and Claude Sonnet 5.5 cost the same, and each company reports strengths on different tests. Outside evaluators like Artificial Analysis and LMArena will publish independent results in the coming weeks.

Safety was a big theme this launch cycle. All three companies emphasized new safety measures. For now, if you want to try the latest AI for free, Claude Sonnet 5.5 is your only option. If you already pay for ChatGPT, you can use GPT-6.1 Sol. And if you're waiting for Gemini 4 Argon, Google hasn't said when it will be available to the public.