Following its release in November 2022, ChatGPT quickly became one of the top AI apps to explore — and it’s not hard to see why. Highly creative and a genius personal assistant, ChatGPT has proven itself to be invaluable when it comes to providing insight on a wide range of topics.
However, when it comes to the best AI chatbots, Bing Chat is no slouch, and in a few key areas it’s already shown itself to be superior to OpenAI's original bot. Its professional responses are accompanied by accurate footnotes that make it quick and easy to verify sources, and its ability to access up-to-date information is second to none.
Both Bing Chat and ChatGPT have their own unique pros and cons. Below, you’ll find everything you need to know — including a comprehensive breakdown of each chatbot, the key differences, and which one is better overall.
What is Bing Chat?
Bing Chat
Launched in February 2023, Bing Chat is a new feature for Bing’s search engine. Instead of typing a query into the search bar and trawling through the results, you can now speak directly to an AI chatbot, and it’s fairly straightforward to use.
Powered by the same technology from OpenAI as ChatGPT, Bing Chat can be accessed via Microsoft’s Edge browser or an Android or iOS mobile device. From there you type in your question into a dialogue box and wait for a response.
According to Microsoft, Bing Chat is like having a research assistant, personal planner, and creative partner all rolled into one and it’s brilliant for anyone wanting to ask real questions that generate complete answers.
Bing Chat: At a glance
Key features: Provides detailed answers to complex questions, ask follow up questions, offers various conversation styles, generates footnotes that link back to the original sources
Best for: Information on current events, confirmation of sources
Cost: Free with Microsoft Edge
Pros of Bing Chat
Powered by GPT-4 model
One of the biggest advantages of Bing Chat is that it uses the GPT-4 model of OpenAI making it highly accurate. GPT-4 is the latest version of OpenAI’s language model system and it’s more advanced and reliable than it’s precursor, GPT-3.5.
The free version of ChatGPT currently uses GPT-3.5, whereas the paid version uses GPT-4, so if you want to experience all the benefits of GPT-4 for free, Bing Chat is your only option.
GPT-4
Confirmation of sources
One of the main concerns with ChatGPT is that you can’t confirm the accuracy of the responses you’re given because it doesn’t generate footnotes. With Bing Chat, you won’t need to worry about that because a list of footnotes will be included in the response.
From there, simply click on the footnote you’re wanting to check and a separate tab will open, taking you to the original source where the information first appeared.
Non-English language support
Yes, ChatGPT does support a range of languages, but it’s most effective at understanding English. Bing Chat has the edge here as it’s fluent in a range of languages, including French, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese.
Tailored conversations
Want imaginative responses? No problem, simply select ‘creative’ when choosing your conversation style. Want more of a mix between factual and engaging? Then go with ‘balanced’ when choosing your response style. Or for something highly factual and succinct, ‘concise’ is your best friend.
Another big pro for Bing Chat is that it can be tailored into three distinct conversation styles, meaning it has something for everyone.
Bing
Functions as a web search engine
One of the perks of Bing Chat is that it functions as a search engine, which means it has access to up-to-date information — great if you’re wanting to know the latest in current events.
You won’t get anything like this with ChatGPT, which has a built in knowledgebase that might not be as current as real-time results.
Cons of Bing Chat
Limited chats and sessions
If you think you can ask Bing Chat as many questions as you want, think again. To prevent overwhelming the system, Microsoft has set a cap on the amount of chats per session and per day you can have, with chats per session set at 30 per day and overall chats set at 300.
Short responses
Unlike ChatGPT, Bing Chat doesn’t have the capability to provide lengthy responses to a particular prompt, and while it does have a creative response style that you can select, it’s not on par with what ChatGPT can produce.
Limited integrations and plugins
While Microsoft has started to roll out plugins, they offer nowhere near the range that you can get with ChatGPT, which will write emails for you, add events to your Google Calendar, and update your Slack status. You currently can’t do any of that with Bing Chat.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot that was launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It quickly became the fastest growing app in history, recording a 100 million users two months after launch, and uses natural language processing to create conversational dialogue that’s incredibly human-like.
While it’s generated a lot of excitement, it’s not been without it’s fair share of detractors. Although it’s wonderfully creative and can write articles, design websites, and write software code, the concerns include the potential spread of misinformation as well as allowing students to cheat on tests.
ChatGPT: At a glance
Key features: Answers questions, produces text, writes code, translates content, conducts general research, creates fictional stories, acts as a personal assistant
Best for: Personal assistance, creative writing
Cost: Basic version is free. Advanced features require a subscription that costs $20/month.
Pros of ChatGPT
Long and in-depth responses
When it comes to in-depth responses, ChatGPT wins every time. If you type in a question such as ‘what is the meaning of life?’ you’ll get a whopping 262 words back divided into several paragraphs, each offering a different perspective.
Writer's own
Ability to generate more natural-sounding conversations
Alongside the length and breadth of ChatGPT’s responses, another strength is that these conversations are incredibly human-like. Replies are coherent and contextually appropriate, making it feel like you’re having a very natural online conversation with another person.
Highly scalable and efficient
Companies have fallen in love with ChatGPT and it’s not hard to see why. It’s scalability makes it suitable for small startups through to large enterprises and it’s incredibly cost effective, meaning organizations around the world can integrate it into their day to day operations without incurring huge costs.
Wide range of plugins
If you opt to take out a subscription using ChatGPT Plus, you then get access to a wide range of plugins, which are essentially add-ons you can search for via an in-platform store that vastly increases the uses of ChatGPT. For more information on ChatGPT Free vs Paid, see our related article.
ChatGPT's plugin store
High level of accuracy
So far, ChatGPT has shown itself to be scarily accurate — which is why the education sector has been so alarmed by it. There’s a very low rate of false positive and negatives, which means the information fed back to the user is consistently reliable.
This is crucial when it’s being used across customer support systems, but it does have its drawbacks in other areas, which we’ll explore in a minute.
Fast response times
This is one super speedy chatbot, returning comprehensive responses in seconds. You can interact with it in real-time and get prompt replies to even the most complex of queries — ideal if you work in an environment where efficient and accurate responses are needed.
Cons of ChatGPT
Difficulty in training it to respond appropriately
Unlike Bing Chat, which functions as a search engine, ChatGPT has to be trained to respond appropriately and accurately. That means it requires a frequent input of extensive data and a lot of fine-tuning, both of which are resource-intensive.
Biased responses and limited knowledge of recent events
Because ChatGPT is trained by being fed data from across the internet, it has the potential to generate biased responses based on societal prejudices and misinformation.
It may show limitations in its knowledge of recent events and provide responses that are lopsided and fail to address the complexity and nuance present in a given topic.
ChatGPT has a knowledge cut-off date in 2021
Lack of academic integrity and potential for cheating
One of the biggest concerns when ChatGPT was released was that it offers students a way to cheat when it comes to writing assignments. This is a chatbot that sounds incredibly human-like and facilitates natural language conversation, so it’s very easy to pass the chatbots work off as your own.
It also doesn’t provide footnotes to accompany the responses it generates. Not only does this mean you can’t verify the material you’re being given, it could also lead to the spread of inaccurate and misleading information.
What are the main differences between Bing Chat and ChatGPT?
One of the biggest differences between Bing Chat and ChatGPT is the architecture — ChatGPT is based on the GPT architecture, whereas Bing Chat is a Microsoft product that makes use of its own architectural structure.
Another area where the two differ is in terms of integration. ChatGPT has been designed in such a way that it can be integrated into various applications and platforms. Bing Chat, on the other hand, has been primarily designed to be used within the Microsoft ecosystem — although various plugins and integrations are being developed.
Finally, ChatGPT has a knowledge cut-off date that’s currently set to 2021, whereas BingChat uses a search engine that enables it to retrieve the most up-to-date information.
Bing Chat vs ChatGPT: Which is better?
The short answer is that both chatbots have their place and the question of which is better will largely depend on what it is you’re looking for.
Bing Chat’s strength lies in its ability to find the most timely and relevant information, whereas ChatGPT excels at creative conversations.
If you want a powerful research tool that’s integrated with your browser and will provide you with footnotes that let you verify sources, Bing Chat is the obvious choice.
However, if you’re after a personal assistant that can perform actions for you in different apps and generally make your life a whole lot easier, ChatGPT is the clear winner.