poe alternatives · updated october 2026
Poe alternatives, for when one chat window isn't the whole job.
Poe made it normal to talk to many models from one app. Here is what else does that, and where each option is stronger or weaker.
Poe is Quora's app for talking to many AI models and to bots that other people have built on top of them. Paid plans give you an allowance of compute points, and each message spends points at a rate set by the model you pick. For a lot of people it was the first place they tried Claude and GPT side by side.
People usually start looking elsewhere for one of three reasons: they want the work they make, not just the conversation, to live somewhere organised; they want image, video and voice tools that feel like proper tools rather than another bot in a list; or they need something a team or a developer can run on. None of those make Poe a bad product. They just describe jobs it wasn't built around.
Below are the alternatives worth considering, LazySusan included, with the trade-offs stated plainly.
why people switch
Why people look beyond Poe
- 01You want a workspace organised by tool and project, with a library of everything you've generated, rather than a list of bots.
- 02You make images, video or voiceovers often and want each tool's own controls: aspect ratios, lengths, first and last frames, inpainting.
- 03You want to put one question to several models at once and read the answers side by side.
- 04Your team needs shared conversations and one bill, or your developers need an API with per-key budgets.
- 05You prefer a monthly token balance that carries over to a points allowance that resets.
side by side
Poe and its alternatives compared
| Attribute | Poe | LazySusan | ChatGPT Plus | OpenRouter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Multi-bot chat app | Multi-model workspace | OpenAI's own app | Developer API |
| How you pay | Plans with compute points | Monthly plan with a token balance | Monthly subscription | Prepaid credits |
| Chat models from several labs | Yes | Yes | OpenAI only | Yes |
| Image and video tools | As bots | Dedicated studios per tool | OpenAI's own | Via API, where offered |
| Several models side by side | Check current app | Yes, Multi-Chat | No | Build it yourself |
| User-made bots | Yes, a large directory | No | Custom GPTs | No |
| Team plan | Check current plans | Yes, 5 seats | Separate business plans | Organisation accounts |
| Developer API | Check current docs | Yes, own SDK, team keys and budgets | Separate OpenAI API | Yes, the core product |
Prices and plans change; check each product's own pricing page before you buy.
the options
The alternatives, with their trade-offs
01LazySusan
One workspace for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek and Perplexity, plus image, video and voice studios. Starter is $8 a month with 1,000 tokens, Pro is $19 with 5,700, and Teams is $39 for 5 people sharing 15,600.
- good for
- People who chat and create in the same day and want both in one place, with Multi-Chat for side-by-side answers and a Library of every image and video.
- trade-off
- No community bot directory, and usage is metered in tokens rather than unlimited. There is no native mobile app yet; it runs in the mobile browser.
02ChatGPT Plus
OpenAI's own app for $20 a month, with custom GPTs and OpenAI's newest features first.
- good for
- People who mostly use OpenAI models and want features that only exist in OpenAI's app.
- trade-off
- One company's models. If you liked Poe for switching between labs, you lose that.
03Claude Pro
Anthropic's own subscription, with Claude-only features such as Projects.
- good for
- Long documents and careful writing, if Claude is the only model you rely on.
- trade-off
- Text-focused, with its own usage limits, and no image or video generation.
04OpenRouter
One API in front of many model providers, paid with credits.
- good for
- Developers building their own product who want to switch models in code.
- trade-off
- It's an API first. You bring or build the chat interface yourself.
faq
Questions about Poe alternatives
It depends on why you're leaving. For chat plus image, video and voice in one workspace, LazySusan. For OpenAI-only features, ChatGPT Plus. For building your own app on many models, OpenRouter or the LazySusan API.
No. LazySusan gives you the models themselves, organised by tool, plus a prompt library you can reuse. There is no directory of user-made bots.
Both meter usage. On LazySusan you get a monthly token balance and each model spends tokens by what it uses: a typical Claude Sonnet 5.5 reply is about 16 tokens, a 1K Nano Banana 2.1 image is 41 tokens. Unused tokens roll over while you're subscribed. For Poe's current allowances, check its pricing page.
Not on LazySusan. Plans start at $8 a month and you can cancel any time.
Yes. Multi-Chat sends one prompt to the models you pick and shows the answers in columns, and you can follow up with any of them separately. It runs on desktop.
The Teams plan includes 5 seats, each with its own login and private history, drawing from 15,600 shared tokens a month. You can share any conversation with a teammate.
get started
Bring every model to the table.
Start with Starter, move up when you need more. Your history and tokens come with you.
Starter is $8/month. Cancel anytime.