Setting Up Your Free Accounts
Before we go any further, you need accounts on all three tools. The good news: each one offers a free tier that is more than enough for everything in this course. The setup takes about ten minutes total.
This lesson is the most "click here, type that" lesson you will see in the course. It is also the most important practical step. Once you have all three tools open in side-by-side browser tabs, every other lesson in this course will click into place.
What You'll Learn
- Exactly how to create free accounts on ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini
- What you can and cannot do on each free tier in 2026
- How to install the official mobile apps for AI on the go
- A "first prompt" you should test in each tool to confirm everything works
ChatGPT (OpenAI) — chatgpt.com
Sign up steps:
- Open chatgpt.com in your browser
- Click "Sign up" in the top right
- Enter an email address (Gmail, university email, anything works) or sign in with Google, Microsoft, or Apple
- Verify your email and pick a password
- Add a phone number (used for spam prevention; you only do this once)
- Done — you are dropped into the chat interface
What the free tier gives you:
- Access to a strong default model (GPT-5 mini or similar, depending on demand)
- Limited access to the most powerful model (GPT-5) per few hours
- File upload (PDFs, images, spreadsheets) with limits
- Image generation with daily limits
- Web browsing on most queries
- Voice mode in the mobile app
- Access to "GPTs" (custom AI assistants built by other users)
For everything in this course, the free tier is enough.
Mobile app: Search "ChatGPT" in the App Store or Google Play. The official app is published by "OpenAI." Don't install lookalikes — there are scam apps that copy the icon.
Claude (Anthropic) — claude.ai
Sign up steps:
- Open claude.ai in your browser
- Click "Continue with Google" or sign up with email
- Verify your email
- You may need to enter a phone number
- You are dropped into a clean chat interface
What the free tier gives you:
- Access to Claude Sonnet (the workhorse model — currently Sonnet 4.6)
- A daily message limit that resets every few hours
- File upload (PDFs, images, code files, spreadsheets) with generous limits
- Long document analysis (Claude shines here)
- Access to "Projects" — folders that hold persistent context across chats
- Artifacts — Claude can render code, documents, and even small interactive previews in a side panel
What the free tier does not give you: web browsing. Claude does not access the internet at all on any tier. This is important to remember when you need current information.
Mobile app: Search "Claude" in the App Store or Google Play. The publisher should be "Anthropic." There is also a desktop app for Mac and Windows you can download from claude.ai/download.
Gemini (Google) — gemini.google.com
Sign up steps:
- Open gemini.google.com in your browser
- Sign in with any Google account (Gmail, Workspace, school account)
- That is it. There is no separate sign-up; if you have a Google account, you have Gemini.
What the free tier gives you:
- Access to a fast everyday model (Gemini 2.5 Flash) with no daily message limit for most uses
- Limited access to the most capable model (Gemini 2.5 Pro)
- Live web search built in by default — every answer can pull current sources
- Image generation (Imagen)
- Connection to Google services: Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, YouTube (you control which ones)
- Available inside the Google app on Android and iOS
If you live in Google Workspace already, Gemini is the lowest-friction tool to start with.
Mobile app: On Android, Gemini is built into the Google app. On iOS, search "Google Gemini" in the App Store. The publisher is "Google LLC."
Optional: Perplexity (For Research) — perplexity.ai
We will cover Perplexity in detail later, but go ahead and create an account now so you have all four tools ready.
- Open perplexity.ai
- Click "Sign Up" and use Google sign-in or email
- Done
The free tier gives you unlimited basic searches with cited sources, plus a few "Pro" searches per day that use a more capable model.
Test Your Setup with the Same Prompt
This is the practical exercise of this lesson. Open all three tools side by side and paste this exact prompt into each one:
I am a college student starting a course on AI tools. In four short bullet points, give me your honest take on what you (as an AI assistant) are best at compared to other AI assistants. Be specific.
Read each response carefully. Notice:
- ChatGPT will likely emphasize ecosystem, Custom GPTs, image generation, and broad capability.
- Claude will likely emphasize careful reasoning, long documents, code, and writing quality.
- Gemini will likely emphasize live web search and Google integration.
You have just done a real-world side-by-side test. This is the workflow you will use throughout the course. Many students keep a "browser tab group" with all three pinned, so they can flip between them with a single click.
Privacy: A Quick Note Before You Continue
Before you paste any sensitive information (passwords, real bank details, medical records, your employer's confidential documents) into any AI tool, read the privacy lesson in Module 4. Here is the short version: by default, free-tier conversations may be used to train future models. Opt out in your account settings, and never paste anything you would not be okay with appearing in a future model's training data.
Troubleshooting
- "Service not available in my country." Some countries do not yet have direct ChatGPT or Claude support. Use a stable VPN or see if a local mirror is available. Gemini has the broadest country coverage.
- "Phone verification fails." Try a different SIM or wait a few hours. ChatGPT in particular is strict about VoIP numbers.
- "My free tier message limit is hit." Switch tools — that is the whole point of having three. While ChatGPT cools down, use Claude. While Claude cools down, use Gemini.
Key Takeaways
- All three tools have free tiers that are sufficient for everything in this course.
- Sign up at chatgpt.com, claude.ai, and gemini.google.com — plus optionally perplexity.ai.
- Install the official mobile apps from the verified publishers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google).
- Test your setup by pasting the same "what are you best at" prompt into each tool to see the differences.
- Hitting one tool's daily limit is fine — switch to another. That is the whole point of using all three.