Step-by-step guides on how to use AI tools effectively. Practical instructions for setup, workflows, and solving common problems.
OpenAI, Anthropic and Google publish their own prompting advice. They agree on the basics: be specific, separate instructions from material, and show an example.
Copilot works inside Word, Excel and Outlook from $9.99 a month, without training on that use, Microsoft says. Researcher needs Premium, and usage runs on credits without counts.
API tokens cheaper than Anthropic, OpenAI or Google, one-click Codex setup and open weights. The trade-offs: an agent score of 43.1 against 68 for the leader, and data stored in China.
Every answer cites its sources, and Perplexity’s sourcing record is the strongest tested. For long documents, though, a 40 MB cap and no published context window favor Gemini and Claude.
Education Pro costs $10 a month for verified students and includes everything in Pro, from Learn Mode to file uploads. Perplexity’s sourcing record is the strongest tested, but citations still need checking.
Every answer cites its sources, and Perplexity had the strongest record in two independent sourcing studies. Research mode is tightly limited on Free, and long reports are not its strength.
Eligible college students get a free year of Google AI Pro, and the free plan includes Deep Research and Gemini Notebook. Gemini’s accuracy record means every answer needs checking.
Deep Research and Gemini Notebook are free to start and export to Google Docs. Gemini’s news-accuracy record is the weakest of the tested assistants, so every citation needs checking.
Anthropic requires users to be 18 or older. For university students it offers a free Learning style, Pro at $20, and campus access through Claude for Education.
Research with citations, an official Semrush connector and Claude Code for fixes, plus what Anthropic’s three crawlers do and which to allow if you want Claude to cite you.
