ChatGPT alternatives
By Daniel Reeve · tested and updated September 2026
File upload is not one feature. A tool may accept a file but fail at long-document reasoning, scanned PDFs, tables, citations, formatting or editable output.
Quick answer
Do not choose on the headline file-size limit. The cap that stops you is almost always the token limit or the ten-file ceiling, and those are the numbers nobody puts in the comparison table.
Decision map
Upload this file, summarize the main points, list risks, quote page references, and tell me what you could not read.
File size, supported formats, OCR, privacy, output format and hallucinated details.
Convert messy files into a clean summary before asking for decisions.
Limit by limit
| Area | Useful for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| PDFs | Good for summaries and extraction. | Ask for page references and contradictions. |
| Scanned PDFs | Need OCR before the model can read text properly. | OCR errors can change meaning. |
| Spreadsheets | Need table understanding and calculation checks. | Verify formulas and totals manually. |
| Presentations | Need structure, narrative and export quality. | Slide text should be edited down for humans. |
Verified upload limits
These are the numbers that decide whether your file works, and almost nobody publishes them side by side. Read from each vendor's help documentation on 2026-09-10.
| ChatGPT limit | As documented |
|---|---|
| Per file | 512 MB hard limit |
| Text and documents | capped at 2M tokens per file |
| Spreadsheets / CSV | cannot exceed approximately 50 MB |
| Images | 20 MB per image |
| Per conversation | up to 10 files per GPT |
| Per project | 5 (Free), 25 (Go/Plus), 40 (Edu/Pro/Business/Enterprise) |
| Upload rate | 80 files every 3 hours; Free plan limited to 3 per day |
| Storage | 25 GB per user, 100 GB per organisation |
The other side
Different shape entirely — Gemini publishes limits by media type and duration rather than by raw file size, which suits video and audio work and is stricter on archives.
| Gemini limit | As documented |
|---|---|
| Per prompt | up to 10 files in the same prompt |
| Video | 2 GB per video, total length up to 5 minutes (1 hour on AI Pro/Ultra) |
| Audio | total length up to 10 minutes (3 hours on AI Pro/Ultra) |
| All other file types | 100 MB |
| Code | one folder or GitHub repo, up to 5,000 files and 100 MB |
| ZIP archives | 100 MB, up to 10 files, no video or audio inside |
Before you hit a wall
Take the largest and most awkward file you regularly work with and try it on the free tier before you pay for anything. You will discover in one attempt which ceiling actually applies to you — size, token count, file type or daily rate.
Most people upgrade to solve a limit they never identified. Naming the specific ceiling first usually points at a cheaper plan than the one they were about to buy.
Sources
Every figure on this page was read from the official documentation below on 2026-09-10. Prices, limits and model names change without notice — the source is authoritative, this page is not.
FAQ
512 MB is the hard per-file limit, but it is rarely the binding one. Text is capped at 2M tokens per file, spreadsheets at roughly 50 MB and images at 20 MB (OpenAI Help Center, checked 2026-09-10). A large PDF usually hits the token cap long before the size cap.
Up to 10 per GPT in ChatGPT and up to 10 per prompt in Gemini. Project storage is where they diverge: ChatGPT documents 5 files per project on Free, 25 on Go and Plus, and 40 on Edu, Pro, Business and Enterprise.
Yes, and it is tight. OpenAI documents free-plan users as limited to 3 file uploads per day, against 80 files every 3 hours for standard users. If file work is your main use case, that single number probably decides the plan for you.
Gemini, clearly, and it is the one area where the limits are not close. It documents 2 GB per video with 5 minutes of total length on the free tier, rising to 1 hour on AI Pro or Ultra, plus 10 minutes of audio rising to 3 hours.
In Gemini, yes within limits: one folder or one GitHub repository, up to 5,000 files and 100 MB. For anything larger, give the model a map of the codebase and the handful of files that matter — it produces better answers than a full dump anyway.
In Gemini they do, up to 100 MB and 10 files, but they cannot contain video or audio. It is a useful way to get several documents in under the per-prompt file count.
That depends on the plan and the account's data settings, not on the upload limits above, and it is the question worth checking before you upload anything client-confidential. Read the vendor's data-retention terms rather than the marketing page.