Best Siri AI (Apple) Alternatives in 2026
Siri AI (Apple) scores 7.5/10 on our tests. Here are 7 alternatives worth considering in the AI Chatbots & Assistants space.
Siri AI (Apple)
Apple's ground-up Siri rebuild, unveiled at WWDC 2026 (June 8) -- conversational, on-screen aware, searches your personal data across apps, gets its own app with synced history. Built on Apple Foundation Models developed in collaboration with Google's Gemini. Developer betas now; public beta in July; ships this fall with iOS 27. Not in the EU (iPhone/iPad) or China at launch.
Top Alternatives, Ranked
**Astra for Law launched 2026-09-17** -- GPT-6 Astra configured for legal work with a 230M-URL legal search index and 26 partner-built legal plugins, offered first to selected law firms through Trusted Access in ChatGPT and Codex as 'GPT-6 Astra Law' (API id gpt-6-astra-law 'coming soon', no price published). **ChatGPT Images 2.5 shipped 2026-09-08** to every tier (Sketch, templates, up to 50% lower latency; API twins GPT-Image-2.5 Flare and Sunburst at the same $8/$30 per 1M as gpt-image-2), and on 2026-09-16 OpenAI began testing **Sponsored Agents** inside ChatGPT Ads with HubSpot and Shopify integrations, published a **misalignment-reporting framework** with six incident reports, and shipped usage and outcome analytics for ChatGPT Work and Codex admins. The chatbot that started the AI revolution. **GPT-6 Astra launched 2026-09-03** -- OpenAI's new flagship at $10/$50 per 1M (long-context $20/$75, Fast mode 2x, no Fast mode under EU data residency), rolling out to Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise within existing allowances, and the **first model OpenAI has ever designated Critical for cyber capability**. Enterprise access is off by default at launch. On 2026-08-06 the free tier changed materially: GPT-5.6 Luna becomes the default for Free and Go users with UNLIMITED text chats and a new Think button, while Plus/Pro get a retuned GPT-5.6 Sol in Chat plus an effort slider. GPT-5.6 went GA 2026-07-09 (Sol $5/$30 per 1M) and OpenAI CUT Luna 80% to $0.20/$1.20 and Terra 20% to $2/$12 on 2026-07-30. On 2026-08-13 OpenAI previewed **Ultrafast**, a Cerebras-powered API tier running GPT-5.6 Sol up to 14x faster (750 output tok/s) -- waitlisted, capacity-limited, and with no pricing published. Also now: Health in ChatGPT (7/23, US) and the ChatGPT Work agent (7/9)
**Computer gained effort controls on 2026-09-17** (a Light/Standard/High/Ultra slider that picks the model and reasoning level, web first), and **HP began pre-loading the Perplexity Windows app on 2026-09-15** starting with the ZBook Ultra G3a. **Portable Computer -- the local, on-device version of Perplexity Computer -- reached Windows on 2026-09-14** for GeForce RTX / RTX PRO GPUs with 24GB+ VRAM, running a Qwen 3.8 27B post-trained for Computer, with locally completed work not consuming Computer credits (confirmed in Perplexity's own post: Pro and Max on individual and enterprise plans; the Qwen 3.8 27B model name is NVIDIA's statement). AI-powered search engine that gives cited answers instead of a list of links. **Hybrid Compute on Mac shipped 2026-09-01**: Perplexity Computer now splits a single task between cloud frontier models and a compact local model running on the Mac, with an on-device privacy gate that can mask, withhold, refuse or ask for consent before anything leaves the machine
Google's free research assistant that turns your documents into an AI you can query -- and a podcast you can listen to. **Renamed from NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on 2026-07-16**, still a standalone product, now with in-notebook code execution and syncing across the Gemini app and Search. **Expert Intelligence (2026-08-27) makes purchased Play Books ebooks a first-class source**; compute-weighted usage limits took effect 2026-09-02 -- they refresh every 5 hours **but sit under an undisclosed weekly cap**, with AI Plus at 2x standard, AI Pro 4x and AI Ultra 5x or 20x above Pro (Google's help pages still read prospectively and still publish the old daily table -- no delay announced)
Microsoft's answer to ChatGPT -- free GPT-4 access with Bing search built in, but it feels like a corporate product
AI-character roleplay chat platform -- once 200M+ monthly visitors, now in a prolonged user exodus after the 2026-02-18 'Moderatedpocalypse' mass-delete and escalating TRAIGA-compliance restrictions. The alternatives market (Janitor AI, Chai, DreamGen) is now the real story
Score Comparison
| Tool | Ease of Use | Output Quality | Value | Features | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Siri AI (Apple)(current) | 9.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 7.5 |
| ChatGPT | 10.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 8.8 |
| Perplexity AI | 9.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 8.5 |
| Alexa+ | 9.5 | 7.0 | 8.5 | 8.0 | 8.3 |
| Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) | 8.0 | 7.0 | 9.5 | 6.5 | 7.8 |
| Microsoft Copilot | 8.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 7.5 |
| Poe | 8.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 7.5 |
| Character.AI | 8.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.5 |
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