AI 101: How to decide between different models

In this guide, you will learn how to compare AI models on tasks you actually do and decide which subscriptions are worth paying for. Step-by-step: 1. List recurring tasks: how often you do them, what a good result is, and your current tool. Track its monthly cost. Start with an everyday task and a work task 2. Open OpenRouter Chat and select “Flagship models”. This will let you send the same prompt to the top OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini models 3. Think of a task that you do often. Write a prompt detailing it and send it to the models. We tried dinner planning, a workshop memo, and box office research 4. Score how well each answer follows the prompt, plus its clarity and tone. Formatting is another major difference you will notice between models 5. Test five tasks, one per day. Pick a primary tool for each task and a backup. Then try those jobs in the app you’d keep before cutting an overlapping subscription Pro tip: OpenRouter is the most cost-effective way we've found to test all the top models. This test should run you less than $0.25 worth of credits.