Chatbots, LLMs, and the Companies behind them: a Layperson’s guide

Think of a chatbot company as a car-maker and its large-language models (LLMs) as the different car models it sells. OpenAI (the “Ford” of AI) offers GPT-4o for luxury multimodal work and GPT-4o mini for quick errands, just as Ford offers a Mustang and a Fiesta. The same pattern holds for Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, xAI’s Grok, Microsoft’s Copilot/Phi, Perplexity, Meta AI (Llama) and DeepSeek. Each maker juggles cost, speed, power, and local regulations, so they ship several LLMs and stagger where and when you can use them. Bookmark the official model pages listed later: they update faster than any blog can.

1 Mapping the manufacturers and their model lines

1.1 The main “car factories”

1.2 Why do they ship several models?

• Price vs. horsepower. Big brains are brilliant but cost more compute per word; trimmed versions run cheaply and reply faster.

• Different jobs. Coding, summarising news, or running entirely on a phone each need a slightly different “engine tune.”

• Rapid upgrades. Labs push point-releases (e.g., Claude Sonnet 3.7 → 4.0) instead of waiting for a single “GPT-5,” like new trim packages each model year.

• Open vs. closed hoods. Meta, Microsoft Phi and DeepSeek publish their engine blueprints (weights) so hobbyists can tinker; OpenAI, Anthropic and Google rent you the car by the mile via API.

1.3 How pricing tiers and regional roll-outs work

Pay more → newer model + higher mileage allowance.
Most chatbots follow a staircase:

When a brand-new model launches, it usually starts behind a paywall while the previous “premium” engine moves down to the free tier. GPT-4.5 replaced GPT-4 in the paid API; GPT-4o became the Plus perk while 4o mini slipped into the free tier; Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet was free once Opus took top spot; Gemini 2.5 Pro is paid while 2.0 Flash is now free.

Usage meters. Even on free plans you can query GPT-4o a handful of times every few hours before being bumped to the lighter 4o mini unless you upgrade.

Why availability differs by country.

• Regulations. The EU’s forthcoming AI Act imposes strict risk assessments, so companies often delay launches in Europe or strip out voice features first.

• Local tests. Labs soft-launch in the US, India or Australia to gather safety feedback before rolling out worldwide. Gemini’s mobile app covered 150 countries at launch but skipped the EU and UK for months.

• Content or privacy laws. Claude arrived in Canada almost a year after the US rollout because of data-handling and “CanCon” rules.

• Bandwidth & language packs. Advanced voice mode for ChatGPT Plus still rolls out country-by-country because it has to recognise local accents and comply with telecom rules.

Bottom line: where you live and what you pay jointly decide which AI “cars” you can drive today and how far you can take them.

2 Showroom snapshot — notable models on 30 May 2025

⚠️ These line-ups change fast. Follow the maker links for live catalogs.

2.1 OpenAI — ChatGPT

• GPT-4o – “Luxury SUV”: understands text, images and live audio for presentations, language practice and content creation.

• GPT-4.5 – “Long-haul van”: gigantic memory window for book-sized documents and data analysis.

• GPT-4o mini – “City hatchback”: quick, cheap daily assistant.

https://platform.openai.com/docs/models

2.2 Anthropic — Claude

• Claude 4 Opus – “Sports car”: top raw IQ; excels at coding and legal drafting.

• Claude 4 Sonnet – “Family sedan”: balanced for office docs and brainstorming.

• Claude Haiku 3.7 – “Motor-scooter”: lightning replies for embedded chat widgets.

https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/about-claude/models/overview

2.3 Google — Gemini

• Gemini 2.5 Pro – “Touring coupe”: deep reasoning and 200 k-token glovebox for research.

• Gemini 2.5 Flash – “Hot-hatch”: real-time mobile assistant with cost controls.

• Gemini 2.0 Flash – “Budget runabout” still serving legacy apps.

https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/models

2.4 xAI — Grok

• Grok-2 – “Pickup”: chatty, internet-aware assistant for X threads.

• Grok-2 mini – “Compact pickup”: tuned for phones.

• Grok-3 (preview) – “Prototype racer”: early access for coding-heavy enterprise pilots.

https://docs.x.ai/docs/models

2.5 Microsoft — Copilot & Phi

• GPT-4o via Copilot cloud – Rented luxury car for multimodal queries.

• Phi-4 Reasoning – “Electric city car”: open-weight model that can run locally.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/phi/

2.6 Perplexity

• Sonar-Pro – “Sat-nav”: Q&A with live web citations—great for homework.

• PPLX-70B-online – “Rally car with co-driver”: blends powerful language skills with instant web retrieval.

https://docs.perplexity.ai/models/model-cards

2.7 Meta — Llama 3

• Llama 3.1 405B – “Open-source SUV” powering Meta AI in the cloud.

• Llama 3 70B – “Crossover” that can squeeze onto advanced phones and XR headsets.

https://www.llama.com/docs/model-cards-and-prompt-formats/llama4/

2.8 DeepSeek

• DeepSeek-V3 MoE 671B – “Hybrid supercar”: mixture-of-experts engine gives Ferrari speed on Toyota fuel.

• DeepSeek-R1-0528 – “Facelift” tuned for maths and programming with fewer hallucinations.

https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing

3 Choosing and keeping up

If you only need everyday email help, the free hatchback models are fine. When you’re crunching legal contracts, spring for the luxury SUV tier or rent cloud horsepower by the token. And keep an eye on geography: that shiny new voice mode may reach Sydney months before Berlin.

Finally, AI makers update their “showrooms” every few weeks. Use the links above as your live spec sheets so you can always tell which model—and which price tag—fits your journey.