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4 features Gemini and ChatGPT should steal from each other

Launching Gemini Deep Research query on Chrome desktop.
Oplus_20054016 Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends

Gemini Advanced and ChatGPT are two of the most powerful AI assistants today, and both have seriously impressed me. But after spending months using them side by side, it’s clear that each has gaps that the other already solves. Some features are so helpful, I can’t believe they’re not universal. If Gemini and ChatGPT borrowed the best from each other, they’d be nearly perfect.

I’ve experienced their strengths and frustrations firsthand. For example, when ChatGPT is down, Gemini Advanced has never let me down so far. Or, when I ask ChatGPT to create an image using DALLE-3 , and find it’s much better than the one Gemini Advanced made for me with Imagen 3 . After countless real-world tests, a few must-have features have become obvious.

1. Gemini’s Google ecosystem integration makes life easier

One thing I’ve really come to appreciate with Gemini Advanced is how smoothly it works with Google’s apps. I can send content directly into Google Docs or Sheets without copying and pasting—something I often wish ChatGPT could do, because it makes everything easier.

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Since most of my workflow already runs through Google Workspace, this shortcut saves me a lot of time. ChatGPT doesn’t have that kind of direct connection and doesn’t provide an easy way to transfer content to Docs or Word. That convenience makes a bigger difference when you’re dealing with large amounts of text. I click the “Export to Docs” button with Gemini, which works great. Now, I only have to go to Docs to continue my project.

With Gemini Advanced, you can easily access other Google apps, such as Photos, Drive, Gmail, and more, by clicking on the menu at the top right. You can also add files to the chat to keep them accessible while working. Gemini one-ups ChatGPT in video creation thanks to its Veo 2 feature , which can produce 8-second videos in 720p resolution and with a 16:9 aspect ratio. I like that you can download the videos from the chat and share them on social media. The video creation would be nice to see on ChatGPT, so I hope it catches up soon.

2. ChatGPT’s customizable memory is something Gemini really needs

In my experience, AI tools work so much better when they remember what you consider essential. ChatGPT can remember past conversations and recall my name, past queries, and the kinds of answers I prefer. It’s a huge relief not having to repeat myself repeatedly, which saves me time and makes working with it feel more seamless.

Conversely, Gemini still starts from scratch every time, and it’s hard to put up with. It’s like I’m living in the Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore movie, “50 First Dates.” That might be fine for simple, one-off tasks, but it quickly becomes frustrating for anything ongoing or more complex.

3. Gemini’s massive context window, one-ups ChatGPT

One thing I saw right away when testing Gemini Advanced is how huge its context window is. With Gemini Advance, you can choose between models with up to 1 million tokens, enabling the model to process extensive documents, long-form content, or even entire codebases in a single prompt. I find this very useful for tasks that require deep analysis or summarization of large datasets. It gives me peace of mind that I can work with large amounts of text without worrying about the tokens. A token usually represents a few characters or a short word; it’s how AI models measure and limit how much content they can process at once.

ChatGPT, on the other hand, has a much smaller context window. It’s frustrating to see that free users only get a little over four thousand tokens, even though Plus and Team users can use up to almost thirty-three thousand tokens, or 128,000 for Enterprise users. It’s still not close to Gemini’s capacity. But what ChatGPT lacks in size, it makes up for how it handles those limits. I can keep chatting even when I get close to the token limit because ChatGPT automatically summarizes or compresses earlier parts of the conversation instead of cutting me off.

4. Web search: Gemini’s Deep Research vs. ChatGPT’s real-time browsing

It’s a huge relief when Gemini Advanced pulls in web results automatically without me needing to ask. It’s nice to know that when I want to know which are the 10 best gaming desktops of 2025 , it pulls the latest info from the web and doesn’t rely only on its internal knowledge.

ChatGPT can also browse the web, but I don’t like telling it to do so whenever the chat resets. ChatGPT considers this to be dynamic behavior, and it’s something it can’t currently do. That said, I’ve seen that ChatGPT sometimes needs reminders, and if I forget to tell it to do a web search, it gives me outdated information. This can be frustrating because I’m working and need up-to-date info, and I have to spend extra time asking it to do a web search. Good thing that Google is always an option for searching.

With Gemini, I can ask my question, and it automatically understands that I want current information without any extra steps.

At this point, you can’t choose just one

I need to keep both after using Gemini Advanced and ChatGPT side by side for months. When I need to use a specific feature, I open the one that has it instead of sitting there in agony. I can’t give up how easy it is to transfer particular text to Google Docs with one click, create videos, and have all the Google services right there.

However, thanks to ChatGPT, I also can’t give up not having to repeat myself after every chat. It feels great. I can turn to either if the other is down or struggling. Each AI assistant has its strengths and weaknesses, and until they play nice and share all their features with each other, I have no choice but to keep them both. So, the next time ChatGPT is down, Gemini Advance will help me. Of course, the budget may not be good enough to keep both subscriptions, but in that case, you can choose the one with the feature you use the most.

Judy Sanhz
Computing Writer
Judy Sanhz is a Digital Trends computing writer covering all computing news. Loves all operating systems and devices.
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