What are the best AI tools for investment research in 2026?
The best AI tool depends on the documents behind it. General assistants such as ChatGPT Plus cost a reported $20 a month (Price Per Token, 2026) and write well, but answer from the open web. Research platforms such as AlphaSense and PitchBook Navigator answer from their own licensed content, at a reported $12,000 a year and up.
Which AI research tools are worth comparing?
| Tool | What it answers from | Reported cost | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus | Model training, web search and files you upload | $20 a month; Pro $200 a month | Drafting, summarising documents you supply | Price Per Token |
| Claude Pro | Model training, web search and files you upload | $20 a month | Long documents, careful reading of filings you supply | Price Per Token |
| Perplexity Pro | Live web search with linked sources | About $20 a month | Quick sourced web answers | CostBench |
| AlphaSense | Its own library of filings, broker research, news and expert calls | Average contract $44,754 for smaller firms, $125,124 for enterprise (February 2026) | Searching broker research and transcripts | SpendHound |
| PitchBook with Navigator | PitchBook's private company, deal and fund data | $12,000 to $70,000 a year | Venture and private equity deal data | Prospeo |
| Bloomberg Terminal | Bloomberg's documents, news and transcripts | About $24,000 to $32,000 a seat a year | Public markets work in one terminal | PageCrawl |
| Koyfin | Market data and company fundamentals | Free tier; paid from $49 a month | Low-cost charts and fundamentals | CostBench |
| Tamarly Intelligence | SEC EDGAR, ESEF, GLEIF, Companies House and other public records | Free; Level 2 $145 a month; Level 3 $399 a month | Private companies, funds and sectors with every figure linked to its filing | Tamarly |
Prices above are reported by third parties, several of which sell competing tools. Check current terms with each vendor.
How good are general AI assistants at financial questions?
They are fluent and often wrong on exact figures. In Patronus AI's FinanceBench test, built on 10,231 questions about public companies drawn from SEC filings, GPT-4-Turbo with a retrieval system answered incorrectly or refused 81% of a sample of questions (Patronus AI). A 2026 benchmark by Saturn put 121 money questions to 18 models and found average accuracy of 43% (Wealth Professional, 2026).
Both tests are older or narrower than today's best models, so read them as a warning about unsourced answers. A general assistant does well when you hand it the filing; see how to use ChatGPT for due diligence.
What does AlphaSense's AI do?
AlphaSense answers questions over its own content library. It launched Generative Search and Generative Grid on 5 March 2025 (AlphaSense, March 2025) and describes a library of more than 500 million documents, including filings, analyst reports, trade journals, news and expert calls (AlphaSense, product releases 2025).
Users rate it well: 4.6 out of 5 on G2 from 367 reviews, with ease of use mentioned 60 times and AI 33 times (G2). The cost is the main barrier for small teams; see what AlphaSense costs.
What does PitchBook's AI do?
PitchBook announced Navigator on 10 November 2025, a feature that answers plain-language prompts inside the PitchBook platform with data and research on companies, transactions and market themes (Business Wire, November 2025). PitchBook data also became available inside Claude for subscribers on 28 October 2025 (Business Wire, October 2025).
Navigator answers from PitchBook's data, so its answers inherit that data's gaps. G2 reviewers raise outdated information 36 times and limited small-company data 29 times (G2).
What does Bloomberg's AI do?
Bloomberg added AI-powered earnings call summaries to the Terminal in January 2024, covering topics such as guidance, capital allocation and demand, with each point linked to the transcript (Bloomberg, January 2024). It suits teams that already pay for a Terminal seat and work mainly on listed companies.
Where does Koyfin fit?
Koyfin is a low-cost charting and fundamentals terminal, with a free tier and paid plans from $49 a month (CostBench). We found no documented AI research assistant in Koyfin's plans, so it pairs with a general assistant for analysts who mainly need listed-company numbers.
Where does Tamarly Intelligence fit?
Tamarly Intelligence is Tamarly's research platform on companies, funds, countries and markets, built from official filings and open data. Its Ask the Brain feature gives plain-language answers from Tamarly's data and knowledge graph, with a numbered source on every sentence, graded A (official filing or register) to D (secondary source), and says plainly when a subject is not covered.
Coverage runs to 19,910 company pages, 2,888 funds, 15,359 fund managers from SEC filings and 200 Tamarly Research reports, built only from free and open sources such as SEC EDGAR, ESEF filings, GLEIF and UK Companies House. Tamarly has no market prices or trading, no expert-call transcripts, no Excel data feed and no investor names on private rounds.
Ask a company question and get a source on every sentence, free for 7 days
When should you keep your current research tool?
Keep AlphaSense if broker research and expert-call transcripts drive your work; no free source replaces them. Keep PitchBook if you rely on investor lists, precedent multiples or contact data. Keep a Bloomberg Terminal if you trade or need live market data. A general assistant is a writing and reading aid on top of any of these, and works best when you give it the documents. For checking any AI answer before it reaches a memo, follow how to fact-check an AI answer about a company.
Frequently asked questions
Can ChatGPT replace AlphaSense or PitchBook?
Not for licensed content. ChatGPT answers from its training, the web and files you upload, while AlphaSense and PitchBook answer from libraries of broker research, transcripts and deal data that are not on the open web. ChatGPT can still read and summarise filings you give it.
Which AI tool cites its sources?
Perplexity links web sources, AlphaSense and Bloomberg link back to documents in their libraries, and Tamarly's Ask the Brain puts a numbered, graded source on every sentence. General assistants cite sources when they search the web, but check each link.
What is the cheapest AI tool for investment research?
General assistants such as ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro cost a reported $20 a month (Price Per Token), and Koyfin has a free tier. Pair a low-cost assistant with free primary sources such as SEC EDGAR for the most reliable result at that price.
About the author. Melvine Manchau is the founder of Tamarly and author of the Tamarly Newsletter. He previously worked at PwC, Salesforce, BlackRock/eFront and Lazard.
About Tamarly Research. Tamarly Research is part of Tamarly Media, which holds no investment positions. Tamarly is a New York research house that studies how AI is changing regulated institutions.