The most convenient way to reach AI in Russia, it turns out, is whichever one doesn't eat your mobile data. TelecomDaily, an analytics agency, has for the first time ranked nine Russian AI access services by ease of use, and Beeline's beeGPT won with 90.12 points out of 100. Sber's GigaChat took second place with 87.94, and Yandex's Alisa AI took third with 73.83.
The big names did not sweep the table. Two telecom-operator products sit at the very bottom, which is a slightly awkward result for companies that own the pipes.
How the ranking was built
TelecomDaily scored the services against ten criteria. The ones named in the report are:
- Free access: how much you get without paying.
- Transparent limits: whether you can tell what the limits are.
- Easy registration: how painful sign-up is.
- No VPN required: whether the service works without a workaround.
- Variety of AI features: how much the service can actually do.
The agency gathered its data by examining each service across 46 parameters. To decide how much each criterion should count, it surveyed more than 2,700 mobile users. The final calculation used 492 questionnaires from over 40 Russian regions. The report does not say why the figure shrank from 2,700 to 492, so treat the two numbers as given and unexplained.
What users said they cared about
The survey results shaped the weighting, and they are refreshingly unglamorous. Nobody put model quality at the top of the list.
| Priority | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| Free access with clear limits | 45% |
| Convenient web version and mobile app | 40% |
| Works without a VPN | 39% |
| Simple registration | 37% |
In other words, the typical user wants something free, with honest limits, that opens without a VPN and doesn't make them fill in a form first. That is a modest wish list, and a surprising number of services apparently struggle with it.
Why beeGPT edged out GigaChat
The gap between first and second place is about two points. According to the report, beeGPT won on two things: using it does not consume mobile traffic, and it selects the model automatically, so the user doesn't have to choose.
GigaChat got its own win. It scored higher for how easy it is to get started. So the ranking amounts to this: Sber made the front door easier, and Beeline made the room cheaper and simpler to use once you were inside.
The full table
| Place | Service | Company | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | beeGPT | Beeline | 90.12 |
| 2 | GigaChat | Sber | 87.94 |
| 3 | Alisa AI | Yandex | 73.83 |
| 4 | Real-bot | MTS | 71.03 |
| 5 | Marusya | VK | 70.55 |
| 6 | Elyumenta × T2 | Elyumenta and T2 | 66.06 |
| Next | AI assistants | T-Bank | 59.69 |
| Next to last | Telegram bot | MegaFon | 34.23 |
| Last | Unlimited ChatGPT | Yota | 22.33 |
The distribution is lopsided. The top two are close together, then there is a drop of roughly fourteen points to third place. Places three to five are bunched within about three points of each other, with Alisa AI, Real-bot and Marusya separated by narrow margins. At the other end, MegaFon and Yota are far behind the pack. Yota's product, named "Unlimited ChatGPT", scored the lowest of all, which makes the name a bold promise given the result.
What the ranking does and doesn't tell you
This is a convenience ranking, not a quality ranking. The criteria measure access, limits, registration, VPN-free operation and range of features. Nothing in the report suggests the services were compared on the accuracy or depth of their answers. A service that is easy to open and free to use can still give worse answers than one that is annoying to reach.
It is also the first edition. With no earlier TelecomDaily table to compare against, there is no trend to read, only a snapshot. The scoring leans on a survey whose weights came from 492 usable questionnaires, which is a respectable regional spread but not a huge sample.
Still, the message is clear enough. In this market, being easy to start, cheap to use and honest about limits counted for more than a famous brand. The AI itself, apparently, is the part users take for granted.