Ignore the hype – I tested Gemini 3 and ChatGPT 5.1 head-to-head on what really matters: ease of use

AI use has reached a point where people are as interested in how easy and natural it feels to use an AI chatbot as they are in what its raw power can offer – and Google timed the release of its new Gemini 3 AI model perfectly to invite comparisons with OpenAI's new GPT-5.1 models.

While OpenAI has boasted about ChatGPT 5.1's clarity and ability to understand nuance, Google is just as keen to point to how efficient and well-rounded Gemini 3 is in its answers; and that's not to mention the two's competing multimodal productions.

But when both models are stripped of hype and elaborate demos, there is still a question of which comes off as better able to mimic human interactions. Which is easier to engage with when it comes to the more common or frequent varieties of prompts submitted ...