If you’ve ever bounced between ChatGPT, Claude, and GPT-4 just to see which one gives a better answer, Poe.com is basically that concept—but wrapped into a single, very clickable interface. Built by the team at Quora, it’s kind of like an AI buffet. Instead of logging into a separate tool each time, you can chat with dozens of large language models (LLMs) side by side—GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Claude, Claude-2, Claude-3, Google PaLM, Llama, even some open-source models from Meta and Mistral.
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Then, on top of that (and honestly the main reason I kept using it), you can build your own bots powered by prompts. Think of it like having ChatGPT, but every version is trained on a different personality or task. There’s zero coding required, and in the UI, you just write a prompt, name it, and hit publish. That’s your custom bot. Done.
But real quick: Poe is not for hardcore devs who want full API access and raw control. Poe is for you if you’re:
Trying to compare different AIs without switching tabs 40 times
A business owner wanting a branded chatbot on a site
Someone who’s tired of copy-pasting the same prompt into three windows
If that describes where you are, the rest of this post will probably save you hours.
How Switching Between Models Really Works
At first glance, the sidebar looks like a deck of trading cards. Each AI has its own name and avatar—ChatGPT (GPT-4), Claude-3 Opus, Meta’s LLaMA, and several others. The idea is: you click, chat. Simple, right?
Here’s the part they don’t mention: each bot remembers nothing about your other chats. They’re isolated. If you ask GPT-4 to summarize a doc and then ask Claude-3 to analyze that summary, it won’t know what you just did. You’ll have to paste the context again. That’s not a bug—it’s just how it works. And it trips people up constantly.
The confusing part is that the Poe interface feels shared. One window, one layout, your custom prompts reused across bots. But under the hood, each model runs in its own world. I’ve run into this while asking the same research question across three bots. I had to re-attach PDF files separately to each thread. Bulk file sharing? Not a thing here yet.
One workaround is to create an initial thread with PasteBot (that one uses Claude-3), summarize your content there, and then pipe that summary manually into GPT-4 or Sage. It’s clunky, but it avoids uploading anything three times.
Model
Context Memory
Attachment Support
Performance with Long Text
ChatGPT (GPT-4)
Good in-thread, no cross-thread memory
Yes (through Poe)
Strong reasoning, slower at processing long documents
Claude-3 Opus
Good at summarizing, limited memory beyond chat
Yes
Faster PDF summarization, excellent structure awareness
Sage (OpenAI GPT-3.5)
Sharp in the moment, loses context fast
No file upload
Decent performance for short prompts
In short, it works—but switching models doesn’t mean they share brains.
Building Custom Bots with Prompt Recipes
Now let’s talk about the custom bots part. Poe’s biggest flex isn’t that it has a dozen AIs to try—other platforms do that too. It’s that you can turn a single prompt into a named bot, publish it, and reuse it or embed it anywhere. You don’t write code, you don’t mess with OAuth, and you don’t set up a server. You’re basically creating automated personas.
During setup, you choose:
The base model (Claude, GPT, Llama… pick your poison)
A system prompt—this is what tells the bot how to behave
An avatar, display name, icon and welcome text
Say you want a bot that speaks like a TikTok stylist. You’d set GPT-4 as the base, paste in a long system prompt telling it how to talk (“uses Gen Z slang, keeps tone casual, always includes outfit links”), maybe even add some reference sources. Name it. And instantly, it’s live for anyone to use via a URL like https://poe.com/YourBotName
Here’s a real thing that might trip you up: GPT-4 bots have stricter response lengths. I once built a script writing bot using Claude-3, and it could output 2000-character blocks fine. Tried the same setup with GPT-4, and replies would get clipped. There isn’t a visible token counter in Poe, so you have to adjust your wording manually.
Also, if you plan to share your bot publicly, test how it responds to weird queries (like “Are you evil?” or “How do I bury a body?”). OpenAI and Anthropic each have different moderation layers. A bot that works fine in Claude might get flagged instantly in GPT-4.
To wrap up, custom bots only take about a minute to build—but expect another 20 tweaking how they behave under edge cases.
The Interface Experience Honestly Feels Like a Chat Lounge
Compared to something like OpenAI’s Playground, Poe’s interface is aggressively casual. It doesn’t feel like a dev tool. It feels like a Discord chat packed with AI personalities.
The left sidebar holds your bots and the official ones. Every thread is saved automatically. You can rename any chat by clicking its title, and share any transcript instantly with a button—this generates a link that lets anyone view the conversation, even without an account.
Poe doesn’t do tabs. Each bot opens in the same window. What’s good: it feels seamless. What’s bad: it’s easy to forget which model you’re using, especially when your custom bots have playful names. More than once I thought I was chatting with GPT-4 but was actually getting answers from LLaMA’s smaller model. For accuracy tasks, this matters a lot.
One other thing I didn’t realize until week two: you can see prompt history for your own bots, but not for others’. That means if you copy someone’s bot and try to reverse engineer how it works, you’ll hit a wall unless they’ve published the prompt. Wish there was a view-source option, but nope.
Ultimately, when it comes to design, it’s cozy and clear, but makes serious bot testing harder.
Where Poe Shines and Where It Stalls
I’ll be honest—I use Poe daily. But it’s not flawless. Here’s a breakdown of what stands out after extended use:
Strengths
Limitations
Fast access to multiple models without new logins
Custom bot creation takes under 2 minutes
Clean conversation sharing UX
Surprisingly stable mobile app support
No cross-bot memory sharing
No way to view input/output token counts
Limited override of model behaviors (no fine-tuning)
Some free-tier limitations on GPT-4 runtime
As a final point, Poe is fast, simple, and surprisingly flexible—but don’t expect it to replace full-scale API workflows just yet.
Embedding Poe Bots on Sites or Apps
If you’ve built a useful bot and want to drop it into your site, Poe gives you a simple embed option. But this is where things aren’t as customizable as you’d hope.
When you create a bot, Poe gives you a direct link like https://poe.com/BotName. Great. Now under the Share tab, you can get an iframe embed. You copy the code snippet and drop it into a webpage. It looks like:
The default welcome text (unless updated in bot settings)
The chat bubble appearance
User auth requirements (they need a Poe account)
If you’re running a coaching site or want a customer support agent, this is workable. But for pure marketing funnels, not so much. There’s no native way to detect who’s chatting, no webhook integration for replies, and no way to connect with external APIs dynamically.
One workaround is to set your bot’s base prompt with clear calls to action—e.g., “after answering, tell the user to email support@example.com”—but it’s manual. And quite static.
The bottom line is, Poe is solid for simple embeds, but it’s not a full chatbot platform like Intercom or Landbot.
Access Models Behind Paywalls Without Leaving Poe
This part surprised me: some models Poe gives you access to are normally behind paywalls elsewhere. Example? GPT-4. You can toggle between GPT-3.5 (which is free) and GPT-4 (which usually requires ChatGPT Plus) within Poe if you’re on their premium plan.
You also get Claude-3 Opus, which Anthropic doesn’t offer publicly unless you’re using their paid tiers. Poe’s plan costs about the same as ChatGPT Plus, so if you’re debating whether to upgrade your OpenAI or Anthropic account, Poe actually covers both with one price. That was a nice discovery.
Here’s what to expect performance-wise:
GPT-4 on Poe responds slightly slower than natively at OpenAI, especially for long-form tasks
Claude-3 is incredibly fast on Poe but sometimes cuts off output early
LLaMA-based bots work without limits but lack accuracy on complex tasks
In summary, Poe functions like an all-access buffet—and that includes VIP dishes you’d normally have to pay twice for elsewhere.
Exporting Your Bots or Migrating to Other Platforms
This one is quick: as of now, there’s no native export or backup for your custom bots. That means if you stop using Poe, you better keep a local copy of your prompt and bot config. You can’t export it to ChatGPT or Claude natively.
You also can’t move a bot between Poe accounts unless you rebuild it. It’s tied permanently to the creator account. That’s frustrating if you built something for a client under your email—you can’t just transfer ownership later.
To sum up, if you build something on Poe, you’re playing in a sandbox that doesn’t let you move your toys easily.
