Best AI for resumes
You want your CV rewritten for a specific job without anything being made up. We gave nine assistants the same CV - four years of marketing, an 18-month career break, a two-year diploma - and a manager job ad that asks for more than it has, then read every line they wrote back against the original.
People also look for this as cv, resume writing, resume builder or tailor my resume.
Our picks, side by side
Rated for this task · 0–3
Measured
Quality
Effort
Cost
Free tier
From
Why
★ Best overall
ChatGPT
$8/mo · free tier: usableMeasured0 invented · 0 stretches · break kept · document card
Quality
Effort
Cost
Free tierUnlimited text chat on the default model, with limits on uploads, images, voice and deep research
From$8/mo
Why
The one rewrite that added nothing, stretched nothing, kept the career break, named the three gaps the CV actually has, and then told us which claims it had deliberately not made. It came back in ten seconds as a document card you can download. It is a light rewrite - the bullets are yours, the profile is the tailored part - which is what "do not add anything" should produce.
Best if you want a file
Claude
$20/mo · free tier: usableMeasured0 invented · 2 stretches · break kept · DOCX file
Quality
Effort
Cost
Free tierChat with web search and file uploads, with a usage cap per five-hour session
From$20/mo
Why
The only tool that produced an actual document - a one-page DOCX in a clean serif template with a download button - and the most thorough gaps list, including the point that briefing freelancers is not the people management the job asks for. It also added two flourishes to the profile that the CV does not quite support, worked out a growth percentage the brief said not to add (and said so), and miscounted the B2B tenure. Read the profile before you send it.
Best on the gaps
Kimi
$19/mo · free tier: usableMeasured0 invented · 0 stretches · break kept · gaps in Russian
Quality
Effort
Cost
Free tierUnlimited basic chat, file upload and web access on the free plan
From$19/mo
Why
The gaps list that reads like a recruiter wrote it - the B2B tenure counted right, the career break flagged as a question you will get, and the diploma called "a formal requirement that wording cannot get around, and I did not rename it". Nothing added to the CV either. In our run it wrote the gaps in the interface language rather than the language of the brief, so set the interface to English first.
Evidence
0 invented facts and 0 stretches against the fixture; the career break kept with its reason; gaps listed as 5+ years, HubSpot and the bachelor's degree, plus a note that organic pipeline, pipeline reporting and people management were left out "because your CV doesn't establish those facts".
Not on our roster
Teal — A résumé builder that keeps a master CV and tailors copies per job with a keyword match score, for when you are applying to twenty roles and want the versions tracked.
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All 9 tools we tested
Rated for this task only · 0–3| Tool | Quality | Effort | Cost | Free tier | Measured | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPTFree: Unlimited text chat on the default model, with limits on uploads, images, voice and deep research | 0 invented · 0 stretches · break kept · document card | $8/mo | ||||
| ClaudeFree: Chat with web search and file uploads, with a usage cap per five-hour session | 0 invented · 2 stretches · break kept · DOCX file | $20/mo | ||||
| GeminiFree: The default model with usage limits, plus Gemini inside Maps, Gmail and Docs on a free Google account | 0 invented · 1 stretch · break hidden | $19.99/mo | ||||
| PerplexityFree: Unlimited basic searches with a weekly cap on Pro-model searches | refused once · a copy · cut off mid-sentence | $20/mo | ||||
| Microsoft CopilotFree: The Copilot app on web, Windows and mobile with usage limits | 0 invented · 2 stretches · degree left out of the gaps | $19.99/mo | ||||
| DeepSeekFree: The full chat app with web search and file uploads; there is no paid consumer tier | 0 invented · 1 stretch · break kept | Free | ||||
| GrokFree: Chat with web and X search within generous limits, no card required | 0 invented · a copy · tenure miscounted | $30/mo | ||||
| QwenFree: The full chat app; there is no paid consumer tier | 0 invented · 0 stretches · break hidden | Free | ||||
| KimiFree: Unlimited basic chat, file upload and web access on the free plan | 0 invented · 0 stretches · break kept · gaps in Russian | $19/mo |
How we tested
One brief, sent once to each of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Grok, Qwen and Kimi on their free tiers, with account memory switched off wherever the tool has it. The brief pasted a fictional CV and a job description and asked for a one-page rewrite that adds no achievement, tool, title or number, leaves out what the candidate does not meet, and then lists the three biggest gaps separately.
Every line of every output was read against the fixture. Anything not in the source counted as an invented fact; a re-wording that made a fact sound bigger, or an omission that did the same job, counted as a stretch. We recorded whether the career break survived, whether the CV fitted a page, and whether the gaps list named the four gaps the CV was built to have - no HubSpot, no degree, four years not five, freelancers not a team.
The headline is that nobody invented anything. Every tool obeyed the letter of the brief. They differed on the spirit. Gemini and Qwen quietly removed the career break. Copilot removed the words "two-year higher technical diploma" from the education line, which is the one edit in the test that moves a fact toward a requirement the candidate does not meet, and then left the degree out of its gaps list. Perplexity refused to rewrite a CV whose name did not match the account holder's, and after a follow-up returned the original unchanged and stopped mid-sentence. Grok returned the original with one verb changed.
The test was run by, or under the direction of, the one person who runs this site, with AI assistance, and every output and fact-check was reviewed by them. The surrounding text was drafted with AI assistance from our own ratings and evidence, then checked and edited by the same person. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say so.
Questions people ask
Will an AI make things up on my CV?
Not when you tell it not to - none of the nine added a tool, a number or a title. What they will do without being told is quietly improve the story - hide a career break, drop the word "diploma", turn "basic keyword research" into "a proven track record in SEO". Say "add nothing" in the brief and then read the result against your original once, line by line. It takes five minutes and it is where the differences were.
Should I hide a career break?
That is your call, not the tool's. Two of the nine removed an 18-month break without being asked, which means a recruiter finds it in the interview instead of on the page. Kimi flagged it as a question you will be asked, which is the useful framing. If you want it gone, ask for it; if you want it kept, check it is still there.
Which one gives me a file I can send?
Claude, which returned a one-page DOCX with a download button. ChatGPT returned a document card with a download control. Everyone else returned text to paste into your own template, which is fine if you have one.
Is the gaps list worth asking for?
Yes, and it is the part that separated the tools. The CV rewrites were close to each other because the brief left little room. The gaps lists were not - one left out the degree requirement, two miscounted the years, one stopped mid-sentence. The honest ones tell you what an interviewer will ask before the interviewer does.