The short version: you can do most everyday AI work without paying anything if you know each free plan's limits. These tools have free plans that are useful on their own, not just short trials.

Free limits change often. The numbers below are from official pages at the time of writing (October 2026); each tool's page on this site shows the current offer.

Chat and writing assistants

Tool What the free plan gives you
ChatGPT Everyday chat, with tighter limits on top models, image generation and uploads
Claude Chat, web search, file creation, memory and Artifacts — limited usage (no Claude Code)
Google Gemini Gemini with standard limits, plus a limited number of daily images
Perplexity Unlimited basic searches with sources, limited Pro searches
DeepL Free translation with limits, plus a 30-day Pro trial

Tip: combine two free assistants (say Claude for writing and Perplexity for research) instead of paying for one.

Coding

Tool What the free plan gives you
GitHub Copilot Completions and chat with monthly limits — fully free for students
Cursor Hobby plan with limited agent requests, plus a one-week Pro trial
Windsurf Unlimited tab completions and a light agent quota

Full comparison: AI coding tools pricing.

Images and design

Tool What the free plan gives you
Leonardo.ai 150 tokens a day (an image is usually 2–5); images are public with no commercial rights
Ideogram Limited weekly credits — strong at text inside images
Canva Basic AI tools, plus a 30-day Pro trial

Midjourney has no free plan — see AI image generator prices.

Voice and video

Tool What the free plan gives you
ElevenLabs About 10,000 characters a month of text-to-speech
Suno 50 credits a day for song generation
Synthesia Up to 10 video minutes a month (watermarked)
Krisp 60 minutes of noise cancellation a day
Otter.ai Monthly transcription minutes on the Basic plan

Automation and productivity

Tool What the free plan gives you
Zapier 100 tasks a month with two-step Zaps
Make 1,000 credits and 2 active scenarios a month
Notion A free plan — and Education Plus free for university students

When is paying worth it?

Pay only when you keep hitting the free limit in a tool you use every week. Before that, try a budget tier or yearly billing — see how to pay less for AI tools.