Most paid AI tools have a free option.

All tools

Showing 27 of 27 tools

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• Aider

  Open sourceRuns on your computer

  An open-source pair programmer that edits code in your git repository from the terminal.

  Free plan: The tool is free. You supply the model, either a local one or a paid API key.

  Instead of Cursor.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• AnythingLLM

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  Lets you chat with your own documents using local or cloud models, all in one desktop app.

  Free plan: Free to run yourself, with unlimited documents, messages and users. Any cloud model you connect is billed separately.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• Buzz

  Open sourceRuns on your computer

  A desktop app that transcribes and translates audio with Whisper models, offline.

  Free plan: No usage caps. Larger models are more accurate but slower.

  Instead of Otter.ai.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• ChatGPT Free

  OpenAI's free plan for everyday questions, drafting and summaries.

  Free plan: OpenAI removed the text chat limits for Free accounts in August 2026, using a lighter default model. Image generation, file uploads and advanced features may still have caps.

  OpenAI has been showing ads on the free tier in some countries.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 21 Sep 2026

• Cline

  Open sourceRuns on your computer

  An open-source coding agent for your editor that can read files, run commands and edit code.

  Free plan: The extension is free. You supply the model, either a local one or a paid API key.

  Instead of Cursor and GitHub Copilot.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• ComfyUI

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  A node-based tool for generating images, video, 3D models and audio with open models on your own computer.

  Free plan: No usage caps. A capable graphics card makes a big difference to speed.

  Steeper learning curve than Midjourney.

  Instead of Midjourney.

  Checked 21 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• Continue

  Open sourceRuns on your computer

  An open-source coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains that works with local or cloud models.

  Free plan: The extension is free. Pair it with Ollama for no per-use cost, or pay a cloud provider for your own key.

  Instead of GitHub Copilot and Cursor.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• GitHub Copilot Free

  GitHub's free individual plan for code suggestions and chat in your editor.

  Free plan: 2,000 code completion requests and 50 chat requests a month, refreshed monthly. All chat interactions count against the 50.

  Instead of GitHub Copilot.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• Google AI Studio

  Try Gemini models in the browser and get an API key for building your own apps.

  Free plan: Free usage with rate limits. Check Google's current limits.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• Google Gemini

  Google's AI assistant, free with a Google account.

  Free plan: Free with no expiration date, but with daily limits on the advanced Pro model, image generation and Deep Research, plus a smaller 32K-token context window than paid plans. Limits vary with demand.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• HuggingChat

  Open source

  Hugging Face's free web-based chat, letting you pick between several open-source models instead of one fixed model.

  Free plan: Free to use in the browser with a Hugging Face account. Usage limits vary by the model you pick.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• InvokeAI

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  Self-hosted, open-source image generation with a canvas-style editor for refining results.

  Free plan: No usage caps when run locally. Actively maintained. Speed depends on your graphics card.

  Instead of Midjourney.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• Jan

  Open sourceRuns on your computer

  An open-source desktop chat app that runs models offline and can also connect to cloud models with your own API key.

  Free plan: No usage caps for local models. Cloud models you connect are billed by their own providers.

  Apache 2.0 license.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• Khoj

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  An AI assistant that answers questions from your own notes and files. You can host it yourself.

  Free plan: Free to self-host. A hosted plan also exists, so check which one you are signing up for.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• Kokoro

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  A small open text-to-speech model that runs on an ordinary computer.

  Free plan: No usage caps. Voice quality is good for its size but not identical to ElevenLabs.

  Apache 2.0 licensed, so commercial use is fine.

  Instead of ElevenLabs.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• Krita AI Diffusion

  Open sourceRuns on your computer

  A plugin that adds image generation and inpainting inside Krita, the free painting app.

  Free plan: The plugin is free and open source. Image generation runs through a local ComfyUI server for free, or an optional paid cloud service if you don't want to run one yourself.

  Works on top of Krita, which you install separately.

  Instead of Midjourney.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• LanguageTool

  Open sourceSelf-hostable

  A grammar and style checker for browsers and word processors. The core is open source and can be self-hosted.

  Free plan: Checks 10,000 to 20,000 characters per request depending on where you use it. AI paraphrasing and style rewrites are paid-only.

  Web and desktop apps are open source (LGPL); the browser extensions are not.

  Instead of Grammarly.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• Leonardo AI

  A web-based image generator with a free plan, so there is nothing to install.

  Free plan: 150 tokens a day, resetting every 24 hours with no rollover, roughly 20-30 images. Free-plan images are public and Leonardo can reuse them; commercial rights need a paid plan.

  Instead of Midjourney.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• LibreChat

  Open sourceSelf-hostable

  A self-hosted chat interface that puts several AI providers behind one login, so a team can share it.

  Free plan: The software is free. You host it and pay for any model API you connect.

  Needs some technical setup.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• LM Studio

  Runs on your computer

  A desktop app for downloading open models and chatting with them offline, with no command line needed.

  Free plan: Free for both personal and commercial use since mid-2025. Speed depends on your hardware.

  The app is free to use but is not open source.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• NotebookLM

  Upload your own sources and ask questions about them. Answers point back to the passages they came from.

  Free plan: 50 sources per notebook, 100 notebooks, 50 chat questions and 3 audio overviews a day. Each source can hold up to 500,000 words or 200MB.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• Ollama

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  Runs open-source language models on your own computer and gives other apps a local server to connect to.

  Free plan: No usage caps. The size of model you can run depends on your computer's memory and graphics card.

  Works on macOS, Windows and Linux.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 21 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• Open WebUI

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  A polished, self-hosted chat interface that sits on top of Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible API, adding conversation history, file uploads, web search and multi-user accounts.

  Free plan: Free to self-host, no usage caps. Over 124,000 GitHub stars and widely used. Best paired with Ollama.

  Uses a modified license with a branding clause, not plain MIT, so check the terms if you plan to white-label it commercially.

  Instead of ChatGPT Plus.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.

• Perplexica

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  An open-source AI search engine that answers questions with sources. It runs on your own machine with local or cloud models.

  Free plan: Free to run yourself. Cloud models you connect are billed separately. Actively maintained, 32k+ GitHub stars.

  Needs some technical setup.

  Instead of Perplexity Pro.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• Perplexity Free

  AI-powered search that answers questions with cited sources, free with unlimited basic searches.

  Free plan: Unlimited quick searches, but only about 5 Pro searches a day (the ones using stronger models), with no Deep Research or model switching.

  Instead of Perplexity Pro.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• Tabby

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  A self-hosted code completion server that a team can run on its own hardware.

  Free plan: Free to self-host, with no database or cloud service required. Some team features may need a paid plan.

  Needs some technical setup.

  Instead of GitHub Copilot.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

• Whisper

  Open sourceRuns on your computerSelf-hostable

  An open-source speech recognition model that transcribes audio in many languages, offline.

  Free plan: No usage caps. MIT licensed. Runs from the command line or Python; a graphics card speeds it up.

  For a point-and-click version, see Buzz.

  Instead of Otter.ai.

  Checked 22 Sep 2026

  Computer not powerful enough? Rent a GPU by the hour on RunPod.