Free AI Tools That Actually Work
Most AI tool lists confuse 'has a free tier' with 'is actually useful for free.' These eight are tools where the free tier is genuinely enough for the stated purpose — not a limited demo that pushes you to pay within five minutes.
Claude (free tier)
Anthropic's AI assistant has a free tier that's more generous than most. Writing assistance, document summarisation, answering questions, and long-form drafting are all available without paying. The quality of prose output is the best we've tested across free-tier AI tools. Usage limits apply but are reasonable for moderate daily use. Full pick: Claude for Everyday Writing.
Perplexity
AI-powered search with citations. Ask a research question, get an answer with sources you can check. The free tier allows unlimited basic searches with real-time web access. For research questions where you'd normally read three articles to find the answer, Perplexity handles it in seconds. Full pick: Perplexity vs Google.
Google Gemini
Google's AI assistant. Free tier is generous and the integration with Google Search makes it particularly useful for questions that benefit from current information. Writing quality is good. Best suited to users already in the Google ecosystem.
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft's AI assistant, powered by GPT-4 technology on the free tier. Available in the browser at copilot.microsoft.com. Good for general writing tasks, research, and summarisation. The free tier includes image generation and web search. Best for Microsoft 365 users where the integrations add value.
Zapier (free tier)
100 Zap runs per month, which is enough to test whether automation genuinely saves you time before committing to a paid plan. Build one or two simple two-step workflows — something triggers, something happens — and see if the concept works for your situation. Full review: Zapier for Beginners.
Anki
Spaced repetition flashcards. Free on desktop and Android, one-time purchase on iOS. The science behind spaced repetition is solid and Anki implements it well. Ugly interface, powerful results. Best for memorisation-heavy subjects: languages, medicine, law, history. The shared deck library means you often don't need to create cards from scratch.
Otter.ai (free tier)
300 minutes of meeting transcription per month on the free tier. Enough for one or two meetings a week, which is sufficient to decide whether you want to pay for more. The transcription is accurate enough to be genuinely useful. Full pick: Otter.ai for Meetings.
Canva (free tier)
The free tier includes thousands of templates, the drag-and-drop editor, and basic export options. More than enough for occasional design work — presentations, social graphics, simple documents. The free tier has become more restricted over time as paid features expand, but it's still genuinely usable for moderate use. Full pick: Canva: Honest Review.