Plenty of AI tools say "free" and mean a trial. The nine below have a free plan you can keep using, and each entry gives the limit of that free plan in the vendor's own terms: messages, credits, minutes or prompts. Many vendors no longer publish a number for chat, and where that is the case we say so instead of guessing. Everything was checked against vendor pages in October 2026.
How these picks were chosen
A tool qualified if its free plan has no time limit, needs no payment card, and does a complete job without upgrading. We then took the free-tier limit from the vendor's pricing or help page. We left out trials, "free" plans that include zero credits, and tools whose free terms we could not confirm. No tool paid to be here.
| Tool | Job | Free limit, as the vendor states it |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Chat, writing, research | Unlimited everyday text chats; separate limits on uploads, images, voice |
| Google Gemini | Chat, images, Deep Research | No number; refreshes every 5 hours up to a weekly limit |
| Claude | Writing, documents, code | No number published |
| Gemini Notebook | Study your own sources | 100 notebooks, 50 sources each |
| Google Flow | Video clips | 50 credits a day |
| Bing Image Creator | Images | 15 fast images a day, up to 200 prompts in 24 hours |
| Leonardo.Ai | Images, commercial use allowed | 150 tokens a day |
| Grammarly | Writing help | 100 AI prompts a month |
| Otter | Meeting notes | 300 minutes a month, 30 per conversation |
1. ChatGPT Free
The free plan runs on GPT-5.6 Luna and includes web search, data analysis, file and image uploads, image creation, GPTs made by others, and a Library with 500 MB of storage. It works on the web and in the iOS and Android apps.
Free limit: "unlimited everyday text chats, subject to abuse-prevention safeguards". File uploads, image generation, voice and data analysis each have their own limit, and ChatGPT tells you when you reach one. Catch: OpenAI says ads may appear on the free tier in some countries, and new GPTs cannot be created on personal plans.
2. Google Gemini
Google's free plan lists the 3.6 Flash model, varying access to 3.1 Pro, image generation and editing with Nano Banana 2, Deep Research and Gemini Live. Gemini runs on the web, on Android as the phone assistant, and on iPhone.
Free limit: no fixed count. Google's help page says usage "refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit", and media generation uses more of it. The free context window is 32,000 tokens, and free image downloads are 1K resolution. Catch: video generation needs a paid plan. For better results on the free tier, see our Gemini prompts.
3. Claude Free
Anthropic's free plan covers chat on the web, desktop and mobile, with web search, file creation, code execution, memory, artifacts and up to 5 projects.
Free limit: Anthropic does not publish a number. Pro is described as "more usage", and Max plans as 5x or 20x Pro. Catch: Claude Code and scheduled tasks are paid features.
4. Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)
Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook in July 2026; Google calls it the same standalone product. You upload your own sources and ask questions grounded in them, and it can turn them into Audio Overviews in 80+ languages. It runs on the web, with apps for Android and iOS.
Free limit: 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook. Since August 2026, chat and generation limits refresh every 5 hours instead of daily, and depend on how complex the request is. Catch: the mobile app cannot yet create notes, mind maps, reports or data tables; Google recommends the desktop version for the full experience.
5. Google Flow
Flow is Google's AI video studio. Its help page says that "with or without a subscription, you receive 50 Google Flow credits per day". Clip costs depend on model and length: a 10-second Gemini Omni Flash clip at 720p costs 15 credits, and a Veo 3.1 Lite clip 10 credits on non-Ultra accounts.
Free limit: 50 credits a day. Catch: video in the Gemini app itself needs a Google AI plan, and Veo 3.1 Quality costs 100 credits, more than two days of free credits. Other options are in the AI video generators roundup.
6. Bing Image Creator
Microsoft's image generator is "free for everyone with a Microsoft Account". It offers two models, MAI-Image-2.5-Flash and MAI-Image-2e, and returns four images per prompt.
Free limit: "15 free fast image creations" a day, then standard speed, up to 200 prompts in 24 hours. Catch: work and school accounts cannot use it. More picks are in AI image generators.
7. Leonardo.Ai
Leonardo's FAQ says generated images can be used commercially and that this "applies for free users too". It runs on the web and in iOS and Android apps, with Lucid Origin as its current image model.
Free limit: "Free users have a daily allowance of 150 Tokens", reset every 24 hours. Catch: free images are public to other Leonardo users, and unused free tokens do not roll over.
8. Grammarly Free
Grammarly works in browser extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge, in desktop apps for Windows and Mac, in Microsoft Office and Google Docs, and on iPhone, iPad and Android.
Free limit: "Grammarly Free users have 100 prompts per month" for generative AI, refilled monthly. Pro raises this to 2,000. Catch: full-sentence rewrites and tone adjustment are Pro features.
9. Otter Basic
Otter records, transcribes and summarizes conversations in real time and can join Zoom, Teams and Google Meet. It has desktop, iOS and Android apps and a Chrome extension.
Free limit: "300 monthly transcription minutes; 30 minutes per conversation", 3 imported audio or video files per user in total, and 20 AI chat questions. Catch: transcription covers English, French and Spanish only.
Free, but with no published limit
- Microsoft Copilot: the app is free on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the web. Signing in adds chat history and more image creation, but Microsoft publishes no number.
- Meta AI: free for everyday use. Meta says that if you reach your "free daily limit" you can wait for it to refresh or upgrade to a Meta One plan from $7.99 a month.
- Mistral Vibe (formerly Le Chat): the free plan offers "limited messages and web searches"; Pro allows up to 6x as many messages.
- DeepSeek: the chat app is free on the web, iOS and Android. Its privacy policy says personal data is stored in the People's Republic of China. See our DeepSeek page.
How to stretch a free plan
Every retry spends part of a free allowance, so a complete first prompt saves messages and credits: state the task, the context, the format and the length in one go. Our free AI prompt generator builds that structure from a short form, and the guide to writing prompts explains each part.
Task: [what you need, in one sentence]. Context: [who it is for and what you already have]. Format: [list / table / email / 3 short paragraphs]. Length: under [number] words. Get it right the first time: if anything is unclear, ask me before answering.
FAQ
What is the best free AI tool?
For general use, ChatGPT: its free plan allows unlimited everyday text chats, with separate limits on uploads, images and voice. For working through your own documents, Gemini Notebook's free plan allows 100 notebooks of up to 50 sources each.
Are free AI tools really free?
The nine above have a free plan with no time limit and no card required. The trade-offs are usage caps and, in some cases, public outputs or ads: Leonardo makes free images public, and OpenAI says ads may appear on ChatGPT's free tier in some countries.
Which free AI tools allow commercial use?
Leonardo states that commercial use applies to free users too. Terms differ by tool, and some free plans exclude it: Recraft's free images, for example, are not licensed for commercial use. Check the terms before you publish.
Which is the best free AI chatbot?
ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude all have usable free plans. Our AI chatbots roundup compares them and the alternatives.
Sources
- ChatGPT Free Tier FAQ — OpenAI, accessed October 2026
- What is ChatGPT Plus? — OpenAI, accessed October 2026
- Google AI plans — Google, accessed October 2026
- Gemini Apps limits and upgrades — Google, accessed October 2026
- Generate and edit images with Gemini Apps — Google, accessed October 2026
- Claude pricing — Anthropic, accessed October 2026
- NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook — Google, accessed October 2026
- Flexible usage limits for Gemini Notebook — Google, accessed October 2026
- Learn about Gemini Notebook's plans — Google, accessed October 2026
- Get started with the Gemini Notebook mobile app — Google, accessed October 2026
- Generate Audio Overview in Gemini Notebook — Google, accessed October 2026
- Manage your Google Flow credits — Google, accessed October 2026
- Generate videos with Gemini Apps — Google, accessed October 2026
- Help: Bing Image Creator — Microsoft, accessed October 2026
- Token Usage — Leonardo.Ai Help Center, accessed October 2026
- Frequently Asked Questions — Leonardo.Ai Help Center, accessed October 2026
- Leonardo.Ai Pricing — Leonardo.Ai, accessed October 2026
- Grammarly Pro — Grammarly, accessed October 2026
- Grammarly Plans — Grammarly, accessed October 2026
- You're out of prompts — Grammarly Support, accessed October 2026
- Start for Free — Otter.ai, accessed October 2026
- Pricing — Otter.ai, accessed October 2026
- Getting started with Microsoft Copilot — Microsoft Support, accessed October 2026
- Manage AI usage for your Meta One plan — Meta Help, accessed October 2026
- Introducing Meta One — Meta, accessed October 2026
- Pricing — Mistral AI, accessed October 2026
- DeepSeek — DeepSeek, accessed October 2026
- DeepSeek Privacy Policy — DeepSeek, accessed October 2026
- Commercial rights and ownership — Recraft, accessed October 2026