Every tool here is free to use or has a free plan that is genuinely useful on its own. We list the ones we would recommend to a friend, ranked by how much you get before you hit a paywall.
OpenAI's all-round assistant for writing, analysis, images and voice.
Best for: Anyone who wants one assistant for everyday writing, research and brainstorming.
Anthropic's assistant known for careful writing, long documents and coding.
Best for: Writers, analysts and developers who work with long or detailed material.
AI pair programmer inside VS Code, JetBrains and GitHub.
Best for: Developers who want help inside the editor they already use.
Google's assistant, connected to Search, Gmail, Docs and Android.
Best for: People who already live in Google's apps and want an assistant inside them.
Design anything with templates and Magic Studio AI tools.
Best for: Non-designers creating professional-looking graphics.
An AI-first code editor that understands your whole project.
Best for: Developers who want AI at the centre of their editor.
Grammar, tone and clarity suggestions wherever you type.
Best for: Students and professionals who want cleaner writing without changing tools.
An answer engine that searches the web and cites its sources.
Best for: Anyone researching a topic who wants sources, not just answers.
Lifelike text-to-speech, voice cloning and dubbing.
Best for: Creators, audiobook narrators and app developers who need realistic voices.
Generate and edit video with AI, from text, images or footage.
Best for: Filmmakers and creators experimenting with AI video.
Write a prompt, get a full song with vocals.
Best for: Anyone who wants to make a song for fun, a video or a gift.
Create presentations, documents and web pages from a prompt.
Best for: Anyone who needs a good-looking deck fast.
Microsoft's free assistant on the web, Windows and Edge.
Best for: Windows users who want a free assistant without installing anything.
AI built into your Notion notes, docs and wikis.
Best for: Teams and individuals who organise their work in Notion.
Remove the background from any photo automatically.
Best for: Online sellers and anyone making profile or product photos.
Connect thousands of apps and automate work, with AI steps and agents.
Best for: Small businesses automating repetitive tasks between apps.
Adobe's image generator designed for commercial use.
Best for: Designers and businesses that need images they can use commercially.
A free, easy video editor with AI captions and effects.
Best for: Creators making reels, shorts and TikToks.
Collaborative interface design, with AI to generate and tidy designs.
Best for: Product designers and teams building apps and websites.
Build a working web app by describing it in chat.
Best for: Founders and non-developers building prototypes and MVPs.
Upload your sources and ask questions grounded only in them.
Best for: Students and researchers studying a set of documents.
Paraphrase, summarise and check grammar in one writing toolkit.
Best for: Students rewording and summarising research for essays.
Talking AI avatars and video translation with lip sync.
Best for: Marketers and trainers making presenter videos without filming.
Khan Academy's AI tutor that guides students instead of giving answers.
Best for: Students who want guidance and teachers planning lessons.
Image and video generation with fine control for game and design assets.
Best for: Game artists and designers producing many consistent assets.