01
Chat, writing & research
Start here. If you only try one thing on this page, make it one of these. Ask them anything, get them to write your emails, sort your ideas out or explain something you don’t get. They’re all free, you just hit a limit if you go mad with it. Most of them reset every few hours, so if you run out, come back later.
- ChatGPT chatgpt.com OpenAI (USA) Free: Limited use of their everyday model, a limited number of messages and uploads, slower picture making and voice chat. Good for: Everyday questions, writing, ideas Check terms for business use Try it
- Claude claude.ai Anthropic (USA) Free: Limited use that resets every five hours, with a weekly cap. Web search, makes files, runs code, remembers your chats and connects to your apps. Good for: Writing, long documents, careful thinking Check terms for business use Try it
- Gemini gemini.google.com Google (USA) Free: Their Flash and Pro models at standard limits, topping up every five hours to a weekly cap. Deep Research can be switched off for free users when it’s busy. Good for: Anything Google: Gmail, Docs, YouTube Check terms for business use Try it
- Microsoft Copilot copilot.microsoft.com Microsoft (USA) Free: Free chat with web search and sources, file uploads and some picture making each day. Good for: Quick answers with sources Check terms for business use Try it
- Perplexity perplexity.ai Perplexity (USA) Free: Basic searches as good as unlimited, plus a handful of deeper “Pro” searches a day. Files you upload on free are kept for 30 days. Good for: Research, finding things out properly Check terms for business use Try it
- DeepSeek chat.deepseek.com DeepSeek (China) Free: Free and very generous, with no account needed to start. Your data goes through servers in China, so don’t put anything private in it. Good for: Maths, code, reasoning Check terms for business use Try it
- Le Chat chat.mistral.ai Mistral (France) Free: Around 25 messages a day, document uploads, web search and a code runner. Runs under EU privacy rules. Good for: A European option Check terms for business use Try it
- Meta AI meta.ai Meta (USA) Free: Free inside WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and on the web. Chat, voice and pictures. Good for: Quick help without leaving WhatsApp Check terms for business use Try it
- NotebookLM notebooklm.google.com Google (USA) Free: Free with a Google account. Up to 100 notebooks and 50 documents in each. Turns your stuff into audio and video overviews, mind maps and quizzes. Good for: Getting your head round a pile of documents Check terms for business use Try it
- Grammarly grammarly.com Grammarly (USA) Free: Basic spelling and grammar checks as you type, no word limit. Good for: Making your writing tidy Business use OK Try it
02
Pictures
This is where it gets fun. Type what you want to see and it makes it. Two things to watch with the free versions. A lot of them stick a watermark on, and most say you can’t use the free pictures for business. Fine for having a play, not for your adverts.
- Bing Image Creator bing.com/create Microsoft (USA) Free: 15 fast pictures a day, then slower ones after that. Good for: Quick free pictures Check terms for business useNo watermark Try it
- Adobe Firefly firefly.adobe.com Adobe (USA) Free: Free generations every day across pictures, video and audio. Adobe trains it on content it has the rights to, which is why businesses like it. Good for: Pictures you might use for work Check terms for business use Try it
- Leonardo leonardo.ai Leonardo (Australia, owned by Canva) Free: 150 tokens a day, reset at midnight. Free pictures have a watermark and are for personal use only. Good for: Lots of styles and controls Personal use onlyWatermark Try it
- Krea krea.ai Krea (USA) Free: 100 credits a day for pictures and short videos. No watermark, but free work is for personal use only. Good for: Fast experimenting Personal use onlyNo watermark Try it
- Ideogram ideogram.ai Ideogram (Canada) Free: A small free allowance of generations. Editing is paid only. Good for: Pictures with words in them, like posters Check terms for business use Try it
- Canva canva.com Canva (Australia) Free: Free design tool with some AI features at limited use. Background remover is paid. Good for: Putting it all together into posts Check terms for business use Try it
- Hugging Face Spaces huggingface.co/spaces Hugging Face (USA/France) Free: Thousands of free AI tools people have put online. Speed and quality are hit and miss. Good for: Trying the newest open models Check terms for business use Try it
Want better pictures out of these? Read my AI prompting guide. It works with all of them.
03
Video
Honest answer? Good AI video costs money. The free versions give you a taste, normally a watermark and only a few clips. Google Flow is the only one that properly tops you up every day. And if you’re looking for OpenAI’s Sora, they shut the Sora app down in 2026, so it’s not on here.
- Google Flow labs.google/flow Google (USA) Free: 50 credits a day if you don’t pay. That’s about five short 8-second clips on Veo 3.1 Lite, or two on Fast. Video can be switched off for free users at busy times, roughly 2pm to 5pm UK time. Good for: The best free daily allowance Check terms for business useWatermark on some Try it
- Kling klingai.com Kuaishou (China) Free: A small pot of free credits, roughly one short clip. Watermarked and not for business use. Good for: Testing one of the best video models Personal use onlyWatermark Try it
- Hailuo hailuoai.video MiniMax (China) Free: A small amount of free credits, enough for a few short 720p clips. Watermarked and not for business use. Good for: Realistic movement Personal use onlyWatermark Try it
- Runway runwayml.com Runway (USA) Free: A one-off 125 credits to try it. They don’t top up. Watermarked. Good for: A quick go on a pro tool Check terms for business useWatermark Try it
- Luma Dream Machine lumalabs.ai Luma AI (USA) Free: Draft-quality video and 720p pictures. Watermarked and personal use only. Good for: Testing ideas Personal use onlyWatermark Try it
- HeyGen heygen.com HeyGen (USA) Free: 3 videos a month, up to a minute each, with a watermark. Good for: Talking presenter videos Check terms for business useWatermark Try it
- CapCut capcut.com ByteDance (China) Free: Free video editor with AI tools. Templates end with a CapCut logo clip you can delete. Some fancy effects are paid and watermarked. Good for: Editing TikToks and Reels Check terms for business useWatermark on some Try it
When you want proper cinematic film, no watermarks, that you can actually use for your business, that’s what I do. See some of mine →
04
Voice & music
These still blow my mind. A full song from one line of text, or a voice-over that sounds like a real person. Same warning though. The free versions are for personal stuff only.
- Suno suno.com Suno (USA) Free: 50 credits a day, about 10 songs, vocals and all. On free, Suno owns the songs and they’re non-commercial. Newer free accounts can’t always download. Good for: Full songs in seconds Personal use only Try it
- ElevenLabs elevenlabs.io ElevenLabs (USA) Free: 10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of speech. You need to credit them when you publish, and there’s no commercial use or instant voice cloning on free. Good for: The most natural AI voices Personal use only Try it
05
For the techy ones
If you don’t mind getting your hands a bit dirty, these are free and some run on your own computer. No monthly bill and your stuff stays private, but you need a decent machine.
- Ollama ollama.com Ollama (USA) Free: Free. Downloads open AI models and runs them on your own computer. Good for: Private AI with no limits Check terms for business use Try it
- LM Studio lmstudio.ai LM Studio (USA) Free: Free app to download and chat with AI models on your own computer. Good for: Same as Ollama, with buttons Check terms for business use Try it
- Stable Diffusion stability.ai Stability AI (UK) Free: Free to run yourself. Free for businesses earning under $1 million a year under their community licence. Good for: Unlimited pictures on your own kit Business use OKNo watermark Try it
- n8n n8n.io n8n (Germany) Free: Free if you run it on your own server. Joins your apps and AI together to do jobs automatically. Good for: Automating boring jobs Business use OK Try it
- GitHub Copilot github.com/features/copilot GitHub / Microsoft (USA) Free: 2,000 code completions a month and a limited amount of chat. Free for verified students. Good for: Help writing code Business use OK Try it
06
And one of mine
Fancy checking your own website? I built a free tool that scans it, finds every page and makes you a sitemap for Google.
07
Questions people ask
Are these tools really free?
Yes, but with limits. You get so many goes a day or a month, and the best features and models cost money. Every tool on this page can be used without paying.
Can I use free AI pictures, videos or music for my business?
Usually not. Leonardo, Krea, Kling, Hailuo, Luma, Suno and ElevenLabs all say free work is for personal use only. Always read the tool’s own terms before you use anything in an advert, on a client job or on a channel that makes money.
Is my data safe in free AI tools?
Be careful. Many free plans can use what you type to improve their models unless you switch it off in the settings. Don’t put customer details, passwords or anything private into a free AI tool. DeepSeek runs on servers in China, which matters for some businesses.
What happened to Sora?
OpenAI shut down its Sora video app in 2026. For video, try Google Flow, Kling or Hailuo instead.
Which free AI tool should I start with?
For words, ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. For pictures, Bing Image Creator or Adobe Firefly. For video, Google Flow. Then read my prompting guide so you get better results out of all of them.
Rather I just did it for you?
Free tools are great for having a go. But if you want a website that actually stands out, with proper cinematic video you can use for your business and a design nobody else has, that’s my thing. You’ll have something to look at in 48 hours.
Free plans checked 5 November 2026 against each tool’s own pages where possible, and recent pricing guides otherwise. They change all the time, so check the tool’s own site before you rely on it, especially before using anything for business. I’m not linked to or paid by any of these companies. Names belong to their owners.
