A free plan is worth listing here only if it does real work without a watermark on everything and without running out on day two. These six qualify. For each, the free tier’s actual limits come from the vendor’s pricing page, checked on the date shown on the listing, and the line that matters most: when you will need to pay.
ChatGPT: the free plan most people never outgrow
The ChatGPT free plan gives access to the current GPT model with usage caps, limited image generation and a few file uploads. For everyday writing, questions and light analysis it is enough; the caps bite when you run long research sessions or generate many images.
Pay when: you hit the model cap daily, or you need Deep Research and unlimited uploads. Plus is $20 a month.
Perplexity: unlimited searches with citations
Perplexity’s free tier has no cap on quick searches and gives a handful of Pro searches a day, all with sources. It is the best free tool for sourced answers and quick fact-checks.
Pay when: you want model choice, Deep Research and unlimited file uploads. Pro is $20 a month or $200 a year.
GitHub Copilot: 2,000 completions a month, in every IDE
Copilot Free works in VS Code, JetBrains, Xcode and more with 2,000 code completions and 50 premium chat requests a month. Students and teachers get Pro for free.
Pay when: you want unlimited completions and the coding agent. Pro is $10 a month, the cheapest paid plan in this list.
Gamma: 400 credits to make your first decks
Gamma’s free plan includes 400 AI credits, enough for several presentations, with Gamma branding on exports.
Pay when: you need to remove the branding or export to PowerPoint without limits. Plus is $10 a month, $8 on annual billing.
Cursor: a hobby plan plus a two-week Pro trial
Cursor’s Hobby plan limits agent requests and Tab completions but includes a 14-day trial of Pro with no card required, which is the honest way to find out whether agentic coding fits your workflow.
Pay when: the trial ends and you kept most of the agent’s edits. Pro is $20 a month.
ElevenLabs: 10,000 credits a month, for testing only
ElevenLabs’ free plan gives 10,000 credits a month, roughly ten minutes of speech, with the most natural voices available. The catch is the license: non-commercial use only, attribution required.
Pay when: you publish anything. Starter is $5 a month with a commercial license; Creator at $22 adds professional voice cloning.
What did not make the list
Free tiers that are one-time allowances (Runway’s 125 credits), watermark every export (Descript’s 720p exports) or offer only a trial (Jasper) are useful to evaluate a tool, not to work with it. They are documented on their listings with the same fields, so you can judge for yourself.