FreemiumListed
ChatGPT
OpenAI
OpenAI's widely used AI assistant for writing, coding, and everyday questions — free to use at chatgpt.com with an account, with paid Go, Plus, and Pro plans for higher limits and stronger models.
Use-case guide
Best free AI tools for students
Study help, explanations, and research support on a student budget — which is to say, free. Every tool here has a free tier and was checked before listing.
5 tools worth trying
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Claude
Anthropic · Claude Sonnet 5
Anthropic's AI assistant for writing, research, and analysis — free to start at claude.ai, with paid Pro and Max plans for heavier use.
FreemiumListed
Google Gemini
Google's AI assistant for writing, research, and image-aware tasks — free to use at gemini.google.com with a Google account, with paid Google AI plans for higher limits and stronger models.
FreemiumListed
Perplexity
Perplexity AI
An answer engine that responds to questions in plain language and cites its sources — free to use at perplexity.ai, with a paid Pro plan for more powerful models and higher limits on its deeper research modes.
FreemiumListed
Google NotebookLM
Google's AI research and note-taking tool that answers from the sources you upload — documents, PDFs, slides, links — and cites them. Free at notebooklm.google with a Google account, it can even turn your sources into a spoken audio overview.
Every tool here has a genuine free tier and was checked by hand — see how listings are checked, or browse the whole directory.