A working directory of AI services worth knowing about, grouped by what
you’d actually use them for. Within each category, free options are listed
first, then paid ones. Prices and feature tiers change often — check each
service’s own site for current details.
Text
Chat assistants and writing tools.
Free
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| ChatGPT | chatgpt.com | OpenAI’s assistant; free tier includes a lighter model, browsing, and image generation. |
| Gemini | gemini.google.com | Google’s assistant, integrated with Search, Gmail, and Docs. |
| Copilot | copilot.microsoft.com | Microsoft’s free assistant, built into Windows and Edge. |
| Perplexity | perplexity.ai | Answer engine that cites sources instead of just chatting. |
| DeepSeek Chat | chat.deepseek.com | Free web chat for DeepSeek’s open-weight models. |
| Meta AI | meta.ai | Free assistant built into Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. |
| HuggingChat | huggingface.co/chat | Free chat UI for various open-source models. |
Paid
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| ChatGPT Plus / Pro | chatgpt.com | Subscription tiers for frontier models, higher limits, and priority access. |
| Claude | claude.ai | Anthropic’s assistant; paid plans unlock stronger models and larger usage limits. |
| Gemini Advanced | gemini.google.com | Google’s top-tier model via a Google One AI subscription. |
| Perplexity Pro | perplexity.ai | Adds more sources, file uploads, and choice of underlying model. |
Programming & Software Development
Coding assistants and agentic dev tools.
Free
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| GitHub Copilot (free tier) | github.com/features/copilot | Limited monthly completions and chat, no card required. |
| Cursor | cursor.com | AI code editor with a free usage tier. |
| Windsurf | windsurf.com | AI-native IDE (formerly Codeium) with a free tier. |
| Continue | continue.dev | Open-source, self-hostable AI coding assistant for VS Code / JetBrains. |
| Replit | replit.com | Browser IDE with a free AI assistant tier. |
Paid
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| GitHub Copilot | github.com/features/copilot | Full subscription tiers for individuals, teams, and enterprises. |
| Cursor Pro | cursor.com | Higher usage limits and access to frontier models. |
| Claude Code | claude.ai/code | Anthropic’s terminal-based coding agent, part of a Claude subscription or API usage. |
| Devin | cognition.ai | Autonomous software engineer that plans and executes multi-step coding tasks. |
| Amazon Q Developer | aws.amazon.com/q/developer | AWS’s coding assistant, paid tiers for teams and enterprises. |
Pictures
Image generation.
Free
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| Bing Image Creator | designer.microsoft.com | Free DALL·E-powered image generation from Microsoft. |
| Leonardo.Ai | leonardo.ai | Free daily generation credits, popular for game/concept art. |
| Ideogram | ideogram.ai | Free tier, notably strong at rendering text inside images. |
| Adobe Firefly | firefly.adobe.com | Free generation credits, trained on licensed/stock content. |
Paid
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| Midjourney | midjourney.com | Subscription-only; widely used for high-quality stylized art. |
| DALL·E (via ChatGPT) | chatgpt.com | Image generation bundled into paid ChatGPT tiers. |
| Leonardo.Ai (paid) | leonardo.ai | Higher generation limits and private/commercial usage rights. |
| Adobe Firefly (paid) | firefly.adobe.com | Bundled with Creative Cloud, higher generation limits. |
Video Generation
Text/image-to-video tools.
Free
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| Pika | pika.art | Free tier for short AI-generated video clips. |
| Luma Dream Machine | lumalabs.ai/dream-machine | Free tier for text/image-to-video generation. |
| Runway | runwayml.com | Free tier with limited generation credits. |
| Kling AI | klingai.com | Free daily credits for video generation. |
Paid
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| Runway (paid) | runwayml.com | Higher-resolution, longer clips, and priority generation. |
| Sora | openai.com/sora | OpenAI’s video model, bundled into paid ChatGPT tiers. |
| Pika Pro | pika.art | More credits and higher-resolution output. |
| Kling AI (paid) | klingai.com | Higher-tier plans for longer, higher-quality clips. |
Superpro Deep Investigations
Agentic research tools for multi-step, source-heavy investigation — beyond a
single chat reply.
Free
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| Perplexity (Deep Research mode) | perplexity.ai | Limited free deep-research queries that read many sources before answering. |
| Gemini (Deep Research mode) | gemini.google.com | Limited free multi-step research runs inside the Gemini app. |
Paid
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| ChatGPT Deep Research | chatgpt.com | Multi-step autonomous research mode on paid ChatGPT tiers. |
| Claude (Research) | claude.ai | Extended-reasoning, multi-source research on paid Claude plans. |
| Perplexity Pro | perplexity.ai | Higher-volume deep research with model choice. |
| Elicit | elicit.com | AI research assistant specialized in academic literature review. |
| Consensus | consensus.app | Search engine over scientific papers, with AI-synthesized answers. |
AI Aggregators
Services that give access to many different AI models from one place,
instead of committing to a single vendor.
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|
| Poe | poe.com | Quora’s platform for chatting with many models; free and paid tiers. |
| OpenRouter | openrouter.ai | Unified API for pay-per-use access to models from many providers. |
| You.com | you.com | Search + chat platform with multiple selectable underlying models. |
| LibreChat | librechat.ai | Open-source, self-hosted chat UI that connects to many model providers. |
| LMArena | lmarena.ai | Free side-by-side model comparison and community leaderboard. |