AI Services Directory: Chat, Code, Images, Video & Deep Research
AI-GENERATED
Content generated by Claude ·
Last
regenerated: 2026-09-26
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.
Refreshed 2026-09-26. Every link below was verified to resolve. This directory deliberately avoids quoting prices and version numbers inside the tables, because those are what go stale first; where a figure appears it’s because the number is the whole point of the entry. See the revision history for what changed, and recently discontinued for services that no longer exist.
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. |
| Claude | claude.ai | Anthropic’s assistant; usable free tier, with paid plans for stronger models and higher limits. |
| Grok | grok.com | xAI’s assistant, also built into X. Free tier with a rolling message allowance. |
| 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. |
| Le Chat | chat.mistral.ai | Mistral’s assistant — EU-hosted, unusually capable free tier including image generation, code interpreter and connectors. |
| DeepSeek Chat | chat.deepseek.com | Free web chat for DeepSeek’s open-weight models. |
| Qwen Chat | chat.qwen.ai | Alibaba’s assistant; free by default, no sign-up required, full model range. |
| Kimi | kimi.com | Moonshot AI’s assistant — long-context reading and agentic work; free tier is genuinely usable. |
| Z.ai Chat | chat.z.ai | Free chat for Z.ai’s GLM 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 Pro / Max | claude.ai | Higher usage limits, frontier models, and Claude Code access. |
| Google AI Plus / Pro / Ultra | gemini.google.com | Google’s three paid tiers, replacing the old “Gemini Advanced” branding. |
| SuperGrok | grok.com | xAI’s paid tiers, from a light plan up to a high-usage “Heavy” tier. |
| Le Chat Pro | chat.mistral.ai | Higher limits on Mistral’s EU-hosted assistant; student pricing available. |
| Kimi (membership) | kimi.com | Unlocks latest K-series models, agent credits, and deep research. |
| Perplexity Pro | perplexity.ai | Adds more sources, file uploads, and choice of underlying model. |
Programming & Software Development
Coding assistants and agentic dev tools. This category has changed more than any other in 2026 — the terminal agent is now the dominant form factor, not the editor autocomplete.
Free / open source
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|---|---|
| OpenCode | opencode.ai | Open-source terminal coding agent, now the most-starred of the group; free to run, you pay only for whichever model API you point it at. |
| OpenClaw | openclaw.ai | Open agent harness with sub-agent orchestration — dispatches work to other agents via the Agent Client Protocol; large community skill marketplace. |
| Continue | continue.dev | Open-source, self-hostable AI coding assistant for VS Code / JetBrains. |
| Gemini CLI | github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli | Google’s terminal agent. Note: free access for individuals ended mid-2026 as it folds into Antigravity. |
| 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. |
| Replit | replit.com | Browser IDE with a free AI assistant tier. |
Paid
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | claude.ai/code | Anthropic’s terminal coding agent, with IDE, desktop and web clients; part of a Claude subscription or API usage. |
| Codex | developers.openai.com/codex | OpenAI’s coding agent and CLI, bundled with paid ChatGPT tiers. |
| Antigravity | antigravity.google | Google’s agentic development environment, the successor path for Gemini CLI users. |
| 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. |
| Jules | jules.google.com | Google’s asynchronous coding agent that works on tasks in the background. |
| 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. |
Most of these now speak the Model Context Protocol, so a given MCP server works across Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and Devin with one setup.
Pictures
Image generation. There is no single best option — pick by the job.
Free
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bing Image Creator | designer.microsoft.com | Free generation from Microsoft, now running its own MAI-Image models with OpenAI models still selectable. |
| Gemini | gemini.google.com | Free image generation and editing inside the Gemini app. |
| Krea | krea.ai | Free tier; real-time canvas and a front end for many open image models. |
| Ideogram | ideogram.ai | Free tier, and still the most reliable at rendering readable text inside images. |
| Leonardo.Ai | leonardo.ai | Free daily credits; strong at consistent characters and game/concept art. |
| Recraft | recraft.ai | Free tier; the pick for design work because it outputs editable vectors. |
| Adobe Firefly | firefly.adobe.com | Free generation credits, trained on licensed/stock content. |
Paid
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | midjourney.com | Subscription-only; still the benchmark for artistic taste and cinematic looks. |
| ChatGPT Images | chatgpt.com | OpenAI’s image generation in paid ChatGPT tiers — the GPT Image line, which superseded DALL·E. |
| FLUX (Black Forest Labs) | bfl.ai | Hosted access to FLUX, the photorealism leader; the open weights are also downloadable. |
| Higgsfield | higgsfield.ai | Paid generation platform aimed at commercial and character-consistent output. |
| Recraft (paid) | recraft.ai | Higher limits, brand styles, and vector/design workflows. |
| Adobe Firefly (paid) | firefly.adobe.com | Bundled with Creative Cloud, higher generation limits. |
Video Generation
Text/image-to-video tools. The field reshuffled completely in 2026 — see the discontinuation note at the end before reaching for an older bookmark.
Free
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Google Flow | labs.google/flow | Google’s filmmaking tool and the main front end for Veo; limited free generation. |
| Kling AI | klingai.com | Free daily credits; currently the top-ranked video model family. |
| Hailuo | hailuoai.video | MiniMax’s video generator, free tier available; solid physics at 1080p. |
| Dreamina | dreamina.capcut.com | ByteDance’s creative suite, the consumer route to its Seedance models. |
| Luma Dream Machine | lumalabs.ai/dream-machine | Free tier for text/image-to-video generation. |
| Runway | runwayml.com | Free tier with limited generation credits. |
| Pika | pika.art | Free tier for short AI-generated video clips. |
Paid
| Name | Site | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Veo (via Flow / Gemini) | deepmind.google/models/veo | Google’s video model — the mainstream pick for realism and native audio. |
| Kling AI (paid) | klingai.com | Higher tiers for longer 4K clips; strong on stylized storytelling and human motion. |
| Seedance | seed.bytedance.com/seedance | ByteDance’s video model, widely rated for commercial content work. |
| Runway (paid) | runwayml.com | Higher-resolution, longer clips, and the most granular creative control. |
| Hailuo (paid) | hailuoai.video | Multiple tiers for longer, higher-quality generation. |
| Pika Pro | pika.art | More credits and higher-resolution output. |
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. |
| NotebookLM | notebooklm.google.com | Grounded research over your own uploaded sources, with citations back to them. |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | openrouter.ai | Unified API for pay-per-use access to models from many providers. |
| Poe | poe.com | Quora’s platform for chatting with many models; free and paid tiers. |
| 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. |
Recently discontinued
Worth recording, because these still appear in directories and search results that haven’t been updated:
- Sora — OpenAI notified developers on 2026-03-24, closed the Sora app and web experience on 2026-04-26, and removed the Sora 2 API on 2026-09-24. Reported cause was cost against too few paying users, as part of a broader pivot toward coding and enterprise products. There is no direct replacement in OpenAI’s consumer lineup; Veo, Kling and Seedance are where that work went.
- DALL·E — superseded by OpenAI’s GPT Image line. Azure OpenAI retired DALL·E 3 on 2026-02-18. The name persists in a lot of documentation that no longer reflects what runs.
- Gemini CLI’s free individual tier — ended mid-2026; the path forward is Antigravity.
Running models yourself instead
This directory covers hosted services. If the reason you’re reading it is data control or cost, the self-hosted route is now genuinely competitive:
- Fifteen Free Models for a 128GB Strix Halo Notebook — a working loadout for one machine, covering text, code, images, OCR and speech.
- Self-Hosting the Frontier on Multi-GPU Servers — the ten most capable freely downloadable models, and five you pay to self-host.
Changes to this page are tracked in its revision history.