Everyone’s trying to sell you AI subscriptions. But there’s a lot you can do for free if you know where to look.

I spent two weeks testing free AI tools. Most were garbage. These 12 actually work.

Writing and Content

Claude Free Tier Anthropic’s free tier gives you plenty for basic tasks. Writing emails, brainstorming, simple research. It’s slower during peak hours but the quality is excellent.

ChatGPT Free The free version is GPT-3.5, which is noticeably worse than GPT-4. But for straightforward tasks like summarizing text or drafting simple content, it’s fine.

Hemingway Editor Not technically AI, but it does one thing brilliantly: makes your writing clearer. Free, no sign-up, just paste and edit.

Image and Design

DALL-E via Bing Image Creator Microsoft gives you free access to DALL-E 3 through Bing. Quality is identical to paid versions. You get 15 “boosts” per day for fast generation, unlimited slow generations.

Remove.bg Free Tier Background removal is shockingly good. Free tier limits resolution, but for web use it’s often enough.

Canva Free The free tier includes basic AI features like Magic Eraser. Not as powerful as Pro, but handles simple edits.

Productivity

Notion AI Free Trial Notion gives you a decent free trial of their AI features. Use it for specific projects, then decide if it’s worth paying.

Otter.ai Free Tier 300 minutes of transcription per month. If you only have a few important meetings, this might be all you need.

Zapier Free Tier 100 tasks per month. Enough to automate a few critical workflows without paying. Connect your AI tools to everything else.

Development

GitHub Copilot Free for Open Source If you maintain open source projects, Copilot is free. Even if you don’t, you can start a project and get access.

Codeium A free Copilot alternative that’s surprisingly good. Works in most editors. No catch, they’re building market share.

Hugging Face Spaces Thousands of AI models you can try free. Great for testing what’s possible before building anything.

How to Actually Use These

The trick with free tools is combining them. Here’s my workflow:

1. Draft content with Claude free tier
2. Check readability with Hemingway
3. Create images with Bing Image Creator
4. Remove backgrounds with Remove.bg
5. Automate publishing with Zapier free tier

Total cost: $0

Does it have limitations? Sure. But for a bootstrapped startup, this stack handles 80% of what you’d pay hundreds for.

When to Upgrade

Free tiers make sense when you’re:

• Testing whether AI helps your workflow at all
• Bootstrapped and watching every dollar
• Only occasionally needing AI features

Upgrade when:

• You’re hitting limits that slow you down
• The time spent working around limits exceeds the subscription cost
• Quality differences actually impact your output

For most early-stage startups, free tiers can last surprisingly long. I know founders doing $30K MRR still on free tiers for most AI tools.

The Catch

Nothing is truly free. These companies want you to upgrade. They’ll show you premium features, send upgrade emails, and occasionally make free tiers worse to push you up.

That’s fine. Use what works, upgrade when it makes financial sense, and don’t feel guilty about being cost-conscious. That’s what being a startup is about.

Your job is building a business, not maximizing SaaS company revenue.