Best Free AI Tools, LLMs, and Agent Platforms in 2026

I spent the last few weeks going through way too many AI tools. These 28 made the cut, and almost all of them are free to use or have a generous free tier. Each card says when one does not.

New AI tools come out every week. Most are repackaged wrappers, and some are plain vaporware. Each tool here earned its spot because I either use it regularly or it impressed me enough to bookmark it on the first try.

The list is not ranked and has no affiliate links. Click any card to try the tool.

Agents that do the work for you

The promise of an agent is simple: you give it a task, leave it alone, and come back to a result. These ones actually deliver on that.

General Agent

Manus AI

A general-purpose agent for research, planning, and multi-step tasks. Best when you want the tool to break the job into steps and work through it for you.

manus.im/app →

Task Executor • Claude Sonnet 5.5

Claude

Free users get Claude Sonnet 5.5, one of the strongest options for writing, reasoning, and long-form editing. Opus 5.5 needs a paid plan, and free limits vary based on demand.

claude.ai/new →

Long Context • Agent Workflows

Kimi

A good option for long-context chat, document-heavy tasks, and multi-step research workflows. Useful when you want fast setup and a lot of built-in tools.

kimi.com →

Agent

Minimax Agent

Surprisingly good at multi-step tasks. Give it something complex and see how far it gets.

agent.minimax.io →

Data, spreadsheets, and slides

These are for the moments when a spreadsheet has you questioning your life choices. They take care of the boring parts.

Data Analyst

Julius AI

Upload a CSV, ask a question in plain English, and get a chart back. That is all it does, and it does it well.

julius.ai →

Excel Agent

Shortcut AI

An AI that works inside your Excel workflow. It handles formulas, data cleaning, and analysis, so you never have to write VLOOKUP again.

shortcut.ai →

Slides • Data • Reports

GLM-5.3 (Z.AI)

Good for slide decks, reports, and general assistant tasks. Worth checking when you want a free all-rounder with productivity-focused output.

chat.z.ai →

Chat • Image • Voice • Reasoning

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

Free users get GPT-6 Luna, and paid plans get GPT-6 Sol. Image and voice input, plus a generous free tier. Still the default for most people.

openai.com →

Reasoning, OCR, and second opinions

Use these when a task needs careful thinking: reading text from images (OCR), understanding pictures, working through hard problems, or getting a fast second opinion.

OCR • Multimodal • Gemini 3.8 Flash

AI Studio (Google)

One of the best free places to test multimodal Gemini models, especially for OCR, documents, and image-heavy tasks. Great when you want raw model access without too much product friction.

aistudio.google.com →

Everyday Assistant

Gemini

A strong everyday assistant for search-heavy questions, multimodal input, and quick drafting. The Pro and Ultra plans add Gemini 4 Argon, Google's newest model, but the base app is still useful for free.

gemini.google.com/app →

Reasoning • Chat

DeepSeek

A useful reasoning-first chat option with free public access on web and mobile, now running DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, the October 17 update. Good when you want a fast second opinion next to Claude or Gemini.

chat.deepseek.com →

Model Router • API

OpenRouter

One API key for hundreds of models. Useful for comparing responses and pricing without juggling multiple accounts.

openrouter.ai →

Web Search • Multimodal

Grok 4.7

Strong for live web-heavy questions and image-aware tasks. Free users get Fast mode, and Grok 4.7 in every mode needs a paid plan. Access levels and rate limits change often, so check the current plan before you rely on it for daily work.

grok.com →

Chat • Multimodal

Muse Spark (Meta AI)

Meta AI now runs on Muse Spark, Meta's own model, and it is free to use on the web. It takes text, voice, and image input and has a Thinking mode for harder questions. Meta also released open weights as Muse Spark Open in October 2026.

meta.ai →

Deep Research • Prediction

MiroThinker (MiroMind)

An open-source deep-research style agent focused on multi-step browsing, synthesis, and code execution. Worth a look if you want a more research-oriented workflow.

dr.miromind.ai →

Everything else

A computer built for AI agents, and a place where you can try most of the big models side by side.

Agent-Native Computer

HappyCapy AI

An agent-native computer for developers. It works with Claude Code and 30+ AI models inside a secure sandbox, so AI agents can work for you 24/7.

happycapy.ai/app →

Images • Text • Code • Video

Arena

Battle Mode lets you compare models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini side by side. It is free, with crowdsourced benchmarks and leaderboards.

arena.ai →

AI studios I open every day

When you build alone, nobody tells you which new model is worth your time. So I keep the official playground of each lab in one bookmark folder, and I can test a new model the day it drops. Two of my daily ones, Google AI Studio and DeepSeek, are already covered above. These are the rest.

Model Playground • Hy3

Hy AI Studio (Tencent)

Tencent's official playground for its Hy models, which used to be called Hunyuan. It has chat with Hy3 and a separate 3D Studio, so you can try Tencent's newest models before you touch the API.

aistudio.tencent.ai →

Model Playground • Step 5 Preview

AI Studio (StepFun)

StepFun's browser studio for trying Step models with no code, with templates for small apps. The flagship is Step 5 Preview with a 1M-token context. Usage runs on StepFun account credits.

studio.stepfun.com →

Model Playground • MiMo-V2.6

Xiaomi MiMo Studio

Xiaomi's official chat for its MiMo models. You can talk to MiMo-V2.6-Pro and MiMo-V2.6-Flash, with deep thinking, web search, and image input.

aistudio.xiaomimimo.com →

Chat • LongCat-2.5-Preview

LongCat AI (Meituan)

Meituan's chat app for its LongCat models. LongCat-2.5-Preview has a 1M-token context, and the app has modes for thinking, search, images, video, and deep research.

longcat.chat →

Developer Console • Mistral Large 4

AI Studio (Mistral AI)

Mistral's developer console, with a Playground to test prompts and compare models before you call the API. Free mode is on by default, with usage and rate limits.

console.mistral.ai →

Open Models • GLM-5.3

Together Chat

Together AI's chat app for open-weight models, with web search and a reasoning setting. It launched free with daily credits, and GLM-5.3 is the featured model right now.

chat.together.ai →

Chat • Namazu

Sakana Chat (Sakana AI)

Sakana AI's free chat app, built on its Namazu models tuned for Japanese users, with web search built in. For now it only works from inside Japan.

chat.sakana.ai →

Image Model • Reve 2.1

Reve

An app for creating and editing images, now on Reve 2.1, which renders at native 4K. The free plan covers image generation and edits you ask for in chat.

app.reve.com →

Model Playground • MAI-Thinking-1

MAI Playground (Microsoft AI)

Microsoft AI's free playground for its own MAI models: MAI-Thinking-1 for reasoning, MAI-Image-2.6 for images, MAI-Voice-2.1 for speech, and MAI-Transcribe-2 for transcripts. A Microsoft account is all you need.

playground.microsoft.ai →

Science Workspace • Intern-S2

Intern InkStone (Shanghai AI Lab)

Shanghai AI Lab's research workspace that links science models, agents, and data, now with Intern-S2. Researchers get monthly credits during the testing phase.

discovery.intern-ai.org.cn →

Chat • Qwen3.8-Max

Qwen Studio (Alibaba)

Alibaba's free chat app for the Qwen models, including the flagship Qwen3.8-Max. It is free to use and open to everyone.

chat.qwen.ai →

What I actually use

Most of these free tiers will cover 90% of what you need. My current setup is ChatGPT / Claude for writing and reasoning, Gemini for quick lookups, AI Studio for raw model access, Julius for data, and OpenRouter when I want to compare models without switching tabs. I do not need more than that.

If you are new to this, pick one tool from the list and try it on a real task today.