Free AI tools: what you really get for free and where the limits are

Which AI tools are really free?

By now there are free entry-level versions in practically every area. The overview shows well-known free tools for each area and the allowance we have recorded in our catalogue. The limits change frequently, so take a quick look at the provider's website before you start.

What can the free versions actually do?

The text assistants are the most generous. With the free versions of the big AI assistants you can write emails, summarise texts, get answers to your questions or draft a travel plan. For everyday use, that is often perfectly sufficient. You notice the limits mainly with the most powerful models, when uploading files and with extras such as images or Deep Research.

With images, videos and audio the free allowance is considerably tighter, because every generation requires a lot of computing power. That is enough for a profile picture, an invitation or a few test clips. If you regularly produce content for social media, however, you will quickly run into the daily limits.

A practical example: for a birthday invitation, you write the text with ChatGPT, create the image with Bing Image Creator and put everything together in Canva (Free). Cost: zero euros. For a YouTube channel with weekly videos, on the other hand, the free allowances are hardly enough, because script, voice and video each have their own limits.

• Text and research: fit for everyday use; the limits mainly kick in with intensive use.
• Images: a few images per day, ideal for trying out styles.
• Video: short clips, often with longer waiting times.
• Voice and music: enough for test listening and small projects, although music is sometimes only allowed for private purposes.
• Presentations and code: good for getting to know how they work, but usually too limited for continuous use.

What is the catch with free AI tools?

Free rarely means unconditional. These are the catches you will come across most often:

• Limits: after a certain number of messages, images or minutes, you are cut off until the usage limit resets. With Claude, for example, it applies to one five-hour window at a time.
• Weaker models: once the allowance for the best model is used up, some assistants automatically switch to a smaller model that answers less thoroughly.
• Credits: many image and video tools bill in credits. Some top up daily, whereas with Runway (Free) you only get them once.
• Watermarks and branding: Opus Clip (Free) and Photoroom (Free) add watermarks to your results, and Framer (Free) displays its branding on your website.
• Restricted use: with Udio you cannot download anything for free, Mubert requires attribution, and according to the provider, songs from the free version of Suno are only allowed for non-commercial purposes.
• Your inputs: depending on the provider and your settings, free chats may be used to improve the models. What you can do about it is explained under the term training opt-out.
• Advertising: Wix AI Website Builder and Duolingo (Free) are funded by ads, and ChatGPT now also shows ads in its free version in some countries, including Germany.

Which free starter set do we recommend for beginners?

Our recommendation: start with a few tools that together cover almost all everyday tasks. That way you get to know how they work without getting lost in accounts and limits.

1. An all-round assistant as your base: ChatGPT, Claude or Google Gemini. Pick the one you get on with best and use a second one as a fallback when you reach the limit.
2. Perplexity for questions where you want to see the sources.
3. DeepL (Free) for translations, with 50,000 characters per month.
4. Bing Image Creator or Google Gemini (image) for occasional images.
5. Canva (Free) for graphics and slides, Gamma for quick presentation drafts.
6. Fathom if you often sit in online meetings and need notes.

With this set you can already get very far with texts, research and simple graphics. Only when a limit regularly slows you down is it worth taking a closer look at a subscription. You can read when that is the case in Free or subscription: when an AI subscription really pays off.

How do you get more out of the free limits?

• Well-prepared prompts save attempts: state the goal, the target audience and the desired format right in your first message.
• Spread tasks across several tools. When you reach the limit with one assistant, carry on with the next one.
• Have a chat assistant refine your image and video prompts first, before you use up scarce credits.
• Start a new chat for every new topic. Very long conversations use up more of your allowance.
• Plan big tasks in stages: if a limit resets daily or every few hours, spread the work over several time windows.
• Open-source tools such as Stable Diffusion, Whisper (local) or Upscayl run on your own computer without any provider limit, but they need some setting up and, depending on the tool, a powerful computer.