Best free AI: the complete comparison of assistants you can use without paying

The best free AI depends on what you want to do with it: ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini have the most complete free plans for everyday use, Perplexity is the strongest choice for sourced answers, and Duck.ai or Lumo protect your data best. Every one of them has usage limits and most may use your conversations by default, so this comparison, based on official pages checked on October 22, 2026, helps you choose with your eyes open.

What “free” really means for an AI assistant

Running an AI assistant is expensive for the company behind it: every answer uses powerful servers. Almost all of them still offer a free plan, because it is the best way to get noticed and turn some users into paying subscribers. The free plan is genuine, but it comes with boundaries. Our explainer on free vs paid AI covers the differences in detail.

In practice, a free plan differs from a paid one in four ways:

• Volume: a set number of messages per period, after which you wait or drop to a lighter model. This is how a rate limit works.
• Models: the most capable models are often reserved for subscribers or available only a few times a day.
• Advanced features: deep research, image generation, large file analysis and agent mode are capped or missing.
• Guarantees: contractual commitments about your data are mostly reserved for business plans.

One important caveat: no provider publishes exact figures for every free-plan limit. Quotas change with server load and are adjusted often. The comparisons below therefore focus on what each free plan includes, not on a precise message count.

Comparison table of free AI assistants

The table below, built from the site’s data, shows whether each assistant has a free plan, the entry price of its paid plan and the main features listed by the provider.

Assistant	Free	Paid from	Web search	Agent mode	Voice	Images
ChatGPT	Limited	$8/mo	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Claude	Limited	$20/mo	Yes	Yes	—	—
Gemini	Limited	€4.99/mo	Yes	—	Yes	Yes
Le Chat (Mistral Vibe)	Limited	$5.99/mo	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microsoft Copilot	Limited	$9.99/mo	Yes	—	Yes	Yes
Perplexity	Limited	$10/mo	Yes	Yes	—	Yes
DeepSeek	Yes	—	Yes	—	—	No
Duck.ai	Limited	$9.99/mo	—	—	Yes	Yes

Read it carefully: a feature listed there may be limited to subscribers. The next table spells out what the free plan actually allows, according to official pages checked on October 22, 2026.

Assistant	What the free plan includes	Stated limits
ChatGPT	Chat, web search, files, images, voice, memory	Tool messages, uploads, images and deep research are capped; falls back to a lighter model
Claude	Web, desktop and mobile, web search, file creation, code execution, memory, app connections	Limited usage that resets regularly; Claude Code and the Chrome extension are for subscribers
Gemini	Flash-Lite model, images, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas, Gems, 15 GB of storage	Not every limit is quantified
Le Chat (Vibe)	Messages, searches, basic images, more than 100 connectors	Quotas on messages, searches and coding sessions
Microsoft Copilot	Chat, image creation, file uploads	Usage depends on available capacity; Deep Research removed in August 2026
Perplexity	Near-unlimited basic searches, 3 Pro Searches per day, 1 Research query per month	No advanced models or image generation
DeepSeek	The full assistant, web search, file reading	No image generation; data stored in China
Duck.ai	Several models to choose from, images, PDFs up to 15 pages, voice chat, no account	Daily usage limit

Sources: official provider pages and the site’s assistant profiles, checked on October 22, 2026.

General-purpose assistants: ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini

ChatGPT: the most versatile

ChatGPT’s free plan covers nearly every daily task: drafting an email, summarizing a document, searching the web, creating an image or talking by voice. According to OpenAI, messages that use tools, file uploads, images and deep research are capped. Once you reach the limit, the assistant switches to a lighter model or asks you to wait. OpenAI has also announced it is testing ads on the Free and Go plans.

Who is it for? People who want one tool for everything and do not use it heavily.

Claude: the most generous with advanced features

According to Anthropic’s pricing page, Claude’s Free plan includes web search, file creation (spreadsheets, documents), code execution, memory across conversations and app connections. That is a rare list for a free plan. The trade-off is that the usage allowance is limited and you feel it quickly with long documents. Some features, such as Claude Code or the Chrome extension, remain paid.

Who is it for? People who write a lot or analyze documents from time to time.

Gemini: the most integrated with Google

With a regular Google account, Gemini’s free plan gives you the Flash-Lite model, image generation and editing, Deep Research, the Gemini Live voice mode, Canvas and Gems (custom assistants). It also includes 15 GB of Google storage. The most powerful models, such as Gemini 4 Argon, are reserved for paid plans.

Who is it for? Android, Gmail and Google Drive users who want AI that is already within reach.

Specialized assistants: search, Europe and productivity

Perplexity: for searching and checking

Perplexity works like an answer engine: every reply is based on a web search and cites sources you can open. As of October 22, 2026, its free plan offers near-unlimited basic searches, 3 Pro Searches per day and 1 Research query per month, without advanced models or image creation. To see whether it suits you, read our review Perplexity: the AI search engine, who is it for?.

Le Chat (Mistral Vibe): the European option

Mistral AI’s assistant, renamed Vibe in 2026, stands out because it hosts data in the European Union by default. Its free plan includes limited messages and searches, basic images and more than 100 connectors to other tools. Our article on Le Chat by Mistral versus the giants looks at its strengths and weaknesses.

Microsoft Copilot: handy on Windows

Copilot’s free version gives you chat, image creation and file uploads, with an explicit caveat from Microsoft: usage depends on available capacity. Copilot is already built into Windows and the Edge browser, which makes it very easy to reach. Its integration into Word or Excel, however, requires a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Meta AI: already inside WhatsApp

Meta AI is free and built into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. In the European Union, it has been available since March 2025 in a version focused on text chat, which is less suited to working on documents.

Fully free assistants: DeepSeek and Qwen Chat

Two assistants have no paid consumer plan as of October 22, 2026. DeepSeek funds itself through its developer API; the assistant searches the web and reads your files, but does not create images. Qwen Chat, Alibaba’s assistant, describes itself as free and open to everyone and lists a broad feature set: a thinking mode, Deep Research, image and video generation, and web page creation.

Being entirely free has a downside: privacy. According to its privacy policy dated February 10, 2026, DeepSeek stores personal data in the People’s Republic of China, and Italy’s data protection authority blocked the app in January 2025. Qwen Chat stores data in Singapore and says de-identified content may be used for training, with no opt-out button described. Before using it, read what you should know about DeepSeek.

The free assistants that protect your data best

If privacy comes first, three services stand out for their public commitments.

• Duck.ai, DuckDuckGo’s chat, works without an account. It strips your IP address before passing the request to the model provider and, according to DuckDuckGo, your conversations are neither stored by the service nor used for training. The free plan lets you choose between several models, including Claude Haiku 4.5, Mistral Small 4 and GPT-6 Luna.
• Lumo, Proton’s assistant, says it never trains models on your conversations, encrypts your history and keeps no logs. It offers a guest mode with no account and a Ghost mode that deletes the conversation when you close it. It runs on open-weight models such as Qwen 3.5 and GLM 5.3.
• Brave Leo, built into the Brave browser, works without an account. Brave says conversations are not kept for training and that history stays on your device.

The trade-off: these tools do not always offer the most capable models or the agent features of the big assistants.

Privacy: what you “pay” with a free plan

A free AI does not necessarily sell your data, but your conversations may be used to improve models unless you opt out. Those chats then become potential training data. Here are the settings each provider documents as of October 22, 2026.

Assistant	Use of your conversations	How to limit it	Data location
ChatGPT	Possible by default	“Improve the model for everyone”, temporary chats	Not specified for consumers
Claude	Can be switched off	Privacy settings, incognito mode	Not specified for consumers
Gemini	Activity kept 18 months by default	Turn off “Keep Activity”	Not specified
Le Chat (Vibe)	On by default	Privacy section	European Union by default
Copilot	Possible by default	Two settings under Profile, then Privacy	Not specified
Perplexity	“AI data retention” on by default	Preferences, incognito mode	Not specified
DeepSeek	Possible by default	“Improve the model for everyone”	China
Duck.ai	Never, according to DuckDuckGo	No setting needed	Anonymized requests
Lumo	Never, according to Proton	Ghost mode	Europe

Whatever tool you use, keep one simple habit: never paste a password, a card number, a medical record or other people’s personal data into an assistant. If you live in Europe, the GDPR gives you rights over your data, but it cannot undo a leak. Our guide to privacy settings in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini walks you through the menus step by step.

Check yourself You want an AI to proofread a letter that contains a relative's address and medical situation. Which free plan should you pick?

Ideally, none as is: first remove the name, address and medical details, then have the anonymized text proofread. If you must keep personal details, choose a service that commits to not training models on your chats, such as Duck.ai or Lumo, or turn off training in your usual assistant’s settings.

Limits shared by every free AI

Beyond quotas, free plans share weaknesses that are worth knowing about.

1. Lighter models. To keep costs down, free plans often rely on a faster model that is weaker at complex reasoning. Gemini, for example, uses Flash-Lite on its free tier.
2. Possible mistakes. Free or paid, an AI can produce a hallucination: a false answer stated with confidence. Always check figures, names and important advice.
3. Features that change. Microsoft removed Deep Research from Copilot in August 2026, and OpenAI is testing ads on ChatGPT Free: a free plan can change overnight.
4. Little agent mode. Features where the AI acts on your behalf, such as browsing or filling in a form, are often reserved for subscribers or heavily limited. Our article on free AI agents covers what is available.

Which free AI should you choose?

Here is our verdict, need by need. It does not crown an overall winner; it points to the best fit for each use, based on documented features.

Your need	Our pick	Why
An all-round assistant	ChatGPT	Widest range of free features
Writing and analyzing documents	Claude	File creation, code execution and memory included
You live in Google’s ecosystem	Gemini	Images, Deep Research and 15 GB of storage
Finding sourced information	Perplexity	Cited sources, 3 Pro Searches per day
Data hosted in Europe	Le Chat (Vibe)	EU hosting by default
Maximum privacy	Duck.ai or Lumo	No training, no account required
Trying models for free, without personal data	DeepSeek or Qwen Chat	No paid plan, but data stored outside Europe

To refine your choice based on your habits, our AI assistant comparison tool puts the services side by side on the same criteria. For a broader view that also weighs model performance, see our pillar guide which AI is best?.

When the free plan is no longer enough

Start by using a free plan for a few weeks and note when it gets in your way. If you rarely hit the limits, there is no reason to pay. A subscription becomes worthwhile if you hit the quotas every day, need the most capable models for work, or rely on a subscriber-only feature. Our comparison of AI subscriptions lists the prices and helps you judge whether one is worth it.