Level : Beginner
Free AI agents: what you can really do without paying
By The Info Agent IA editorial team ·
Several AI agents come with a free plan, but “free” covers very different things: daily credits, a single task, or a free browser whose agent costs extra. This guide sets out, as of October 22, 2026, what each free plan really includes, where it stops and which open-source options let you go further without a subscription.
Why is a free AI agent always limited?
An AI agent uses far more resources than a simple chat. To complete a task, it chains dozens of calls to the model, opens web pages and runs code in an isolated environment. Every step costs the vendor computing power. That is why free plans almost always come with quotas: credits per day, a number of tasks, or access limited to the lightest models. If you are new to the topic, our complete guide to AI agents explains what sets an agent apart from a chatbot.
There are three models of “free”, which our glossary entry on free vs. paid AI covers in more depth.
- Renewable credits: you get a pool of credits every day or every month, and each agent action uses some up.
- A number of tasks: the free plan allows one or two agent tasks, sometimes a few scheduled tasks.
- A free product, a paid agent: the base tool costs nothing, but the agent feature is reserved for subscribers.
What consumer assistants and agents offer for free
The table below sums up the free plans listed on the vendors’ official pages on October 22, 2026.
| Service | What the free plan includes | What stays paid |
|---|---|---|
| Manus | 300 credits per day, Chat mode, Manus 2.0 Lite, 1 task at a time, 2 scheduled automations | More credits and parallel tasks, from Pro at $20 per month |
| Genspark | 100 credits per day up to a lifetime cap, 1 GB of storage, limited model access | Commercial use and volume, from Plus at $24.99 per month |
| Kimi | 1 agent task, 2 scheduled tasks, 2 projects, 500 MB | More tasks, from Plus at $19 per month |
| Claude | Web search, file creation, code execution, memory, limited usage | Claude in Chrome extension and scheduled tasks, from Pro at $20 per month |
| ChatGPT | Limited Free plan, agent quota not specified | Extended usage, from Go at $8 per month |
| MiniMax Agent | M3.1-Flash model with limited usage, a few scheduled tasks | From Go at $22 per month |
| Comet | The browser | The Comet Assistant agent, with Perplexity Pro or Max |
| Opera Neon | The browser and a basic chat | The Neon Do and Neon Make agents, with Standard at $19.90 per month |
Sources: vendors’ official pages and profiles on this site, checked October 22, 2026.
Two traps stand out. With Comet, Perplexity’s browser, installing it is free but the agent is not, according to the vendor’s Help Center. Opera Neon follows the same logic: the browser is free, its agents are paid. Our article on browser agents explains how they work.
Credits deserve attention too. Manus and Genspark publish no fixed rate per task. A simple search and building a full website do not use the same amount, and you only find out by using them.
The Brave browser also offers agentic browsing in its Leo assistant, which works without an account. It is still experimental and has to be switched on manually in the settings.
Building an agent for free: no-code platforms
If you want an agent that automates a recurring task rather than one you chat with, several platforms have a free tier.
- Zapier Agents: 400 activities per month on the Agents Free plan. An activity is an action, a web search or a lookup in a knowledge source.
- Make: a Free plan of 1,000 credits per month for your scenarios. Note that Make says its AI agents are included in paid plans.
- Dify: a free Sandbox plan with 200 message credits, to try a chatbot or an agent connected to your documents.
- CrewAI: the Basic plan of its AMP platform is free, limited to 50 workflow executions per month. The tool is aimed more at developers.
These quotas are enough to explore and prototype. For an automation that runs every day, they run out fast.
Open-source options: free, but not without cost
Open source changes the picture: the software is free and you can install it yourself, with no quota set by a vendor. Here are the main options as of October 22, 2026.
| Tool | Type | License | MCP | Multi-agent | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| goose | Low-code | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Yes | Beginner |
| n8n | Low-code | fair-code | Yes | Yes | Intermediate |
| Langflow | Low-code | MIT | Yes | Yes | Intermediate |
| Dify | Low-code | Dify Open Source License | Yes | — | Intermediate |
| Browser Use | Code | MIT | Yes | No | Intermediate |
| OpenHands | Code | MIT | Yes | — | Intermediate |
- goose: a general-purpose agent under the Apache-2.0 license, with a desktop app for macOS, Linux and Windows. It is the most accessible option for a beginner. It can use a model through an API key, a local model, or a subscription you already have.
- n8n: the Community edition installs for free on your own server, with an “AI Agent” node. Its fair-code license allows internal, personal or non-commercial use.
- Langflow: an MIT-licensed visual editor, free, to install yourself or through the Langflow Desktop app.
- Dify: the Community edition can be self-hosted for free.
- Browser Use and OpenHands: two MIT-licensed projects, one for driving a browser, the other for coding agents. They require technical skills.
The key point: an open-source agent is only a shell. It needs a language model to think. You have two options.
- A model through an API: you create an API key with a provider and pay as you go. The software is free, the usage is not.
- A local model: you install an open-weights model on your computer, such as those from Mistral, Qwen or Gemma. Usage then only costs electricity, but you need a powerful enough machine, and small models do worse on long tasks. Our open-source AI page lists the models available.
Limits to know before you start
Free does not mean no strings attached. Check three things before you hand over a task.
- Your data: some free plans use your conversations to train models unless you turn it off. Kimi says it trains its models unless you ask otherwise; with Mistral’s Le Chat, training is on by default on the free plan but can be switched off. Do not send sensitive documents to an agent whose policy you do not know.
- Security: an agent that browses the web can land on a booby-trapped page that tries to hijack it, which is called prompt injection. Keep approval of any action that involves your money or your accounts.
- Reliability: with a tight quota or a lighter model, the agent may stop halfway or deliver a sloppy result. Our article on the limits of AI agents covers these failures.
To choose between these plans, our comparison of the best AI agents sorts them by type of user. And before you delegate a task, the risk assessment tool helps you decide whether an agent can handle it.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a truly free AI agent?
Yes, but with quotas. As of October 22, 2026, Manus gives 300 credits per day, Genspark 100 credits per day up to a lifetime cap and Kimi one agent task on its free plan. Open-source agents such as goose are free, but the model they use may not be.
Is the Comet browser free with its agent?
The Comet browser is free, but according to the Perplexity Help Center, tasks run by its agent are not included in the free plan. You need a Perplexity Pro or Max subscription to use them.
Is an open-source agent completely free?
The software is, the brain not necessarily. An agent like goose needs a language model, either through a pay-as-you-go API key or through a model installed on your computer. In the second case, the cost comes down to your hardware and electricity.
What happens when I go over the free quota?
Depending on the service, the agent stops until your credits renew, offers you a paid upgrade or switches to a lighter model. Because the exact cost of a task is rarely published, it is best to start with a small task to see how much it consumes.