The 10 Best AI Tools 2026 (4 of Them Free)

AI tools can take a lot of work off your hands. Whether private, as an employee, freelancer, or entrepreneur.

The problem is:

The market for AI tools is growing extremely fast. There are now an estimated over 10,000 AI tools on the market. And hundreds of new ones are added every month, making tool selection increasingly difficult.

But don't worry:

I've tested hundreds of AI tools for you so you don't have to. In this article, I've compiled the 10 best AI tools currently available. Tools that we use several times a month, several times a week, or even daily.

The best part:

Four of the featured tools are completely free to use, and most others offer free trials or starting credits.

1. TypingMind

TypingMind continues to be one of our favorite alternatives to ChatGPT and one of the AI tools we use the most. For 2025, the tool has improved with several important updates.

And there are several reasons for this:

First, (unlike many other ChatGPT alternatives) you can use TypingMind without a subscription. You pay once and can use the software indefinitely.

However, API costs are added on top. This means you have to pay OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google for using their AI models. However, these costs are low compared to most AI chatbots, and if you don't use TypingMind, you don't pay anything.

Second, with TypingMind you can use many different LLMs in one interface (including open-source LLMs):

And that's great because all LLMs have different strengths and weaknesses. TypingMind always keeps the list of available models up to date. Recently, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, o3-mini, GPT-4.5, and the new Gemini 2.0 models have been added.

To use these in the way we do, we would need a subscription to Claude Pro, ChatGPT Plus, and Gemini Advanced, which would cost us over $60 per month (we currently pay between $10 and $15 per month in API costs).

It's not far behind ChatGPT Plus in almost anything:

With TypingMind, you can also create GPTs (AI agents) and use various plugins in chats, e.g., DALL-E 3, Perplexity.ai, Stable Diffusion, or a JavaScript interpreter.

That means:

You can save on ChatGPT Plus (and use the free version instead).

PS: We recommend buying the Premium variant for $79, which gives you all the features you need.

2. ChatGPT

ChatGPT is the standard chatbot that we continue to use alongside TypingMind.

If you have TypingMind, you don't necessarily need it (at least not in the Plus variant).

We mainly still use it because of the GPT Store (though not because of GPTs themselves, you can also create those in TypingMind).

The new GPT-4o with canvas and the Advanced Voice Mode are also quite nice.

The latter is great, for example, for brainstorming with AI, as a sparring partner on the go, or for personalized bedtime stories (no joke!).

3. Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot (formerly "Bing Chat") is one of the best ChatGPT alternatives. And for good reason:

Copilot not only uses GPT-4 but also offers access to the internet and can generate images. Even the use of some plugins is possible, e.g., Instacart, Kayak, Klarna, OpenTable, Shop, or Suno.

The best part is:

It's not only completely free but also (with limitations) usable without registration. Not only via the browser but also recently as an app for Android or iOS.

It also offers generous usage limits. Without registration, it allows 5 responses per chat, and with registration with a Microsoft account, even 30 (there's no daily limit).

4. Google Gemini

Google's chatbot Gemini, which was introduced in February 2023 and was then still called "Bard," was initially not a particularly good ChatGPT alternative.

It had to take a lot of criticism for a long time, mainly because it "hallucinated" a lot, meaning it output a lot of false information.

But Google has worked enormously on its chatbot. After the updates to Gemini 1.5 in 2024, Google introduced Gemini 2.0 at the beginning of 2025, which represents a significant advancement. Gemini 2.0 now offers native image generation, multimodal output capabilities, and audio output. The Gemini 2.0 Flash version in particular impresses with lower latency and improved performance.

A big advantage of Gemini (in the Advanced version):

It has a very large context window and can process files with up to (approximately) 500,000 words of text.

Gemini also has access to many Google services like YouTube, Google Flights, Google Maps, and Google Workspace. Since 2025, integration with additional Google services and the new Multimodal Live API for developers is also available, significantly simplifying working with different input and output types.

5. Originality.ai

Originality.ai is one of the most popular and well-known AI text detectors on the market.

According to their own claims, it can detect AI text created with GPT-3, GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini.

In our first test in January 2023, it still ranked as the second-best tool. It could detect 12 out of 15 AI texts with high confidence, two partially, and only one not at all.

The developers have significantly improved the tool since then:

In the current test from July 2024, it could detect 15 out of 15 English AI texts and 14 out of 15 German AI texts, landing it in first place.

Experiments have also shown that it's now much harder to trick Originality.ai. The tool also recognizes AI texts very well where typical obfuscation methods such as adding punctuation, spelling and grammar errors, synonyms, or rewriting by AI tools have been applied.

6. Fliki

Fliki is the AI voice tool I currently use the most and which performed best in our voice generator test.

And there are many reasons for this:

First, Fliki offers the largest selection of voices among all voice tools. In total, there are over 900 voices across 75+ languages:

Second, Fliki offers voices with the best quality. The standard voices are qualitatively comparable to those from Murf.ai and play.ht (and also partially overlap).

Unlike other AI voice generators, Fliki also offers premium voices that are qualitatively significantly better than the standard voices.

Here's a speech example using the first three paragraphs of Franz Kafka's "The Castle":

Third, Fliki, alongside ElevenLabs, is the only tool that offers the ability to easily and quickly clone a voice. You just need a Premium package for this:

7. Sonix.ai

Sonix.ai is currently the best tool for AI transcription. It impresses with high accuracy, fast transcription speed, and easy operation.

Sonix.ai supports transcription in over 38 languages. If you're skeptical, you can try it out with a free trial.

The design is clear and user-friendly. The only downside is that the user interface is only available in English:

The interactive editor also leaves nothing to be desired. We quickly found our way around and could work with it flawlessly.

However, the AI tool also has some limitations:

1. There's an upload limit of 4 GB per file.
2. Sonix only offers automatic transcriptions, so you can't have your transcriptions created or corrected directly by freelancers if the quality isn't right (however, this didn't lead to point deductions in our test).

8. HeyGen

HeyGen has established itself in 2025 as one of the leading AI avatar generators and AI video generators. With the latest updates, HeyGen now offers even more realistic avatars and improved lip synchronization.

It's aimed more at users who want to quickly and easily create a speaking AI avatar of themselves. It recently offers a significantly improved user interface and more customization options for the created videos.

The AI tool offers two ways to quickly, easily, and affordably create AI avatars of yourself using photos or short video clips. In the latest version, processing speed and the quality of generated avatars have been significantly improved:

Photo Avatar

With HeyGen's "Photo Avatar," you can create a speaking AI avatar from a photo of yourself. Alternatively, you can also have a photo generated directly in HeyGen using AI. The 2025 update now offers an expanded selection of poses, facial expressions, and backgrounds:

This feature is very quick and easy to use and now offers significantly improved video quality thanks to the 2025 updates to facial expressions and gestures.

Instant Avatar

The "Instant Avatar" is supposed to be your "digital twin" according to their own statements. Here you record a video of yourself and can then create further videos based on text inputs afterward. Recently, HeyGen offers even more realistic movements and smoother transitions in these more complex avatar videos.

For 2025, new avatar variants and personalization options have also been introduced, allowing for even more individual customization. The latest version also supports direct integration with common video platforms and presentation tools.

9. DALL-E 3

DALL-E 3 is the successor to DALL-E 2. It's an AI image generator and AI model from OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT) and has undergone several improvements since its introduction in 2023.

For 2025, DALL-E 3 has been equipped with improved integration into other OpenAI products and now offers higher quality in implementing precise instructions.

You can use DALL-E 3 through various AI tools:

1. You can create free AI images with the Bing Image Creator:

Here you receive 100 credits monthly, which means you can generate up to 400 images.

2. DALL-E 3 is also usable within Microsoft Copilot. Similar to the Image Creator, creating AI images is also free here. Since 2025, Copilot offers improved integration options and an optimized workflow for image generation.

3. You can use DALL-E 3 within ChatGPT. However, image generation here is not free but requires ChatGPT Plus for $20 per month.

10. Midjourney

Midjourney remains the AI tool in 2025 that stands out with the best image quality in our image generator test. The artistic quality and detail accuracy of images generated by Midjourney remains unmatched, and ongoing updates have continuously improved functionality.

It also offers many advanced customization options, such as parameters. These allow you to generate images exactly the way you want them.

You can generate images with different aspect ratios (16:9, 2:1, 1:1, etc.), create backgrounds with "Seamless Patterns," or use "Multi Prompts" to avoid ambiguities in your commands.

Midjourney also allows you to upscale images, create variations of an image, upload an image as a reference (image-to-image), describe images, or zoom out of an image (outpainting).

In mid to late 2024, editing capabilities were expanded with the new web editor and the user experience was optimized, making it easier for beginners to create high-quality images.

Midjourney's AI images are often colorful, vibrant, and dynamic. They contain many details, complex textures, and lighting effects. In short, you're rewarded with a unique image quality that is (partially) miles ahead of other image generators.