AI tools directory: the best by category
A curated selection (not a list of 300 links): assistants, image, video, audio, code and productivity. We start with what we've built ourselves, then cover the best of the rest of the ecosystem.
Our free tools
▸ No sign-up, no artificial limits — we use these ourselves every day
Prompt Generator
Pick a task, tone and audience and get a prompt built with real prompt-engineering techniques in 10 seconds.
Try the generator →AI Cost Calculator
Compare what Claude's, GPT's or Gemini's API actually costs for your real usage, with an up-to-date pricing table.
Calculate costs →Quiz: Which AI are you?
8 questions, a shareable result. The viral test to find out if you're Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Open Source.
Take the quiz →Conversational assistants
Claude
The assistant this site is focused on: long-context reasoning, document analysis and the best balance for professional work.
claude.ai →ChatGPT
The best-known generalist: writing, code and multimodality, with the broadest plugin ecosystem on the market.
chatgpt.com →Gemini
Deep integration with Google Workspace, Android and Chrome — the natural choice if you already live in Google's ecosystem.
gemini.google.com →Search & research
Perplexity
An AI search engine that cites its sources on every answer — the natural replacement for "search and open 10 tabs".
perplexity.ai →NotebookLM
Upload your own documents and chat only with that source — ideal for research, studying and reliable summaries without hallucinations.
notebooklm.google.com →Image
Midjourney
The standard for artistic quality: rich, coherent styles, widely used by designers and illustrators.
midjourney.com →Adobe Firefly
Image and video generation trained only on licensed data — the safest option for commercial use.
firefly.adobe.com →Video
Runway
Text-to-video or image-to-video with cinematic quality, plus advanced generative editing tools.
runwayml.com →Google Veo
High-quality videos from text or image, with consistent results across takes.
Google Veo →Synthesia
Videos with realistic avatars for business: training, internal communication and localization into dozens of languages.
synthesia.io →Descript
Edit video by editing the transcript text — the fastest workflow for cutting, cleaning up filler words and assembling.
descript.com →Audio & voice
ElevenLabs
Realistic voice cloning and synthesis in dozens of languages — the standard for voiceover, dubbing and AI audiobooks.
elevenlabs.io →Suno
Generates complete songs (lyrics, vocals and instrumentation) from a text description.
suno.com →Code
Claude Code
The terminal-based coding agent: writes, tests and ships complete code with minimal supervision.
Learn about Claude Code →GitHub Copilot
The most editor-integrated AI autocomplete — line-by-line suggestions right inside your IDE.
GitHub Copilot →Cursor
A code editor built from scratch around AI agents — for anyone who wants AI living inside the editor itself.
cursor.com →Productivity & agents
Claude Cowork
The agent that manages files, creates documents and keeps working in the cloud even after you close your laptop.
See our guide →Notion AI
AI built into your docs and wiki workspace: search, summarize and write without leaving your notes.
notion.com/product/ai →Zapier AI
Agents that connect and automate thousands of apps with no code — the glue between your work tools.
zapier.com/ai →Design
Canva Magic Studio
AI built into Canva for generating and editing posts, presentations and short videos at high speed.
canva.com/magic-studio →Claude Design
Create presentations and prototypes without being a designer — paired with our free brief generator.
See our guide →Marketing & SEO
Jasper
Generates marketing content while keeping brand voice consistent across every channel and automation.
jasper.ai →Surfer SEO
Optimizes content for search engines using real ranking data from top-performing pages for each keyword.
surferseo.com →How we choose what makes this directory
We don't list everything that exists — we list what we've tried or follow closely, and that's still active and well maintained. We prefer a handful of genuinely useful tools over a list of hundreds with no criteria. If you think something's missing that deserves a spot here, get in touch.
Looking for something more specific? Also check out our Claude skills guide, our MCP connectors guide, and the best GitHub repos.
Frequently asked questions about this directory
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Are the free tools really free, no catch?
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