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Chatbots · Buying Guides
The Best Free AI Chatbot
Gemini is the best free AI chatbot for most people: its free tier includes image generation, Deep Research and coding tools, with no ads mentioned on Google's plan pages. ChatGPT is the runner-up for unlimited everyday chat, though ads may appear on its free plan.
Gemini’s free tier includes image generation and editing, Deep Research and coding tools, more than any rival gives away, and Google’s plan pages don’t mention ads.
The best free chatbot for writing and long documents
Claude’s free plan has the largest advertised context window of our picks’ free tiers, includes web search and voice, and Anthropic has committed to keeping Claude ad-free.
The Research Score rates each product on its own merits. Our picks also weigh price and who the product is for, so a pick can rank above a higher-scoring product. How we score
Every major AI chatbot has a free tier, but “free” means very different things. Some free tiers give you unlimited everyday text chats but tight caps on everything else. Some include image generation and deep research, and one gives you a context window big enough for a full book draft. At least one now shows ads.
For most people, Gemini is the best free AI chatbot. Google’s free tier includes image generation and editing, Deep Research and basic access to its coding platform, and the Google plan and limits pages we checked don’t mention ads. ChatGPT is our runner-up: OpenAI promises unlimited everyday text chats on Free, but ads may now appear in some countries, including the US. Claude is the best free option for writing and long documents, Perplexity for cited research, and Microsoft Copilot if you’re already in Microsoft’s world.
This guide covers only what you get without paying. We based it on each company’s own pricing, help and privacy pages, checked on the date of publication. We did not test these apps hands-on.
We considered nine AI chatbots with free tiers: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Meta AI, Grok, Mistral’s chat app and DeepSeek. For each, we read the official pricing pages, help-center articles and privacy policies, all checked on the date of publication, and noted exactly what the free tier includes, how it’s limited, whether it shows ads and what happens to your data. We scored our main picks with our published Research Score. We did not run hands-on tests for this guide.
Who this is for
This guide is for people who want a capable AI assistant without paying, or who want to know what they’d lose by not upgrading. If you’re open to paying around $20 a month, see our main guide, The Best AI Chatbot, or our ChatGPT vs. Claude vs. Gemini comparison. Students should also look at The Best AI Tools for Students.
How we picked
We looked only at free tiers and asked:
What’s included? Web search, file uploads, image generation, voice, deep research and coding tools.
How is it limited? Message caps, reset windows, weekly limits and context window size.
Are there ads? Whether the company says ads may appear on the free plan, and what controls you get.
What happens to your data? Whether chats train the company’s models by default, how to opt out, human review and retention.
Is there a sensible upgrade path? A cheaper step up matters if you outgrow the free tier.
Top pick · The best free AI chatbot for most people
G
Gemini
8.2/10
Gemini’s free tier includes image generation and editing, Deep Research and coding tools, more than any rival gives away, and Google’s plan pages don’t mention ads.
Gemini gives away more than any other chatbot we researched. According to Google’s US plan page, the free tier includes access to the Flash-Lite model, image generation and editing, Deep Research (which compiles longer, sourced reports), and 15 GB of storage across Gmail, Drive and Photos. It also includes limited access to Google’s Flow creative studio, including “limited access to Nano Banana Pro,” and basic weekly rate limits for Google Antigravity, Google’s agentic coding platform.
Google’s limits page explains how the free tier is metered. You get “standard limits,” and your limit “refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit.” Google doesn’t publish a fixed number of prompts, and it notes that Deep Research may be unavailable at times of high demand. You can check your current usage in the Gemini web app under Settings > Usage Limits.
If you outgrow it, Gemini also has the cheapest useful upgrade. Google AI Plus costs $4.99 a month at the time of research and adds the Flash model, double the free limits, video generation and 400 GB of storage.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The free tier’s context window is small: Google lists 32,000 tokens without a plan, versus 128,000 on AI Plus and 1 million on AI Pro. That’s fine for everyday questions but limiting for long reports. Claude’s free tier is much better for that.
Privacy is the bigger trade-off. Google’s Gemini privacy hub says that when Keep Activity is on, your activity is used to improve Google’s services, including training generative AI models, and a subset of chats is reviewed by humans, including trained service providers. Reviewed chats are kept for up to three years. Activity auto-deletes after 18 months by default. You can turn Keep Activity off, but chats are still kept with your account for 72 hours.
Who it’s for
Anyone who wants the most features for free, especially people who already use Gmail and Google Drive.
Who should skip it
You need to paste in very long documents, or you don't want any of your chats read by human reviewers.
Pros
Image generation and editing included for free
Deep Research on the free tier
Basic weekly access to Google's Antigravity coding platform
Cheap upgrade path: Google AI Plus is $4.99/month
Cons
Free tier runs on the smaller Flash-Lite model with a 32K-token context window
Weekly usage cap on top of the five-hour limit
With Keep Activity on, some chats are reviewed by humans and kept up to three years
Research Score
8.2/10
Features (30%)9
Value for money (25%)9
Privacy & security (20%)6
Compatibility (15%)9
Docs & support (10%)7
Free; Google AI Plus $4.99/month; Google AI Pro $19.99/month (at the time of research)
Affiliate link · price at the time of research, may have changed
Runner-up · The best free chatbot for unlimited everyday chat
C
ChatGPT
7.8/10
ChatGPT Free promises unlimited everyday text chats and a long list of tools, but OpenAI says ads may appear on the free plan in some countries.
ChatGPT’s free plan is the most generous for plain chatting. OpenAI’s help center says Free users have “unlimited everyday text chats,” subject to abuse-prevention safeguards, and can search the web, analyze data, upload images and files, use existing GPTs, create images and use Library with 500 MB of storage. OpenAI’s pricing page adds limited voice chats, limited deep research, limited memory and limited access to Codex. Uploads, image generation, data analysis and voice have their own, separate limits, and ChatGPT tells you when you hit one.
That makes ChatGPT the better free choice if you mostly want to talk things through, draft text or ask lots of questions, since there’s no published weekly cap on text chats.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Ads are the big change. OpenAI’s ads FAQ says ad testing started in the US on February 9, 2026, and that ads may appear for users on the Free and Go plans in select regions; Plus and Pro are ad-free. Ads appear below a response, are clearly labeled, and OpenAI says they don’t influence ChatGPT’s answers and that it doesn’t share your conversations with advertisers. If ad personalization is on, though, ads can be chosen using your past chats and memory. You can turn personalization off under Settings > Ad Controls, Temporary Chats don’t show ads, and OpenAI describes a no-ads free option with “fewer messages per day and no access to tools like images,” where available.
Your chats also train OpenAI’s models by default. On personal Free, Plus and Pro accounts, “Improve the model for everyone” is on until you turn it off under Settings > Data controls. And the free context window is small: OpenAI lists 27,000 tokens for the standard Instant model, about 12 pages of text.
Who it’s for
People who chat with an AI many times a day and want the widest mix of tools in one app.
Who should skip it
You don't want ads next to your answers, or you don't want your chats used for training by default.
Pros
Unlimited everyday text chats, subject to abuse safeguards
Free plan includes web search, uploads, image creation, voice and limited deep research
Apps for web, iOS and Android
Cons
Ads may appear on Free in some countries, including the US
Chats are used for training by default; you have to opt out
Smallest free context window: 27K tokens (about 12 pages) on the standard model
Research Score
7.8/10
Features (30%)9
Value for money (25%)8
Privacy & security (20%)5
Compatibility (15%)9
Docs & support (10%)8
Free; Plus $20/month billed monthly; Pro $100, $200 or $500/month (at the time of research)
Affiliate link · price at the time of research, may have changed
Also great · The best free chatbot for writing and long documents
C
Claude
7.5/10
Claude’s free plan has the largest advertised context window of our picks’ free tiers, includes web search and voice, and Anthropic has committed to keeping Claude ad-free.
Claude’s free plan is the one to pick if you write a lot or work with long documents. Anthropic’s pricing page lists a context window of “up to 1M” tokens on every plan, Free included, depending on the model. That’s far more than Gemini’s 32,000 tokens or ChatGPT’s 27,000 on their free tiers, so you can paste in a long contract, report or chunk of code at once.
The free plan uses Anthropic’s Sonnet and Haiku models and includes chat on web, desktop and mobile, web search, file creation with code execution, memory across conversations, connectors to other apps and tools, voice mode, Artifacts, and up to five projects. Anthropic doesn’t say which Sonnet version Free uses, but Claude Sonnet 5.5 ranked third on LMArena’s web-development leaderboard at the time of research.
Claude is also the cleanest free option. Anthropic announced in February 2026 that “Claude will remain ad-free,” and its pricing page lists model training as opt-out on Free.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Claude is the most limited of our picks in raw usage. Anthropic says every plan’s limits reset on a rolling five-hour window and doesn’t publish a message count; Pro offers “at least 5x” Free’s usage per session. The free plan also excludes the top Opus model, Research and Claude Code, and the pricing page doesn’t list image generation at all.
On privacy, if you leave model improvement on, Anthropic says it may keep your data in de-identified form for up to five years. Incognito chats are never used to improve Claude, and deleted chats leave Anthropic’s back-end storage within 30 days.
Who it’s for
Writers, students and anyone who wants to paste in long documents or code without paying.
Who should skip it
You want image generation, or you need predictable, high-volume use.
Pros
Context window of up to 1M tokens, depending on the model
Web search, memory, connectors, voice mode and file creation included
Anthropic says Claude will remain ad-free
Training is listed as opt-out
Cons
No image generation listed on Claude's pricing page
Usage limits reset every five hours, with no published message count
No Opus model, Research or Claude Code on Free
Research Score
7.5/10
Features (30%)7
Value for money (25%)7
Privacy & security (20%)8
Compatibility (15%)8
Docs & support (10%)8
Free; Pro $20/month billed monthly or $17/month billed annually (at the time of research)
Affiliate link · price at the time of research, may have changed
Also great · The best free chatbot for research with sources
P
Perplexity
Perplexity’s free plan offers practically unlimited basic searches with cited answers, plus a few more advanced Pro Searches each day.
Perplexity works more like a search engine that writes answers, and its free plan is built around that. According to Perplexity’s help center, Free includes “practically unlimited basic searches,” a “very limited amount of Pro Searches” (three a day in its comparison table), basic file uploads and access to your search history. Perplexity picks the model for each query; you can’t choose one yourself on Free.
Students can upgrade to Education Pro, which Perplexity’s help center lists at $10 a month with SheerID verification.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The free plan is thin beyond search. Perplexity’s comparison table lists one Research query a month, no image generation, no access to advanced AI models, and no file and app creation or browser agent queries. Perplexity also says it uses search data to improve its AI unless you turn off the AI Data Usage toggle in Settings.
Who it’s for
Students and anyone who wants to see where an answer came from.
Who should skip it
You want a general assistant for writing, images or voice, or you need deep research more than once a month.
Pros
Practically unlimited basic searches with sources
Three Pro Searches per day on Free
AI Data Usage toggle to opt out of training
Cons
Only one Research query per month on Free
No image generation and no model choice on Free
Research Score
Not scored – not enough reliable information yet.
Free plan; Pro and Max paid plans available, see current pricing; Education Pro $10/month (at the time of research)
Affiliate link · price at the time of research, may have changed
Also great · The free pick for Microsoft account holders
MC
Microsoft Copilot
Copilot is free with a Microsoft account and includes limited image generation, but its privacy terms are the least flexible of our picks.
Copilot is the obvious free choice if you already have a Microsoft account. Microsoft’s plan comparison describes free use as “Limited usage with a free Microsoft account,” including limited AI image generation. Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99 a month or $99.99 a year at the time of research) raises those limits and adds Copilot features in Microsoft’s apps, including Excel and PowerPoint.
Microsoft’s privacy FAQ says signed-in users can turn off training on their conversations, and that conversations from signed-out users aren’t used for training.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Microsoft’s privacy FAQ says some Copilot conversations are subject to automated and human review and that “an opt-out of human review is not available.” Conversation history is stored for 18 months by default, though you can delete it. Microsoft’s pages also indicate Copilot can show ads: they say Copilot doesn’t serve personalized ads to signed-in users under 18 and point adults to Microsoft’s ad settings to turn personalization off. Note that Microsoft’s privacy pages were in transition at the time of research; its FAQ says an updated Copilot app became available on August 18, 2026, with its own privacy documentation.
Who it’s for
Windows users and people who already have a Microsoft account.
Who should skip it
You want to avoid human review of your chats; Microsoft offers no opt-out.
Pros
Free with a Microsoft account, including limited AI image generation
Signed-in users can opt out of training
Signed-out conversations aren't used for training
Cons
Microsoft says there's no opt-out of human review of some conversations
Conversation history kept for 18 months by default
Free limits aren't published; Microsoft only says usage is limited
Research Score
Not scored – not enough reliable information yet.
Free; Microsoft 365 Personal $9.99/month or $99.99/year (at the time of research)
Affiliate link · price at the time of research, may have changed
Other good options
Grok is free on the web, iOS and Android. Its official site says it searches the web and X live, generates images and videos of up to 15 seconds at 720p, and supports voice conversations, file and PDF analysis, and memory across chats; a paid SuperGrok tier adds higher limits and multi-agent reasoning. We couldn’t find published free-tier limits. Its privacy policy (the company now appears as SpaceXSI on its site) lists training its models among the uses of your information, and says conversations in Private Chat mode, and conversations you delete, are removed from its systems within 30 days unless they must be kept for legal, compliance or safety reasons.
Mistral’s chat app, now branded Vibe on Mistral’s pricing page, has a free plan with “limited messages and web searches,” limited coding sessions, basic image generation and editing, and more than 100 connectors, on web and mobile. Mistral lists model training as opt-out. Pro costs $14.99 a month at the time of research, or $5.99 for verified students.
The competition
DeepSeek: It’s available on the web and as an app, but its privacy policy (last updated February 10, 2026) says DeepSeek directly collects, processes and stores personal data in the People’s Republic of China and uses user input to train its models. The policy gives you a right to opt out of training, but you exercise it by emailing the company rather than flipping a setting. We don’t recommend it for anything sensitive.
Meta AI: We couldn’t find a clear description of Meta AI’s free-tier limits or a plan page on Meta’s own sites at the time of research, so we left it out.
We also didn’t cover chatbots marketed for unrestricted or role-play use; this guide is about general-purpose assistants.
How to get more out of a free tier
Turn off training if you don’t want your chats used: Settings > Data controls in ChatGPT, Keep Activity in Gemini, the model-improvement setting in Claude, and the AI Data Usage toggle in Perplexity.
Use temporary or incognito chats for anything sensitive. In ChatGPT, Temporary Chats also don’t show ads.
Spread your work across apps. Because limits are separate, many people use one free tier for long documents (Claude), one for images and research (Gemini) and one for quick back-and-forth (ChatGPT).
Upgrade only when you hit a wall. Google AI Plus ($4.99 a month) is the cheapest meaningful step up; ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro cost $20 a month at the time of research.
What to look forward to
Free tiers change often. OpenAI says the default free model and its limits can change over time and that ads are rolling out gradually to more regions; Google’s plan page was also inconsistent at the time of research about which models AI Plus includes. We’ll update this guide as free-tier features, limits and ad policies change.
FAQ
What is the best free AI chatbot?
For most people, Gemini: its free tier includes image generation, Deep Research and coding tools. ChatGPT is the best free option for unlimited everyday text chats, and Claude is best for writing and long documents.
Does ChatGPT's free version have ads?
It can. OpenAI says ads may appear for Free and Go users in select regions; testing began in the US on February 9, 2026. Plus and Pro are ad-free, and Temporary Chats don’t show ads.
Which free AI chatbot has no ads?
Anthropic has committed to keeping Claude ad-free. Google’s Gemini plan and limits pages we checked don’t mention ads either.
Is there a free AI chatbot with no limits?
No. ChatGPT Free comes closest with unlimited everyday text chats, but uploads, images, voice and other tools are capped. Gemini and Claude use limits that reset every five hours, and Gemini adds a weekly cap.
Is DeepSeek safe to use for free?
DeepSeek’s privacy policy says it stores personal data in the People’s Republic of China and uses user input to train its models; opting out of training requires an email request. Avoid entering anything sensitive.
