Free AI assistants in 2026: what each free tier gets you
By 3Gen editorial team. Every free tier below was checked on the vendor’s own pricing page.
“Free” covers three very different things:
- A permanent free plan with fixed limits that reset each month or week.
- A one-time grant of credits that does not come back once used.
- A trial that ends after a set number of days.
We list which kind each product offers, and the limit that matters most.
The short list
Best free AI executive assistant: OpenAssistant Starter. You get a permanent free plan with 1,000 credits at signup, then 100 bonus credits a day once used up (up to 1,000 a month), plus custom assistants, recurring tasks and unlimited connections, and a clear step up to Pro at 5,000 credits. Pally’s free plan is more generous on paper, but Lindy’s free $50 lasts 7 days and Town Free is capped at 30 chat messages a month.
Going by the limits each vendor publishes, these free tiers give you the most:
- Pally: free with “almost unlimited” usage; the limit “refills through the week,” and the free plan includes phone calls and its own number (pally.com).
- Fathom: “unlimited recordings + transcriptions” and instant AI call summaries on the free plan (fathom.ai).
- ChatGPT Free: unlimited text chats with GPT-6, “subject to abuse guardrails,” with limits on uploads, images and voice (chatgpt.com).
General AI chat assistants
| Product | Kind of free | What you get | The limit that bites | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Free | Permanent | Unlimited text chats with GPT-6; limited uploads, image creation, voice, deep research, memory | Limits on everything except plain text chat. Your chats can be used for training unless you opt out | chatgpt.com |
| Claude Free | Permanent | Chat on web, desktop and mobile; web search; file creation and code execution; memory; connectors; Artifacts | Up to 5 projects; Sonnet and Haiku only (no Opus); no Claude Code; usage resets on a 5-hour window | claude.com |
| Gemini Free | Permanent | Flash-Lite model, image generation, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas, Gems; 15 GB storage | Limits refresh every 5 hours up to a weekly cap | gemini.google |
| Microsoft Copilot | Permanent, with a free Microsoft account | Copilot chat | “Limited usage.” Paid Microsoft 365 plans list “higher than free” usage | microsoft.com |
| Grok (The X Subscription Free) | Permanent | Limited Grok chat and agent requests; limited Cursor agent use; standard X | No Grok Bot on Free or Plus | x.ai/pricing |
AI executive assistants
| Product | Kind of free | What you get | The limit that bites | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pally | Permanent | Calls, its own phone number and email, unlimited custom automations, web research, bookings | “Almost unlimited”; the limit refills through the week | pally.com |
| OpenAssistant Starter (ours) | Grant, then a monthly top-up | 1,000 credits at signup; when you run out, 100 bonus credits a day, up to 1,000 a month; unlimited connections; custom assistants; recurring tasks | Up to 1,000 bonus credits a month after the first grant | openassistant.us |
| Town Free | Permanent | Assistant over email, Slack, WhatsApp and Telegram; weekly briefing; all integrations; a 7-day Pro trial on signup | 30 chat messages a month | town.com |
| Lindy | Grant with an expiry | $50 in credits, no card | Free credits last 7 days | lindy.ai |
What a credit buys differs by vendor. OpenAssistant’s FAQ says simple tasks “might use 10-50 credits” and work like coordinating a meeting across several people uses “hundreds.” At those figures, 1,000 credits covers roughly 20 to 100 simple tasks, enough to see whether it fits before you pay; multi-person meetings use more. Pally’s free plan is more generous on paper. Town’s 30 chat messages a month is the tightest of the permanent free plans here.
AI meeting note-takers
| Product | Kind of free | What you get | The limit that bites | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fathom | Permanent | Unlimited recordings and transcriptions; instant AI summaries | Advanced summaries and action items are on Premium | fathom.ai |
| tl;dv | Permanent | Unlimited video recordings and transcription | 10 meetings with AI notes and 10 Ask AI queries | tldv.io |
| Otter Basic | Permanent | Joins Zoom, Teams and Meet; live transcription | 300 transcription minutes a month; 30 minutes per conversation; 3 lifetime file imports | otter.ai |
| Fireflies Free | Permanent | Transcription; meeting search; AskFred | “Limited” AI summaries; 400 minutes of storage per team; 20 AI credits | fireflies.ai |
| Read AI Free | Permanent | Summaries, transcription and search | 5 meeting transcripts a month; 1-hour meetings | read.ai |
| Granola Basic | Permanent | AI meeting notes; AI chat within and across meetings | 30 days of meeting history | granola.ai |
AI email assistants
| Product | Kind of free | What you get | The limit that bites | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shortwave Free | Permanent | Basic AI; 90 days of search history | “Limited” AI usage; adds a “Sent with Shortwave” signature | shortwave.com |
| Fyxer Free | Permanent | Daily dashboard briefing, weekly email briefing, meeting notes | 400 credits a month (Fyxer says about 20 chat messages); no inbox sorting | fyxer.com |
| SaneBox | Trial | All features for up to 4 email accounts | Ends after 7 days | sanebox.com |
| Superhuman | Not offered | No free plan shown on the pricing page | Paid plans start at $25 a member a month billed yearly | superhuman.com |
How to get the most from free tiers
- Pair tools. A free note-taker (Fathom) plus a free chat assistant (ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini) plus a free action-taking assistant (Pally) costs nothing and covers a lot.
- Watch for one-time grants. Lindy’s $50 lasts 7 days. OpenAssistant’s 1,000 signup credits do not come back; after that you get up to 1,000 bonus credits a month.
- Check training settings. ChatGPT’s pricing page says content on consumer plans “is used to train our models,” with an opt-out. Claude’s page lists model training as “Opt-out” on Free. Change the setting if that matters to you.
- Know when to pay. If you hit the same limit every week, the free plan is costing you time. Our tracker lists the cheapest paid step up for each product.
Related reading
- AI assistant pricing 2026: every plan and price in one place
- Cheapest AI assistants that make phone calls (2026)
- AI meeting note-taker pricing compared: free and paid plans
- OpenAssistant pricing: every plan, credit tier and price
FAQ
What is the best free AI assistant?
For chat, ChatGPT Free offers unlimited text chats with limits on uploads, images and voice. For an assistant that acts on email and calendar, OpenAssistant Starter is worth considering, with Pally’s free plan more generous on paper.
Does OpenAssistant’s free plan expire?
No. Starter gives 1,000 credits at signup. When you run out, you get 100 bonus credits a day, up to 1,000 a month. No credit card is needed.
Which free AI assistant can make phone calls?
Pally’s free plan includes calls and its own phone number. OpenAssistant gives each assistant its own phone number, but its pricing page does not say whether calls work on Starter.
Which free meeting note-taker has the fewest limits?
Fathom advertises unlimited recordings and transcriptions with instant AI summaries on its free plan. tl;dv records without limit but caps AI notes at 10 meetings.
Do free AI plans train on my data?
ChatGPT’s pricing page says content on consumer plans is used to train its models, with an opt-out. Claude’s page lists model training as opt-out on Free.
Try OpenAssistant free
Want a free plan that does more than chat? Try OpenAssistant; Starter is free, needs no credit card and refills every month. If you outgrow it, the pricing page shows the step up to Pro.