Guides
What the tools actually cost
Four guides built from the same price readings that sit on the listings, each stamped with the day they were read.
Prices read from vendor pages, last checked 26 October 2026
The cheapest paid seat in each of the nine categories
Every category has one tool that costs less than its neighbours to start. 26 October 2026.
| Category | Cheapest entry | Price as published | Most expensive entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing and general assistants | ChatGPT | $8/mo | Jasper $59/seat/mo billed yearly |
| Image generation | Krea AI | $9/mo | Ideogram $15/mo |
| Video generation | Pika | $8/mo billed yearly | Synthesia $29/mo |
| Coding and app building | Cline | Free, open source | Lovable $25/mo |
| Voice, music and audio | ElevenLabs | $6/mo | Descript $16/seat/mo billed annually |
| Research and knowledge | NotebookLM | $4.99/mo | Elicit $49/user/mo billed annually |
| Agents and automation | Make | $9/mo | Gumloop $37/mo |
| Meeting notes | Otter.ai | $8.33/user/mo billed annually | Read AI $19.75/user/mo |
| Presentations and design | Figma AI | $3/seat/mo billed annually | Beautiful.ai $14.50/user/mo billed annually |
The spread inside a category is the point. Seat-based meeting recorders run from $8.33 to $19.75 a user a month for the same job, and research tools from $4.99 to $49. Paying more buys credits, seats or depth, and each listing says which.
41 of the 50 tools have a free tier, and seven do not
Free tier means a plan exists at no cost. The limit on it is the whole story. 26 October 2026.
Of the 50 tools listed, 41 sell a free tier, 7 are paid only and 2 are open source you run yourself. The paid-only seven are Copy.ai, Jasper, Ideogram, Midjourney, InVideo AI, Gumloop and Beautiful.ai. If your plan is to try before paying, those seven are the wrong shortlist.
A free tier is not a free product. Grammarly's free plan covers basic checks and 100 AI prompts a month. Figma's Starter plan caps product access and carries up to 500 AI credits a month. Where a vendor publishes the cap, the listing prints it; where the vendor leaves it vague, the listing leaves it vague too rather than inventing a number.
Seven tools that do not sell a monthly seat
These are the listings where converting a price would have meant guessing. 26 October 2026.
| Tool | What the vendor publishes | Why there is no monthly figure |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini | A$7.99/mo | Priced in Australian dollars |
| Adobe Firefly | A$16.49/mo incl. GST | Australian pricing, tax included |
| Adobe Express | A$14.29/mo incl. GST | Australian pricing, tax included |
| Canva Magic Studio | A$165/year for one person | Sold as an annual price, not monthly |
| Murf AI | $0.01 per 1,000 characters | Usage metered by characters |
| Stable Diffusion | $0.01 per credit | Model licensed per credit or self-hosted |
| n8n | 20€/mo billed annually | Priced in euros on annual billing |
A directory that printed "$12/mo" for all seven would look tidier and be wrong. The unit is on the listing so you can size it against your own usage before you sign up.
Six writing assistants, side by side
The category where most buyers start, sorted by the entry price the vendor publishes. 26 October 2026.
| Tool | Model | Entry price | Best for, as stated in the listing |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Freemium | $8/mo | Drafting, revising and brainstorming written content |
| Gemini | Freemium | A$7.99/mo | Everyday writing, research and Google app workflows |
| Grammarly | Freemium | $12/mo | Cleaner English in email, documents and applications |
| Copy.ai | Paid | $24/mo billed yearly | Sales and marketing teams running go-to-market workflows |
| Claude | Freemium | $28/mo billed yearly | Long documents, research and file work in one assistant |
| Jasper | Paid | $59/seat/mo billed yearly | Marketing teams producing on-brand content at volume |
Three of the six are general assistants and three are writing specialists. If you want one tool for everything, the general assistants are cheaper to start; if you need brand voice enforced across a team, that is what the four-figure and per-seat plans are selling.
Two facts belong next to these numbers. Free plans differ more than paid ones: Claude's free plan is a usable assistant, Grammarly's is a checker. And annual billing is where the real discount sits, from Claude at $28 a month billed yearly against $34 monthly to Jasper at $59 a seat billed yearly against $69 monthly.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure above is a price read from a vendor's own pricing page on the date stamped at the top of this page. Nothing here is an average, an estimate or a conversion between currencies.
Prices change without notice. If you spot one that has moved, email [email protected] and it gets re-read from the vendor page. See how tools are chosen and priced, or start from the full directory.
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