free-ai-tools — Curated List of Practical AI Developer Tools

Main

• Treat it as a shortlisting list: filter by your constraints (budget, deployment, data policy) before comparing features.

• Bookmark the specific entries you adopt by linking to commit hashes or tags so teams can reproduce decisions later.

• When you pick a provider, write down rate limits and pricing assumptions alongside the tool link to avoid future surprises.

• Use the list to build an internal “approved tools” subset that matches your org’s security and compliance needs.

README (excerpt)

Free AI Tools

Curated list of free LLM APIs, coding copilots, AI IDEs, agents, and infrastructure tools for building real AI applications.

What's Inside

• ✅ Free GPT-5 / Claude / Gemini API access
• 🤖 Coding copilots and AI-native IDEs (Cursor, Trae, Windsurf)
• 💰 Cheapest AI APIs ($0.10-0.50 per 1M tokens)
• 📚 RAG stack tools (vector DBs, embeddings, frameworks)
• 🎯 Agent frameworks and automation tools
• 🔒 Local models for privacy (Ollama, Llama, Qwen)
• 🏗️ Production-ready stack configurations

Goal: Help developers build AI apps without paying $200/month.

[!NOTE]
Please don't abuse these services, else we might lose them for everyone. The numebr becomes 550+ when you add all the models and sub services of all the tools provided. When raising issues or pull requests please dont add your own paid,expensive personal projets.

[!WARNING]
April 2026 Model Tier Changes: Major providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) have restricted flagship models (GPT-5.4, Claude Opus 4.6, Gemini 3.1 Pro) to paid tiers. Free tiers now get lighter models (GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet/Haiku, Gemini Flash). Entries marked with [verify] need confirmation.

🎯 Why This Repo Exists

Most AI tool lists are:

• ❌ Outdated (prices/limits from 2023)
• ❌ Filled with affiliate links and sponsored placements
• ❌ General-purpose directories with no developer focus
• ❌ Missing production-critical details (rate limits, commercial use, architecture patterns)

This repo focuses only on:

• ✅ Tools developers actually use in production
• ✅ Generous free tiers (no "5 requests then paywall")
• ✅ Production-capable models (SWE-bench verified, not toys)
• ✅ Real infrastructure (APIs, hosting, vector DBs, not just chatbots)
• ✅ Minimal fluff, maximum utility

Unlike: awesome-ai (general list), ai-collection (marketing focus), toolify (affiliate-heavy)

Source-backed notes

• GitHub repo is a curated list of AI tools, covering APIs, IDEs, agents, and infrastructure (as described in the README).
• README includes multiple tool categories and outbound source links; use rg to locate relevant sections quickly.
• This entry is list-style content; verify each tool’s license/pricing on its own source page before adopting it.

FAQ

• Is every tool free?: The list focuses on free/low-cost tools; always verify current pricing on the upstream source.
• How do I keep it updated for a team?: Pin to a commit and review upstream changes periodically (weekly/monthly).
• How do I evaluate quickly?: Filter by your must-haves (API region, data policy, self-hosting) before feature comparisons.