5 Free AI Tools That Will Save You a Lot of Money on Service Subscriptions

AI technology offers free alternatives to expensive software and subscriptions. But where can you save? From writing and note-taking to PDFs and transcription, these are the tools that regularly save you money.

Note : Most of these tools will have paid options. Whether you need to pay for this or not depends on your usage. All of the tools mentioned have generous free versions and all the functionality you require to upgrade and replace the subscription service.

Table of Contents

• 1. Leonardo.AI: Image Creation
• 2. ChatGPT: Free Writing Assistant
• 3. LanguageTool: Writing Assistant
• 4. Otter AI: Transcription tool, etc.
• 5. PDFGear: All-in-one PDF tool

1. Leonardo.AI : Image Creation

Creating custom images or sourcing stock images is always time consuming and/or expensive if you are constantly sourcing or creating images to accompany your work. Now, use the free version of Leonardo.AI to create more of your artwork.

How does Leonardo.AI save money?

• The free version is limited to 150 tokens per day. As a general rule, a single image created without any changes will cost 24 tokens.
• The free version of Leonardo.AI limits you to small and medium resolution options. However, it still allows you to create images at 1376x768 resolution, which is good enough for most purposes.
• Up to 4 images can be selected for each prompt.

This saves you money in two ways. First, the time spent creating, editing, or sourcing images can add up quickly. Leonardo.AI speeds up the entire process and significantly reduces the amount of editing required. It also saves you money on stock image subscriptions like Shutterstock or Adobe Stock.

2. ChatGPT : Free writing assistant

As a writing assistant, ChatGPT is an incredibly powerful tool, and the free version will be more than enough for all but the most avid writers. While it can do that, as a writer, you shouldn’t rely on ChatGPT to generate an entire article. But that doesn’t diminish its value as a writing assistant, and the free version works perfectly well in that role.

If you spend too much time thinking about how to write a clumsy email or an engaging social media post, the free version of ChatGPT will help you.

How does ChatGPT save money?

• The free version uses the GPT-4o model , which offers a wide range of tasks, from text refinement to generating creative ideas on the fly.
• Free users are limited to using the mini version of GPT-4o a limited number of times within a five-hour window. After that, the free version switches to the mini version of GPT-4o, which is still useful but not as powerful. However, the company has been coy about revealing this limit.
• The free version of ChatGPT doesn't include advanced features like file uploading or the ability to browse the Internet, but it's still a powerful tool for writing and brainstorming.

Similar to Leonardo.AI, ChatGPT will save you money in two ways. It can save you time on tasks like simplifying information or finding new ideas. But it also saves you money on paid plans like OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus or alternatives like Claude.

3. LanguageTool : Writing Assistant

While tools like ChatGPT are great for getting your ideas down on paper, their job really stops there. This is where built-in grammar checkers come in. There are plenty of free spelling and grammar checkers to choose from, and they all do their job pretty well.

LanguageTool is a crowd favorite. You can use the free version, which is enough for all your writing needs and outperforms the premium versions of many other alternatives.

How does LanguageTool save money?

• LanguageTool has plugins and applications for browsers, office applications and email clients.
• The free version has a grammar checker, spell checker, and rephrase tool.
• Word documents can be uploaded and reviewed online.

Despite working in IT and being a writer, many people still have terrible typing skills. In this sense, LanguageTool saves money simply by automatically correcting poor typos and reducing editing time. Since the free version is more than enough, you can also save money on the premium versions of similar tools.

4. Otter AI : Transcription tool, etc.

Otter AI is a transcription tool that can record and organize spoken content. This tool is extremely useful for remote workers. Otter AI creates searchable transcripts in real time and integrates with most collaboration and productivity tools.

While the free version doesn't have all the features of the paid version, it's still a powerful tool with a lot of functionality.

How does Otter AI save money?

• The tool integrates with tools like Zoom, Slack, Office 365, and Google. However, you need the premium version to integrate with other apps, including Dropbox.
• The free version allows up to 300 minutes of transcription per month with a 30 minute limit per recording.
• You can use Otter AI Chat to ask questions about details in a record. For example, you can ask, "What is the due date for the AI ​​paper?" and Otter Chat will look it up for you.

Using Otter AI eliminates the need for costly transcription services. It also saves time on manual note-taking, summarizing meetings, and ensuring you don’t forget important points.

5. PDFGear : Multi-purpose PDF tool

The ubiquitous PDF file has been around for decades. Despite being a widely used format, PDFs can still be difficult to work with without paying for an app like Adobe Acrobat. PDF Gear is an app that solves this problem but goes a step further. PDFGgear not only lets you create and edit PDFs for free, but it also has built-in AI Copilot.

In addition to acting as a support assistant for the program, ChatGPT-based Copilot can also provide detailed information about documents. For example, you can ask it to summarize PDFs or even translate them into different languages.

How does PDFGear save money?

• Full-featured free PDF toolkit with editing, merging, and signing functions.
• Integrated chatbot for efficient work.
• OCR capabilities can convert scanned PDFs into TXT or Word documents with support for over 30 languages.

In addition to time-saving features like summarizing large documents, the main cost savings is avoiding subscription costs for toolsets like Adobe Acrobat.

These 5 free AI tools offer powerful functionality without breaking the bank. Depending on your usage, these alternatives to premium AI tools can cut down on those expensive subscriptions without sacrificing your productivity or creativity.