The Free TierNovember 2026
We watched 752 AI pricing pages for 10 days. 12 free plans changed, and 6 got worse.
We saved the pricing page of every AI tool on our list, then compared it with the same page ten days later. A change counts only when the maker’s own words changed, and every one is quoted below, before and after.
Data as of · catalog b339f61
The headline
6 free plans got worse, 2 got better, and 19 pricing pages contradicted themselves.
We compared 752 saved pricing pages with the copy from ten days before. Two free plans turned into trials, one search tool cut its free plan from 3 searches a day to 5 a month, and even Claude’s pricing page gives two answers about its own free plan. Every change below shows the maker’s words before and after.
TL;DR
- 12 AI tools changed their free plan or price between 20 and 30 October 2026: 6 for the worse, 2 for the better, and 4 with new limits or new prices.
- Two free plans turned into trials: TextCortex (14 days) and Writecream (7 days).
- Scira went from 3 searches a day to 5 a month, then to 20 a month by 3 November.
- 19 pricing pages contradicted themselves on 31 Oct 2026. 4 still did on 3 Nov 2026, Claude’s included.
- Of 30 tools our records showed as changed, only 12 held up against the saved pages. The rest were our own reading getting better, so we don’t count them.
Key numbers
- pricing pages compared
- 752
- changed their free plan or price
- 12
- got worse for free users
- 6
- pages that contradicted themselves
- 19
Chart 1 · Which way the changes went, for someone on the free plan
- Worse for the free user6 · 50.0%
- Better for the free user2 · 16.7%
- New limit or new prices4 · 33.3%
Show the numbers
| Changes | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Worse for the free user | 6 | 50.0% |
| Better for the free user | 2 | 16.7% |
| New limit or new prices | 4 | 33.3% |
Got worse
Free plans that now give you less
The maker's words in our saved copy, then on the live page.
- Scira
3 searches a day → 5 searches a month
Since then: it went up to 20 searches a month.
Before
“Free gets you 3 searches a day and every source.”
Our saved copy of the page, 22 Oct 2026
- TextCortex
A free plan with 20 creations a day → No free plan: a 14-day free trial
Before
“Yes, TextCortex is completely free to use with many of its core features. When you sign up, you receive 100 free creations. Then you will receive 20 recurring creations every day on the free plan.”
Our saved copy of the page, 20 Oct 2026
Now
“Yes. TextCortex offers a 14-day free trial so you can explore its features.”
textcortex.com/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
- Writecream
A free forever plan with 20 credits → No free plan: AI marketing agents with a 7-day trial
Before
“$0 /month Free forever 20 Credits (~40,000 chars)”
Our saved copy of the page, 20 Oct 2026
Now
“You meet your crew first, and when you pick a plan inside your account it starts with a 7 day free trial with 75 crew hours.”
writecream.com/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
- Felo
200 credits refreshed every day → 200 credits a day as a limited-time gift for new users
Before
“Free refreshes 200 credits every day.”
Our saved copy of the page, 20 Oct 2026
Now
“Free includes a limited-time gift for new users: 200 credits per day during the campaign.”
felo.ai/en/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
- Ollama
A free cloud plan with starter usage credits → No free cloud credits: pay as you go (models on your own computer stay free)
Before
“Free accounts include a starter amount of usage for a smaller set of starter models.”
Our saved copy of the page, 20 Oct 2026
Now
“Pay as you go accounts pay for each request with usage credits. Running models on your own hardware is always unlimited.”
ollama.com/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
- Eraser
A Starter plan from $15 a member a month → Starter no longer sold to new teams; the next plan up, Business, is $45 a member a month billed annually
Before
“Starter $15 / member / mo billed annually, or $20 monthly”
Our saved copy of the page, 20 Oct 2026
Now
“Starter is no longer offered to new teams. Teams already on Starter keep their plan and can switch between monthly and annual billing.”
eraser.io/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
Got better
Free plans that now give you more
- Cartesia
$1 of voice-agent credit at $0.06 a minute, about 17 minutes → The same $1 at $0.03 a minute, about 33 minutes
Before
“Free $0 /mo Start free 20K credits / month $1 prepaid agents / month”
Our saved copy of the page, 20 Oct 2026
Now
“At the standard $0.03/minute rate, each plan's prepaid agent dollars cover about: Free: 33 minutes”
cartesia.ai/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
- Stable Audio
Free tracks for personal, non-commercial use only → A commercial licence on the free plan
Before
“About 12 full-mix generations or 8 multi-track generations a month Personal, non-commercial use”
Our saved copy of the page, 20 Oct 2026
Now
“Free $0 50 credits a month About 12 full-mix generations or 8 multi-track generations a month Commercial license”
stableaudio.com/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
New limits
New caps and new prices
Not clearly better or worse, but not what the page said ten days before.
- Adalo
An AI builder in beta, no limit shown → AI builder capped at 5 prompts a month
Before
“Ada AI Assistant: Prompt-Building And Prompt-Editing (Beta)”
Our saved copy of the page, 20 Oct 2026
- Magic Hour
A free plan to try the basic features, no amounts shown → 400 signup credits, plus daily claims of 100 capped at 7 in total
Before
“No, Magic Hour's Free plan allows you to try our basic features for free.”
Our saved copy of the page, 20 Oct 2026
Now
“A free account adds 400 signup credits and saved projects. Basic accounts can claim 100 credits daily, up to 7 total lifetime claims.”
magichour.ai/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
- Better Analyst (formerly Formula Bot)
Formula Bot: 10 messages and 25 AI Actions a month, paid from $20 → Better Analyst: 10 chat messages and 50 AI credits a month, paid from $30
Since then: the free AI credits went up to 100 a month.
Before
“10 messages per month 25 AI Actions per month 5MB file upload limit Starter $20/month ($14/month, billed $168 yearly)”
Our saved copy of the page, 22 Oct 2026
Now
“10 chat messages each month 5MB file uploads, 1 file per chat, 5 files in total 1 connected data source of any type; custom APIs count toward it 1 dashboard, refreshed by hand up to 5 times a day 3 saved tasks 100 AI credits per month for PDF to Excel and AI enrichment”
betteranalyst.com/docs/billing/pricing-plans, checked 3 Nov 2026
- Context.dev
Paid plans from $19 to $499 a month → Paid plans from $20 to $950 a month; the free 1,000 credits a month didn't change
Before
“Context.dev offers Developer ($19/mo), Pro ($99/mo), Growth ($299/mo), and Scale ($499/mo)”
Our saved copy of the page, 25 Oct 2026
Now
“Context.dev offers Developer ($20/mo), Pro ($90/mo), Growth ($300/mo), Scale ($500/mo), and Scale 2.5M ($950/mo)”
context.dev/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
Two answers
When the pricing page argues with itself
On 31 Oct 2026, 19 AI tools’ own pages gave two different answers about the free plan or the price. These 4 still did on 3 Nov 2026.
- Claude
Does the free plan have a weekly limit? The table says yes, the FAQ says weekly limits come with paid plans.
FAQ on the same page
“Most accounts have a limit that resets on a rolling five-hour session window, and paid plans add weekly limits on top.”
claude.com/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
- 2short.ai
How many free minutes of video analysis? The plan card says 30 a month, a line further down says 15.
Further down the same page
“With our free Starter plan, you get 15 minutes of AI video analysis”
2short.ai/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
- DeepBrain AI Studios
Do the free plan's 16 credits renew? The pricing page says one-time, the home page FAQ says monthly.
Pricing page, Free plan
“Generative usage 16 one-time generative credits”
aistudios.com/pricing, checked 3 Nov 2026
Home page FAQ
“Plans include monthly credits (Free 16, Personal 60, Team 150)”
aistudios.com, checked 3 Nov 2026
- Byvano
What does the cheapest paid plan cost? The comparison table says $29 a month, the plan cards say $5 or $9 a month from 1 Jan 2027.
Mermaid, Mem0, AhaSlides and MindMeister had reworded their pages by 3 Nov 2026. For the other 11, the public page didn’t let us confirm either way, so we don’t name them. When a page disagrees with itself, our tool page shows both answers and says where each came from, instead of picking one.
Catches
What else “free” can mean
From the free plans of the 747 tools on our list, as each maker states them.
- 82 free plans give no number for what you get, only words like “limited usage”.
- 31 of 36 free video plans we checked (86.1%) put a watermark on your video.
- 55 of 163 free plans that say whether you can use what you make commercially (33.7%) don’t allow it.
- 53 of 250 credit-based free plans give credits once and never refill them.
- Who may train AI on what you type: what 239 makers say, in their own words.
Where to go next
Methodology
- Data: the Free AI For That catalog (
data/tools.json, sha256fa0b63ec…, commitb339f61, 3 November 2026). A script (scripts/reports/build-report-stats.ts) counts every number with the functions the site uses to list a tool and to assign its kind of free. - Named tools: every tool this report names was re-checked on the maker’s page on 3 November 2026. Next to each one we show the maker’s words and a link to the page we read them on. 20 facts passed the re-check.
- Which pages: our checker saves the pricing page of every AI tool on our list. We compared the copy saved on or after 20 Oct 2026 with the one saved on 30 Oct 2026: 752 tools.
- What counts as a change: the maker’s own wording about the free plan, how often it refills, the licence or the paid price differs between the two saved copies, and the live page still shows the new wording. Short promotions don’t count. Neither does a change in how we read or label a page.
- What counts as two answers: two parts of the maker’s own site say different things about the same free-plan limit or price, as recorded in our re-checks of 25 to 31 October and confirmed by a second reader. We name only the ones still on the live page.
- Cards: we don’t say whether a signup asks for a card. We only say that once we’ve completed the signup ourselves.
- Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. Each one states its denominator.
- Corrections: see something wrong? Tell us. We’ll re-check it and log any change on Free plan changes.
