15 Useful AI Websites Worth Bookmarking (Free to Start)

Jonhisking · October 2, 2026

There are thousands of AI websites now, and most of them are thin wrappers around the same few models. This is a short list of the ones that are actually worth a bookmark: each does one job well, and every one can be tried for free.

Free plans and limits change often, so treat "free" below as "you can start without paying" and check each site for today's details.

Quick list

Chat assistants

ChatGPT (chatgpt.com) is still the place most people start. It handles writing, questions, images, files and voice in one app, and the free plan is enough to learn what AI can do for you.

Claude (claude.ai) is the one to try when the text is long: contracts, reports, a whole codebase. It tends to follow detailed instructions closely and say when it isn't sure.

Gemini (gemini.google.com) makes the most sense if you live in Google's apps. It can work with your Gmail, Docs and Drive, and it is built into Android.

Microsoft Copilot (copilot.microsoft.com) is the equivalent if you live in Windows and Office.

You don't need all of them. Pick one for daily use and keep a second for when the first gets stuck. If you're deciding whether to pay, our Subscription vs API calculator shows whether a $20 plan is worth it for the way you actually use AI.

Research and learning

Perplexity (perplexity.ai) is a search engine that answers in sentences and links every claim to a source. Use it when you need to check facts, not just get an answer.

NotebookLM (notebooklm.google.com) answers questions only from documents you give it: PDFs, notes, web pages, YouTube videos. Because it stays inside your sources it is far less likely to make things up, and it can turn a pile of material into a study guide or a short audio overview.

Writing and translation

DeepL (deepl.com) produces translations that read more naturally than most, and it can translate whole Word or PDF files while keeping the layout.

A tip if you write prompts in a language other than English: most AI models charge more tokens for the same request in other languages. Korean costs about 1.4× and Japanese about 1.8× the tokens of English. TokenSave's token counter can translate a prompt to English on your device and add "Reply in [your language]" so the answer still comes back in your language.

Images and design

Canva (canva.com) is the fastest way to make a thumbnail, slide or social post. Its AI tools can generate images, remove backgrounds and rewrite text inside the design.

remove.bg (remove.bg) does one thing: drop in a photo and get the subject cut out in seconds.

If you generate a lot of images, prices per image differ by more than 10× between models. The AI image cost calculator compares Nano Banana, GPT Image, FLUX and others side by side.

Audio, music and video

ElevenLabs (elevenlabs.io) turns text into speech that is hard to tell from a real voice. It's popular for narration, dubbing and voiceovers for short videos.

Suno (suno.com) writes and sings a complete song from a short description of the style and topic.

CapCut (capcut.com) is a free video editor with automatic subtitles, background removal and templates. It is a favorite for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.

AI video generation is where costs climb fastest. Before you burn credits, the AI video cost calculator shows what the same clip costs on Veo, Kling, Runway and others.

For tinkerers and developers

LMArena (lmarena.ai) lets you send one prompt to two anonymous models and vote for the better answer. The votes feed a public leaderboard that is one of the most-cited rankings of AI models.

Hugging Face (huggingface.co) is the home of open AI models. Its Spaces let you try many of them in the browser without installing anything.

Google AI Studio (aistudio.google.com) is the quickest way to test Gemini models with your own prompts and get an API key.

Know what it costs: TokenSave

Most of these sites charge, sooner or later, by usage. TokenSave is a set of free calculators that show what that usage costs:

• Token counter: paste text and see tokens and cost on GPT, Claude and Gemini models. It can also shrink a prompt by translating it to English on your device.
• Subscription vs API: is ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro or Gemini cheaper than paying per use?
• Coding agent cost: what Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI would cost per task on the API.
• Image and video cost calculators: compare price per image and per second across models.

Everything runs in your browser, there is no sign-up, and it works in 41 languages.

How to pick

1. Start with one chat assistant. ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini covers most needs.
2. Add one tool for your main job. Perplexity for research, DeepL for translation, Canva for design, CapCut for video.
3. Pay only when the free plan blocks you. Check first whether a subscription or the API is cheaper for your usage.