Paid AI → free, open source and local alternatives
What the paid AI apps and coding assistants cost, what their free tier gives, and what replaces them for free: open source projects and apps that run models on your own computer.
| Free tier | Open source | Local | Platforms | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | $8 | Unlimited text chats (fair use) · 500 MB file storage |
|
Windows macOS Android iOS Web | |
| Claude Code | — | — |
|
Windows macOS Linux | |
| Claude | $20 | Limited usage · resets every 5 h |
|
Windows macOS Android iOS Web | |
| Gemini | $7.99 | Limited usage · 32K context |
|
Windows macOS Android iOS Web | |
| Cursor | — | Hobby · Limited agent requests |
|
Windows macOS Linux | |
| Microsoft Copilot | $9.99 | Limited usage |
|
Windows macOS Android iOS Web | |
| Devin Desktop (Windsurf) | — | Limited agent requests · Unlimited Tab completions |
|
macOS | |
| Perplexity | $20 | Free plan |
|
Windows macOS Android iOS Web | |
| DeepSeek | — | Free, no published limit |
|
Windows macOS Android iOS Web | |
| Grok | $30 | Limited usage |
|
Android iOS Web | |
| Mistral Vibe (Le Chat) | $5.99 | Limited messages and searches · $10/month in API credits |
|
Android iOS Web | |
| GitHub Copilot | — | 2,000 completions/month · 50 chat requests/month |
|
Windows macOS Linux |
Open source: an OSI-approved licence. Local: runs open models on your computer, no subscription.
Updated · Sources: fedi.software (CC BY 4.0)
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What does this table compare?
Every row is a paid AI product: chat apps such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity, and coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot. Next to each one you see the lowest monthly price, what its own free tier gives, the open-source projects that do the same job, the apps that run a model on your computer instead, and the platforms the product supports.
What counts as "open source" here?
Only software under an OSI-approved licence: MIT, Apache-2.0, GPL-3.0, AGPL-3.0, BSD-3-Clause or MPL-2.0. For chat apps that means Open WebUI, Jan, AnythingLLM and GPT4All; for coding agents Cline, Aider, OpenHands, Codex CLI and Gemini CLI. LM Studio is free to use but its code is closed, so it appears only in the local column.
And "local"?
Local means the program runs open-weights models on your own machine, with no subscription and no prompts leaving the computer. For chat that is Ollama, LM Studio, Jan, GPT4All or llama.cpp; for coding, Cline, Aider and OpenHands connected to a local model. How good the answers are then depends on the model your hardware can hold — the hardware fit chart shows what that is for a given amount of memory.
Is a free alternative really a replacement?
It replaces the function, not necessarily the quality. A paid product usually runs a frontier model that you cannot download; an open-source agent or interface is a shell that still needs a model behind it — either a local one or an API key that you pay for per token. Keep three things apart:
- the vendor's free tier — the same product with limits;
- an open-source tool — free code, with a model you bring yourself;
- a local setup — free to run, limited by your memory and patience.
Why can the price differ from what I pay?
Prices are taken from the vendors' pricing pages, checked monthly, in the vendor's currency. Taxes and regional pricing change the final amount. The current plans of each app are on the consumer apps and coding agents pages, and the local programs are listed under local AI apps.