Free AI Tools (2026)
Our ranked picks for Free AI Tools. Compare features and pricing, then jump to each tool's page or see the full list of alternatives.
1
OfficeCLI
OfficeCLI is the first and best Office suite purpose-built for AI agents to read, edit, and automate Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Free, open-source, single binary, no Office installation require
2
TraceGen – realistic OpenTelemetry traces, incl. AI-agent, one binary
Show HN: TraceGen – realistic OpenTelemetry traces, incl. AI-agent, one binary
3
SOCBench – an open benchmark for AI on SoC tasks
Writeup: <a href="https://www.deeptempo.ai/blogs/the-36-percent-false-positive-problem-with-llm-in-the-soc" rel="nofollow">https://www.deeptempo.ai/blogs/the-36
4
DoodleMeme – Animate Hand Drawings Without Generative AI
Hi HN,<p>A few years ago I created a popular open source repo for animating children's drawings. Recently, I decided to try turning it into a polished user experience.<p>It doesn't use ANY g
5
Tracking GenAI cost and endpoint fragility so app teams don't have to
Show HN: Tracking GenAI cost and endpoint fragility so app teams don't have to
6
Context Warp Drive – Deterministic context folding for AI agents
Show HN: Context Warp Drive – Deterministic context folding for AI agents
7
Tessera – an AI agent that refuses to answer without evidence
Show HN: Tessera – an AI agent that refuses to answer without evidence
8
CLRK, an open-source agent runtime with gVisor and MitM guardrails
TL;DR: we built a framework-agnostic agent runtime that uses gVisor for isolation and runs on k8s. It’s open-source under AGPLv3<p>Recently we’ve been working on a customer support “AI assistant” - es
9
Halo – open-source, tamper-evident runtime evidence for AI agents
Hi HN, I'm Brian, I spent the last few years at Vanta (YC W18), helping startups and enterprises become compliant and I recently started exploring what that might look like in a post-agentic worl
10
Rowboat – Open-source, local-first alternative to Claude Desktop
Claude’s desktop app is brilliant, but for our own daily work we kept wanting it to be less like a chat app and more like a full-fledged work app. Rowboat is our attempt at that, including the ability
11
Record, replay, and improve AI agents in production
At the AI Engineering World's Fair a big part of the conversation was to nail the self improvement loop. Our take on this is to record state of the agent execution with a durable runtime, then al
12
Scan your AI agents for dangerous capabilities
Show HN: Scan your AI agents for dangerous capabilities
13
DNSskills.md – agentic skills for certain DNS utilities
Show HN: DNSskills.md – agentic skills for certain DNS utilities
14
LangChain's OpenWiki agent based on PI.dev harness
Show HN: LangChain's OpenWiki agent based on PI.dev harness
15
Nimbus - open-source AI agent that operates your AWS and GCP
Show HN: Nimbus - open-source AI agent that operates your AWS and GCP
Frequently Asked Questions
How did you choose these tools?
We ranked the leading options by features, pricing, and fit for the use case outlined above.
Are there free options?
Yes — 15 of the tools above offer a free plan.
Which should I pick?
Start from the #1 pick, then compare alternatives if your budget or workflow differs.