Which free AI agent is worth your evening?

Free means three different things: a chat with usage caps, a workshop you host yourself, or a starter tier that ends the day your agent works. Here is what each option really gives you, and the question almost nobody asks: what happens to your agent the day you leave.

Last updated 2026-08-12

What separates a free agent from a demo

Almost every tool on this page can hold a conversation. That is no longer what makes the difference. What does: whether the agent keeps your instructions between sessions, whether it can reach your files and your tools, and whether you can take it somewhere else.

That last point is the one that costs the most later. An agent built inside a chat window lives in that chat window. Six months of tuning, of exceptions, of the exact phrasing that finally worked, and none of it leaves. Before you spend an evening on any of these, ask what you would export the day you change your mind.

AskMojo

Our pick

The free agent that stays yours when you change your mind.

AskMojo starts free and works the other way round: you describe the job in your own words, Mojo turns it into a magik, a reusable way of working that carries your instructions, your examples and your tone. The magik runs on the model you choose, and it exports.

That is the whole angle. Not a better chat, a way of working you own. The agent runs under your name, in your language, and the day a better model ships you point the same magik at it instead of starting the tuning over.

Browse the labs

Other strong tools for building a free AI agent

ChatGPT

OpenAI

Best for: trying an agent tonight, with nothing to install

The free tier covers conversation, web search and file reading. It is the shortest path from an idea to something that answers, and the one your team already knows how to use.

Watch out: Free means capped: the limits tighten at busy hours, right when you need it. And what you build stays inside the app.

Claude

Anthropic

Best for: long instructions and whole documents

It holds a long brief without losing the thread, which is exactly what an agent is: a set of rules that has to survive the twentieth exception.

Watch out: The free tier runs out of room fast on real workloads, and there is no way to run your setup somewhere else.

Le Chat

Mistral AI

Best for: staying in French, and in Europe

French models, French interface, European hosting, and a free tier. For a French business that cares where its data sits, that combination is rare.

Watch out: The ecosystem around it, connectors and third-party agents, is younger than the American ones.

n8n

n8n GmbH

Best for: wiring an agent into the tools you already use

Self-hostable and free for internal use under its Sustainable Use licence, with agent building blocks and connectors to hundreds of services. Every step is visible, which makes failures debuggable.

Watch out: It is a workshop, not a finished product: you need a server, and someone who enjoys plumbing.

Botpress

Best for: a conversational agent published on a site

Visual builder, publishing as a widget, and a free tier to get started. You see the conversation as a flow, which helps when you have to explain it to someone else.

Watch out: Billing follows usage. An agent that works is an agent that costs, and the free tier is a trial, not a plan.

How to choose a free AI agent

Where the free tier stops

Read the limit before the feature list. Capped messages, capped runs, capped connectors: the ceiling tells you what the tool is really for.

What survives a session

An agent that forgets your rules every morning is a chat. Check what is stored, and whether you can correct it without redoing everything.

What comes out

Ask the export question on day one, not on the day you leave. Instructions, examples, history: what can you take with you, in what format?

Who it answers as

If clients will see it, the agent has to wear your name and speak your language, not the vendor's. Check that before the demo charms you.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free AI agent?

There is no single winner, because free covers three different deals. For a first try tonight, ChatGPT or Claude. To stay in French and in Europe, Le Chat. To wire an agent into your own tools, n8n, self-hosted. Pick by what you will do with it in a month, not by the demo.

How much does an AI agent cost?

Two very different bills. A chat-based agent is a monthly subscription per user. An agent that runs on its own is billed by usage: every run costs, so the price follows your volume. A self-hosted agent has no licence but costs a server and the hours of whoever maintains it.

How do I create an AI agent for free?

Start from the job, not the tool. Write down what you do today, step by step, including the exceptions. That text is the agent. Then paste it into a free tier and correct it on ten real cases. Most failures come from a rule nobody wrote down, not from the model.

Is any AI one hundred per cent free?

Free without a ceiling only exists when you host it yourself: open models on your own machine, or a tool like n8n under its internal-use licence. Everything else is a free tier, meaning a limit you will meet on the day it starts being useful.

Free to start