7 best AI apps I can’t live without in 2026 (free + paid)

Artificial intelligence has become a part of everyday life, making it easier to work, study, create content, and stay productive. The best AI apps can help you write emails, generate images, edit videos, translate languages, organize tasks, and even answer complex questions in seconds. Whether you’re a student, business owner, content creator, or simply looking to save time, there’s an AI-powered app designed to meet your needs.

In this guide, we’ve rounded up the best AI apps available in 2026 for Android, iPhone, Windows, Mac, and the web. We’ll compare their features, pricing, pros and cons, and explain which apps are best for writing, photo editing, coding, learning, productivity, and more. From free AI tools to premium platforms, this list will help you find the perfect AI app for your goals and make the most of today’s rapidly evolving artificial intelligence technology.

These are the 7 AI apps that have stuck around in my daily and weekly workflow and continue to make ship things faster and better.

What is an AI app?

An AI app is any application that uses artificial intelligence, typically from large language models (LLMs), to help you get work done. These are tools that go beyond traditional software by being able to understand context, generate content, make decisions, and automate tasks that would normally require a human.

Some AI apps are built entirely around AI, like ChatGPT or Claude, where the AI is the product. Others are new AI tools that have used LLMs to create automations with other APIs and existing tools. There are use cases for everything now.

The AI apps on this list cover a wide range of use cases, from writing and coding to video editing, voice generation, search, and automation. So I’m sure you’ll find something in this list that you can walk away using in just 15 minutes from now.

But before we jump into the list of AI apps, let me go over how I evaluate AI tools when trying them out.

How I chose the AI apps on this list

I have probably used over 70 different AI tools over the past couple of years. And out of all of them, these are the 7 that I find myself coming back to over and over again over the last six months.

Some of them I use every single day. Others I use weekly depending on the project. But none of them are tools I tried once and forgot about.

Here is what I look at when evaluating whether an AI tool is worth keeping around:

• How often I actually use it after the first week
• Whether it actually produces something net new or it’s just perceived value
• How easy it is to get started without
• The quality of the output compared to doing it manually
• Whether it has a free plan or reasonable pricing
• How well it integrates with the other tools I already use
• Whether the product is actively improving or feels outdated
• How reliable it is when I am depending on it for real work

These are more vibe tests. I could go over things like specific features and all the technical details. But I think that’s starting to matter less and less these days.

It’s less about the tech, and more about it unlocking something I couldn’t do before. (No I did not use AI to write that, it just sounded right when typing.)

Okay, no more rambling. Let’s go over my top AI apps right now.

7 best AI apps and tools in 2026 (free + paid)

1. Google Labs

• Best for: Experimenting with Google’s latest AI apps and tools for free
• Pricing: Free
• How I use it: Creating on-brand social media ads with Pomelli and brainstorming visual ideas with Mixboard

Some people might not know this, but Google has a ton of amazing free AI tools and apps for anyone to use. Through Google Labs, their experimental AI product hub, they have tons of different mini apps for various use cases.

For example, they have an app called Pomelli that lets you create unbranded content for things like social media or ads. In fact, I have been using Pomelli a lot. And the thing I like about it is that you input your website and it downloads your entire design system. And then you can also feed it your product images and it can create custom ads that are on brand around your specific products.

There are also a bunch of other tools that you can play around with. Like productivity tools for email with their tool called CC. There is also Mixboard, which is a place for you to brainstorm and craft ideas, almost like a floating Pinterest inspiration design board.

Then there is Google AI Studio, which is a completely free web-based tool where you can prototype and experiment with Google’s Gemini models. You can test prompts, generate images, create speech, and even build lightweight apps without paying a cent. It is one of the most underrated free AI tools out there right now.

And if you are a developer, Google also released Antigravity, which is their new AI-powered IDE built around autonomous coding agents. It is powered by Gemini 3 and lets you delegate complex coding tasks to AI agents that can plan, write code, test it in a browser, and validate the results without you needing to babysit every step. It is currently free in public preview.

Here are some things I like about Google Labs:

• Completely free to use across almost all experiments
• Pomelli is one of the best tools for creating on-brand ad content without a designer
• Google AI Studio gives you full access to Gemini models
• Antigravity is a legitimately powerful free IDE for developers
• New tools and experiments are constantly being added

Here are some cons with Google Labs:

• Features can disappear without warning since they are experimental
• Not all experiments are available in every country
• Can be confusing to navigate if you do not know what you are looking for
• Some tools feel half-baked since they are still in testing

Overall, Google Labs is a goldmine if you like playing around with the latest AI tools before they go mainstream. And the fact that everything is free makes it a no-brainer to at least check out.

Google Labs pricing

Google Labs is completely free to use.

All the experiments, including Pomelli, Mixboard, CC, and the other mini apps, are available at no cost. Google AI Studio is also free, with generous daily usage limits on Gemini models. And Antigravity, their AI-powered IDE, is currently free during its public preview period.

2. Gumloop

• Best for: Automating marketing, sales, and ops workflows with AI agents
• Pricing: Free plan available, then starts at $37/month
• How I use it: Building automated SEO workflows, web scraping flows, content repurposing pipelines, and building multi-agent systems

See what you can build with Gumloop

Gumloop is an AI automation and AI agent builder that I have been using for about 14 months now. It is one of the first automation tools that I fell in love with since using Zapier for almost a decade.

What makes Gumloop different from something like Zapier or n8n is that it is built specifically for AI-first workflows. Instead of just moving data between apps, Gumloop lets you add an AI model into the middle of your workflow to actually think, analyze, and make decisions. It connects with any premium LLM model like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, etc. And you can also connect MCP servers with it as well.

The platform has a drag-and-drop builder where you can chain together scraping, AI prompts, integrations, and outputs. For example, I have a flow that scrapes competitor blog posts, summarizes them with AI, and sends me a Slack digest every morning. I have another one that takes a list of keywords, runs them through an LLM to generate content briefs, and pushes the output into Google Docs.

They also have Gummie, which is their in-product AI copilot that can help you build flows from scratch just by describing what you want. And they have a growing library of pre-built templates if you want to get ideas for where to start.

Whether you are a marketer, in sales, ops, or just someone who wants to automate repetitive work with AI agents, Gumloop is the tool I would recommend first.

Here are some things I like about Gumloop:

• Integrates with any LLM model without needing your own API keys
• Makes web scraping automations incredibly easy to set up
• Gummie (AI copilot) can help you build any flow from a description
• Has a Slack community where you can get help fast
• Clean drag-and-drop interface that is genuinely easy to use

Here are some cons with Gumloop:

• Still a relatively new tool so you might run into the occasional UI quirk
• Complex workflows can take some trial and error to get right
• Credit-based pricing means you need to keep an eye on usage

Gumloop pricing

Here are Gumloop’s pricing plans:

• Free: $0/month with 5,000 credits, 1 seat, 1 active trigger, and unlimited nodes and flows
• Pro: $37/month with 20,000+ credits, unlimited triggers, webhooks, and bring your own API key
• Enterprise: Custom pricing with role-based access control, SAML/SSO, audit logs, and virtual private cloud

Gumloop reviews

Here is what users rate Gumloop on third-party review sites:

• G2: 4.8/5 star rating
• Product Hunt: 5/5 star rating

3. Claude

• Best for: All-around AI assistant for writing, coding, research, and productivity
• Pricing: Free plan available, Pro starts at $20/month, Max starts at $100/month
• How I use it: Proofreading blog posts, building internal tools with Claude Code, running SEO campaigns with MCP integrations, and creating custom skills for every project I work on

There is a good chance you already know what Claude is, but specifically I want to talk about the desktop app. I have been using Claude almost every day for everything from helping refine my ideas to helping me proofread blog posts to integrating it with MCP servers to pull in analytics or keyword data for SEO campaigns. There is just a broad range of use cases you can do with Claude.

My favorite way to use it is to create Claude skills and for every campaign I work on, save it as a project and add those skills as instructions within those projects. It basically turns Claude into a custom assistant for whatever you are working on.

But there is also Claude Cowork if you want to give Claude access to your desktop and it can make edits in your files locally on your computer. And there is also Claude Code. I personally have been using Claude Code a lot to create internal tools. Like, I recently created my own speech-to-text tool that I am actually using right now to write this article.

There is just a wide range of things you can do with Claude and I would say that it is the best AI app if you are looking for an all-around easy tool to use for your personal life or your professional life across multiple different use cases. I am personally on the Max plan and I use it enough every day that it pays for itself many times over.

Here are some things I like about Claude:

• Projects let you save custom instructions and reference files per campaign
• Claude Code is great for building internal tools and scripts
• MCP integrations connect it to tools like Google Analytics and Ahrefs
• Cowork gives Claude access to your local desktop files
• Free plan is genuinely usable

Here are some cons with Claude:

• Usage limits can be frustrating, even on Pro
• Does not generate images natively
• Can be overly cautious with certain requests
• Big price gap between Pro ($20/month) and Max ($100/month)

Claude pricing

Here are Claude’s pricing plans:

• Free: $0/month with web, mobile, and desktop access, web search, memory, file creation, MCP connectors, and Slack/Google Workspace integrations
• Pro: $20/month ($17/month annually) with more usage, Claude Code, Cowork, unlimited projects, and Research
• Max: From $100/month with 5x or 20x more usage than Pro, higher output limits, and early access to new features

You can view more about their pricing here.

Claude reviews

Here is what users rate Claude on third-party review sites:

• G2: 4.4/5 star rating
• Capterra: 4.5/5 star rating

4. Cursor

• Best for: AI-powered code editing and vibe coding with any LLM model
• Pricing: Free plan available, Pro starts at $20/month
• How I use it: Building internal tools with Claude Code inside Cursor, using the Cursor agent for frontend work, and managing all my marketing skills as local agents

Cursor is the popular IDE that leverages AI to help you create software without having to manually type code. Cursor is built on top of VS Code so it is a full development environment, but its AI agent features allow you to leverage any AI coding model within the platform. You can think of Cursor as the final boss of vibe coding, where it gives you complete flexibility to use any model that you wish.

It’s LLM agnostic, so you can use the latest Claude Opus models. You can use Google Gemini Pro models. You can use ChatGPT Codex models. Literally anything.

I also use Cursor with Claude Code. So for example, when I mentioned the speech-to-text tool I created, I actually built it in Cursor using Claude Code. And then I will also use the actual Cursor agent for other small coding tasks. I really love the Composer model created by Cursor. It is super fast and actually a lot faster than Claude Code at different frontend UI tasks.

So that is how I use it. I will use Claude Code within Cursor for more backend stuff, and then Cursor’s agent for smaller frontend work. But Cursor is also amazing for pushing easily to GitHub and just having a full integrated environment.

I also use Cursor to save all of my marketing skills so I can create my own agents in a custom environment. However, note that these agents and workflows are all local on my computer. So if you want something that is cloud-based and a bit easier to use for agentic workflows specifically, I would recommend using Gumloop.

Here are some things I like about Cursor:

• LLM agnostic so you can use Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, or any model
• Built on VS Code so the transition feels familiar
• Composer model is super fast for frontend UI tasks
• Easy GitHub integration and full dev environment
• Works great alongside Claude Code for backend work

Here are some cons with Cursor:

• Can get expensive if you need higher usage tiers
• Not ideal if you are not already comfortable with VS Code
• Does have a learning curve for non-technical users

Cursor pricing

Here are Cursor’s pricing plans:

• Hobby: Free with limited agent requests and limited tab completions
• Pro: $20/month with extended agent limits, unlimited tab completions, cloud agents, and maximum context windows
• Pro+: $60/month with 3x usage on all OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini models
• Ultra: $200/month with 20x usage on all models and priority access to new features
• Teams: $40/user/month with shared chats, centralized billing, usage analytics, and SSO
• Enterprise: Custom pricing with pooled usage, invoice billing, SCIM, audit logs, and priority support

You can view more about the pricing options here.

Cursor reviews

Here is what users rate Cursor on third-party review sites:

• G2: 4.5/5 star rating
• Product Hunt: 5/5 star rating

5. Higgsfield

• Best for: All-in-one AI video creation and editing
• Pricing: Starts at $9/month
• How I use it: Connecting multiple AI video models, generating voiceovers, and editing videos all in one platform

Higgsfield is an all-in-one platform for creating videos with AI. You can think of it as the Cursor for AI videos or the Gumloop for AI videos, as the platform lets you connect multiple video models along with a bunch of video editing, image generation, and audio tools.

Higgsfield also has its own models like Higgsfield Audio for voice cloning and multilingual synthesis. You can also connect ElevenLabs into the platform. So you get a full integrated environment for anything related to video generation.

Higgsfield essentially brings all of those different models and tools into one place. Instead of jumping between five different AI video tools, you just do everything from one dashboard.

Here are some things I like about Higgsfield:

• Connects multiple AI video models in one platform
• Has its own audio and voice cloning models built in
• Supports image generation alongside video editing
• Credit-based pricing makes it affordable to start

Here are some cons with Higgsfield:

• No free plan available
• Still a newer platform so some features are evolving
• Can get expensive at higher tiers if you are creating a lot of content

Higgsfield pricing

Here are Higgsfield’s pricing plans:

• Basic: $9/month with 150 credits, access to selected models, and up to 2 concurrent videos
• Pro: $29/month with 600 credits, access to all models, and up to 3 concurrent videos
• Ultimate: $49/month with 1,200 credits, access to all models, and up to 4 concurrent videos
• Creator: $250/month with 6,000 credits, access to all models, up to 8 concurrent videos, and 35% cheaper cost per credit

All plans include access to all features, early access to advanced AI features, and discounts on extra credits/

6. Weavy

• Best for: AI image generation workflows and on-brand visual content
• Pricing: Free plan available, then starts at $24/month
• How I use it: Creating on-brand blog post thumbnails using custom workflows built around our design system

Weavy (now apart of Figma) is a platform for creating image generation workflows. You can think of it as Higgsfield, but specifically for images and short animations.

I have actually been using Weavy a lot recently for creating blog post images that are on brand. For example, if you actually scroll up and look at the thumbnail image for this blog post, it was created with the help of Weavy.

Essentially, I upload example designs from our designer into a workflow and set up prompt templates for the types of thumbnails I want. From there, I can quickly generate different thumbnails by tweaking the prompt slightly each time to customize it for that specific blog post.

Here are some things I like about Weavy:

• Workflow-based approach makes batch image creation fast
• Full access to all AI models even on the free plan
• Commercial license included on every plan
• Great for creating consistent, on-brand visuals

Here are some cons with Weavy:

• Free plan is limited to 150 credits and 5 workflows
• Credit system means heavy users will burn through allowances quickly
• Still a newer tool so the community is small
• Video generation eats through credits much faster than images

Weavy pricing

Here are Weavy’s pricing plans:

• Free: $0/month with 150 credits, full access to all AI models, professional editing tools, and 5 workflows
• Starter: $24/month with 1,500 credits, unlimited workflows, and top-ups at $10 for 1,000 credits
• Professional: $45/month with 4,000 credits, 3-month credit rollover, and top-ups at $10 for 1,200 credits
• Team: $60/user/month with 4,500 credits per user, shared credit pool, unified billing, and workspace file sharing

You can learn more about what each plan has to offer here.

7. ElevenLabs

• Best for: AI voice generation, voiceovers, and conversational agents
• Pricing: Free plan available, then starts at $5/month
• How I use it: Generating voiceovers for AI videos and experimenting with conversational agents

ElevenLabs is the popular AI voice generation app. You can give it a transcript and it will generate a human-like voiceover. It can be used for a wide range of use cases like voiceovers for AI-generated videos, creating agents that can read content on your site to visitors, and a lot more.

They also now have ElevenLabs Agents, which is a feature to deploy and monitor conversational agents. So you can build this directly into your products and create ultra-realistic speech across 70 plus languages.

ElevenLabs continues to be the best platform for voiceovers and conversational agents. So if you are ever in a situation where you need AI to speak something out, ElevenLabs is definitely the app to use.

Here are some things I like about ElevenLabs:

• Voice quality is the most realistic on the market right now
• Supports 70+ languages for both voiceovers and agents
• Free plan is generous enough to test with
• ElevenLabs Agents lets you deploy conversational AI into your own products

Here are some cons with ElevenLabs:

• Can get pricey if you are generating a lot of audio content
• Voice cloning is only available on paid plans
• Agent plans are a separate add-on billed per usage
• Free plan is limited to 10k credits per month

ElevenLabs pricing

Here are ElevenLabs’ pricing plans:

• Free: $0/month with 10k credits, text to speech, speech to text, sound effects, voice design, music, and 3 projects
• Starter: $5/month with 30k credits, commercial license, instant voice cloning, and 20 projects
• Creator: $11/month (first month 50% off) with 100k credits, professional voice cloning, and 192kbps audio quality
• Pro: $99/month with everything in Creator plus 44.1kHz PCM audio output via API

Agent plans are a separate add-on and billed per usage. You can learn more about it here.

ElevenLabs reviews

Here is what users rate ElevenLabs on third-party review sites:

• G2: 4.5/5 star rating (from +1,139 user reviews)
• Product Hunt: 4.9/5 star rating (from +155 user reviews)