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The AI tools I actually use (Sep 2026)
My stack, at a glance
The tools I actually open, one column per job.
Image
Midjourney
ChatGPT Images
Nano Banana
Qwen-Image 2.1
Video
Seedance 2.5
Gemini Omni Flash
Kling 3.0
Coding
Claude Code
Codex
Cursor
Content creation
Higgsfield
ElevenLabs
Descript
Automation
Grok Bot
Hermes Agent
Instinct
Muse
AI agents
- Grok Bot
- Hermes Agent
- Instinct
- Muse
Research
Gemini
Perplexity
Writing
Claude
The full list
Tools marked In my stack are the ones I use. Everything marked Worth knowing is a niche or useful pick I'd point a friend to, it just isn't one I use myself.
48 tools
Image
Midjourney for looks, ChatGPT for edits and text in images, Nano Banana for speed, Qwen when you want it free and local.
- Best for
- The best-looking images of any tool. Moodboards, styles and aesthetic shots that don't look like AI stock.
- The catch
- No free tier. Below the $60 plan your images are public in the gallery.
- Price
- From $10/mo
- Best for
- Editing over several messages and readable text in images. Keeps faces consistent from a reference photo. My carousel slides come from here.
- The catch
- Slower than Nano Banana, and every tweak is a chat message instead of a slider.
- Price
- Limited free use. Plus $20/mo
- Free guide
- Viral carousels with ChatGPT
- Best for
- Fast edits and real-world accuracy. It's grounded in Google Search, so logos, places and products come out right.
- The catch
- It's now a family (Pro, 2, Lite), and it isn't always clear which one you're getting.
- Price
- Free in Gemini. AI Pro $19.99/mo
- Free guide
- ChatGPT Image vs Nano Banana
- Best for
- Open model that generates and edits in one. Transparent backgrounds, 2K output, up to 10 reference images, and it runs on a home GPU.
- The catch
- Non-commercial licence. For client work, use the paid Qwen-Image 3.0 instead.
- Price
- Free in Qwen Chat
- Best for
- Text inside images. Posters, thumbnails and anything where the words have to be spelled right.
- The catch
- Overall look is a step behind Midjourney.
- Price
- Free tier. From $7/mo
- Best for
- Real SVG vectors. Logos, icons and brand assets you can actually edit in Figma.
- The catch
- Not built for photoreal images.
- Price
- Free tier
- Best for
- Upscaling that adds real detail. Makes a soft AI image sharp enough to print.
- The catch
- Now bundled with Freepik's whole platform on one credit pool, and credits expire.
- Price
- Free daily images. From $16/mo
Video
Three models, three jobs: Seedance for cinematic shots, Omni Flash for edits you describe in words, Kling for motion on a budget.
- Best for
- Cinematic shots. Native 4K, clips up to 30 seconds with synced audio, and up to 50 reference inputs.
- The catch
- A full 30-second clip costs around $3 to $7 depending on where you run it.
- Price
- Cheapest in Dreamina, around $0.10/sec
- Free guide
- Cinematic AI ads with Seedance 2.5
- Best for
- Editing video by talking to it. Ask for a change and it edits the same scene instead of making a new one. Characters keep their look and voice.
- The catch
- Around 10 seconds per clip, and every clip is watermarked.
- Price
- Google AI Plus and up. Free in YouTube Shorts
- Best for
- Motion and physics for the money. Action, dancing, anything where bodies have to move right.
- The catch
- Credits disappear fast at 1080p with audio. Free clips are watermarked.
- Price
- Free daily credits. Paid plans, check the site
- Free guide
- AI video clone with Higgsfield + Kling
- Best for
- Editing footage you already shot. Restyle, relight or change the weather in a real clip.
- The catch
- Aleph burns credits quickly.
- Price
- From $12/mo
- Best for
- Talking heads from one photo and an audio file, with some of the best lip-sync around.
- The catch
- Defaults to 720p.
- Price
- Free tier. From $15/mo
- Best for
- Translating your videos into 175+ languages with your own voice and lip-sync.
- The catch
- The newest avatars use credits several times faster.
- Price
- From $29/mo
Coding
Two terminal agents and one editor. Claude Code and Codex do the building, Cursor is for when you want to see and steer the code yourself.
- Best for
- Working inside your real project. Skills, hooks and a terminal agent that the rest of the market copies.
- The catch
- The $20 plan runs out fast on real work.
- Price
- Pro $20/mo. Max from $100/mo
- Free guide
- Make your Claude limits last
- Best for
- Handing off long tasks to the cloud while you keep working. Generous usage for the price.
- The catch
- Credit-based billing makes the real cost hard to predict.
- Price
- Included with ChatGPT Plus $20/mo
- Best for
- The best editor if you like seeing the code. Any model, plus its own fast one. Pro now includes Grok Bot too.
- The catch
- Frontier models eat the monthly credits quickly.
- Price
- Free tier. Pro $20/mo
- Best for
- Running several Claude Code or Codex agents side by side, each in its own copy of the project.
- The catch
- Mac only. You bring your own subscriptions.
- Price
- Free locally
- Best for
- Going from an idea to a working app with a login and a database, without touching code.
- The catch
- Credits make it cost two to three times the sticker price on real projects.
- Price
- Free tier. From $25/mo
Content creation
Generate the visuals, voice them, cut them. That's the whole pipeline.
- Best for
- One place for every top video and image model (Seedance, Kling, Nano Banana) plus presets that are made for social.
- The catch
- Plans changed several times this year and credits go quickly.
- Price
- Paid plans only. Check the site
- Free guide
- Claude + Higgsfield setup
- Best for
- Voice cloning and voiceovers good enough that people stop noticing it's AI. Eleven v4 just came out.
- The catch
- Gets expensive at volume.
- Price
- Free tier. From $6/mo
- Best for
- Editing video by editing the transcript. Delete a sentence, the clip is gone. Its agent handles clips and captions.
- The catch
- AI features run on metered credits.
- Price
- Free tier. Paid from about $16/mo
- Free guide
- Edit videos with AI
- Best for
- Voice cloning from a few seconds of audio at a fraction of ElevenLabs' price.
- The catch
- Smaller voice library.
- Price
- Free tier. From $11/mo
- Best for
- Turning a podcast or long video into a stack of short clips automatically.
- The catch
- Billed per minute of source video, and credits expire.
- Price
- Free tier. From $15/mo
- Best for
- The animated captions you see on every viral short, in one click.
- The catch
- Free plan is watermarked and length-capped.
- Price
- Free tier. From $19/mo
Automation
Always-on agents now do a lot of what used to be Zapier flows. Grok Bot, Hermes, Instinct and Muse cover a lot of it. The rest are what they, or you, plug into.
- Best for
- Always-on agents. Each one gets its own cloud computer, runs a job while you're away and only pings you when it needs approval.
- The catch
- Still in beta.
- Price
- Included in SuperGrok and Cursor Pro
- Best for
- An agent that gets better the more you use it. It writes its own skills, remembers across sessions and lives in Telegram, Slack or WhatsApp.
- The catch
- You host it yourself and pay for the model.
- Price
- Free and open source
- Best for
- Comment-a-word, get-a-DM funnels. The engine behind most creator lead magnets.
- The catch
- Only as good as the flows you build.
- Price
- Free tier
- Best for
- Unlimited workflows and AI agents for the cost of a server.
- The catch
- Real learning curve.
- Price
- Free self-hosted. Cloud from €24/mo
- Best for
- Ready-made scrapers for Instagram, TikTok, Google Maps and most of the web. The data layer under a lot of automations.
- The catch
- Moving to pay-per-use from October 2026, so check your costs.
- Price
- $5/mo free usage
- Best for
- Turning any website into clean text an AI can read.
- The catch
- Structured output costs more credits.
- Price
- 1,000 free credits. From $16/mo
AI agents
Agents that do the task instead of telling you how. Instinct and Muse run errands. Grok Bot and Hermes run jobs, and also sit under Automation.
- Best for
- A personal agent you just text or call. It checks you into flights, orders groceries and books things from its own computer.
- The catch
- Invite only. Its terms let it make agreements on your behalf, so set limits.
- Price
- Invite only, no public pricing
- Best for
- Everyday errands across email, calendar, shopping and bookings. Works with Shopify, OpenTable, Expedia and more.
- The catch
- Brand new, and Amazon blocks it.
- Price
- Free tier. Paid $20 or $100/mo
- Best for
- Handing over a whole task (research, a website, a report) and getting a finished result back.
- The catch
- Uses a lot of credits on big tasks.
- Price
- From $20/mo
- Free guide
- Turn yourself into a website with Manus
Research
Gemini for deep reports, Perplexity for quick answers with sources.
- Best for
- Deep Research reports and reading huge amounts at once. Drop in long documents or whole videos.
- The catch
- Google's top model has been slow to update this year.
- Price
- Free tier. AI Pro $19.99/mo
- Best for
- Quick answers with sources instead of ten blue links. My default research tab.
- The catch
- Goes shallow on specialist topics.
- Price
- Free tier. Pro $20/mo
- Best for
- Learning from your own sources. Formerly NotebookLM. Turns PDFs and videos into audio and video overviews.
- The catch
- Only knows what you upload.
- Price
- Free
- Free guide
- Turn it into a health coach
- Best for
- Checking a claim against actual scientific papers before you put it in a video.
- The catch
- Only covers academic topics.
- Price
- Free tier. Pro $9.99/mo
Writing
For scripts, captions and newsletters, the model matters more than any other choice on this page.
- Best for
- Scripts, captions and newsletters that sound like a person. Put your voice and past posts in a Project and it writes like you.
- The catch
- Out of the box it still has AI habits. My writing skills fix that.
- Price
- Free tier. Pro $20/mo
- Free guide
- 5 skills that fix Claude's writing
- Best for
- A visual board for research-heavy writing. Drop YouTube videos, PDFs and voice notes side by side and write from all of them.
- The catch
- Expensive, no free trial, and public pricing was removed in August 2026.
- Price
- Sold via demo. Was from $399/yr
- Best for
- Brainstorming and outlines. Keep it for images, not final copy.
- The catch
- Its drafts sound like everyone else's. Readers spot it in one line.
- Price
- Free tier. Plus $20/mo
- Best for
- Repurposing. Train it on your examples and it turns one idea into posts, threads and newsletter drafts.
- The catch
- Does one job.
- Price
- $15/mo, or in Every's $20 bundle
- Best for
- A clean writing editor that gives feedback on your draft instead of rewriting it for you.
- The catch
- Less useful if you want the AI to do the writing.
- Price
- Free tier
Niche picks
Small tools that quietly save hours. None of them are famous. All of them are worth a try.
- Best for
- Dictation into any app, cleaned up as you speak. You talk about three times faster than you type.
- The catch
- Audio goes to the cloud.
- Price
- Free 2,000 words/week. Pro $15/mo
- Best for
- Meeting notes that write themselves, with no bot joining the call.
- The catch
- Free plan caps your note history.
- Price
- Free tier. From $14/mo
- Best for
- Screen recordings with smooth auto-zoom that look edited straight away. Half of all tutorial b-roll, solved.
- The catch
- Mac only, no free plan.
- Price
- $9/mo billed yearly
- Best for
- A real-time canvas. Sketch a shape and watch the image update as you draw.
- The catch
- Overlaps with Higgsfield if you already pay for that.
- Price
- Free tier. From $9/mo
- Best for
- Upscaling and restoring video on your own machine. Rescues old or low-res footage.
- The catch
- Subscription only now, and pricey.
- Price
- $299/yr
- Best for
- Custom background music for your videos, with commercial rights on paid plans.
- The catch
- Ongoing label lawsuits, so check the terms for client work.
- Price
- Free tier. Pro from $8/mo
Tools, versions and prices checked 29 September 2026. AI pricing changes monthly, so treat prices as a starting point and check the site before you pay.
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