A free plan is useful until it blocks the work you need to finish. Look for the first limit you would hit. A consultant may care about meeting history; a shop answering customers may run out of conversations instead. Seats and vendor branding can matter before either.
We include only tools with a full BizAI Weekly review, so the list is deliberately narrower than TAAFT or Futurepedia. Each row links to that review and gives the source date. This is a check on documented entitlements, not proof that we have used the free plan or measured its performance.
USD. Caps change; confirm on the vendor page before you commit. Methodology.
Free-plan matrix
Sorted by job, then name. Click the tool name for the full review.
| Tool | Job | Free plan | Hard limits | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| beehiiv | Email newsletter | Free | Up to 2,500 subscribers; 1 team seat; 1 publication; 30-day analytics lookback; beehiiv branding | 2026-10-26 |
| Canva | Design & social graphics | Free | 1 Brand Kit (3 colors only); 5GB storage; up to 20 Standard or Premium AI uses a month; no Ultra AI | 2026-10-26 |
| Fathom | Meeting notes | Free | For individuals; advanced summaries, Ask Fathom and automation integrations are limited | 2026-10-26 |
| Fireflies.ai | Meeting notes | Free | 400 min of storage per team; 20 AI credits/month; 2-hour recording limit; 3 public channels | 2026-10-27 |
| Fyxer AI | Email + meeting assistant | Free | 400 credits/month (about 20 chat messages or ~6h40m of recording); no inbox sorting; metered actions pause when credits run out | 2026-10-29 |
| Grammarly | Writing & proofreading | Free | No rewrites, tone adjustment, plagiarism/AI detection or team features | 2026-10-26 |
| Granola | Meeting notes (bot-free) | Basic | 30-day history (older notes hidden, not deleted); no briefs, follow-up emails, CRM/Notion/Zapier or API | 2026-11-03 |
| HubSpot | CRM & marketing | Free tools | Up to 2 users; 1,000 total contacts; 10 custom properties; HubSpot branding; community support only | 2026-10-26 |
| Make | Automation | Free | 2 active scenarios; 15-min minimum interval; 5-min max run time; 5 MB files; 7-day logs; no Make API or Code App | 2026-11-02 |
| Notion | Docs & AI meeting notes | Free | Block limit for 2+ members; 5 MB file uploads; 7-day page history; 10 guests | 2026-11-03 |
| Otter.ai | Meeting notes | Basic | 300 min/user/mo, 30 min per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports, 25 most recent conversations | 2026-10-26 |
| QuickBooks Online | Bookkeeping | Free | 2 invoices/month (unlimited with QuickBooks Payments); no accountant access; no card required | 2026-10-26 |
| Tidio | Live chat & AI agent | Free | Up to 10 seats; Tidio branding; Lyro quota on Free is one-time, not monthly | 2026-10-26 |
| Zapier | Automation | Free | Two-step Zaps only; 15-min polling; 2,500 Tables records; no premium apps | 2026-11-02 |
By job: what free is good for
Email newsletter
- beehiiv (Free): Good for launching a list before you pay for lite. Not for teams that need multiple seats or more than 2,500 subscribers. Includes: Newsletter, website, podcast, community and digital products; unlimited sends; templates; landing pages; Recommendations; API
Design & social graphics
- Canva (Free): Good for occasional social posts and one-off flyers. Not for a shared brand kit, heavy magic studio use, or a design team. Includes: Drag-and-drop editor, 1,000+ design types, 1.6M+ templates, 4.7M+ stock assets, Access to Affinity
Meeting notes
- Fathom (Free): Good for solo founders who want unlimited recordings at $0. Not for team crm sync (needs team/business, 2-user minimum). Includes: Unlimited recordings and transcription, bot-free (beta) or bot capture, instant AI summaries, clips, search, Claude & ChatGPT integrations
- Fireflies.ai (Free): Good for trying crm-bound notes before buying pro. Not for heavy ai summary use or long storage history. Includes: Unlimited transcription (requires auto-join), limited AI summaries, AskFred (limited), Chrome extension, desktop and mobile apps, API access
- Otter.ai (Basic): Good for light meeting capture on a zero budget. Not for long client workshops or heavy monthly minutes. Includes: Notetaker for Zoom, Teams, Meet; live transcription; speaker ID; AI Chat (20 queries/mo); MCP server; iOS/Android
Email + meeting assistant
- Fyxer AI (Free): Good for a light trial of meeting notes and briefings. Not for daily inbox triage (needs pro). Includes: Personal profile, daily dashboard briefing, weekly email briefing, audio meeting notes, 3 personal spaces, Gmail/Outlook/Slack/Teams
Writing & proofreading
- Grammarly (Free): Good for basic spelling and grammar across the browser. Not for brand tones, rewrites or team style guides. Includes: Spelling/grammar fixes, tone detection, 100 AI prompts/month
Meeting notes (bot-free)
- Granola (Basic): Good for client calls where a bot is awkward. Not for long history, crm sync or pre-meeting briefs. Includes: Unlimited AI meeting notes, bot-free capture, desktop and mobile apps, templates, Recipes, AI chat, shared folders, Slack
CRM & marketing
- HubSpot (Free tools): Good for a two-person team starting a crm from scratch. Not for more than 2 users or removing hubspot branding. Includes: Free marketing, sales, service, content, data and revenue tools; basic CRM
Automation
- Make (Free): Good for one or two light automations. Not for always-on multi-step ops or large files. Includes: 1,000 credits/mo, no-code builder, 3,500+ apps, routers and filters, AI Agents, MCP server, customer support
- Zapier (Free): Good for simple two-app syncs. Not for multi-step workflows or premium apps. Includes: 100 tasks/mo, unlimited Zaps, Tables and Forms, two-step Zaps, Copilot
Docs & AI meeting notes
- Notion (Free): Good for solo docs and light project tracking. Not for ai meeting notes (business) or a growing team workspace. Includes: Pages, databases, basic forms and sites, Notion Calendar, Notion AI trial
Bookkeeping
- QuickBooks Online (Free): Good for a solo us operator tracking expenses. Not for accountant collaboration or more than 2 invoices/month without payments. Includes: 1 user, track income and expenses, P&L and 2 other reports, 1 bank connection, mobile app
Live chat & AI agent
- Tidio (Free): Good for a small site testing live chat. Not for ongoing lyro ai volume (buy lyro separately). Includes: 50 billable conversations/mo, 50 Lyro conversations (one-time), 100 Flows visitors, live chat and ticketing
Caveats (not a team free plan)
ChatGPT
OpenAI offers a free ChatGPT plan for individuals. ChatGPT Business itself has no free team plan: Standard starts at $20/user/mo billed annually with a 2-seat minimum (checked 2026-10-26).
Source: 2026-10-26
When to leave a free plan
- The allowance repeatedly blocks work. Check the minutes, credits, conversations or storage you actually need each week.
- You need a third seat. HubSpot Free stops at 2 users, while beehiiv Free provides 1 seat. Price the people who need access, not just the owner.
- Old notes are part of the job. Granola Basic hides notes older than 30 days; Otter Basic retains 25 recent conversations. Check this before a handover needs an older record.
- The deliverable cannot carry vendor branding. Tidio and beehiiv Free display it, which may be acceptable for an internal pilot but not for every client requirement.
- You need admin controls, SSO or retention settings. Those are generally paid features. Check the exact required tier rather than assume the first upgrade includes them.
Free-first path into a paid stack
Use a free tier for a specific proposed pilot, not as a promise that the whole team can work free indefinitely. If its limits fit, keep it. When a paid feature is necessary, compare the relevant seats with our priced 5-person setups:
- Meeting notes stack: try Fireflies Free, Grammarly Free and Make Free first. Buy Pro seats when their documented caps stop the work.
- Email & inbox stack: keep Grammarly Free while evaluating SaneBox. Its 7-day trial is temporary; SaneBox has no free plan.
- Marketing starter stack: begin with Canva Free, beehiiv Free and HubSpot Free tools. Canva Pro and HubSpot Starter are the proposed paid steps when the team needs them.
Filter the directory: All tools → enable Free tier.
FAQ
Which AI tools for business are actually free?
Of the tools we review in depth, 14 list a free plan or free tier on the vendor pricing page: beehiiv, Canva, Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Fyxer AI, Grammarly, Granola, HubSpot, Make, Notion, Otter.ai, QuickBooks Online, Tidio, Zapier. The table below records the catches: storage, minutes, seats, credits or vendor branding. A Free label alone does not tell you whether the plan covers the job.
Is ChatGPT Business free?
No. OpenAI's free ChatGPT plan is for individuals. ChatGPT Business starts at $20/user/mo billed annually with a 2-seat minimum (checked 2026-10-26).
What's the most generous free meeting notetaker?
On the vendor pages we checked, Fathom's free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions for individuals. Granola Basic offers unlimited notes with a 30-day history. Fireflies Free has unlimited transcription but only 20 AI credits/month and 400 minutes of storage.
When should I leave a free plan?
Leave when a cap blocks real work (minutes, credits, seats or history), when you need admin/SSO, or when removing vendor branding matters for clients. Pilot free for two weeks, then buy only the seats you use.
Do you invent free-tier limits?
No. Every limit below is copied from the tool's plans table on our review, which itself comes from the vendor pricing page on the verified date. If a vendor does not publish a number, we say so.