I love a good tier list. There’s something honest about someone putting their whole reputation on the line and saying “this tool is great, that one is trash.” So when I saw this post from a LinkedIn creator who ranked 23 AI tools from S all the way down to F, I had to share it. The author even warned that it would make some people angry, which is usually a sign the rankings are worth reading.
Here’s how the expert broke it down, tier by tier, with the reasoning behind each pick.
✦ S TIER ✦
Claude Fable-5: The one tool the author put at the very top. They call it the smartest model around, the one that solves problems every other model gives up on, and it’s included in the Max subscription.
✦ A TIER ✦
- Grok Bot: The only AI agent the creator actually uses. Simple to set up, built for people who aren’t technical.
- Wispr Flow: Write text with your voice, fast and accurate, and it keeps learning from your edits.
- Gamma: Make slides with AI. The author calls it the best PowerPoint killer, with unmatched taste in its designs.
- Granola: The best AI meeting notetaker, built for simplicity, and it does NOT connect to your call.
- Seedance: Their top pick for AI video. 30 seconds in one shot where Veo gives you 8, plus free credits every day.
✦ B TIER ✦
- ChatGPT 5.6 Sol/Luna: Sol for the hard stuff, Luna for the rest. The author says it’s the best free chatbot and it’s not close.
- Kimi: 2.8 trillion parameters and open-source. Great for long, autonomous tasks. Free on the app, cheap on the API.
- DeepSeek: The Chinese ChatGPT for free, though the poster notes they just made the API 4x pricier.
- Cursor: The AI code editor everyone copied. Free hobby plan, no card needed.
✦ C TIER ✦
- NotebookLM: Upload courses and learn, then turn them into a podcast, quizzes, or mindmaps. Takes up to 50 sources, even from YouTube.
- Resend: Send emails from your app in about 5 minutes. 3,000 free per month, written in code instead of HTML.
- Superbase: The database behind most vibecoded apps. Logins, storage, real Postgres, free up to 50,000 users.
✦ D TIER ✦
- Claude Opus-5: Almost Fable-5 at half the price. The author keeps the effort level on High and uses it to execute after brainstorming with Fable.
- Gemini Veo: Google’s video AI, now called Gemini Omni. 50 free credits a day, which the poster says isn’t even one good video.
- Notion: Where a lot of people keep everything, and Claude and Cursor now work inside it. The catch: AI features are locked behind the paid plan.
- Canva: The well-known non-designer design tool, but the creator found the AI features underwhelming.
✦ E TIER ✦
- GitHub: Where the code of the world lives. Free forever, but the author calls it extremely buggy.
- Gemini (app): The free model is 3.6-Flash, which the poster puts far from the top 20 models.
- Grammarly: Free grammar fixes, wrapped in very annoying pop-ups pushing you to pay.
✦ F TIER ✦
- Copilot: The author’s blunt verdict is the worst LLM at everything.
- Claude Sonnet 5: Their take: just use ChatGPT for free instead.
Why this list is worth your time: it’s not a neutral roundup. It’s one person’s opinionated map of what they actually reach for, which is far more useful than a feature comparison chart. You can disagree with a placement and still walk away with three tools you’d never tried.
A few things I’d flag if you’re using this as a shopping guide. Tier lists age fast, so treat the model names and free-tier limits as a snapshot, not gospel. And the fun part is arguing with it. If putting Copilot in F or Grok in A makes your eye twitch, that’s the point.
Want the full reasoning and every tool link? Check out the original LinkedIn post for the complete breakdown.