I ran into something wild this week and I had to share it. Someone asked ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude the exact same question: “Which LLM is the best if I’m on a free plan?” All three gave the same answer. ChatGPT ranked at the top. Every single time. Even Claude and Gemini put themselves in 2nd and 3rd place.
That little experiment comes from a sharp AI professional who shared the whole breakdown on LinkedIn. Here’s the part that got me: the author spends over $1,000 a month on AI tools, but decided to test the free tier of almost every model to answer one honest question. What would you actually use with a $0 budget?
The creator didn’t just guess. This industry pro made brand new free accounts on all the major AI tools and tested each one personally. I love that. No theory, just receipts. So here’s the free AI stack the author put together.
1. ChatGPT covers 99% of what you need
Here’s why it wins on a free plan. Claude’s free model is Sonnet 5. Gemini’s free model is 3.6-Flash. Both sit far from the top of the Intelligence Index. ChatGPT hands you a frontier model for zero dollars, which is honestly a little unfair to the competition.
But the expert points out you only get that edge if you set it up right. Most people leave the good stuff switched off. The setup is where the free value hides.
- Download the app. Every LLM runs better inside its own app than in a browser tab.
- Open “ChatGPT Work” and pick 5.6-Terra-High for your heavy lifting.
- When you run out of Terra, switch to Luna-High, which is also free.
- Click Plugins, then turn on Spreadsheets or Gamma. Both cost nothing.
Why it matters: the free ChatGPT plan quietly gives you a top-tier model, but only if you dig into the settings the author flagged. Skip the setup and you’re using a weaker version without knowing it.
2. The rest of the free stack
ChatGPT handles most tasks, but the original poster rounded out the toolkit with free tiers that punch above their weight. Each one solves a specific job.
- Gamma for slides, with 400 starter credits.
- Wispr Flow for dictation, 2,000 words a week free.
- Seedance via Dreamina for video, 225 credits a day.
- NotebookLM for research grounded in your own sources.
- Cursor for coding, on the free hobby plan with no card required.
- ElevenLabs for text-to-speech.
- Granola for meeting notes.
- Canva for design.
What I appreciate here is the honesty of it. This savvy professional isn’t pretending one tool does everything. It’s a curated combo where each app pulls its weight, and none of it hits your wallet.
3. The free vibecoding combo
This is the section that made me sit up. The author put together a full build-and-ship stack that costs nothing to start, so you can go from idea to a live website without a subscription.
- GitHub stores your code.
- Vercel puts your site online.
- Supabase handles logins.
- Resend sends up to 3,000 emails a month.
Then the creator shared a starter prompt to kick off any build. If you copy one thing from this whole post, make it this. Use it exactly as written and swap in your own project details:
“You are already connected to my GitHub, Vercel, Supabase & Resend. I want to build [project] for [goal + success criteria]. Make sure that [rules, max 3]. Ask me clarifying questions first.”
Notice the last line. Asking the AI to ask you clarifying questions first is a small move that saves you from a pile of wrong assumptions. That’s the kind of detail that separates people who actually ship from people who just chat with a bot.
Why this whole thing clicked for me
The bigger lesson from this contributor isn’t really about which tool is best. It’s that the free tiers of these products are far more capable than most of us assume. The gap between a $0 setup and a $1,000 setup is smaller than the price tag suggests, as long as you know the right settings and the right combos.
So if you’ve been telling yourself you need to pay up before you can build or create anything serious, the author just handed you a stack that proves otherwise. Try the ChatGPT setup first, add a couple of tools from the list, and test that vibecoding prompt on a small project this weekend.
The original LinkedIn post goes deeper on each pick, so check out the full breakdown for the extra context and see which parts fit your workflow.