Here Are My Go-To AI Tools

My preferred LLMs, image and video models, music makers, research tools, and more.

LATEST UPDATE: October 12, 2026

I first published this round-up on October 17, 2024. But things in AI move fast, so I release regular updates. Check out this archive page with the past versions (fun for tracing how AI and my preferences evolved).

I often get asked about AI tools that I personally use.

While I regularly test and review all sorts of AI models and sites, most don’t end up a part of my routine.

Here are those that did.

🗣️ 1. Large language models

These are the chatbots and LLMs I turn to.

• 🎁Free:

  • Claude Sonnet 5.5 [UPDATED - replaced 5] for day-to-day work. It’s almost on par with its bigger Opus 5.5 cousin, but doesn’t require a paid account to try. The only downside is the strict message limit for free accounts.

  • GPT 6 Luna [UPDATED - replaced GPT 5.5 Instant] it’s the newest “small” model from OpenAI, available to free accounts for unlimited messages. Holds up nicely for regular chats and low-stakes research.

• 💵Paid:

  • Claude 5.5 Opus [UPDATED - replaced Opus 4.6] is now my primary daily driver for everything I do with Claude Code. It runs most of my projects and tasks and I use it a lot. (It unseated my long-time favorite Opus 4.6 after my last vibe check.)

  • GPT-6.1 Sol [UPDATED - replaced GPT 5.5 High] is my go-to for most projects I run with Codex/ChatGPT Work and does well with thorough research tasks. I use it in a tag team with Claude 5.5 Opus on many projects in my shared workspace.

🖼️ 2. AI images

Here are my favorite image models.

• 🎁Free:

  • GPT Image 2.5 [UPDATED - replaced GPT Image 2]: for leaderboard-topping image generation. It understands context and can render entire pages of text within an image. (I made a swipe file for GPT Image with 100 use cases and prompts.)

  • Nano Banana 2.1 [UPDATED - replaced Nano Banana 2] from Google for image editing. Excellent at detail-preserving image edits from natural-language requests.

• 💵Paid:

  • Midjourney: I’ve written dozens of posts about Midjourney over the years. I have honestly not used it much lately, but it remains excellent for artistic exploration and photographic images.

📽️ 3. AI video

The AI video space is making the biggest leaps lately. Here’s my take on AI video models based on thorough tests of both text-to-video and image-to-video.

• 🎁Free:

  • Gemini Omni Flash 1.1 [UPDATED - replaced Omni Flash] is a top-ranked model for context-aware videos with native audio. It’s also great for natural-language video edits. The Flow platform gives you free daily credits to try it.

• 💵 Paid:

  • Seedance 2.5 [UPDATED - replaced Seedance 2.0]: one of the top video models if you want the cutting-edge stuff. (I get to use it on Genspark with my credits.)

🎵 4. AI music

This space is surprisingly steady. I rarely use AI music tools, but when I do…

• 🎁Free:

  • Producer for solid outputs that stick close to your prompt.

  • Suno for more creative but natural-sounding results.

Both give you a generous amount of free credits, so take them for a spin to see which one you prefer. These two came out on top in my most recent head-to-head test (sorry, Udio and Sonauto).

Note: For a more skeptical perspective from a professional, see this comment thread.

• 💵 Paid:

  • Any of the above: Once you’ve picked your favorite, you can always upgrade for additional features.

🔬 5. Research

• 🎁Free:

  • Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) remains a super easy recommendation. I’ve been a fan since March 2024. (I covered everything in my recent live video walkthrough.)

  • Learn About is another Google product that complements NotebookLM nicely. While NotebookLM is grounded in your preselected sources and synthesizes info across them, Learn About can browse the web and is built for open-ended exploration of any topic.

  • Perplexity I don’t use Perplexity very often, but its “Pro” search is a good midway point between simple web browsing and the time-intensive “Deep Research” tools.

• 💵 Paid:

  • Perplexity Deep Research was recently upgraded with the latest Claude models to reach SOTA performance on deep research benchmarks.

📈 6. Agents & productivity

• 🎁Free:

  • Codex [NEW]: OpenAI desktop agent that I now use in tandem with Claude Code. Codex is the most user-friendly way to try local agents without paying (free ChatGPT users get a limited weekly Codex / ChatGPT Work quota).

  • Google AI Studio: Google still offers a whole lot for free here. You can try its latest frontier models, voice generation, coding tools, and live calls with screen or camera sharing. It’s a great way to sample most of what Google has to offer at no charge.

• 💵 Paid:

  • Claude Code: My primary daily driver for actually building and doing stuff with AI. (Here’s just some of what Claude Code can do for you.)

  • Genspark Super Agent: A robust agent that can orchestrate dozens of tools to complete complex, multi-step tasks. You get free monthly credits to try it, but you’ll likely need the paid plan for bigger tasks.

🫵 Over to you…

What AI tools do you use the most? What would you add to the above list?

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