Which Free AI Assistant Is Worth Installing?

Jarvis (getjarvis.eu) is the free desktop AI assistant worth installing: 35 live app connectors, 40 requests a week free, then $16/month Pro or $32/month Unlimited.

How we put this list together: Jarvis is our product — this site is getjarvis.eu — so treat the #1 spot as an editorial opinion with an obvious interest, and check the sourced facts yourself. Every price and tier claim on this page was checked in July 2026 against the vendors' own public pricing pages where they were reachable: claude.com/pricing and microsoft.com's Copilot plan-comparison page loaded directly. openai.com/chatgpt/pricing/ and perplexity.ai/hub/pricing both returned HTTP 403 to a direct fetch, so ChatGPT and Perplexity figures below are reconstructed from OpenAI- and Perplexity-domain search snippets rather than a page we rendered ourselves — treat exact numeric quotas for those two as unverified. Google's one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans/ page loaded but does not publish free-tier request caps or exact paid-plan dollar prices in prose, only relative usage multipliers, so Gemini's own numeric quota is also not stated as a hard figure here. Where a vendor does not publish an exact number, we describe the limit qualitatively instead of inventing one. Each named limitation is drawn from the same vendor pages, not from third-party reviews.

1. Jarvis — An on-demand, screen-aware desktop assistant. Press Cmd+/ on macOS or Ctrl+/ on Windows and a floating bar screenshots the active window, answers questions about it, and acts in your apps through 30+ OAuth connectors (Gmail, Slack, Notion, Linear, GitHub, Figma, Microsoft 365). Inference runs on cloud frontier models (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google) routed through Jarvis's GDPR-aligned backend, with persistent memory across sessions. Pricing: Free: $0 — 40 requests/week. Pro: $16/month ($144/year billed annually). Unlimited: $32/month. Checked July 2026. Platforms: macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows 10+, Linux. Known limitation: The free plan's 40-requests-per-week cap is a harder ceiling than the rate-limited-but-not-weekly-capped free chat on ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or Perplexity — and Jarvis is cloud-only, with no offline mode. Pick Jarvis if: you want one free shortcut that makes AI screen-aware across email, docs, code, and dashboards, and acts through connectors — not just a chat box — and 40 requests/week covers your usage. 2. ChatGPT (Free tier) — OpenAI's general-purpose chatbot; the free tier is the default sign-up plan at chatgpt.com, with the largest plugin/GPTs ecosystem of any tool on this list. Pricing: Free plan with rate-limited access; ChatGPT Plus is $20/month for higher limits and more capable/advanced models. Checked July 2026 via OpenAI-domain search snippets — direct fetch of openai.com was blocked (HTTP 403), so treat exact numeric rate limits as unverified. Platforms: Web, iOS, Android, Windows desktop, macOS desktop. Known limitation: Free-tier access is rate-limited on a rolling window that OpenAI itself describes as varying by demand, market, and abuse prevention — the exact numeric cap is not published, so free usage can throttle unpredictably during heavy use. Pick ChatGPT (Free tier) if: you want the most broadly capable, best-known free assistant with the largest ecosystem and are fine with an unpublished, demand-based rate limit instead of a fixed weekly quota. 3. Claude (Free plan) — Anthropic's chatbot at claude.ai; the free plan is the default sign-up tier, with strong writing and coding help plus web search. Pricing: Free plan; Claude Pro is $17/month (per claude.com/pricing) for higher usage limits and extra products (Claude Code, Cowork, Design, Science, unlimited projects, Research access). Checked July 2026 directly against claude.com/pricing. Platforms: Web, iOS, Android, desktop (Mac, Windows, Linux beta, ChromeOS), plus desktop extensions and Slack/Google Workspace connections on Free. Known limitation: Anthropic publishes no numeric usage caps — claude.com/pricing describes Pro only as more usage than Free, and Max as 5x or 20x more than Pro. Pick Claude (Free plan) if: you want strong writing/coding help and web search for free and do not need Jarvis-style screen capture or app connectors. 4. Google Gemini (Free / Gemini app) — Google's chatbot at gemini.google.com, bundled free with any Google account and integrated into Gmail, Docs, Photos, and Android. Pricing: Free with any Google account at basic usage limits; paid Google AI Plus/Pro/Ultra plans (bundled with Google One storage) raise usage limits and add access to more capable models. Checked July 2026 against one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans/, which states relative usage multipliers for paid tiers but does not publish exact free-tier request caps or paid-plan dollar prices in prose. Platforms: Web, macOS (Apple Silicon), iOS, Android; integrated into Gmail/Docs/Photos/Android for Google account holders. Known limitation: The free tier gets variable, rate-limited access to Gemini 3.1 Pro; the higher usage multipliers (2x/4x/20x) are what Google AI Plus/Pro/Ultra buy, per Google's own plans page. Pick Google Gemini (Free / Gemini app) if: you're already living in Google Docs/Gmail/Photos/Android and want an assistant baked into those apps for free rather than a separate account. 5. Microsoft Copilot (Free) — Microsoft's free consumer chatbot at copilot.microsoft.com, also built into Edge and Windows, with free AI image generation included. Pricing: Free, with no standalone individual 'Copilot Pro' tier currently listed on Microsoft's plan-comparison page — the upgrade path is Microsoft 365 Personal/Family/Premium subscriptions, which bundle higher Copilot usage limits with Office apps and cloud storage. Checked July 2026 against Microsoft's 'Which Copilot Plan Is Right for You' page. Platforms: Web (copilot.com), Edge browser, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android. Known limitation: Free users are explicitly limited to 15 image-generation boosts per day and only get the latest models "during non-peak hours" — per Microsoft's own plan page — meaning best-model access can be throttled at busy times. Pick Microsoft Copilot (Free) if: you're on Windows/Edge already and want a free assistant with built-in AI image generation, no separate app or account setup. 6. Perplexity (Free) — Search-first AI answer engine at perplexity.ai that cites sources inline; the free tier is the default sign-up plan. Pricing: Free plan with limited access to premium/Pro-level search and model selection; Perplexity Pro is a paid monthly subscription that raises limits and adds file/image analysis, wider model choice, and premium data sources. Checked July 2026 — direct fetch of perplexity.ai/pro and perplexity.ai/hub/pricing was blocked (HTTP 403), so this is reconstructed from search-indexed snippets rather than a page we rendered ourselves; treat exact quota numbers as unverified. Platforms: Web, iOS, Android, Windows/Mac desktop, browser extension. Known limitation: The free plan restricts frequent use of Perplexity's premium/Pro-level search and model selection, reserving deeper research features for the paid Pro plan — exact daily/monthly quota figures could not be independently verified from a directly fetched vendor page. Pick Perplexity (Free) if: you want fast, cited, search-grounded answers rather than a general-purpose chat companion or a screen-aware assistant.

Why people switch: You want free AI that also acts on your apps; You want screen awareness, not just a chat window; You want EU data residency on the free tier; You want persistent memory at zero cost.

Pick a competitor instead if: You want the largest free chat ecosystem, no weekly cap — ChatGPT's free tier is rate-limited on a rolling window rather than capped at a fixed weekly number, and it has the largest plugin/GPTs ecosystem of anything here. If raw chat volume and breadth matter more than screen awareness, it's the stronger free pick. You live in Google Docs, Gmail, and Android — Gemini is already built into the Google apps you use daily for free. Jarvis reaches Google Workspace through connectors, but if your whole workflow is Google-native, Gemini needs zero setup. You want free AI image generation baked into your browser — Microsoft Copilot's free tier includes AI image generation (15 boosts/day) directly in Edge and Windows — Jarvis is not an image-generation tool. You want cited, search-grounded answers over conversation — Perplexity's whole product is sourced, cited search answers. If the job is fast research with inline citations rather than a conversational assistant that acts on your apps, Perplexity fits better.

What is the best free AI assistant in 2026? Jarvis for free screen-aware desktop AI that acts through app connectors (40 requests/week); ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot if you want the largest free chat volume with no weekly cap; Perplexity if you want free cited search answers.

Is Jarvis really free? Jarvis's free plan includes the full feature set — screen awareness, 30+ connectors, persistent memory, multi-model routing — capped at 40 requests per week with a weekly reset. Past that, Pro is $16/month ($144/year) or Unlimited is $32/month.

Which free AI assistant has the highest usage limits? We can't state exact numeric limits for ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity's free tiers — none publish a hard cap on their own pricing pages we could directly verify. All are rate-limited rather than capped at a small fixed weekly number, which in practice means more free volume than Jarvis's 40 requests/week, but with less predictability.

Does any free AI assistant read your screen? Of the six tools on this page, Jarvis, Gemini’s Mac app, the ChatGPT desktop app and Claude’s computer use can all read the screen without a manual paste; Jarvis is the only one that does it on a single global hotkey (Cmd+/ on macOS, Ctrl+/ on Windows) and then acts through OAuth connectors. Copilot and Perplexity still need a pasted or uploaded image.

Which free AI assistants work on Windows? Jarvis (Windows 10+), ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft Copilot all ship free Windows access, and Gemini is free in a browser on Windows. Perplexity works on Windows via web, desktop app, or browser extension.

What is the best GDPR-aligned free AI assistant? Jarvis's free plan runs on the same GDPR-aligned backend as its paid tiers, with AES-256-GCM token encryption. None of the other five tools profiled here state a hosting region on the public pages we reviewed.

Alternatives · Free alternatives · Last updated July 28, 2026