A curated companion list
A back-pocket list of 70 AI tools students actually use, grouped by what you'd use them for. The wall up the road shows what this room submitted; this is the wider cast.
Turns your sources into a searchable, podcast-ready study companion.
Drop a unit's readings in, then quiz yourself or generate a podcast for the commute.
Free (Google account, 100 notebooks). Plus $7.99 USD/mo. Pro $19.99 USD/mo. Student plan: 50% off Google AI Pro for 12 months.
https://notebooklm.google.comFlashcards with an AI tutor that asks the questions back.
Convert lecture notes into spaced-repetition decks; argue with Q-Chat about the answers.
Free; Plus from ~$3 USD/mo (annual, ~$35.99/yr). Q-Chat and Magic Notes require Plus.
https://quizlet.comFree Quizlet alternative with AI flashcards from PDFs and notes.
Upload a lecture PDF and get a usable flashcard set without paying anything.
Free (genuinely generous — unlimited flashcards, learn mode, practice tests). Premium $5 USD/mo.
https://knowt.comKhan Academy's tutor that nudges instead of telling you the answer.
Work through a maths or science problem with a Socratic guide rather than a search box.
Free for teachers (Khan Academy library remains 100% free). Learner access via paid subscription; check the site for current rates.
https://www.khanmigo.aiUpload your slides, get a study set with an AI tutor on top.
Drop a week's lecture deck in, get summaries, flashcards, and a chat tutor for it.
Free (10 chats, 1 study set). Base $4.99 USD/mo annual ($7.99/mo monthly). Premium $7.99/mo annual.
https://www.studyfetch.comA computational answer engine that shows working, not just the answer.
Step-by-step solutions for maths, physics, chemistry, statistics — useful where ChatGPT fakes the algebra.
Free; Pro $9.99 USD/mo. Student plan: 30% off (sometimes 25% via promo code).
https://www.wolframalpha.comLanguage practice with AI roleplays and answer explanations.
Practise a target language with the AI in a low-stakes scripted scenario before speaking with a person.
Free (great); Super for normal premium; Max $29.99 USD/mo for AI roleplays. Note: Video Call and Explain My Answer are now free for everyone (Jan 2026).
https://www.duolingo.comThe default chat assistant; useful for almost any writing task.
Brainstorming, drafting, rewriting, "explain this paragraph back to me in plainer words".
Free (with ads in US); Go $8 USD/mo; Plus $20 USD/mo; Pro $100 or $200 USD/mo. No ongoing student discount as of May 2026.
https://chatgpt.comAnthropic's assistant; long-form reasoning and careful prose.
Editing a 5,000-word essay, working through a tricky argument, or writing in a specific voice.
Free; Pro $20 USD/mo (~$17/mo annual); Max $100 or $200 USD/mo. Claude Code requires Pro or above.
https://claude.aiReal-time grammar, tone, and clarity suggestions across the browser.
Catch the embarrassing typos in your assignment before submission; tighten clunky sentences.
Free; Pro from $12 USD/mo (annual). Student plan: 25% off via UNiDAYS/Student Beans; many universities have campus-wide free Pro — check yours.
https://www.grammarly.comA Google-Docs-shaped editor with multiple AI models on tap.
Long-form writing where you want AI suggestions in-line, not in a side chat.
Free (30 AI checks/mo); Pro $18 USD/mo (~$12/mo annual).
https://lex.pageAI co-writer purpose-built for fiction and creative prose.
Outlining a short story, breaking through a scene, or generating description in your own style.
Hobby & Student $10 USD/mo annual ($19/mo monthly); Professional from $22/mo annual; Max from $44/mo annual.
https://www.sudowrite.comParaphraser, summariser, and grammar checker in one.
Rewriting your own draft into a different register; spotting accidental plagiarism before it bites.
Free (with daily limits); Premium $19.95 USD/mo or $99.95/yr.
https://quillbot.comSentence-level rewrites, tone shifts, and quick summaries.
"Make this less casual / shorter / more confident" without rewriting the whole paragraph yourself.
Free (10 rewrites/day); Premium from ~$9.99 USD/mo (region-dependent).
https://www.wordtune.comInline code completions and chat in your editor of choice.
Autocomplete a function from a comment; ask "why is this throwing" without leaving VS Code.
Free tier; Pro $10 USD/mo (with $10 monthly AI Credits); Pro+ $39/mo. Student plan: Free GitHub Copilot for verified students (via the GitHub Student Developer Pack).
https://github.com/features/copilotA VS Code fork that treats AI agents as a first-class panel.
Edit a whole repo with one prompt; iterate on a UI by chatting with the file open.
Free (Hobby — 2,000 completions/mo + 50 slow premium requests); Pro $20 USD/mo; Pro+ $60/mo; Ultra $200/mo.
https://cursor.comAnthropic's terminal agent — runs commands, edits files, finishes tasks.
Hand it a folder, walk away, come back to a working feature (this repo's Snake demo runs this way).
Included with Claude Pro $20 USD/mo, Max $100/$200/mo, or Team Premium seats. Not on the Free plan.
https://claude.com/claude-codeBrowser IDE with an AI agent that builds and deploys for you.
Build and ship a small app from your phone or a chromebook; no local setup.
Free (limited Agent credits, 1,200 dev minutes/mo); Core $20 USD/mo (was $25); Pro $100/mo (replaced Teams Feb 2026).
https://replit.comCodeium's AI-native editor; agentic refactors across your codebase.
"Cascade" a large change across many files, or just lean on the unlimited Tab autocomplete.
Free (light Cascade quota, unlimited Tab); Pro from $15 USD/mo; Pro Plus $35/mo; Teams $25/user/mo.
https://windsurf.comVercel's text-to-React-component generator; pastes straight into Next.js.
"Generate a settings page with these fields" → working JSX in seconds.
Free ($5 monthly credits, 200 projects); Premium $20 USD/mo; Team $30/user/mo.
https://v0.appPrompt to a working full-stack web app, edited in-browser.
Spin up a small web app idea — landing page, CRUD demo, prototype — without scaffolding it.
Free (1M tokens/mo, 300K daily cap); Pro $25 USD/mo (10M tokens); Teams $30/member/mo.
https://bolt.newAI search engine that cites every claim with the source.
"What's the current state of [thing]" — gets you citations to chase, not just a paragraph.
Free; Pro $20 USD/mo. Student plan: 50% off via SheerID with .edu/.ac.uk email ($10/mo).
https://www.perplexity.aiSearch 138M papers and pull structured data into a table.
First pass on a literature review — what's the consensus, what are the methods, what's contested.
Basic Free (2 reports/mo); Plus $12/user/mo ($120/yr); Pro $49/user/mo ($499/yr).
https://elicit.comEvidence-first search across 220M scientific papers.
"Does X cause Y?" — Consensus aggregates findings and tells you which way the literature leans.
Free (10 Pro Analyses + 10 Study Snapshots/mo); Premium $8.99 USD/mo; Pro $15/mo. Student plan: 3 months free Premium + 40% off thereafter (.edu email).
https://consensus.appChat with a paper PDF; jump definitions; explain equations.
Drop a difficult paper in, ask "explain this section in simpler terms", "what does this notation mean".
Free (limited); Premium $12 USD/mo annual ($20 monthly); Teams $8 seat/mo annual.
https://scispace.comVisual graph of papers related to one you already know.
Found a key reference — see what it builds on and what builds on it, in one diagram.
Free (5 graphs/mo); Academic ~$3–6 USD/mo (annual); Business ~$20/mo.
https://www.connectedpapers.comCitation graph explorer with collections and email alerts.
Track an author or topic over time without manually trawling Google Scholar each week.
Free (genuinely free forever — unlimited search and collections); RR+ $10 USD/mo (parity-priced in 100+ countries).
https://www.researchrabbit.aiFree academic search engine with TLDRs and citation context.
Read the AI-generated TLDR before deciding whether to download a paper; export citations.
Free, no account required. Run by the (non-profit) Allen Institute for AI.
https://www.semanticscholar.orgImage generation with the strongest aesthetic out-of-the-box.
Reference images, mood boards, the "what if it looked like this" image for a design class.
Basic $10 USD/mo; Standard $30/mo (unlimited Relax mode); Pro $60/mo; Mega $120/mo. 20% off annual.
https://www.midjourney.comAdobe's image/video generator, commercially safe and built into Photoshop.
Generate stock-safe imagery you can actually use in coursework or client work.
Standalone plans $9.99–19.99 USD/mo. Generative credits included with Creative Cloud Pro plans.
https://www.adobe.com/products/firefly.htmlDesign tool with image gen, Magic Write, and a Background Remover baked in.
Posters, slide decks, social posts where you want AI help without leaving the design canvas.
Free (50 Magic Studio uses/mo); Pro $15 USD/mo ($120/yr). Student plan: Free via Canva for Education (K-12) or GitHub Student Pack (higher ed).
https://www.canva.comImage generation with character consistency and LoRA training.
Build a consistent character across many images — useful for game art, illustration sequences.
Free (150 tokens/day); Apprentice $12 USD/mo; Artisan $30/mo (~$24/mo annual); Maestro $60/mo.
https://leonardo.aiImage gen that gets text inside images right (logos, posters, signs).
Posters and ads where the typography matters and other models butcher it.
Free (10 prompts/day); Basic $8 USD/mo; Plus $20/mo; Pro $48/mo. Up to 40% off annual.
https://ideogram.aiReal-time image, video, and 3D generation; aggregates many models.
Iterate on an image *as you draw* — drag-and-paint with the model running live.
Free (100 daily compute units); Basic $9 USD/mo; Pro $35/mo; Max $70/mo. 20% off annual.
https://www.krea.aiAI generator that outputs editable vectors, icons, and illustrations.
Generate an icon set or vector illustrations that scale cleanly — not raster-only output.
Free (30 daily credits, public outputs, no commercial licence); paid plans from $20 USD/mo for private use.
https://www.recraft.aiWriting, summarising, and Q&A across your Notion workspace.
"Summarise this meeting page", "write a project brief from these notes", search across all your docs.
Standalone AI add-on retired May 2025. AI now bundled into Business $20 USD/user/mo (annual). Plus $10/mo no longer includes AI for new accounts.
https://www.notion.com/product/aiAI in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams.
Draft an email from a meeting transcript; explain a formula; turn a Word doc into slides.
Copilot Pro $20 USD/mo (requires Microsoft 365 Personal/Family). M365 Personal with limited Copilot $9.99/mo. No student discount on Copilot Pro.
https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/copilotGemini inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet.
"Help me write" in Docs; summarise threads in Gmail; ask a sheet about itself.
Google AI Plus $7.99 USD/mo; Google AI Pro $19.99/mo. Student plan: 12-month free promo expired Mar 2026; now $9.99/mo (50% off Pro).
https://gemini.google/subscriptionsLive transcription and meeting summaries that join your calls.
Auto-record a lecture or group meeting; search the transcript later for "what did the lecturer say about X".
Free (300 min/mo); Pro $8.33 USD/mo (annual) or $16.99/mo (monthly). Student plan: 20% off Pro with .edu email.
https://otter.aiAI meeting notes that don't need a bot in the call.
Take messy notes during a video call; Granola uses your audio to expand them into clean minutes.
Free (30-day history cap); Business $14 USD/user/mo; Enterprise $35+/user/mo. Mac/Windows desktop app.
https://www.granola.aiAI calendar that auto-blocks time for habits, tasks, and focus.
Tell it "study 5h/week"; it finds and protects the slots, defends them when meetings try to land.
Lite (free for solo users); Starter $8 USD/user/mo (annual) or $10/mo; Business $12/user/mo annual.
https://reclaim.aiA free AI helper built for ADHD and executive-function support.
Magic ToDo — paste a vague task, it breaks it into actually-doable micro-steps.
Free on the web (forever, no ads, no account needed). Mobile apps cost a few dollars to fund the website.
https://goblin.toolsOpen-ended chat with user-created (or your own) AI characters.
Practise a job interview with a "tough recruiter" character; chat with a historical figure.
Free; c.ai+ $9.99 USD/mo (~$7.92/mo annual at $94.99/yr).
https://character.aiQuora's gateway to GPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama and dozens more in one chat.
Compare answers from three frontier models without paying three subscriptions.
Free (300 daily points, 100 msg/day); $5 USD/mo (10,000 daily points); Pro $19.99/mo; Premium $249.99/mo.
https://poe.comA public playground for thousands of community-hosted AI demos.
Try a niche model (image-to-3D, voice clone, OCR) before deciding if it deserves a paid tool.
Free (CPU + ZeroGPU H200 quota); PRO $9 USD/user/mo (8x quota, dev mode, more storage).
https://huggingface.co/spacesScreenshot any equation; get LaTeX or Markdown back.
Capture an equation from a slide or scanned PDF and paste it straight into your LaTeX assignment.
Free (50 snips/mo). Student plan: 100 snips/mo with .edu or .ac.uk email.
https://mathpix.com/snipping-toolBest-in-class realistic text-to-speech and voice cloning.
Narration for a video assignment, or a voice for an interactive prototype.
Free (10K credits/mo, no commercial use); Starter $5 USD/mo; Creator $22/mo; Pro $99/mo.
https://elevenlabs.ioText-to-music; full songs with lyrics, in many genres.
Background music for a project video that doesn't risk a copyright strike.
Free (limited credits); Pro $10 USD/mo (~$8/mo annual); Premier $30/mo (~$24/mo annual).
https://suno.comSuno's main rival — high-fidelity music generation with finer control.
Same as Suno; many creators try both and keep whichever feels musically nicer to them.
Free tier (10 credits/day); Standard $10 USD/mo (~$8/mo annual); Pro $30/mo. (Downloads temporarily disabled during 2025–26 licensing transition.)
https://www.udio.comEdit audio and video by editing the transcript like a Word doc.
Cut every "umm" out of an hour-long recording in 30 seconds.
Free (60 min/mo); Hobbyist $16 USD/user/mo annual ($24 monthly); Creator $24/mo annual ($35 monthly). Student plan: 50% off with .edu email.
https://www.descript.comStudio-style TTS with 200+ voices and a timeline editor.
Narration for an explainer video where you don't want to record yourself.
Free (10 min total, no downloads); Creator $19 USD/mo annual ($29 monthly); Business $66/mo annual ($99 monthly).
https://murf.aiRead-aloud for any text — webpages, PDFs, your own notes.
Listen to assigned readings on the bus instead of staring at a PDF.
Free; Premium $11.58 USD/mo annual ($139/yr) or $29/mo monthly. Student plan exists via support contact (.edu).
https://speechify.comPro-grade text/image-to-video with editing tools around the model.
B-roll for a final-year project video; visual experiments where text-to-video used to be impossible.
Free (125 one-time credits, Gen-4 Turbo, watermarked); Standard $12 USD/user/mo annual ($15 monthly); Pro $28/mo annual.
https://runwayml.comOpenAI's flagship text-to-video and social video iOS app.
Short cinematic clips from a prompt; remix other users' clips in the standalone app.
Free with invite (US/Canada iOS app); Sora 2 Pro requires ChatGPT Pro $200 USD/mo. API: $0.10/sec (720p) for Sora 2.
https://openai.com/soraFast, fun video generation with effects and stylised templates.
Short social-style clips with built-in effects ("inflate", "explode", lip-sync) without learning a video editor.
Free (80 monthly credits, watermarked); Standard $10 USD/mo (700 credits); Pro ~$28/mo (~2,300 credits).
https://pika.artAvatar-led explainer videos in 175+ languages from a script.
Create a "talking head" version of an assignment without filming yourself.
Free trial only; Starter $22 USD/mo annual ($29 monthly, 10 video min); Creator $67/mo annual ($89 monthly, 30 min).
https://www.synthesia.ioAI avatars and one-click video translation with lip-sync.
Translate a recorded presentation into another language with your face still moving correctly.
Free (3 watermarked videos/mo); Creator $24 USD/mo annual ($29 monthly, 200 credits); Pro $99/mo (2,000 credits).
https://www.heygen.comBrowser-based video editor with auto-subtitles, dubbing, and avatars.
Subtitle a lecture recording for accessibility; cut filler words automatically.
Free (with watermark); Lite $18 USD/editor/mo annual; Pro $20/mo annual ($29 monthly).
https://www.veed.ioGeneral-purpose AI agent that goes off and finishes tasks.
"Find me ten flat listings under $X near campus, in a spreadsheet." Comes back with the spreadsheet.
Free (1,000 starter + 300 daily credits); Standard $20 USD/mo (4,000 credits); Customizable $40/mo; Extended $200/mo. 17% off annual.
https://manus.imOpenAI's AI browser; the page is the prompt.
Hand the browser a multi-step web task ("compare these three products and book the cheapest"); watch it click through.
Free (basic browser); Agent Mode requires ChatGPT Plus $20 USD/mo or Pro $200/mo. macOS for now; Windows planned.
https://chatgpt.com/atlasGlue between thousands of apps — now with AI Agents.
"When I get a Gmail with X, summarise it and append to a Notion page" — built without code.
Free (100 tasks/mo, 400 Agent activities/mo); Professional from ~$19.99 USD/mo. Agents pricing is separate from main Zapier tasks.
https://zapier.comOpen-source Zapier alternative; visual node-based workflows.
Build automation workflows with full control; self-host for free if you have a $3–7/mo VPS.
Self-hosted Community Edition free (unlimited executions). Cloud: Starter €24/mo (2,500 executions); Pro €60/mo; Business €800/mo.
https://n8n.ioBuild a personal AI assistant for email, scheduling, CRM tasks.
"When a new lead emails me, draft a reply in my voice and put a meeting on my calendar."
Free (400 task credits/mo); Pro $49.99 USD/mo (5,000+ credits); Business $299.99/mo.
https://www.lindy.aiVisual workflow builder; the powerful side of no-code automation.
Multi-step automations Zapier can't quite do — branching, looping, custom JSON shaping.
Free (1,000 credits/mo); Core $9 USD/mo annual (~$10.59 monthly, 10K credits); Pro $18.82/mo annual.
https://www.make.comData analyst chat — upload a spreadsheet, ask questions in English.
"Plot the trend, fit a regression, give me a written summary" — without writing pandas yourself.
Free (15 messages/mo); Plus $37 USD/mo annual ($45 monthly). Student plan: 50% off all plans.
https://julius.aiCollaborative SQL/Python notebook with an AI Magic copilot.
Group data project where one person is writing SQL, another Python, and "Magic" writes the boring bits.
Community Free (individual); Team from $40 USD/user/mo (Creator seats more).
https://hex.techSpreadsheet with AI cells and 80+ data integrations baked in.
Pull live data (Google Analytics, Stripe, etc.) into a sheet and let AI columns enrich it.
Free (1,000 integration tasks, 500 AI cell tasks/mo); Plus $59 USD/mo annual ($79 monthly); Pro $249/mo annual.
https://rows.comA browser data-science notebook with an AI assistant.
A safer first sandbox than installing Jupyter — write Python or SQL with the assistant on tap.
Free (3 workbooks, 20 AI prompts); Premium $5 USD/user/mo annual. Student plan: Premium ~$160/yr (>50% off) and free Premium for verified students via DataCamp for Classrooms.
https://www.datacamp.com/datalabAI that turns a spreadsheet into a dashboard with one prompt.
"Build me a dashboard from this CSV" — get charts, KPI tiles, and a report layout in seconds.
Free (20 AI messages/mo, up to 3-person teams); Premium $20 USD/seat/mo (500 messages); Pro $100/seat/mo (unlimited).
https://www.thebricks.comChatGPT's built-in code interpreter — uploads, plots, runs Python.
Drop a messy CSV into a chat, get cleaned data, charts, and a written interpretation back.
Included in ChatGPT Plus $20 USD/mo and above. No separate charge.
https://chatgpt.com (built into ChatGPT)Open-source CLI pair programmer; runs in your terminal.
"Add this feature to these files" from the command line; auto-commits each edit.
Free (Apache 2.0). BYO API key — typical heavy-use bill $30–80 USD/mo, or free with local models (Ollama).
https://aider.chatOpen-source autonomous agent inside VS Code.
Same shape as Cursor's agent, but you bring your own Claude/OpenAI/Gemini key.
Free (Apache 2.0) for individuals. BYO API key (typical $5–50 USD/mo). Teams $20/user/mo (first 10 seats free).
https://cline.botOpen-source AI extension for VS Code and JetBrains; pick any model.
Inline autocomplete, chat, and agent mode driven by whichever LLM you prefer.
Free (Apache 2.0). BYO API key. Hub from $10 USD/mo for managed team features.
https://www.continue.devCognition's autonomous AI software engineer; queue tasks, walk away.
Hand it a Linear ticket; it opens a PR. (Best on small, well-scoped tasks.)
From $20 USD/mo (Core, $2.25 per Agent Compute Unit). Team $500/mo (250 ACUs).
https://devin.aiOpen-source local AI agent that goes beyond suggestions.
A local-first alternative to Claude Code; runs against any LLM, including local models.
Free (Apache 2.0, hosted at the Linux Foundation's Agentic AI Foundation). BYO API key — $5–20 USD/mo typical, free with local models.
https://goose-docs.aiModern terminal with an AI agent baked in.
"Why did this command fail?" — Warp explains stack traces and suggests the next move in-context.
Free (terminal features, 75 AI credits/mo); Build $20 USD/mo (1,500 credits, BYOK supported); Business $50/user/mo.
https://www.warp.devNative AI in IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm and the rest.
Explain unfamiliar code in a JetBrains IDE; refactor with the indexer-aware tools at hand.
Free tier (3 credits/mo, unlimited completion); AI Pro $10 USD/mo; AI Ultimate $30/mo. Free IDE licences for verified students; AI service usually a separate ~50% student discount.
https://www.jetbrains.com/ai-idesFast, GPU-rendered code editor with collaborative AI editing.
A leaner editor than VS Code for big files; AI panels for chat, edits, and predictions.
Free with BYO API key; Pro $10 USD/mo ($5 monthly credits, 500 prompts). Student plan: Free Zed Student ($10/mo credits) for 1 year, verified university students.
https://zed.devPrompt-to-full-app builder; ships a deployable web app, not snippets.
Get a working CRUD app from one prompt; iterate by chatting; deploy without touching infrastructure.
Free (5 daily / 30 monthly credits); Pro $25 USD/mo (~$20.83/mo annual); Business $50/mo. Student plan: Up to 50% off Pro for the first year (.edu).
https://lovable.devSourcegraph's free AI code agent — VS Code extension and CLI.
A free agentic coding assistant from the people who made Cody (now enterprise-only).
Free (currently testing an ad-supported model). No paid individual tier as of May 2026.
https://ampcode.com