How to Use AI Without an Account and Without Paying

“I’d like to try AI, but I don’t want to give my email everywhere and I definitely don’t want to pay.” If that’s what you’re thinking, good news: there are plenty of ways to use AI for free and even without creating an account.

Options without an account

Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) lets you use AI directly in your browser without logging in. Go to copilot.microsoft.com and start chatting. DuckDuckGo also integrated anonymous AI chat into its search engine. And Sherpa from Laeka is accessible directly without registration.

Options with a free account

If you don’t mind creating an account with your email, you get access to a lot more. ChatGPT offers a generous free version. Claude from Anthropic too. Google Gemini is free if you have a Google account (and you probably already have one). Perplexity AI offers AI-augmented searches with no charge.

AI that you’re already paying for

If you have a recent iPhone, Siri is increasingly powered by AI. Samsung integrated Galaxy AI into its phones. Google added Gemini to Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Search. Microsoft put Copilot in Windows, Word, and Excel. You might already be paying for AI without knowing it.

Local models: 100% free and private

For the more tech-savvy, software like Ollama or LM Studio lets you download AI models and run them on your computer. Zero accounts, zero Internet required, zero costs. It’s a bit more technical to set up, but once it’s running, it’s completely self-contained.

The “free” trap

Remember: when it’s free, you’re often the product. Free versions sometimes use your conversations to train their models. Read the privacy settings and disable data sharing if it concerns you. Most services offer this option.

There’s never been so many ways to try AI for free. The excuse “it’s too expensive” or “it’s too complicated” really doesn’t hold anymore. Open your browser and give it a shot.