Here’s your 2026 AI Tools Pricing Cheat Sheet. Entry prices, free tiers, and the billing traps to watch — across the tool categories we cover. “Entry price” is the cheapest paid plan; where a tool advertises a low monthly rate, it’s usually the annual-billing figure (you pay 12 months up front) and the true month-to-month rate is higher.
Grammar & Writing Checkers
| Tool | Free tier | Entry paid price | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grammarly | Yes — core grammar/spelling/tone + limited generative-AI prompts | ~$12/mo (annual rate) | $12 is the annual-billing rate; month-to-month is higher. Free trials auto-convert to paid. |
| ProWritingAid | Yes — 500-word check limit, a few reports/day | ~$10/mo (annual) | Month-to-month Premium is ~$30/mo. Monthly plans are non-refundable. |
| QuillBot | Yes — free paraphrase/grammar with word caps | ~$8.33/mo (annual) | Month-to-month is ~$19.95/mo (≈2.4× the annual rate). Auto-renews. |
| LanguageTool | Yes — 2,000-character check limit per field | ~€4.90/mo (annual, EUR) | Month-to-month is ~€19.90/mo (≈4×). No free trial — only a pay-first money-back window. |
SEO Tools
| Tool | Free tier | Entry paid price | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | Yes — Webmaster Tools (limited, verified site owners) | $29/mo (month-to-month) | No trials or discounts, ever. Starter includes only 100 credits/mo; overages billed pay-as-you-go. |
| Surfer SEO | No plan — only the free Keyword Surfer extension | $49/mo (billed yearly) | Advertised rate is billed 12 months up front; auto-renews. AI features can be add-ons. |
| Frase | No — 7-day trial (no card) | $39/mo (annual) | Month-to-month is ~$49/mo; yearly billed once up front. Extra seats cost extra. |
| Semrush | No — limited free account + 7-day trial (card required) | ~$117/mo (annual) | Month-to-month ~$139/mo. Each extra user is +$45/mo; many reports are paid add-ons. |
Text-to-Speech / AI Voice
| Tool | Free tier | Entry paid price | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | Yes — 10,000 credits/mo (no commercial license) | $6/mo (Starter) | Credits reset each cycle (limited rollover). Commercial use requires a paid plan. |
| Murf | Yes — ~10 min/mo, no downloads or commercial rights | ~$19/mo (annual) | The $19 rate requires paying the full year (~$228) up front. |
| Speechify | Yes — heavily limited (few voices, capped speed) | ~$29/mo (month-to-month) | Site pushes annual hard via a sign-up quiz funnel; free plan is very restricted. |
PDF Tools
| Tool | Free tier | Entry paid price | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| iLovePDF | Yes — core tools with file-size caps, no OCR/AI | $5/mo (annual) | $5 requires annual prepay (~$60); real month-to-month is ~$9/mo. Priced per user. |
| Smallpdf | Yes — 30+ tools, limited daily tasks/downloads | $15/mo (annual) | Headline price is the annual rate; 7-day trial needs a card and auto-converts to Pro. |
| UPDF | Yes — restricted (save watermark, few daily conversions) | ~$70/yr (≈$5.83/mo) | No true month-to-month; yearly auto-renews. Bundled AI add-on trial can auto-renew separately. |
| Adobe Acrobat | Partial — free Reader + a few limited online tools | $14.99/mo (Standard, annual paid monthly) | 12-month commitment billed monthly; canceling early can cost up to half the remaining term. True month-to-month starts at Pro ($29.99). |
Spreadsheet AI Tools
| Tool | Free tier | Entry paid price | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rows | Yes — Free forever: ~5 AI tasks/mo + integrations | $6–8/mo per user | Billed per user ($6 annual / $8 monthly). Product is in transition after joining Superhuman — check it’s still active. |
| GPT for Sheets & Docs | Yes — free install + starter credits (no card) | From ~$29 (one-time credit pack) | Credits expire ~12 months after purchase. A ~$1 per-1M-token platform fee applies even with your own API key. |
| Numerous.ai | No permanent free plan — 7-day trial only | $10/mo (annual) | Trial auto-converts to paid; advertised rate is the annual ‘save’ price. Sold on character/credit limits. |
| Ajelix | Yes — ~10 AI requests/mo | ~$32/user/mo (annual) | Month-to-month ~$39/user. Per-user and non-refundable; older ~$8 listings are outdated. |
5 billing traps that catch everyone
- The “annual” headline. That $5–12/mo you see is almost always the price if you pay a full year up front. Toggle to monthly before you judge the real cost.
- Trials that auto-convert. Most “free trials” require a card and roll into a paid plan silently. Set a cancel reminder for the day before it ends.
- Per-seat & per-user pricing. SEO and spreadsheet tools often charge per user — a “$29/mo” plan can double the moment a teammate joins.
- Credits that expire. Voice and AI-spreadsheet tools meter usage in credits that reset monthly or expire in a year. Unused credits don’t bank.
- “No commercial use” on free tiers. Free text-to-speech output usually can’t be used in monetized content — you need a paid plan for that.
All figures were checked against each vendor’s official pricing page in August 2026 and are shown in USD unless noted (LanguageTool in EUR). Prices, plan names, and free-tier limits change frequently and may vary by region, promotion, and currency — always confirm the current price on the vendor’s own site before purchasing. This is an independent reference for readers of aitoolkitpro.blog and is not sponsored by any tool listed.