Last updated: July 2025
How I Code with AI on a budget/free
My Browser Setup: The Free AI Buffet
First things first, I have a browser open loaded with tabs pointing to the free tiers of powerful AI models. Why stick to one when you can get multiple perspectives for free? My typical lineup includes:
At least one tab of OpenAI Playground. If you set your account's data settings to allow OpenAI to use your data for model training, you get free tokens to use on GPT-4.5, o3, and other models.
At least one tab but more like three of Google Gemini AI Studio (Gemini 2.5 Pro/Flash are often free and unlimited here).
Also, try Google Gemini 2.5 Pro (different than AI Studio, has better image generation and deep research; I always have a couple tabs of this along with a couple tabs of AI Studio).
Also, try Google Gemini 2.5 Pro (different than AI Studio, has better image generation and deep research; I always have a couple tabs of this along with a couple tabs of AI Studio). Couple tabs of Poe.com usually set to Claude 4 or o4-mini for its free daily credits on premium models.
Several tabs of OpenRouter, set to several models, some free models, some not.
At least one tab for ChatGPT (the free version is still useful).
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