Collection method
Sample: 433 tools in the DiscoverAI catalog. Currency: USD. “Free access” includes free and freemium pricing postures. A verified entry price is a numeric monthly starting price stored during editorial review.
Original research · 2026-07
The state of AI software pricing in 2026
A transparent baseline for what AI products charge, how often they offer free access, and how much of the market publishes a verifiable entry price.
77%
offer free or freemium access
198/433
have a structured numeric entry price
21
use enterprise-only pricing posture
- free
- 12 tools
- freemium
- 321 tools
- paid
- 79 tools
- enterprise
- 21 tools
46%
of cataloged tools have a structured numeric entry price in this edition.
What the sample says
Availability is common. Comparability is scarce.
Most cataloged tools let buyers enter through a free or freemium plan, but only 198 currently have a numeric public starting price verified in our structured data. That gap matters: buyers can compare features quickly, yet often cannot model total stack cost without visiting several vendor pages.
This first edition is a baseline, not a time series. Future editions will record confirmed price movements against this snapshot; no historical change is claimed until two verified observations exist.
| Category | Tools | Free access | Price verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Productivity & Workflow | 81 | 66 | 36 |
| Code & Development | 67 | 57 | 42 |
| Video Creation | 42 | 36 | 16 |
| Other | 40 | 30 | 31 |
| Design & Creative | 25 | 22 | 6 |
| Marketing & SEO | 25 | 11 | 7 |
| Research | 24 | 20 | 15 |
| Sales & Outreach | 20 | 11 | 9 |
Price-change watch
Get the next verified movement.
The newsletter will surface confirmed pricing changes, free-plan reductions, and material usage-limit updates as the dataset develops.
Evidence record
Methodology, limitations, and version history
Coverage limits
The dataset excludes tax, overages, annual-billing discounts, negotiated contracts, and plan details not represented by the numeric field. Missing values remain missing rather than inferred.
Reuse and corrections
You may cite these findings with attribution and a link to this report. Evidence-backed corrections can be submitted through the corrections process.
| Edition | Status | Material note |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-07 | Baseline | First structured catalog snapshot; no historical price-change claim. |