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.
85%
offer free or freemium access
7/132
have a structured numeric entry price
11
use enterprise-only pricing posture
What the sample says
Availability is common. Comparability is scarce.
Most cataloged tools let buyers enter through a free or freemium plan, but only 7 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 | 20 | 20 | 0 |
| Video Creation | 18 | 18 | 3 |
| Marketing & SEO | 14 | 8 | 1 |
| Audio & Voice | 12 | 11 | 1 |
| Sales & Outreach | 11 | 6 | 1 |
| Code & Development | 10 | 10 | 1 |
| Design & Creative | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| Customer Support | 5 | 3 | 0 |
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.
Methodology and reuse
Sample: 132 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; it excludes tax, overages, annual-billing discounts, and negotiated contracts. You may cite these findings with attribution and a link to this report.