Best AI Agents: 9 Tools That Do Tasks for You (Free and Paid, Compared)

The best AI agents today can research a topic, fill in web forms, tidy your inbox, build a slide deck or watch prices for you while you get on with your day. Every big AI company now has one: Perplexity has just added Teammates, always-on agents that keep working on long projects, joining the agents already inside ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. This guide compares 9 AI agents you can actually use, with what each one does well, which plan you need and who it suits, so you can pick the right one without paying for three.

Quick answer: For most people, the best AI agent is the one inside the AI app you already use: ChatGPT Work (free in the ChatGPT desktop app), tasks in the Gemini app (Google AI Pro or Ultra) or Claude Cowork (paid Claude plans). If you want an agent that clicks around websites for you at no cost, try the free Comet browser from Perplexity. Manus has a free daily credit allowance for bigger research and building jobs. Power users who want agents that run for days can look at Perplexity Teammates on the Max plan.

AI Agents Compared at a Glance

Plans and access change often, so check each official page before you subscribe. “Free option” means you can try the agent itself without paying, not just the chatbot.

What Makes a Good AI Agent?

An AI agent is different from a chatbot: you give it a goal, and it plans the steps, uses tools such as a browser, your files or connected apps, and keeps going until the job is done. If the idea is new to you, our plain-English guide to what agentic AI is explains it in a few minutes. When comparing agents, look at five things:

• What it can reach: only the web, or also your email, calendar, files and desktop apps.
• How long it can work: a few minutes in one chat, or hours and days on a schedule.
• How it asks permission: good agents stop before sending, buying, deleting or signing in.
• Cost and limits: most agents use credits or your plan’s usage, and long tasks use more.
• Where you can use it: some are desktop only, some are limited to certain countries.

The 9 Best AI Agents (Free and Paid)

1. ChatGPT Work: best all-round AI agent

ChatGPT Work (external site) is the agent built into ChatGPT, and it replaced the older ChatGPT agent mode. You switch from Chat to Work, describe the job and the result you want, and it gathers information from your connected apps and files, breaks big projects into smaller steps and produces documents, spreadsheets, slide decks or simple web apps. It can also run tasks on a schedule, such as a weekday morning brief of your email and calendar.

• Good for: turning notes into a report or deck, weekly summaries, comparing options from several websites.
• Free option: OpenAI says Work is available on every plan, including Free, in the ChatGPT desktop app for Mac and Windows. Web and mobile access is for paid plans.
• Watch out for: longer tasks use more of your plan’s included usage, and the cloud browser for websites is not on the Free or Go plans.

Our step-by-step guide on how to use ChatGPT Work walks through the setup.

2. Tasks in the Gemini app: best for Google users

Google’s agent lives in the Gemini app. You click Task under the message box on gemini.google.com (external site), in the Gemini Mac app or in the mobile app, describe the job and, if you like, when it should run. Google’s Gemini help center lists jobs such as summarising or archiving newsletters, unsubscribing from mailing lists, watching flight and hotel prices, and compiling cited research into a document, spreadsheet or presentation.

• Good for: people who live in Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar.
• Who can use it: a Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription, a personal Google Account and age 18 or over. Google says it is not available in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or Nigeria.
• Nice touch: it asks for your confirmation before sending messages, deleting data, buying, submitting forms or signing in, and you can run several tasks at once.

3. Claude Cowork: best for long tasks across devices

Claude Cowork (external site) is the task mode in Anthropic’s Claude apps. You start a task on your computer, steer it from the web and check on it from your phone, all in the same session. In the Claude desktop app it can also work with folders you connect, and scheduled tasks run in the cloud, so your computer doesn’t have to stay on.

• Good for: research write-ups, sorting and summarising files, recurring reports.
• Plan: paid Claude plans (Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise).

4. Claude in Chrome: best agent for your own browser

Claude in Chrome is a browser extension that, in Anthropic’s words, “allows Claude to read, click, and navigate websites alongside you.” Because it works in your real Chrome browser, it can fill in a long form from a document, compare products across open tabs or pull figures from a dashboard into a summary.

• Plan: Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise.
• Limits: Google Chrome on a computer only, not other Chromium browsers or phones. Anthropic says Claude asks permission before visiting financial sites and won’t trade stocks.
• Tip: use a separate Chrome profile with no banking or work logins. Our guide to the safety rules for AI agents explains why.

5. Browse with Copilot: best for Microsoft Edge users

Browse with Copilot (external site) lets Microsoft’s Copilot click, type and switch tabs in the Edge browser for you. Microsoft’s own examples include ordering the ingredients from a recipe page and summarising several open tabs.

• Who can use it: Microsoft says it is rolling out to Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers in the US first and calls it experimental.
• Safety: Copilot asks for your attention before buying or booking, and it can’t use your saved passwords, autofill data or wallet.

6. Comet: best free AI agent browser

Comet (external site) is Perplexity’s web browser with an AI assistant built in. You can hand the Comet Assistant tasks such as drafting an email reply, making a study plan from a syllabus, shopping for an office chair or comparing how different sites cover a story, and pause it at any time. Comet is free for everyone and available for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.

• Good for: trying a browser agent without paying anything.
• Watch out for: it is a whole new browser, so you will need to sign in to your sites again. Keep sensitive accounts out of any agent browser until you trust it.

7. Perplexity Teammates: best for always-on projects

Teammates are Perplexity’s newest agents, built for work that goes on for days or weeks rather than one chat. Perplexity says a teammate remembers its goals, task history and shared files, watches for changes and acts without a new prompt, learns from your corrections and can be added to a Slack channel so people can assign it work. Teammates are built on Perplexity Computer, which hands parts of a job to different AI models.

• Good for: ongoing research, monitoring a market or project, and small business jobs like sales follow-ups and support.
• Plan: launched on the web for Perplexity Max subscribers, with iOS coming. Perplexity Computer itself runs on credits, which Pro and Max subscribers can use.

8. Manus: best free credits for big research jobs

Manus (external site) is a general-purpose AI agent. You describe a job and it researches, writes and builds: research reports, slide decks, images and simple web apps. It also has a Wide Research feature for larger research jobs.

• Free option: the Free plan gives 300 credits that refresh every day.
• Paid: Pro starts from $20 a month for 4,000 credits, with a $40 tier for 8,000 credits, and annual billing saves 17%.
• Watch out for: each task uses a different number of credits depending on how complex it is. Manus suggests using its Chat mode for simple questions to save credits.

9. Opera Neon: best agent-first browser

Opera Neon (external site) is Opera’s experimental agentic browser. It brings several agents into the browser for different jobs: chatting about pages, doing tasks on websites for you (Neon Do) and making things such as simple sites or documents. It is sold as a subscription.

• Plan: $19.90 a month, which includes access to several AI models from different companies.
• Good for: people who want a browser designed around agents from the start, and don’t mind paying for it.

Which AI Agent Should You Pick?

• You don’t want to pay: start with ChatGPT Work in the free desktop app, Comet for web chores, or Manus’s daily free credits for a big research job.
• You already pay for an AI app: use its agent first. ChatGPT Plus has Work everywhere, Google AI Pro has Gemini tasks, and Claude Pro has Cowork and Claude in Chrome. Our ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini plans comparison shows what each subscription costs.
• You live in Google’s apps: tasks in the Gemini app, if you are outside the EEA, UK, Switzerland and Nigeria.
• You want help inside your own browser: Claude in Chrome, Browse with Copilot in Edge, or Comet.
• You run a small business or long projects: Perplexity Teammates or scheduled tasks in ChatGPT Work or Claude Cowork.
• You want an agent for writing code: that’s a different category; see our list of the best AI tools for coding.

How to Get Good Results From Any AI Agent

1. Describe the finished result. “A one-page table comparing three phone plans, with prices and links” works better than “look into phone plans”.
2. Name your sources and limits. Tell it which sites to use, what budget to stay under and what it must never do, such as “don’t buy anything”.
3. Connect only what the task needs. Fewer connected apps means fewer things that can go wrong.
4. Watch the first few runs. Stay nearby until you trust how it handles your kind of task, and stop it if it opens the wrong site.
5. Never type passwords or card numbers into the chat. Good agents hand control back to you for sign-ins and payments.
6. Check the result. Every company here warns that its agent can make mistakes. Check facts, numbers and links before you rely on them.

FAQ

What is the best AI agent right now?

For most people it is ChatGPT Work, because it handles documents, spreadsheets, websites and scheduled tasks, and the desktop app includes it on the Free plan. Google users with Google AI Pro will find tasks in the Gemini app fits better, and Claude subscribers get Cowork and Claude in Chrome.

Are there free AI agents?

Yes. ChatGPT Work is free in the ChatGPT desktop app, the Comet browser from Perplexity is free, and Manus gives 300 free credits a day. Most other agents need a paid plan.

What is the best AI agent for personal use?

Pick the one that connects to the apps you already use: ChatGPT Work or Claude Cowork for files and documents, Gemini tasks for Gmail and Google Calendar, and a browser agent like Comet or Claude in Chrome for online chores such as forms and shopping research.

Are AI agents safe to use?

They are safe enough for everyday research and chores if you supervise them. The main risk is hidden instructions on web pages that try to trick an agent, so keep banking and other sensitive accounts away from agents, read every approval request and check the results.

What is the difference between an AI agent and a chatbot?

A chatbot answers your question and you do the work. An AI agent takes a goal, plans the steps, uses tools like a browser or your apps to carry them out and comes back with the finished job, asking you before important actions.