One question per category
Every free plan gives you something. The question is what you can take with you.
A vendor's pricing page tells you what the free plan lets you do. It rarely tells you what leaves with you when you are finished — whether the transcript downloads as a file, whether the PDF needs a card first, whether the audio may be used commercially, whether the deck carries someone else's logo, whether your code and chats stay out of a training set. That is the only question we ask, and we ask it of the vendor's own pages.
Everything here is read on the vendor's own pricing, terms or help pages, and stamped with the date we read it. What a vendor does not state, we leave blank — we do not estimate, and we do not repeat numbers we found on aggregator sites.
Every answer we have collected so far is stacked up in the free-tier report, where the counts are computed from the same files that render the reviews.
Categories
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AI Meeting & Transcription Tool Reviews
On the free plan, can you export the full transcript as a file you keep — or does download only unlock when you pay?
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AI Coding Assistant Reviews
On the free tier, is your code used to train models — and if it is, can you turn that off without upgrading?
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AI Voice & Text-to-Speech Reviews
Audio you generate on the free plan — can you use it commercially, must you credit the vendor, or is it non-commercial only?
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AI Resume Builder Reviews
After you finish the resume on the free plan, does the PDF download — or does a paywall appear at the download button?
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AI Presentation Tool Reviews
Does a deck exported on the free plan carry the vendor's branding — and what is the cheapest plan that removes it?
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General AI Assistant Reviews
On the free tier, do your conversations train the model by default — and can you switch that off without paying?
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Screen Recording Tool Reviews
On the free plan, can you download the recording as a video file you keep — and how long can each recording run before it stops?
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AI Subtitle & Caption Tool Reviews
On the free plan, can you download the subtitle file itself — and does the exported video carry the vendor's watermark?
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Online PDF Tool Reviews
On the free tier, how many documents can you process before it stops — and does the file come back clean?
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Background Removal Tool Reviews
On the free plan, does the finished cutout download at full resolution — or only as a reduced preview?
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AI Logo Maker Reviews
After the generator makes a logo you like, does a free account download a vector file — or does nothing leave until you pay?
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Writing Correction Tool Reviews
On the free plan, how much text can you run through it in one go — and do you see the corrected text, or only a count of problems?
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Website Builder Reviews
On the free plan, can the site go live on your own domain without the builder's badge — and can you export the code and leave?
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Form Builder Reviews
On the free plan, how many responses can you collect before the form stops — and can you remove the vendor's branding?
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Translation Tool Reviews
On the free plan, can you translate a whole document and download the translated file — and how many before it stops?
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AI Image Upscaler Reviews
On the free plan, does the upscaled image download at full size without a watermark — or is the free output marked, shrunk, or counted?
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Newsletter Platform Reviews
On the free plan, how many subscribers before sending stops — and can you export the list and leave?
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AI Chatbot Builder Reviews
On the free plan, how many conversations does the bot answer before it stops — and can you export the transcripts it collected?
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AI Research Assistant Reviews
On the free plan, how much can you run through it — and can you export the results into your own reference manager?
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AI Music Generator Reviews
Music you generate on the free plan — does the file download at all, and may you use it commercially?
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Whiteboard & Diagramming Tool Reviews
On the free plan, how many boards stay usable — and does a board export as a file you own?
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E-Signature Service Reviews
On the free plan, how many documents can you get signed — and does the completed PDF download with its audit trail?
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AI Video Generator Reviews
Video you generate on the free plan — does it download without a vendor watermark, and may you use it commercially?
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Browser Development Environment Reviews
On the free plan, how much compute do you get before it stops — and is there a documented way to get your code out?
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Note & Document App Reviews
Can you get everything you wrote out in a format readable without this app — and where do the notes actually live?
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Project & Task Management Reviews
On the free plan, can you export your tasks as a structured file you can open somewhere else?
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Password Manager Reviews
On the free plan, can you export the entire vault in a format another password manager can read?
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Time Tracking Tool Reviews
On the free plan, do your hours come out as data you can compute on — and for how many people?
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Scheduling & Booking Tool Reviews
On the free plan, can you send someone a booking page that does not carry the vendor's name?
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Cloud Storage & File Transfer Reviews
How long do files on the free plan survive before the vendor deletes them?
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CRM Software Reviews
On the free plan, can you export your contact records as a file you keep — and how many records before it stops?
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Web Analytics Tool Reviews
How long is your data kept before the vendor deletes it — and can you export the raw rows?
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AI Image Generator Reviews
Images you generate on the free tier — may you use them commercially, and does the file come back unmarked?
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Invoicing Tool Reviews
On the free plan, can you send a client an invoice that carries no vendor branding — and what does removing it cost?
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Two-Factor Authenticator App Reviews
Can you export your 2FA secrets in a form another authenticator can read?
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Static Hosting Platform Reviews
When a free site reaches its stated limit, does the host stop serving it — or can it charge you?
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Email Provider Reviews
On the free plan, can your mailbox reach another client through IMAP or POP — or leave as a documented export file?
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Design Tool Reviews
On the free plan, can your work leave in a format another tool can open without a documented output condition?
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Podcast Hosting Platform Reviews
When you leave a podcast host, does it document both a feed redirect for subscribers and a way to retrieve your audio files?
Latest reviews
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Can you leave a podcast host with your listeners and audio?
Four podcast hosts on the two parts of a real exit: a documented feed redirect for subscribers and a documented way to get the audio files back.
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Can a free static host send you a surprise bill?
Not on these four free tiers. Netlify says its hard limit cannot incur a cost; Vercel and GitHub Pages stop or may stop serving instead. Cloudflare does not document the build-cap outcome.
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Which free design tools let you export work another tool can open?
Photopea writes PSD for free. Figma exports on every plan but holds only three team files. Canva's watermark follows the asset, while Penpot documents export-fidelity exceptions.
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Can you take a free mailbox into another email client?
Gmail now keeps IMAP permanently on. Tuta exports files but rejects IMAP for everyone; Zoho and Proton sell standard client access on their paid tiers.
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Which logo makers let you download the file for free?
Shopify's logo maker hands over an SVG for nothing. Brandmark, LogoAI and Looka all let you design free and charge for the file — and Looka's cheapest file is one low-res PNG for $20.
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Can you export your 2FA codes to another app?
Twilio's own help article is titled "Export or Import Tokens in the Authy app Not Supported". Three open-source alternatives export the secrets in plain text, free.
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How long does free analytics keep your data?
GA4 caps free retention at 14 months. Umami's free tier keeps six. Free analytics is provisioned just under the one question people ask it: how does this compare with last year?
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How many whiteboards does a free plan actually let you keep?
Three, on every hosted tool we checked — Miro, Whimsical and FigJam all land on the same number. Excalidraw's free tier caps its cloud instead, and saves to a file on your own disk.
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Can you send an unbranded booking link on a free plan?
No. Four scheduling tools, four different pricing philosophies, and not one lets a free user send a client a booking page without the vendor's name on it.
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How many conversations does a free chatbot answer before it stops?
Between 50 and 100 — and on two of these four, the free allowance is a one-time allotment rather than a monthly one, disclosed in a code comment and a pricing script rather than in the plan copy.
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Can you get your citations out of a free AI research tool?
Elicit says plainly that structured export needs a paid plan. Consensus and SciSpace document exports without saying who may run them. Scite has no free plan, and its trial auto-enrols you.
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How much free compute does a browser IDE actually give you?
GitHub publishes 120 core hours and 15 GB. CodeSandbox publishes 40 hours and a git exit whose support ended last month. Replit publishes neither a number nor a download.
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Can you export your contacts from a free CRM?
Zoho lets you export on the free edition and rations it to ten times a day. Not the format, not the feature — the rate. It is a paywall shape we had not seen before.
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Can a free website plan use your own domain?
Not on any of the four we checked. Webflow, Framer, Wix and Durable all require payment for a custom domain — and only one of them documents a way to export your code and leave.
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Which background removers give you the full-size image for free?
None of the three we could read. PhotoRoom is the only one that publishes the free size as a number, Pixelcut leaves the file unmarked but smaller, and remove.bg charges a credit per finished image.
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Whose logo is on the deck your free plan just exported?
Gamma removes its badge for $9 a month and Pitch for $10. MOVO AI, made by the team that runs this site, charges $19.99 — the most of the four, and we are publishing that.
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How many documents can you translate for free?
MateCat says unlimited and has no paid tier at all. DeepL allows exactly one a month. Reverso gives 2,500 words once, not monthly. Smartcat has no free plan — entry is $1,200 a year.
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How many form responses can you collect for free?
Google Forms publishes no response cap and documents a CSV export. Tally says unlimited under fair use, Jotform allows 100 a month, Typeform caps every tier but its free one.
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Can you send an unbranded invoice on a free plan?
Wave charges $19 a month to remove its footer. Invoice Ninja charges $40 a year even if you self-host. Zoho Invoice will not remove its line at any price, because it has nothing to sell you.
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Who owns the song an AI music generator made for you?
Not you, on any of these four free tiers. Suno and Mubert release the file with attribution attached, Soundraw documents no free download, and Udio's terms prohibit downloading Output.
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Can you get your notes out of a note app?
Obsidian has nothing to export — the notes are already Markdown files on your disk. Notion exports everything and says you cannot put it back. Coda has become Superhuman Docs.
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Which screen recorders let you download the video on a free plan?
Loom puts the download button behind Business and Screencastify behind Pro. The other two never say — and one of them caps free recordings at five minutes either way.
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How many contracts can you get signed on a free plan?
Three a month on Dropbox Sign and SignWell, five on Documenso — whose docs confirm the signed PDF and audit trail download — and none at all on DocuSign, which has no free plan.
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How long do files on a free storage plan survive?
Filen gives five times Dropbox's free storage and deletes it after three months of inactivity instead of twelve. Free size and free lifespan move in opposite directions.
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Can you take your subscriber list off a free newsletter plan?
Three of the four document an export and never say which plans get it. Substack is the exception — no subscriber cap, and a list you can export "at any time".
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Which AI subtitle tools give you the .srt file on a free plan?
Descript documents .srt and .vtt export with no plan restriction and marks the video instead. Kapwing and VEED put the caption file behind payment, and Submagic never mentions it.
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Can you export your tasks from a free project tool?
Trello marks export unavailable on Free and on Standard. ClickUp leaves the cell blank. Plane gates it on Cloud despite being open source. Asana includes it and caps you at two people.
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The free time tracker gives you a PDF and sells you the CSV
Toggl and Clockify both draw the free line at file format: PDF on free, CSV from the first paid tier. Harvest gives you the CSV and caps you at one seat instead.
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Which AI meeting tools let you download the transcript on a free plan?
Otter, Fireflies and Fathom all transcribe for free. Otter exports a text file, Fireflies charges for the download, and Fathom offers no transcript file on any plan at all.
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Which image upscalers give you the full-size file for free?
Upscayl does, because it never uploads anything. Bigjpg gives 20 unmarked images a month at 4x. Let's Enhance watermarks free output, and Cutout.pro calls its free tier previews.
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Can you export your password vault on a free plan?
Bitwarden, Proton Pass and KeePassXC all export the whole vault for free. 1Password has no free plan to export from. The first category where most products hand it over.
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Can you use a free AI video commercially?
Kling and Pika say no on the free tier. Runway says yes to commercial use and watermarks every free video anyway. Luma publishes no free plan at all.
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Which AI resume builders let you download the PDF for free?
Rezi gives you three free PDFs, Kickresume says downloads are not limited at all, and Zety's free plan hands you a .txt file. The paywall is in a different place on each one.
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Do free AI coding assistants train on your code?
Copilot, Cursor and Amazon Q let you switch training off for free. Windsurf reserves the off switch for paying customers — on the free tier there is no switch to find.
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Who owns an AI image you generated on a free plan?
Leonardo.Ai's pricing FAQ and its terms of service answer that question differently. The assignment is in both documents. The licence back is only in the marketing one.
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How many PDFs can you actually process for free?
Smallpdf, iLovePDF and Adobe all cap their free tiers and none of them publishes the number. PDF24 is the only one of the four that says outright there is no cap.
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Can you turn off model training on a free AI assistant?
ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini all let free users switch model training off at no cost. What separates them is what happens to the conversation afterwards — and only one publishes a number.
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Can you use free AI voice generators commercially?
ElevenLabs, Murf and Speechify all hand out free voice generation. All three rule out commercial use of it in their own terms, and one of them will not let you download the file at all.
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How much text can you actually check for free?
ProWritingAid stops at 500 words and LanguageTool at 2,000 characters. QuillBot runs unlimited grammar checks. Grammarly caps free users daily and never says by how much.