How we test

Most AI tool roundups are written from feature lists. You can tell, because they describe what a tool claims to do and never what happens when you try it. This page is the method behind everything recommended here, so you can decide how much weight to give it.

Every tool is used on real work

Not a demo prompt. A tool gets tested on something already on the to-do list: a real document to summarise, a real spreadsheet to sort out, a real support inbox. The test is whether the finished thing was usable, and how much of it had to be redone by hand.

Free tiers get tested on a fresh account

Free tiers behave differently once an account has history, a referral bonus, or leftover trial credit. So free tiers are tested on a new account with none of that, because that is what you get when you sign up today. Where a limit is a daily cap, the article says what happens when you hit it, not just what the number is.

Paid plans are bought, not comped

Paid tiers are paid for at the retail price, out of our own pocket. No press accounts, no extended trials arranged with a vendor, no briefing calls in exchange for coverage. When a plan turned out not to be worth the money, that is what the article says.

Volatile claims get a date, not a number we hope holds

Prices, message limits, context windows, and free-tier ceilings change every few weeks. Where an article states one, it states when it was checked. Where a number moves too fast to be worth printing, the article points at the vendor's own page instead of copying a figure that will be wrong by the time you read it.

What gets said when a tool is bad

That it is bad, and at what. A tool being weak at one thing and strong at another is the normal case, and it is the most useful thing an article can tell you. There is no minimum star rating here and no obligation to end on a positive note.

What we do not claim

• No benchmark scores we did not run. Where a benchmark number appears, it is attributed to whoever produced it.
• No comparison of models we have not both used. A head-to-head means both sides were given the same work.
• No invented user counts, ratings, or testimonials. If there is nothing to show, nothing is shown.

The rest of the ground rules, including corrections, affiliate disclosure, and how AI is used in drafting these articles, are on the editorial policy page.