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The best AI agents, and what they cost
An AI agent does a job for you in many steps: it browses, clicks, writes and runs code, or works through your apps instead of just answering. The strongest agents now come with the AI apps you may already pay for, from $20 a month. Businesses can also build their own with tools that charge by use. Here are the main options, what each costs, and which AI models do best on agent tests.
Checked October 18, 2026 against each company’s own plans and pricing pages
Quick picks
Agents in the AI apps you already use
| App | Agent features | Free plan | Paid, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | ChatGPT Work, Codex for coding, and Dot, an always-on agent | Limited Work (desktop app) and Codex | Plus $20: Work on desktop, web and mobile, and Codex; Pro from $100 adds Dot |
| Claude | Claude Code, Claude in Chrome, and Cowork, now built into Claude | No Claude Code or Claude in Chrome | Pro $20 and Max from $100 include both |
| Google Gemini | Deep Research, screen automation, scheduled actions, Tasks in Gemini | Deep Research and screen automation | AI Plus $4.99 adds scheduled actions; AI Pro $19.99 adds Tasks |
| Grok | Grok Build for coding, Grok Bot, and cloud agents in Cursor | Limited Grok Build | Plus $8 includes Grok Build; Premium $30 adds Grok Bot and cloud agents |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Pre-built agents such as Researcher and Analyst, and agent creation with Agent Builder, per Microsoft’s plan comparison | — | Copilot Business $21 a user ($18 on offer to Dec 31, 2026) |
From each company’s plans page: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Microsoft. Every plan caps usage, and agents use it up faster than chat.
Coding agents
Claude Code comes with every paid Claude plan, from Pro at $20 a month; through the API, Anthropic puts the average at about $13 per developer per active day (see Claude Code pricing). Codex comes with ChatGPT: limited on Free and Go, included on Plus and expanded on Pro.
Devin has a free plan with a light quota. Pro, at $20 a month, adds models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI, its own SWE-2 model and cloud agents; Max is $200, and teams pay $80 a month plus $40 per full seat. Cursor, the AI code editor, comes with Grok’s plans and adds cloud agents from Premium; see Cursor pricing.
Agent builders for businesses
| Tool | Free | Paid | How it charges |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier Agents | 400 activities a month | Pro $33.33 a month billed yearly, 1,500 activities | Per activity: actions, web browsing, knowledge lookups |
| Lindy | $50 of credits for 7 days | From $29.99 a month for 3,000 credits | Credits; extra at $10 per 1,000 |
| Gumloop | 14-day trial | Pro from $37 a month | Plan; custom for Enterprise |
| Microsoft Copilot Studio | $200 Azure credit for new accounts | $200 a month per pack of 25,000 Copilot Credits | Credits per agent action, or a pay-as-you-go meter; needs an Azure subscription |
| Claude Managed Agents | — | $0.08 per session-hour of active runtime | Plus Claude’s token prices; web search $10 per 1,000 searches |
| OpenAI Agents API | — | Public beta since September 10, 2026 | Part of OpenAI’s API |
Sources: each tool’s pricing page; Claude pricing for Managed Agents and OpenAI’s API changelog for the Agents API.
Which AI models make the best agents
Two agent tests give different answers, so no model wins outright. APEX-Agents, from Mercor, asks agents to finish multi-hour tasks in banking, law and consulting with real office tools. Vending-Bench 2, from Andon Labs, has a model run a simulated vending business for a year from $500 and scores its final bank balance. Gemini 4 Argon is near the top of both.
Results compiled by Epoch AI (CC BY 4.0) from each benchmark’s leaderboard; not every model has been tested on both. Overall rankings: the best AI models.
Questions
What is the best AI agent right now?
For most people, the agent inside the AI app they already pay for: ChatGPT Work and Codex on ChatGPT Plus, or Claude Code and Claude in Chrome on Claude Pro, both $20 a month. For agents that run your business apps, start with Zapier Agents’ free plan.
Are there free AI agents?
Yes, with limits: ChatGPT’s free plan includes limited ChatGPT Work and Codex, Gemini’s free plan includes Deep Research and screen automation, Devin has a free plan, and Zapier Agents allows 400 activities a month.
What is an AI agent?
An AI model that takes actions toward a goal, over many steps, instead of giving a single answer: searching the web, using apps, writing and running code, then checking its own work.
What do AI agents cost?
From nothing, with tight limits, to about $20 a month inside ChatGPT, Claude or Devin, and $100 to $200 for heavy use. Agents you build are billed by use: Claude Managed Agents charges $0.08 per session-hour plus tokens.