Which AI for which job

Status: 🟩 COMPLETE 🟦 LIVING Last updated: 2026-06-25 Plain-English tagline: A practical, opinionated mapping from “I want to do X” to “use this Western tool.” Free option listed first; paid option second; what to NOT use third.

How to use this page

Find the row that matches what you actually want to do. Each row gives you:

The free option that does the job well enough for most people.
The paid option if you need more, want better quality, or do this a lot.
What to avoid — including any Chinese-origin tools you might be tempted by.

Recommendations are opinionated. If you’d choose differently, that’s fine — the encyclopedia is a starting point, not a commandment.

All recommendations assume an Australian user with no special restrictions. For business / regulated work, prefer enterprise tiers regardless of which tool — see privacy-and-data-training.md.

Writing

”Write or polish an email / letter / message”

Free: ChatGPT free tier · Claude.ai free tier · Gemini free tier (any of the three works)
Paid: Claude Pro (US $20/ m o) f or am or e t h o ug h t f u l, l ess g e n er i c v o i ce \cdot C ha tGP T P l u s (U S$ 20/mo) for broader model access
Built into what you already have: Apple Intelligence Writing Tools (free on recent iPhones, Macs, iPads) · Microsoft Editor in Word/Outlook (Microsoft 365) · Google Smart Compose in Gmail (free)
Avoid: anything Chinese-origin (Doubao, DeepSeek). No upside.

”Write a long document, essay, article, or report”

Free: Claude.ai (Sonnet) — strongest free writer · ChatGPT free tier · Gemini free tier
Paid: Claude Pro or Max for longer documents · ChatGPT Plus for ChatGPT Canvas (long-form writing surface) · Gemini AI Pro for NotebookLM integration
Built-in: Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word (US$30/user/mo)
Specialised: Grammarly (for editing/grammar polish, not generation) · Lex (for serious long-form, US$10/mo)
Avoid: Chinese-origin tools.

”Write fiction / novel / creative writing”

Free: Claude.ai (best free creative voice) · ChatGPT free tier
Paid: Claude Pro or Max · Sudowrite (US $10 - 25/ m o, n o v e l - s p ec i f i c) \cdot N o v e l C r a f t er (U S$ 8-14/mo)
Avoid: Chinese-origin tools.

”Write code / debug code / explain code”

Free: GitHub Copilot Free · Claude.ai free tier (copy-paste code in) · ChatGPT free tier
Paid (for occasional coding): GitHub Copilot Pro (US $10/ m o) \cdot C u r sor H o bb y (f r ee) \to P r o (U S$ 20/mo) · Claude Pro
Paid (for serious coding): Claude Code (Anthropic’s CLI, included in Claude Pro/Max) · Cursor Pro · Windsurf Pro
For “vibe coding” — build me an app from a description: Lovable · Bolt.new · v0 by Vercel · Replit Agent
Avoid: DeepSeek Coder, Qwen Coder direct apps. (Models themselves can be used through Western hosts like Together AI — see open-weights entry — but skip the direct apps.)

”Translate text”

Free: DeepL free (German-made; excellent quality on Western languages, modest free quota) · Google Translate (everything, every language, free) · Apple Translate (built into iOS / Mac)
Paid: DeepL Pro (€8-30/mo) for higher quality and quota
For conversational nuance / cultural context: Claude or ChatGPT (paste text, ask for translation + explanation)
For voice translation (talking through a translator): Google Translate Conversation mode (free) · Apple Translate
Avoid: Chinese tools for translation involving any geopolitical content (you’ll get filtered/biased output).

”Summarise a meeting / document / video”

For a long article or PDF: Claude.ai (best free long-context summary) · NotebookLM (Google, free; specifically designed for this) · ChatGPT (paste in or upload)
For a YouTube video: Glasp (free Chrome extension) · NotebookLM (paste link) · YouTube’s built-in AI summary (rolling out)
For a meeting (audio/transcript): Granola (free tier; great UX) · Otter.ai · Fireflies · tldv · Microsoft Teams Copilot · Zoom AI Companion · Google Meet AI
Avoid: Chinese-origin meeting tools, including any branded as “AI note-taker” without clear non-Chinese provenance.

Visual / creative

”Generate an image from a description”

Free: ChatGPT free (limited daily image gens via gpt-image-1) · Microsoft Copilot Designer (free, uses gpt-image-1) · Google Gemini free tier (uses Imagen)
Paid: ChatGPT Plus or Pro for unlimited gpt-image-1 (Image / “Image 2.0”) · Midjourney (US$10-60/mo, distinctive aesthetic) · Adobe Firefly (free quota + Creative Cloud subscription, commercially-safe trained data)
For specific styles: Ideogram (text in images), Recraft (vector-style), Flux (photorealism, via fal.ai or Replicate)
Avoid: Chinese-origin image generators (MiniMax image, Qwen image, etc.). Use Imagen / Firefly / GPT Image / Midjourney instead.

”Edit an existing image (inpaint, expand, remove background)”

Free / built-in: Adobe Express AI (free tier) · Canva Magic Edit (free tier) · Photoshop Generative Fill (Creative Cloud) · ChatGPT image editing (Plus tier)
Paid specialist: Photoroom (US $13/ m o) \cdot T o p a z P h o t o A I (o n e - t im e U S$ 199) for upscaling
Avoid: TikTok / CapCut “AI photo editor” features (ByteDance).

”Generate a video from text”

Free / limited: Google Veo via Gemini free tier (rate-limited) · Runway free tier · Luma Dream Machine free tier
Paid: OpenAI Sora (in ChatGPT Plus/Pro; Sora 2 / Sora Turbo) · Google Veo 3 via Gemini AI Pro/Ultra · Runway Gen-3/4 (US$15-95/mo) · Luma Dream Machine paid · Pika · Higgsfield
For talking-head / avatar video: HeyGen · Synthesia · D-ID · Tavus
Avoid: Kling AI (Chinese — Kuaishou) · Hailuo / MiniMax video · CapCut AI video.

”Edit a video using AI”

Free: DaVinci Resolve free version (includes Magic Mask, Scene Detect, transcript-based editing) · iMovie · Clipchamp
Paid: Adobe Premiere with AI features (Creative Cloud) · Descript (US $15 - 30/ m o; " e d i t v i d eo b y e d i t in g t r an scr i pt " w or k f l o w) \cdot C a pt i o n s (U S$ 10-25/mo) · Opus Clip (long-to-short video AI) · Submagic
Avoid: CapCut (ByteDance) — popular but Chinese-owned; use Descript or Adobe Premiere instead.

Free: Canva (Aussie!) free tier — best all-rounder · Adobe Express free · Microsoft Designer (free)
Paid: Canva Pro (AUD $17/ m oor A U D$ 165/year) · Adobe Creative Cloud
For slide decks specifically: Gamma (free + paid, AI-first slides) · Beautiful.ai · Tome · Microsoft Designer for PowerPoint · Google Slides AI in Workspace
Avoid: anything from CapCut / ByteDance.

”Design a UI / website mockup”

Free: Figma free tier · Penpot (open source) · v0 by Vercel (free with limits)
Paid: Figma Professional (US $15/ se a t / m o) + F i g ma A I \cdot F r am er (U S$ 15-30/mo, design-to-published-site) · Sketch (Mac, US$10/mo)
From sketch / description to working code: v0 · Lovable · Bolt.new · Builder.io Visual Copilot
Avoid: Chinese-origin design tools.

”Generate music from a description”

Free: Suno free tier (10 songs/day) · Udio free tier · Stable Audio
Paid: Suno Pro (US $10 - 30/ m o) \cdot U d i o S t an d a r d (U S$ 10/mo) · ElevenLabs Music
For royalty-free background music for videos: all of the above + AIVA + Mubert
Avoid: Chinese music gen tools.

Voice / audio

”Read text out loud (text-to-speech / narration)”

Free: Apple Voiceover (Mac, iPhone — built-in) · Google Translate’s “speak” button · Edge browser “Read aloud”
Best quality voice gen: ElevenLabs (free tier 10K characters/mo; paid from US$5/mo) · OpenAI TTS via API · PlayAI · WellSaid Labs · Murf
For audiobook-style narration: ElevenLabs Studio · Audible AI (if publishing)
Avoid: Chinese voice cloning tools.

”Clone someone’s voice (theirs, with their permission)”

Best: ElevenLabs Voice Cloning (paid tier) · OpenAI Voice Engine (limited access) · Resemble AI
Ethical note: voice-cloning a real person without consent is illegal in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, and most jurisdictions. Don’t.
Avoid: Chinese voice-cloning tools especially (no consent enforcement).

”Transcribe speech to text (an interview, meeting, video)”

Free: OpenAI Whisper (open-source, run yourself with whisper.cpp) · Apple Live Captions (real-time, built into iPhone/Mac) · Microsoft Word dictation
Free or freemium services: Otter.ai free tier · Apple Notes voice memos with transcription · YouTube auto-captions (rough but free)
Paid: AssemblyAI · Deepgram · Otter.ai paid · Rev.com (human + AI hybrid) · Whisper via OpenAI API
For meetings: Granola · Fireflies · Otter · tldv · Microsoft Teams transcription
Avoid: any tool of unclear provenance offering “free unlimited transcription” — your audio is the price.

”Have a real-time voice conversation with AI”

Free: ChatGPT Advanced Voice (free tier, limited daily) · Gemini Live (free tier)
Paid: ChatGPT Plus/Pro for unlimited Advanced Voice · Gemini AI Pro/Ultra · Claude voice (rolling out)
For phone-call agents (you build the AI agent): Vapi · Retell · Bland
Avoid: Chinese voice-agent products.

”Dub a video into another language with my own voice”

Best: ElevenLabs Dubbing · HeyGen Video Translate · Rask AI
Free or limited: YouTube’s own auto-dub feature (rolling out)
Avoid: Chinese dubbing apps.

Research / knowledge

”Find an answer to a hard question with citations”

Free: Perplexity free · ChatGPT free (with Search on) · Gemini free
Paid: Perplexity Pro · ChatGPT Plus/Pro · Gemini AI Pro · You.com Pro
For literature review on a topic: NotebookLM (Google, free) is unmatched for “give me the gist of these 50 PDFs”
Avoid: Baidu, Sogou, anything Chinese — the citations will be filtered and Western-source-poor.

”Do deep research (multi-hour, multi-source, output a report)”

Best: ChatGPT Deep Research (in Plus/Pro) · Gemini Deep Research (in AI Pro/Ultra) · Perplexity Deep Research (Pro) · Claude Research (in Pro/Max)
Free option: Gemini Deep Research has a generous free tier
Note: these tools run for 5–30 minutes, doing dozens of web searches, and produce a 20+ page document. Use them for genuinely hard research questions, not “summarise this article."

"Take notes / build a second brain”

Free + best-in-class: NotebookLM (Google) for research notebooks with audio overviews
Free + flexible: Obsidian (note-taking) + AI plugins · Notion free
Paid: Notion AI · Mem · Reflect · Granola · Pieces for Developers
Avoid: Chinese-origin note apps with AI.

Productivity / day-to-day

”Get help with a spreadsheet”

Free: ChatGPT free (paste a problem) · Claude.ai free
Built into Excel: Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel (M365 Copilot subscription)
Built into Google Sheets: Gemini in Sheets (Google AI Pro / Workspace)
Spreadsheet-AI natives: Rows AI · Quadratic AI
Avoid: anything Chinese.

”Get help with email triage”

Built-in: Gmail Help me write (Workspace AI / Gemini) · Outlook Copilot (M365) · Apple Intelligence Mail Summary
Standalone: Superhuman (US$30/mo, expensive but excellent) · Shortwave
Avoid: Chinese email tools.

”Get help running a meeting”

Built-in: Microsoft Teams Copilot · Zoom AI Companion · Google Meet Gemini
Standalone: Otter Meeting Agent · Granola · Fireflies
Avoid: Chinese meeting tools.

”Get help managing tasks / projects”

Built-in to where you already work: Notion AI · Asana AI · ClickUp AI · Linear AI · Atlassian Rovo (Aussie!) for Jira/Confluence
Standalone: Motion (US$19-34/mo, calendar-aware AI scheduling)
Avoid: Chinese task management with AI.

Cloud / API / developer

”Call an AI from my own code”

Cheapest path with most flexibility: OpenRouter (one API key, hundreds of models, includes free models) · Together AI (open-weight models, very cheap) · Groq (extremely fast inference)
Most reliable for production: Anthropic API (Claude) · OpenAI API (GPT) · Google Vertex AI (Gemini) · AWS Bedrock (multi-vendor with AWS data residency) · Azure OpenAI Service
Free for development: Google AI Studio (genuinely generous free tier) · Anthropic Console (some free credit) · Groq (free tier of speed) · OpenRouter (some models are free)
Avoid: direct calls to Chinese provider APIs (DeepSeek API, Qwen API direct from Alibaba). For DeepSeek/Qwen open-weight models specifically, host via Together AI / Fireworks AI / Hugging Face / AWS Bedrock instead.

”Run a large AI workload on a cloud platform”

AWS Bedrock (Sydney ap-southeast-2) — Claude, Llama, others, AUS data residency
Azure OpenAI Service (Australia East) — GPT family + Microsoft AI, AUS data residency
Google Vertex AI (australia-southeast1 Sydney, australia-southeast2 Melbourne) — Gemini + open models, AUS data residency
Cloudflare Workers AI (global edge) — fast and cheap for inference
For training your own model: Lambda Labs, RunPod, CoreWeave, Modal (GPU clouds)
Avoid: Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Baidu AI Cloud, Huawei Cloud.

Specialised

”Help with legal questions”

Free general: ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini for plain-English explanation (NOT for “is this contract enforceable” definitive answers)
Specialised AI (paid, professional tools): Harvey (firm-side) · Spellbook (contract review) · CoCounsel (Thomson Reuters) · Lexis+ AI · LawBuddy.ai for AUS
AUS-specific: Open Australian Legal Corpus (open-data legal AI training resource) · the AUS legal-tech scene is growing fast
Always: an actual lawyer for anything binding. AI is for understanding, not for advice.

”Help with medical / health questions”

For plain-English explanation of a diagnosis / medication / scan report: Claude or ChatGPT (the most thoughtful free + paid options); OpenEvidence (free for clinicians, medical-research focused)
Never use AI for diagnosis to act on without a clinician. AI is for understanding what to ask your doctor.
AUS-specific: Healthdirect’s chat tool (government-backed)
Avoid: Chinese health AI; symptom-checker mobile apps from unknown publishers.

”Help kids learn (homework / study)”

Best: Khanmigo (Khan Academy, free for parents/learners as of 2024; uses GPT-4 under the hood, safer-by-design)
For language learning: Duolingo Max
For maths: Photomath · Symbolab · Wolfram Alpha (not new but worth knowing)
General-purpose with care: Claude or ChatGPT — both have “study mode” prompts; supervise younger kids
Avoid: Chinese homework apps for children. Parental controls + Western tools.

”Help with personal finance / budgeting”

General AI for explanation: Claude or ChatGPT (paste your situation, ask for a plain-English plan)
AUS-specific apps with AI: Frollo (Aussie open-banking app, has AI tips) · Cleo (UK-made personal finance chatbot) · MoneyBrilliant
For investing analysis: the AI providers can explain concepts — they should NOT pick stocks or advise on portfolios. See a licensed AUS financial adviser for actual advice.
Avoid: AI finance apps from unknown publishers; Chinese finance apps.

”Help with Bible / religious study”

General-purpose: Claude (best at thoughtful theological discussion) · ChatGPT · Gemini — all useful, all imperfect, all prone to errors on church history specifics
Specialised Bible AI tools: Logos AI (within Logos Bible Software) · BibleProject’s AI features · Bible Quest (yours!) for structured study
Note on accuracy: every AI will sometimes hallucinate scripture references. Always verify a quoted verse against a real Bible app/source.
For Catholic-specific (St Mark’s parish context): Hallow app (Catholic prayer + AI guidance, US-based)
Avoid: Chinese religious-content AI (religious topics are politically sensitive in China and outputs reflect that).

”Help with accessibility (vision, hearing, reading)”

Vision impairment: Be My Eyes (free, AI-powered scene description from your camera using GPT-4V) · Seeing AI (Microsoft, free) · OrCam (hardware-based)
Hearing impairment: Apple Live Captions (free, built-in iOS/Mac) · Otter Live · Google Live Caption (Pixel)
Reading difficulties: Speechify (text-to-speech with AI voices) · Voice Dream Reader · NaturalReader
All Western, all worth using.

Decision rules of thumb

When in doubt between two Western tools:

Free first. Most jobs are doable on the free tier of Claude / ChatGPT / Gemini. Pay only when you hit limits.
Pick what’s built into what you already use. Already in Office? Microsoft Copilot. Already in Google Workspace? Gemini. Already in Atlassian? Rovo.
For coding specifically, Claude Code is the encyclopedia’s house default. Cursor and GitHub Copilot are excellent alternatives; pick by IDE preference.
For specialised work (medical, legal, finance, accessibility), pick a specialised tool when one exists — they’re trained on the right data and built with the right safeguards.
For business / regulated work, always use the enterprise tier — no-training-by-default + AUS data residency where available.

Sources

Each linked entry carries its own sources. This is a curated opinionated guide, not a primary-source claim.
Pricing and feature availability change frequently — see vendor pages for current state.

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