State of AI tools

The October 2026 edition

AI tools published in the catalog

3,264

Domains registered on or after November 30, 2022, the day ChatGPT launched

67%

1,907 of 2,842

Tools on a .ai domain

1,135

of 3,264

Tools with a free plan and paid plans above it (freemium)

1,832

of 3,264

Median cheapest monthly plan

$16.70

across 1,876 tools

Tools that charge but publish no entry price

540

of 2,942

Tools that are a website and nothing else

53%

1,718 of 3,264

Tools with a public API

28%

906 of 3,264

Read the October 2026 reportEdition data (JSON, CC BY 4.0)

Notes on the October 2026 edition

• Transcribed by hand from the published post: the October 13 queries were not kept, so these figures cannot be re-derived from a snapshot. From November each edition is built from a read-only export.
• Trust: the post's median of 78 and its bands read each certificate's expiry as of the tool's last check. Only the figure it gives under the site's reading, expiry against the snapshot day, is carried here: 2,431 tools (74%) at 70 or more.
• Domain endings: the post names .com, .ai, .io, .app, .co and .net, but its count for all other endings does not add up to the catalog total, so no ending table is carried; the .com and .ai counts are.
• 76 .ai domains share a registry date of December 15 or 16, 2017, a date in the registry's records rather than each purchase; they are counted as 2018 or earlier.
• No tool is recorded as free_trial: trial terms are kept in the pricing note, not the model.
• Effect scores are not published as a distribution: for 98% of the catalog the score rests on two of its four signals.

All editions

Each edition is a fixed snapshot: its file never changes after publication. The data files are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page.

• October 2026ReportData (JSON)