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The free tool below runs entirely in this browser — no account, nothing stored or transmitted. Redact anything you would not want kept before you type it.
Open the companion tool →Why 'free' is a price, not a promise
A tool can be free because the company is buying market share, because your content improves its models, because your usage data is valuable later, or because a paid tier subsidizes it. Those are different deals, and the terms page says which one you are in.
The upgrade question is separate: sometimes the paid tier removes a real limitation, and sometimes it only removes a limit the company chose to impose. Knowing which is which is the whole point of the check.
The protocol
- Read the section of the terms about your content: whether it is used to train or improve models, whether it can be used to provide the service only, and whether you can opt out.
- Check what the free tier actually limits: usage, features, file size, history, or commercial use.
- Compare that with what the paid tier changes. If the paid tier only raises a usage cap, you are paying for volume, not for protection.
- Look at what else is collected: browsing behavior in the app, connected accounts, and whether the tool asks for permissions beyond its function.
- Write one trade-off line per tool: what I give, what I get, and whether I would agree to that in a sentence — then decide with the sentence in front of you.
What the tool does
Work through a short trade-off check for a free AI tool: what it does with your content, what it limits, and what the paid tier changes. It stores nothing and endorses nothing.
Limit first: This is a terms-reading aid, not legal advice. Terms change often, and they differ by plan and region.
Open the companion tool →One human next step
If a tool will not tell you whether your content trains its models, ask in writing and keep the answer; several jurisdictions give you a right to know what is done with your data. If the answer is unclear, treat the content as public when you use that tool.
Research log and safety checks
AI-assist path: not used for a verdict. The check is a comparison of the tool's own terms and pricing page; the reader's written trade-off line is the output, and a model summary would flatten the distinction between usage caps and data use. §6.10: not a frontier-pace topic.
§0.5 protection result: category is informed-consent-literacy; crisis-adjacent: no; fear/urgency/scarcity toolkit used: no. The protective function is free and the paid feature is convenience only.