Data report · updated October 18, 2026
State of AI Tools 2026
Key findings
- RightAIChoice tracks 8,222 AI tools, with 7,839 (95.3%) re-verified in the last 7 days (most recent: October 18, 2026).
- 71.8% of AI tools are free or freemium; the full pricing breakdown is below.
- Across 8,222 scored tools, the average viability score is 67/100; 4.1% score as “at risk” (below 40) and 42.6% as “strong” (70+).
- The largest category is Automation & Agents (590 tools).
Flagship report · updated daily
AI Tools Deadpool 2026: how many AI tools are dead or dying? →
Live mortality data across our whole tracked catalog — broken links, missing pricing, wrapper risk, and the deadliest categories, refreshed daily — plus the Product Hunt survival study. Downloadable dataset.
Featured study
The Product Hunt Graveyard: 1 in 4 top launches from 2023–2025 is already dead →
We probed the live website of 2,291 top launches. 24.4% are gone — and AI tools die no faster than anything else. Full methodology + downloadable dataset.
Need a number to cite? → AI Tools Statistics — market, pricing, survival & churn, generated livePricing breakdown
| Segment | tools | share |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | 4,532 | 55.1% |
| Free | 1,368 | 16.6% |
| Contact | 1,247 | 15.2% |
| Paid | 1,075 | 13.1% |
Viability (how well maintained is it?)
Our editorial viability score (0–100) blends what the vendor publishes, site health, traction, user sentiment and recent activity. It is a maintenance indicator, not a shutdown prediction. Rebuilt 2026-07-31 — figures before and after that date are not comparable. 8,222 tools are scored (average 67/100).
| Segment | tools | share (of scored) |
|---|---|---|
| Strong (70+) | 3,503 | 42.6% |
| Moderate (40–69) | 4,384 | 53.3% |
| At risk (score < 40) | 335 | 4.1% |
Biggest categories
| Segment | tools | share |
|---|---|---|
| Automation & Agents | 590 | 7.2% |
| Image Generation | 577 | 7% |
| Code & Development | 461 | 5.6% |
| AI Video Generation | 442 | 5.4% |
| Agent Frameworks & Orchestration | 388 | 4.7% |
| Data & Analytics | 354 | 4.3% |
| Sales Prospecting & Outbound | 270 | 3.3% |
| Productivity | 268 | 3.3% |
| Document Q&A & Summarizing | 265 | 3.2% |
| Writing & Content | 254 | 3.1% |
| Customer Support | 251 | 3.1% |
| Photo Editing & Enhancement | 245 | 3% |
| Voice & Speech | 237 | 2.9% |
| Research & Education | 228 | 2.8% |
| Autonomous Coding Agents | 223 | 2.7% |
Most-starred open-source AI tools
8 tracked tools have a public GitHub repo, totalling 543,266 stars.
| Tool | GitHub stars |
|---|---|
| Hugging Face | 167,791 |
| LangChain | 147,984 |
| Supabase | 111,419 |
| Whisper | 110,787 |
| ElevenLabs | 3,145 |
Cite this report
Free to cite with attribution. Suggested: “State of AI Tools 2026, RightAIChoice — https://rightaichoice.com/state-of-ai-tools” (data as of October 18, 2026). Machine-readable data: /llms.jsonl. Methodology: /methodology.
Figures are computed live from RightAIChoice’s continuously-verified catalog and change as tools are re-verified. Generated October 18, 2026.