The Free, New and Top 100 lists
What each of the curated lists actually means, since they are built on different rules.
Free AI Tools
Free AI Tools means genuinely free. A tool qualifies only if its pricing is free outright — freemium tools and free trials do not appear, however generous they are. That is a deliberately strict line, because a list of “free” tools that are mostly trials is not a useful list.
New AI Tools
New AI Tools is built from the day each tool was listed here — newest first. It answers “what is new on Aitoolnavio”, which is the question a directory can answer honestly: every listing has a date we recorded ourselves.
It used to run on each tool’s own launch date instead. That reads better on paper, but launch dates come from the tool’s own site and are missing for most of the catalogue, so genuinely new arrivals were being left out of the list altogether.
Within that list, verified tools come first, then everything else — each group newest first. Verification only moves a tool up the list; it never puts an older tool into it.
Top 100
Top 100 is ranked by measured popularity rather than editorial preference — see How the Popularity Score works.
Featured Tools
Featured Tools are paid placements. They are labelled as such — see What “Sponsored” means.
All AI Tools
All AI Tools is the full index: every listing, grouped A–Z, with a letter jump and a category index. It is the page to use when you know the name and just want to get there.