Understand AI, then use it well

Plain-English explainers and free browser-based tools for people who want to get real work done with AI — without the hype, the rankings that expire in a month, or a sales pitch.

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Every tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded or stored.

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AI API Cost Calculator

Work out what an AI model actually costs per month from your token usage, and compare the major models side by side.

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Token Estimator

Paste any text to estimate how many tokens it uses, and see what that text would cost to send to each major model.

Free tool

Subscription vs API: Which Is Cheaper?

Compare a flat monthly chat subscription against the equivalent API usage and find the break-even point where one overtakes the other.

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AI Tool Picker

Four questions about your task, budget and experience — then a recommendation and the guides to go with it.

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2 guides

AI Explained

How language models actually work, the vocabulary you need, and what the jargon really means.

2 guides

AI Assistants

Choosing between the major chat assistants and getting better answers out of whichever one you use.

2 guides

AI Writing

Where AI genuinely helps with drafting, editing and summarising — and where it quietly makes work.

2 guides

AI Image & Video

Comparing image generators, prompting for composition and style, and the licensing basics.

2 guides

AI for Coding

What coding assistants do well, what they do badly, and how to learn to code alongside them.

2 guides

AI at Work

Practical workflows for small teams, plus how AI pricing actually works so you can budget for it.

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How Large Language Models Actually Work

A plain-English tour of tokens, training, context and hallucination — what a language model is really doing when it answers you.

Marcus Feld (AI researcher) · 7 min read

ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini: How to Pick

A practical framework for choosing between the major AI assistants based on your actual work, rather than on benchmark scores or marketing claims.

Adrian Wells · 6 min read

What AI Costs: Understanding API vs Subscription Pricing

How token-based API billing actually works, how it differs from flat monthly plans, and a simple method for working out which one fits your usage.

Priya Raman (software engineer) · 7 min read

AI Coding Assistants: What They Do Well and Badly

A grounded look at where AI coding tools genuinely save time, where they quietly create work, and the review habits that keep the difference in your favour.

Priya Raman (software engineer) · 6 min read

How to Write Better AI Prompts

Seven prompting patterns that reliably improve AI assistant output, with before-and-after examples you can adapt to your own work.

Priya Raman · 6 min read

AI Image Generators Compared: How to Judge What Each One Is Good At

A practical framework for comparing AI image tools by output style, control, workflow fit and licensing, rather than by whichever model launched most recently.

Adrian Wells (technology writer) · 7 min read

Why this site exists

Most AI coverage goes stale within weeks. A model gets an upgrade, a price changes, an exclusive feature ships everywhere, and the article that told you exactly what to buy is quietly wrong.

So we write about the parts that hold: what these systems actually do, the dimensions tools genuinely differ on, and how to test a candidate against your own work in twenty minutes. Where we do publish numbers — API prices, mainly — we keep them in one maintained table, date-stamp it, and link the source so you can check us. That table was last verified on 20 July 2026; you can read it on the model pricing page.

Read more about who we are and our editorial standards.