All listed resources can run in a browser unless noted, and everything is free or has a free tier unless marked paid.
For related resources at Temple University Libraries’ Scholars Studio, its computing lab, and equipment you can borrow in Charles Library, see our related page.
General AI tools
| Tool | Best at | Website | Free Usage Tiers |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | The broadest all-rounder; image generation built in | chatgpt.com | Free, no card. Daily caps on the best model and on images |
| Claude | Long documents, code, writing; builds small apps in the chat window | claude.ai | Free, no card. Allowance resets every few hours; long documents burn it faster |
| Gemini | Google Docs/Sheets/Drive, long inputs, images and video | gemini.google.com | Free with a Google account |
| Copilot | Working inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint | copilot.microsoft.com | Basic Version is Free to TempleU |
| Perplexity | Search with citations, when you need sources | perplexity.ai | Free, no card. Ordinary search is open; deep research mode is capped per day |
Also: Microsoft 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud are already free to you through your AccessNet account. If you’d rather not send your chats to any of these companies, see the open and local options below.
Tools by stage of building
You won’t need all of these.
Design
| Tool | Use | Free Usage Tiers |
|---|---|---|
| Any chatbot with search turned on | Research and plan. Ask it to argue against your idea before you commit to it, and write the plan in a doc the whole team can see | See the table above |
| Figma | Graphic design and assets | Free for students |
| Adobe Firefly | Graphic design and assets | Free via Temple |
| Canva | Graphic design and assets | Free tier |
Implement
| Tool | Use | Free Usage Tiers |
|---|---|---|
| Lovable | If you don’t code: turns a written description into a working app | Free tier meters how many changes you get per day |
| Replit | If you don’t code: turns a written description into a working app | Free tier meters how many changes you get per day |
| v0 | If you don’t code: turns a written description into a working app | Free tier meters how many changes you get per day |
| GitHub Copilot | If you code some: suggests and explains code in your editor | Free for students through the Student Pack. How to get it |
| Claude Code | If you’re comfortable in a terminal: can edit and run a whole project | Paid |
| Gemini CLI | If you’re comfortable in a terminal: can edit and run a whole project | Free |
| Google Colab | Data: notebooks | Free, includes a GPU tier |
| Streamlit | Data: make it clickable | Free |
| Supabase or Google Sheets | Data: store things | Free tier |
Getting GitHub Copilot free as a Temple student
Sign up now. Approval can take several days, and Copilot is switched on in a separate step after that, so don’t leave it until the kickoff.
- Make a free GitHub account if you don’t have one. Under Settings, then Emails, add your temple.edu address and verify it.
- Go to github.com/settings/education/benefits and click Start an application. You’ll need proof that you’re enrolled, such as a student ID showing a current date, your class schedule, or a transcript.
- Once you’re approved, go back to the same page and activate Copilot Student. If you’re shown a paid checkout instead, don’t pay. Wait a few days and try again.
- Install VS Code. Copilot is built in. Sign in with the same GitHub account.
Until the approval comes through, the free version of Copilot works with any GitHub account. GitHub’s own instructions are here.
Before you start, check a few settings. On GitHub, click your profile picture, then Copilot settings. Set “Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training” to Disabled, since GitHub trains on free and student accounts unless you turn it off. On the same page, block suggestions matching public code. You don’t need to add a payment method, and without one nothing can be charged. In VS Code, search the settings for telemetry and set it to off.
GitHub also gives you Codespaces, which is VS Code running in your browser, with more free hours on the student plan. If you’re on a library laptop or a Chromebook, you can still work in your team’s project. To put your project online for free, use GitHub Pages with a public repository. Anything you publish there is public, so keep private data out of it.
Faculty and staff mentors can get Copilot Pro free through GitHub Education for teachers (how to apply).
Present
| Tool | Use | Free Usage Tiers |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Deploy: put your app online | Free |
| Netlify | Deploy: put your app online | Free |
| GitHub Pages | Deploy: put your site online | Free |
Get something online early and keep improving it. Record a working demo ahead of time in case the live one fails.
Free tiers have daily limits, so spread heavy AI use across the ten days.
Open, local, and lower-impact options
- You can run a model on your own laptop, free and offline, and nothing leaves your machine. LM Studio is a desktop app; Ollama is the command-line version. The open models themselves (Llama, Mistral, Qwen, Gemma) are at huggingface.co/models. OpenRouter runs many of them online, which is not local.
- For image generation, Adobe says Firefly is trained on licensed and public domain content, and Temple students get Adobe Creative Cloud at no charge.
- Models differ a lot in how much energy they use. The AI Energy Score leaderboard compares them.
Ground rules
- Don’t paste personal information, student records, unpublished research, or anything confidential into a chatbot. If your project needs that kind of data, use made-up sample data or a local model.
- AI tools make up sources, facts, and quotes. Check anything like that before it goes in your deck.
- Your final deck must list every AI tool you used, which version, and what you used it for (see the FAQ).