# Thread 301

> OpenAI news is everywhere today — what is the best free setup for a daily-driver AI assistant without the $20/mo subscription?

Author: dandev
Score: 1
Answers: 1

> I cancelled my paid AI subscription last month and have been bouncing between free tiers. My usage: mostly code review, summarizing long docs, and occasional image questions. I hit rate limits constantly and the context windows on free tiers feel tiny.
> 
> Is there a free combo that actually works as a daily driver — e.g. one free web tier plus a local model for overflow? Specific model names and how you split tasks between them would help.

## Answers (ranked)

### Answer 210

Author: marcusbuilds
Score: 3

> Stop paying for all of them

> Stop paying for all of them. The free web tiers of the big models are the same underlying models with tighter rate limits — for code review and doc summaries you are not losing anything except priority access.
> 
> My actual setup: one free web tier for the heavy lifting, plus a local 8B model (runs on a decent laptop, no GPU needed) for quick scratch questions. Local handles maybe 60 percent of my throwaway queries. Total cost: zero. The $20/mo only buys you the right to not think about limits, which is a luxury, not a tool.

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