Many AI tools can help small businesses and individuals save money, often by automating tasks, improving efficiency, and reducing the need for costly manual labor. While some AI tools are widely known, there are several underrated gems that can save you significant money each month. Here’s a list of AI tools that are often overlooked but can be game-changers when it comes to reducing monthly costs:
1. Rytr – AI Writing Assistant
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Best For: Content creation, social media posts, product descriptions, and blog writing.
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How It Saves Money: Rytr offers affordable AI-driven content writing that saves businesses the cost of hiring copywriters. You can use it to generate engaging text quickly for blog posts, social media, product listings, and more.
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Why It’s Underrated: While tools like Jasper and Copy.ai are more well-known, Rytr offers an exceptional price-to-value ratio, with a Free Plan and Premium plan starting at just $9/month. For the cost of a single content writer, you can use Rytr for endless content generation.
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Pricing: Free Plan available; Premium starts at $9/month.
2. Descript – AI Video & Audio Editing
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Best For: Video and podcast editing, transcription, and content creation.
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How It Saves Money: Descript is an AI-powered audio and video editor that makes editing fast and affordable. It allows you to edit video by editing text, cutting down on editing time. It also offers automated transcription and overdub, letting you make changes to audio with AI-generated voices.
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Why It’s Underrated: Many creators rely on expensive video editing software or hire professional editors, but Descript makes the process much simpler and more cost-effective. You can save on hiring a full-time video editor while still producing high-quality content.
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Pricing: Free Plan available; Paid Plans start at $12/month.
3. Tonic.ai – Data Anonymization Tool
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Best For: Data privacy, security, and GDPR compliance.
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How It Saves Money: Tonic.ai provides AI-driven data anonymization, helping companies comply with data privacy regulations (such as GDPR) without having to spend large sums on legal fees or data protection consultations. This tool can anonymize sensitive data, making it safe for analysis or sharing.
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Why It’s Underrated: Data protection is a costly concern for businesses, and Tonic.ai provides an affordable solution for small to mid-sized businesses that need to anonymize large datasets but can't afford the high cost of traditional data privacy solutions.
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Pricing: Custom pricing based on usage (typically lower cost for smaller businesses).
4. Notion AI – Workspace Automation
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Best For: Productivity, note-taking, and team collaboration.
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How It Saves Money: Notion AI can help automate tasks like summarizing notes, creating templates, and organizing tasks within your team. Instead of paying for multiple productivity tools or project management software, Notion can handle it all in one place.
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Why It’s Underrated: Many people use Notion for personal organization, but the AI features can save a ton of time for teams, making it an affordable all-in-one solution for knowledge management, collaboration, and workflow automation.
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Pricing: Free Plan available; Paid plans start at $8/month.
5. Zapier – Workflow Automation
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Best For: Automating workflows, connecting apps, and integrating software.
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How It Saves Money: Zapier allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks between different software tools without coding. For example, automatically creating a new contact in your CRM when someone fills out a form on your website, or saving email attachments directly to your cloud storage.
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Why It’s Underrated: Zapier is incredibly powerful for reducing manual work, but it's often overshadowed by other larger tools. It can help you avoid hiring additional staff for routine tasks and save time on tasks that would otherwise require full-time employees.
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Pricing: Free Plan available; Paid Plans start at $19.99/month.
6. Copy.ai – AI Copywriting
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Best For: Marketing copy, email campaigns, landing page content, and ads.
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How It Saves Money: Copy.ai automates the process of generating high-converting marketing copy, saving businesses the cost of hiring expensive copywriters. It's particularly helpful for creating ad copy, email subject lines, and product descriptions without starting from scratch.
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Why It’s Underrated: While Jasper often takes the spotlight, Copy.ai offers a great affordable alternative that can handle most of the copywriting tasks small businesses need, often at a fraction of the cost.
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Pricing: Free Plan available; Pro Plan starts at $49/month.
7. Lumen5 – AI Video Creation
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Best For: Creating engaging videos from text and blog posts.
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How It Saves Money: Lumen5 is an AI-powered video creation tool that transforms written content, like blog posts or articles, into engaging videos. This saves businesses money on video production and avoids hiring video editors.
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Why It’s Underrated: Many small businesses underestimate the power of video marketing but Lumen5 makes creating high-quality video content accessible and affordable. It simplifies video creation with AI-driven templates and tools.
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Pricing: Free Plan available; Paid Plans start at $19/month.
8. Grammarly – AI Writing Assistant
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Best For: Proofreading, grammar checking, and content polishing.
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How It Saves Money: Grammarly helps businesses ensure that all written content is error-free without needing to hire a dedicated proofreader. It can also optimize content for tone and clarity, reducing the need for external copyediting services.
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Why It’s Underrated: While widely used by individuals, small businesses often overlook Grammarly's full potential. It can drastically reduce the cost of hiring editors and ensure professional-grade writing for emails, blogs, and marketing materials.
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Pricing: Free Plan available; Premium starts at $12/month.
9. Pexels & Unsplash – Free Stock Images & Videos
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Best For: Stock images, videos, and graphic content.
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How It Saves Money: These tools provide high-quality stock images and videos that businesses can use for marketing and website content without paying for expensive stock photo subscriptions. Perfect for social media posts, blog articles, and email campaigns.
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Why It’s Underrated: Many small businesses pay for expensive stock image services, but Pexels and Unsplash offer free high-quality alternatives that cover most needs. Great for creating professional content without the cost.
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Pricing: Free.
10. InVideo – AI Video Editing
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Best For: Creating videos for social media, YouTube, and marketing.
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How It Saves Money: InVideo allows you to create professional-quality videos using AI-powered editing templates and tools. It’s perfect for businesses looking to create video content without hiring a video production team.
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Why It’s Underrated: Video content is crucial for marketing, but professional video editing can be expensive. InVideo makes it easy to create engaging videos for social media, product demos, or ads, without the steep costs.
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Pricing: Free Plan available; Paid Plans start at $15/month.
11. Loom – AI-Powered Video Messaging Tool
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Best For: Creating video messages, tutorials, and team communication.
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How It Saves Money: Loom lets you record quick video messages to explain things to your team or customers, saving you the cost of meetings and reducing the need for back-and-forth emails.
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Why It’s Underrated: Many businesses use email or text communication, but Loom allows you to explain ideas more effectively with a personalized video, saving time and reducing the need for formal meetings.
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Pricing: Free Plan available; Paid Plans start at $8/month.
Conclusion
These underrated AI tools offer tremendous value by helping businesses automate tasks, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. Whether it’s writing content, creating video marketing material, or handling project management, these tools make it easier for small businesses to operate efficiently and affordably.
Using tools like Rytr, Lumen5, Descript, and Grammarly can save you money each month by reducing reliance on costly employees or contractors. Most of these tools also offer affordable pricing options, making them accessible even for businesses with tight budgets.
By integrating the right AI tools into your workflow, you can save time, reduce operational costs, and focus on growing your business.
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