CLAUDE
$200/mo (Max plan)
My main AI. Lately I've been using Opus 4.6. I use it for writing, research, brainstorming, coding, pretty much everything.
MY STACK
These are the AI tools and services I actually use. Not sponsored. I pay for these with my own money and use them to help me run my business, create content, and automate the stuff I don't wanna do.
AI TOOLS
CHATGPT
$20/mo (Plus plan)
My backup brain. I keep it around for a second opinion and for things Claude doesn't do well. I also like using it for real time voice chat when I'm driving.
OPENCLAW
Free (open source)
This is the most powerful tool in my stack. It runs my AI agent Fred 24/7 on a $200 ThinkPad stacked on some spiral notebooks. He builds tools, does research, monitors my business, and works while I sleep. Not exaggerating. It's everything I wanted AI to be a few years ago, and it's finally here.
PERPLEXITY
API (pay per use)
I use this for deep research. When I need to really dig into a topic and get actual sources, this is what I use.
OPENAI WHISPER
API (pay per use)
Turns audio into text. I use it to transcribe videos and voice notes. It's pretty fast and accurate. I even had Fred build me a python script that connects to it so I can hold one button down on my keyboard and talk and it'll type it out. Massive time saver.
GEMINI (NANO BANANA)
API (pay per use)
Image generation. This thing is extremely good. I tried fine-tuning my own model for YouTube thumbnails. Spent hours on it. Failed miserably. Nano Banana beats it every time, and it's not even close.
REPLICATE
API (pay per use)
I've been experimenting using this for LoRA training and image generation. Good for testing things without setting up your own GPU.
ELEVENLABS
API (pay per use)
Text to speech. My AI agent has a voice because of this. Sounds natural, not robotic. But honestly, there are some really good free ones that work just fine, depending on what you're doing. If it's customer facing and you need the highest quality though, you can't beat ElevenLabs. At least at the time of this writing.
OTHER TOOLS
BRAVE SEARCH
Free API
Gives Fred the ability to search the web. Free tier is plenty for what I need.
DATAFORSEO
Pay per use
Bye bye SEMrush. This tool gives me all the SEO data I need. Keyword rankings, search volumes, SERP tracking. You can get everything you need for 3% the cost of something like Ahrefs or SEMrush. If you need backlinks, that can be a little pricier, but still far less than what you'd pay for one of the big SEO data companies.
FIRECRAWL
API (pay per use)
Web scraping that actually works. Saves hours of manual research.
PUPPETEER
Free (open source)
This allows my bot to control the browser. He can use it to open websites, click around, scroll, and fill out forms like a real person would. If Firecrawl can't handle it, Puppeteer can.
DECODO PROXIES
~$10/mo
Residential proxies. When you're scraping a lot of data or tracking competitors, you need these so you don't get blocked.
