On this page, we explain various AI tools in different categories, namely, scientific tools, chatbots, and image creation tools. For each category, one tool is described in detail, and you will find a summary for other tools. You will also find an additional list of tools that are also interesting for use in education and research.
Unfortunately, not every tool is free to use, and therefore you will find in this list tools that offer limited free functionalities and provide more options if you take out a subscription. To quickly see what applies per tool, we use three categories, namely:
| Free |
Users can use the functionalities without paying. |
| Freemium |
Users can use free (limited) functionalities that can be supplemented with extra functionalities for a fee. |
| Premium |
Users gain access to all functionalities after payment. There are no free or freemium versions available. |
Elicit is an AI-powered research assistant that helps you work with scientific literature more quickly and systematically. It analyses over 130 million papers and supports and automates workflows such as systematic reviews and research reports. You can also sign up for Elicit Alerts to receive new relevant studies. As a student, you can use Elicit for various purposes, such as:
Accelerating literature research: Elicit automates time-consuming steps such as summarising papers, extracting data and synthesising findings. It also allows you to chat with a paper so you can search more precisely and obtain more information more quickly. This saves valuable time when you are working through large volumes of literature.
Finding (hard-to-find) papers: With semantic search features and keyword search across multiple sources such as Elicit, PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov, Elicit helps you identify relevant and less obvious studies without needing to know all the exact keywords. Filters for publication year, journal quality and study type, plus alerts for new publications, make it easier to keep your literature complete and up to date.
Exploring new domains: If you want to explore a new research area, Elicit helps you rapidly gain insight into relevant papers and findings.
Elicit’s added value lies in its ability to automate complex tasks, enabling you to work more efficiently and save valuable time. Always remember to critically assess the output. Freemium
Overview of other scientific tools
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Scinapse. Scinapse is an AI search engine that uses citation networks and metadata to identify key articles, experts and trends within research fields. You can easily filter relevant papers (including by year) and obtain clear trend and impact analyses tailored to your research. Freemium |
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Semantic Scholar. Semantic Scholar is a free AI-driven research tool that indexes scientific literature from various disciplines and understands semantics to discover relevant publications. Free |
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Consensus AI. Consensus is a search engine that uses AI to extract and process information from scientific research. It provides evidence-based answers to questions and queries that you give it. Freemium |
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ResearchRabbit. ResearchRabbit is a tool that allows you to compile, explore, and organize your research in a user-friendly and intuitive way. You can create collections of sources, share them with others, and discover similar sources. Free |
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Keenious. Keenious is an AI tool that helps you find relevant articles on a specific topic. You can inform Keenious about your research topic via a PDF, link, or text. You then receive suggestions for other articles/sources related to the subject. Freemium |
Mistral is a European AI player (based in Paris) that offers powerful yet controllable models for text, code, documents, images and speech. You can use Mistral via the chatbot Le Chat. Mistral has a strong focus on openness, efficiency and data sovereignty. Here are some key aspects of Mistral:
Automatic assistance (Le Chat): Mistral’s assistant helps you answer questions, develop ideas, write texts, create schedules, analyse files and carry out simple workflows.
Document understanding & summarisation: Mistral can read long texts, PDFs and (scanned) documents, summarise them and convert them into structured information (e.g. tables or JSON). Useful for articles, reports, syllabi, minutes and contracts: quickly get the main points, definitions or actions without having to read everything yourself.
Accuracy and caution: Although Mistral is powerful, it’s important to remember that AI will not always be 100% factual. It aims to use reliable sources, but mistakes can occur. As a student, you should remain critical and verify information.
In short: Mistral offers a flexible, privacy-friendly and powerful AI ecosystem for writing, learning, programming, searching and automating, with control over where your data is stored and how the models are deployed. Freemium
Overview of other chatbots
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ChatGPT. ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI. It can engage in conversations and provide answers to a wide range of questions on various topics. ChatGPT Free uses the GPT-5 dataset and includes information on events up to June 2024. ChatGPT Plus (paid) has access to real-time data and offers options to create images and short videos. Freemium |
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Copilot. Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant integrated into Microsoft apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. It helps with text generation, document formatting, writing code and summarising web content, enabling you to work more efficiently. Through Bing, Copilot offers extensive, conversational search results. Freemium (you may have access to the full version of Copilot with your institution account) |
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Gemini. Gemini is a chatbot from Google that collects real-time data from the internet and is capable of writing texts in response to questions you ask. In your prompts, you can use not only text but also your voice, photos, and camera. You can also have a real-time conversation where Gemini responds directly to what you say or ask. Freemium |
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Hello History. With Hello History, you can travel back in time and have one-on-one chat conversations with some of the most influential historical figures of all time. The app is capable of increasing users' knowledge about art, music, justice, literature, philosophy, science, technology, and more. The conversations are generated by AI, so don't take them too seriously. Free |
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Perplexity AI. Perplexity is an AI chatbot capable of providing comprehensive answers to questions asked. Through real-time data, it is able to deliver current information on various topics, allowing you to discover and share new information. Freemium |
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Claude. Claude is an AI chatbot developed by Anthropic. It can perform complex tasks such as text analysis, coding, and image interpretation. You can also provide custom instructions, which allow Claude to take into account specific preferences you have for each prompt (for example, that it should consider a particular target audience). Freemium |
DALL-E 3 is an AI system that can generate images and art based on a description in natural language (prompt).
Here are some key points about DALL-E 3:
As a student, you can use DALL-E 3 for various purposes:
In short: DALL-E 3 offers users an accessible way to generate images and/or artwork based on a description. These images can enhance your tests, dissertation or other schoolwork.
You can generate images with DALL-E 3 via ChatGPT or the DALL-E website. More information about Copilot can be found above (see Chatbots).
Overview of other image creation tools
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Midjourney. Midjourney is a popular, but paid image creation tool that creates content through the Discord program in many different styles. Premium |
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Leonardo AI. Leonardo AI is an AI art tool that allows users to create images in specific styles using existing or trained models. Freemium |
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Adobe Firefly. Adobe Firefly is a comprehensive AI tool that allows you to create images from text, as well as text effects and vector illustrations. After an image is generated, you get additional options to adjust your image. This tool is free to use for teachers on a laptop (as part of Adobe Creative Cloud) and for students on the school's desktop computers. Free |
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Sora. Sora is an AI tool from OpenAI (part of the ChatGPT Plus subscription) that enables you to generate, extend and remix videos based on text, images or videos in various formats and styles. Premium |
Disclaimer
New generative AI tools appear and disappear on the internet every week. Below, several AI tools that could be valuable in education are mentioned. Most tools are free to test. A small number remain permanently and unlimitedly free, other tools have a freemium option, and some are only available for paid use after the trial period. Keep in mind that with a free service, you always pay with your data!
Do you have tips for other interesting tools? Let us know! On this page, you'll find the contact options. If your tools are suitable, we will add them to this list.
Search for tools
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AI-tools for information literacy. A collection of AI tools that can be used for conducting literature research, compiled by the Information Literacy working group of the collaborating university and college libraries in the Netherlands. |
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AI Educator Tools. This site collects tools made for teachers. The tools are divided into different categories. By using filters, you can quickly find the tool you are looking for. |
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FutureTools. On the FutureTools website, you'll find a collection of various AI tools. This database is updated daily with new tools. Using a simple filter, you can search specifically for tools that can help you. |
Tools that help process information
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NotebookLM. NotebookLM is an AI notebook from Google for analysing uploaded documents. It answers questions, creates summaries, facilitates brainstorming sessions and provides feedback on the content. Another feature is the ability to generate an podcast, allowing you to listen to the document content as well. Free |
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ChatPDF. ChatPDF is an AI-driven chatbot that can answer questions about academic papers. It can summarize papers in PDF format that you upload, identify key concepts, and even generate new research ideas. Free |
Tools that simplify learning and writing
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Grammarly: Free AI writing assistance. Grammarly is an AI tool that assists you in writing English texts. It is capable of checking written texts for spelling, grammar, and style errors. It also provides you with suggestions for useful additions and/or modifications. Freemium |
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SlidesAI. SlidesAI is a tool that allows you to easily create presentations using text or a topic. You choose the style and can adjust slides afterwards where necessary. It is an extension for Google Slides. Freemium |
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ElevenLabs. ElevenLabs is an AI voice generator designed to assist you with audio-based tasks. With ElevenLabs, you can convert text or audio input into sound in your own language or another language. For example, you can use ElevenLabs to convert a book into speech, or dub an existing video into another language. Freemium |
Tools that help with developing lessons
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NOLEJ: Create e-learning in minutes!. NOLEJ can create interactive learning activities based on text or a file (document with a maximum of 50 pages, video or audio file of up to 60 minutes, or a website/YouTube URL). It analyzes the provided content and offers various learning activities such as quizzes, flashcards, interactive videos, and more. Integration with Moodle and Canvas is possible. Premium |
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QuestionWell. QuestionWell generates a quiz based on text or a YouTube video. Select suitable suggested questions and answers and export the quiz to a digital learning platform such as Moodle or Canvas. Freemium |
Other tools
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EdrawMind. With Wondershare EdrawMind, as a student, you can make notes, create mind maps, or put your thoughts on digital paper, among other things. Teachers can also use it to create lesson plans, give presentations, and store research materials. Freemium |
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Contextminds. Contextminds automatically generates a mind map or context map from one or multiple sources, making the relationships between different ideas and themes visible. Premium |
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Litmaps. Litmaps can be a useful tool for applying the citation and snowball methods. This tool provides insight into which articles are connected to each other through citations. Freemium |
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Goblin.tools. Goblin.tools contains various AI applications primarily designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find difficult. For example, there's a tool to simplify (complex) tasks by breaking them down into smaller steps needed to complete the task, and a tool that can change texts into a style of your choice. Think of styles like professional, informal, or easily readable. Free |
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Poe. Poe is a platform where various AI chatbots are offered, each with its own specialization in areas such as hobbies, translation, programming, and education. Freemium |
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Statista Research AI. The Statista database provides access to statistics, forecasts, dossiers, reports, infographics, and charts. This database is useful for students and teachers who need reliable and up-to-date market information. With this AI tool, you can search using targeted prompts. Accessible to Aeres & VHL |
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Feedback Companion Edu. Feedback Companion Edu is a Dutch AI tool for students and teachers that provides feedback and feedforward based on the uploaded competencies of the school or course, in the form of feedback (Strength), (Suggestion) and feedforward (Improvement Recommendations), following the model of Hattie & Timperley (2007). More information can be found on this page. Free of charge (a ChatGPT account is required) |
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Napkin. Napkin AI is an AI tool that converts text into visual representations such as infographics, diagrams, and flowcharts. Users can easily input or generate text with AI, after which Napkin creates professional visuals within seconds. The tool offers customisation options for colour, font, and icons. Napkin is suitable for presentations, blogs, and social media. Freemium |
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Adobe Express: Free image background remover. With this tool, you can easily remove backgrounds from photos or images. Free |