I’ve personally tested over 500 AI tools so you don’t have to. And today, I’m going to rank every AI tool you can make money with in 2026 because most people waste their time on tools that don’t make them any money. I run an AI venture studio where we launch AI companies every month. So, I need to know what’s out there. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re running a multi-million dollar business, these tools can either 10x your income or completely waste your time.

The Rating System

So, let’s start with Chat GPT. It’s neat. It was first to market. Everybody loved it. It’s the Kleenex of the space. But I also think that it’s the MySpace of the space and it’s going to die slow death because a lot of reasons. So, I will be ranking all these AI tools into one of five different tiers. S tier means bad. A tier it’s good. B tier not so good. C don’t love it. F runaway. And every tool is ranked on one thing. How much you put in. I’m talking money, time, and energy into the tool, the cost, everything versus how much it gives you back. So, Chad GPT, it is in the C tier.

Top Tiers: S and A

Next, we have Notebook LM. One of my favorite tools for doing something called accelerated learning. When it first came out, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world because it allows you to search on topics into a custom AI where I can talk about the topic and only what it found in its research. So, it’s like this crazy way to learn about any topic, talk with it, and then it lets you create these visual outputs. I’m talking infographics, slides, podcasts, and you can call in and ask it questions. It is bananas. From a business perspective, does it make me money? Here’s the thing. I live in a world where I need to be on top of topics and learn things that I’ve never learned before in real time. So, it makes me a lot of money. For you, it might be different. I think it’s an incredible product, but the truth is making you money. It’s probably only an A tier.

Next up, we got Whisper Flow. My favorite tool for whispering and creating content. Essentially, it allows you to any input, specifically these AI tools to talk and it formats what you say based on the nuance of your language. If you’re talking and say, “Oh, no, never mind. Let’s send this instead.” It’ll actually erase what you said and send the right thing. It is how I code with my AI. It’s how I create with my AIS. It’s how I tell my eyes what kind of outcomes I want to achieve. I use whispering. If I think about business leverage, it saves me a ton of time. It actually makes me more creative because I feel like when I’m talking, I can talk without restricting myself and the output is two to three times more, which means I can get that much more done. Whisper Flow makes me some money and it gives me some leverage. So, I’m giving it an A. I’m going to rank it after No.

All right. Next up, we have Claude. I had to stop myself because I realized I was making too many videos about Claude and they’re not paying me. And the truth is I just love it. And I did shut down my company for two days and taught everybody how to write code in Claude code. It’s like chat GPT yet the chat has better memory in my perspective. It has better tool usage my perspective. It has better skills my perspective. These are all my own personal opinion. That’s why you’re here. They have integrations now with a tool called dispatch and they have visualization and they just caught up to Chad GBT in revenue. They’re at $30 billion run rate, same as Chad GBT, and they did it with onetenth of the resources. So, I think there’s no tool in my life that makes me more money than Claude because I built a whole venture studio and 15 plus companies at this point and I’ve personally built 27 different tools for myself using Claude code. It is the most powerful. So, with that, I got to put it in S tier.

Agents and Automation

Next, we’ve got OpenClaw. If you haven’t heard of AI agents, OpenClaw is the epitome of that. It’s open source, which means it’s free. It’s an AI agent that anybody can use. The challenge is I know that I can create leverage with it, but most business owners are not technical enough. They don’t know anything about security. They don’t know anything about software, and they don’t even know what to do with the agent. So because of all that, I’m going to put A but on the top of the list because it is pretty powerful, but the problem is it does so many things it confuses people and it creates massive security issues and support issues and most people can’t keep OpenClaw instance going.

Next we have Apex which I have to tell everybody this is one of my companies within Martell Ventures. Apex on top of OpenClaw that deals with backups and securities and applications and tools is the most valuable thing I use on a daily basis. my apex. Kai boss is his name. He named himself. He created his profile image. That’s what he looks like. I talk to him more than I talk to anybody else in my life. And he does so much for me. It’s like having a team member that doesn’t sleep, doesn’t complain, doesn’t take vacation, has perfect recall, perfect access, perfect everything, can write code, can solve problems, can identify hotspots, can figure out where the gaps are, all in real time for everybody on your team. That is wild for you. So, if you want the power of OpenClaw without the concerns around security with the full platform, with the backups, then check out Apex below. Just click the link and sign up for the weight list cuz it is the most valuable thing that I’ve created. And because of that, I’ve got to rank it at the top of S tier above Claude. Now, you got to understand Apex uses Claude. So, without Claude, Apex doesn’t work as well. But, I could use something else. So, I’m putting it ahead. But I do think that Claude and Apex are both awesome tools.

Development and Media

Next up, we’ve got anti-gravity. It is a coding platform built by Google that allows you to connect to all the different language models, including Google’s Gemini, so that you can use it to build websites and write code and do some really cool things. I kind of like it. I feel it’s complicated. I feel the interface is not as clean. I personally don’t use it that much. And when it comes to making money, if I was in the business of designing websites, it is the best one because of the Gemini model, but anti-gravity as a tool on its own, don’t think most business owners should be with anti-gravity. Probably not likely unless you have a design company. I’m going to give it a B tier. Don’t think it’s that great. I think there’s other tools out there that are better.

Next up, we’ve got Higsfield.ai. It’s one of the best place if you want to create generative video and create like AI B-roll or any kind of video. It’s got access to all the models and a bunch of other tools in one place. So, one membership, you can use it to test and play with all the different AI models. The future will be generative video and Higsfield.ai is the platform that my media team and a lot of my friends are using. It can make you a lot of money. It can save you a lot of money and it can save you a ton of time because you can just use the AI instead of trying to generate shoots and try to get footage. The truth is it’s a really great platform and I’m going to put an A tier because it’s not for every business owner, but anybody doing video marketing, you have to be using this.

Entertainment and Finance

Next, we’ve got Sunno. It is a AI generative music platform where you can make up songs. I love it. Some of the biggest tracks right now are using AI to generate some portions of the song, the voice, maybe the melodies. For business, yes, you should create custom songs for your brand. You should think about ways that you can integrate music into the experience of what you sell. Is it going to make you money? No. Is it going to make you laugh? Yes. Is that valuable? I think so. But it’s not going to fill your bank account. Regards to making money and stuff, I’m going to give it a B and I’m going to put it after Annravity cuz if you actually learn how to use that tool, it can make you more money. But Sununo’s cool. And I know you might think, I can’t believe you put it above Chad GBT. Chad GBT is obviously going to make me more money. I don’t agree. I just think Chad GBT is not that great. So that’s why it’s there. Argue with me in the comments.

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Next up, we’ve got Frank, which is hellofrank.ai. It is one of the most powerful financial AIs out there. I’m totally biased because it’s one of our portfolio companies, but I’ll tell you this. I’m going to rank it exactly the way I feel about it. Frank is an AI financial co-pilot for your business. If you want to ask a question like which service line is actually profitable, it’ll answer that. If you want to know how much you’re spending on something, it’ll answer that. If you say, well, I want to hire this person and they want to make this much money. Can I afford it? It’ll answer that question. and do it fast, accurate, and visually. Now, I have a Frank, his name is Jared, on my team, and he does a lot of this stuff, but I will tell you, if Jared’s not around, Frank is the tool that everybody uses to get the answers, and it’s pretty freaking awesome. So, when it comes to making money, having a CFO, AI, that has perfect information and does a lot of stuff on top of your data so you don’t have to pay somebody three, four, $5,000 a month. That’s a ton of money saved. Personally, from a financial impact, because it’s a financial tool, it’s got to be ranked higher for small businesses that are looking for leverage to make better decisions to save money. I’m putting it in a tier above Higsfield.

The Big Players and Research

Next up, we’ve got the Goo Mr. Gemini. Google’s AI across Docs and Gmails in the browser, in your calendar system. It’s integrated everywhere. If you see that little twinkle icon, you just click it. That’s Gemini. And for business, I think it’s got a beautiful place because one, it’s got three and a half times more data, which means it does have access to more information. Two, it’s got full index directly into YouTube, which is the top learning platform in the world. So any one of my videos, you can grab the link and give it to Gemini and say summarize, and it’ll do it. And it’s got the money, the rich uncle named Mr. Googs, financing, data centers, and improvements. And it might not be as good as Claude today, but oh my gosh, it will definitely be a top contender and it’s integrated into tools you already use. So from make you money and create a lot of value. I think it’s in the S tier, but it’s at the end of the S tier. So it’s behind Claude and I’m a fan of it because it’s Google and I’ve been a Google customer for 20 plus years and I just think it’s a winner.

Next up, we have Grock. Now I have said publicly that I love Grock. Obviously, I don’t want to bet against Elon and that it’s the top tool I use for research. The challenge is Elon’s realized that the way he’s engineered and architected Grock is the wrong way and he’s rebuilding it right now. My gut tells me when 5.0 comes out, it will be incredible. But for now, I use it mostly for research. So, when I’m trying to make big decisions in my business, thinking about here’s where I’m at, here’s where I think the world’s going or I don’t know, tell me. I feel like Grock gives me the most informed and detailed and truth seeeking answer. I can only give you my opinion as it is right now, right here. And I’m gonna have to put in a tier above whisper flow but behind notebook LM in regards to the value that I think it could bring you in your business.

Niche Builders and Productivity

All right, next up we’ve got Lovable. Lovable is a no code app builder. It’s the OG of the space. Everybody talked about it. The problem is is that every other one of the AIs have built that capacity within the product and I just don’t use it anymore and I don’t think it’s that good and I think there’s better tools. So I’m going to put it at the end of B tier and for your business if you’re doing anything you might as well just use Claude have everything in one place. You don’t need a separate tool like lovable.

Next up we have my arch nemesis perplexity and I’ll tell you why I’ve jokingly called it complexity for a long time because for a long time it was a search AI enabled output. Essentially, you would ask it questions and it would use AI to give you a more complete answer. But I was getting the complete answer in my other AI, so I never used it. Then they launched computer. And computer’s interesting because if you’ve ever seen me do videos on Manis, they’re going after that same use case in that same product. And I recently did a head-to-head and I will tell you the same task, both products. Computer beat it. So I’m going to put it a tier right behind Higsfield.

Next up, we’ve got a product called BuddyPro.ai. Again, full disclosure, it’s one of the companies in my portfolio and it is the engine that runs Dan AI. So, I have a dedicated coaching AI that my clients and my team and my CEOs use to make decisions in their life. It takes you and it copies you so that everybody on your team, including your customers, including the world, can ask you, but really the AI buddy pro your buddy questions and it’ll get as good, if not better answers than as if they asked you. So you can implement that into your business and instantly get your time back, which if you didn’t know, kind of a big area of my life. Buy back your time. Buddy Pro, more than any other tool has bought me time back in my life. So if you’re a coach, you’re a consultant, you’re an expert, and you want to monetize your brain, BuddyPro. I think in regards to making you money, if you’re one of those spaces, it goes right behind Frank. Unbiased. I wouldn’t put it there if I didn’t think so. for the right person and most CEOs. If you’re a business owner, this tool will change your relationship with AI.

Failing Grades and Hidden Gems

Next up, we have Apple Intelligence or Apple Not Intelligent. I’m going to get an F score. And this may look stupid in a month or two when they announce the integration with Gemini. And all of a sudden, Siri is as good as any other model, but I’m telling you, as it stands today, it’s a piece of and you shouldn’t even play with it for your business. It’s caused me more frustration and pain I don’t even use anymore.

Moving on, we’ve got granola.ai. AI, one of my favorite notetaking tools. What I love about it is integrated with notion and other tools that I use. It’s the only one that I can plug in without the user knowing that I’m using it on any Zoom calls, which is great. So then I don’t have somebody else accept it. Other AI models only work great if you have the right data captured and saved in the right place. And Granola is the glue or the tool that does that. So, for example, if you pair it with buddy pro, your buddy will be a genius because of everything you ever said that you captured through granola. Very valuable. I’m actually going to put it ahead of Frank because from a time and money and clarity and pushing and driving agendas forward, Granola is a powerhouse.

Next up, we have Social Sweep. This one’s a cool one. Again, another product in my portfolio. And what it does is it allows you to search the network you’ve created that isn’t available online. And you can ask it cool things like, “Tell me everybody that shoots a podcast in LA that interviews people in person. Tell me everybody I know that’s into Open Claw. Tell me everybody I know that is a designer that uses Higsfield. It is the most important tool in my life to activate my relationships.” For most business owners, is it going to make you a lot of money? You tell me. Have you ever heard that your net worth is your net worth? It’ll give you that. It’ll tell you what your net worth is worth. I think it’ll make you a lot of money. I think there’s other tools out there that for most businesses are going to be more relevant sooner, quicker. So, I’m going to put it behind Perplexity Computer. Again, unbiased. That’s where it fits in the stack.

Visuals and Automations

Next up, we got Nano Banana. Essentially, it’s an image generation tool that uses AI. I use it all the time to help me visualize the vision I have in my mind and bring it to life. Like crazy projects that I think about like in 5 years, you know what would be cool is this. And I go and I say, “Hey, create me an image.” Why? because I think people can hit a target if they can see it. Probably the most important thing in my life is to communicate and visualize where we’re going. And I use Nano Banana so that they can see it and then I say, “Hey, this is where we’re going. Could you hit the target?” Now, some people use it for 3D modeling. They can use it for renders. They can use it in your business. It’s very valuable. Does it make me a lot of money? Me personally, yes. For most business owners, probably not. So, I’m going to put it at the top of the B tier above anti-gravity. and they actually work really well together. So that’s why I put it there.

Next, we have Gum Loop. It’s a great product. It’s really well executed and if you have a business that you want to automate your processes, it’s a great option and it will do it better than any of the other tools in my opinion for normal people, not super techy nerd. Those people are using N8 or people that are just like not willing to do complex stuff. They’re probably using make.com. When I talk about leverage, think about like designing something once and having it operate and do it like that every time. I’m talking onboarding customers. I’m talking sales processes. I’m talking financial reporting. All of that can be automated through Gum Loop. So, I think from a tools point of view, it’s an S tier tool at the end of a Gemini. So, it’ll use existing models, but it is a beautiful automation tool. does take some setup but a lot of outofthe-box templates will get you going.

Next we have N8N which is an open- source platform. All the technical people use it. It gives you full backend control so you can do anything with it. It doesn’t have like the price gouging like some of these other AI tools where you got to pay metered pricing. So essentially it’s not per task. I use it a lot and I don’t anymore because I think it’s overkill for most people. So in regards to like where do most businesses get value from it? I don’t think it’s meant for most businesses. I’m gonna place it behind Social Suite because I think those other tools can actually make you more money versus automating with N8N because there’s better options.

Presentation and Sales

Now, we have Gamma. Gamma is one of my favorite tools for generating slides based on any data I give it because as a guy that teaches a lot, trains people, gives keynotes, Gamma is my AI tool for that. Truth is is when it comes to leverage and making money, yes, it allows me to present my ideas better, which is always good, but other tools there actually save me a lot of time, make me a lot of money. So, Gamma for me is probably going to go in the B tier, ahead of Andy Gravity, but behind Nanobanana because that tool definitely visualizes better. I can do a lot that Gamma does with Nano Banana.

Next, we have Revio. Disclaimer, one of my companies at Martell Ventures. But here’s why I’m unbiased. because the product was built way before I launched Martell Ventures for Martell Media because I needed a way to chat with you all. It’s impossible to do that at scale. So, I called my buddy Viv up and I said, “Hey, bro. I need to build this tool.” And after a year and a half of us scaling, we decided to spin it out into a Martell Ventures product. And it is the one when I think of the thing that makes me the most money because it keeps me on top of my relationships and allows me to communicate value to people. Now, for your business, if you’re doing sell by chat, this is the product. If you’re not, probably won’t work for you. So, for your business, I’m going to put it in S tier, but I’m going to put it behind Gum Loop because Gum Loop is horizontal all businesses and Revio only makes sense for the right businesses, but it will make you more money than a Gum Loop out of the box if you start chatting with everybody that follows you on social media because all those people are like opt-ins or leads. Most businesses are starting to sell through the DMs because people don’t want to schedule and get on a phone call. They just want to know the details. So your team can just sit there and chat. And if you do that at scale with a lot of different social accounts, Revio is the only platform that built as a sales tool, not a social messaging tool. Now, if you want my full AI tech stack, every tool I use in my businesses, I put together a whole playbook on exactly that. Just go to my Instagram, Dan Martell to Martell, and message me the word YouTube stack, and I’ll send it over.

Long-Term Memory and Local Business

Next up, we’ve got notion. I believe that notion is one of the best tools to become the long-term memory of the AI and I think notion’s going down that path and everybody I know is using it as the storage for the brain for the AI. It’s got AI baked into it. It has connectors for all the AI tools I mentioned like Apex and businesses that default to saving things there and creating workflows and project management in notion end up having an unfair advantage for activating new AIs because all the context data and memory is in that one place. So, regards to like leverage getting you organized probably the best tool. Having the information to activate other AIS powerful but you’re still going to have to do the work. So, it doesn’t directly make you money, but it can get you organized. So, because I want to help you make some money, I just think it’s behind Social Sweep in regards to its ability to make you money, but I use it a lot almost every day.

And last, we have Atlas. Okay, another one of my portfolio companies. Atlas is one of the most powerful voice platforms out there. If you’re a local business that has people calling, I’m talking HVAC, plumbers, dental, car wash, anything. Especially if you’re a freelancer, an independent person, having Atlas sit there as a receptionist to talk to, to schedule, to qualify, to answer their questions so that you can be doing the work and getting paid and somebody else can be taking the call. That’ll make you a lot of money. So, it’s kind of funny because it’s the most universal. I use it all the time. We use it for calling people for events. We use it for inbound calls. We use it for all of our companies. I think it can make you the most money. So, I’m gonna put it in an A tier above Granola because Atlas as a tool will make you more money than the rest of those in regards to like install it today if you’re getting phone calls and have to deal with all the noise.

Final Thoughts: Director vs. Doer

So, these are the tools. Awesome. You know where they fit in my life in regards to how it can help you make more money and get more leverage. It’s all there. However, the world of the future is the world of separation between the director and the doer. And what I want to encourage you to consider is lean in to being a director. Lean into being a designer. Lean into being the co-creator. What I call a human on the loop and let the AI do the loop. And you pay attention. So, I’m going to challenge you. If you’re using any of these AIs, stay in the tool and see if it can complete that last step. Don’t copy and paste stuff somewhere else. Say, “Hey, post it in Slack. Send the email.” See if the tool can do it for you. It probably can. And that way, you’re actually getting your time back and you’re getting the most leverage. So, not about the tool, more about being the director, not the doer. Leave me a comment below and let me know which tool you’re going to go dive into next. And again, if you want to see my entire AI tech stack, every tool I use in my businesses, just find me on Instagram and message me the word YouTube stack and I’ll send it right over. And next, if you want to learn how I run a solo AI business when we launch these new companies, just click here and I’ll see you on the other side.

The Confession

I’ve got a confession to make. I’m going back to Chad GPT. If you haven’t seen my April Fools video, I made a mistake. I thought Claude was the best, but it’s not. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Claude is the coolest thing in the world. You tell me in the comments. What is Apple intelligence? It was supposed to be Siri with a brain, except it’s brain dead. I don’t mean No, just somebody on the back end is still creating it. And yes, this is still Dan. I was about to pinch myself, but I don’t have a whole lot to pinch. I mean, this is Dan. You probably won’t believe it. You’ll still write below that. Oh, nice AI, Dan. I don’t like to type cuz I type about 80 words per minute, but I talk about 250,000 words a minute. No, I’m just kidding. But I talk fast. I started to feel my voice going. I started way tooing excited. Three, two, and one. Here’s the deal.

The AI Tool Rankings for 2026