Personal assistants can change your life, but they can be pricey. If you’re working for yourself or for a small company, or if you’re just feeling overwhelmed in your everyday life, hiring a personal assistant might sound like a pipe dream. But for a quick fix, many effective personal assistant apps can be downloaded completely free of cost on your mobile device.
While mobile devices come standard equipped with virtual assistants, such as Apple’s Siri, there’s no need to stop there. If you’re looking to step outside the box and find a platform more suitable for your needs, check out these free personal assistant apps for 2026.
Key takeaways
- You don’t need to hire an expensive personal assistant to get meaningful help — free mobile apps can handle everything from scheduling and reminders to smart home control and life planning. These tools are especially valuable for freelancers, small teams and anyone feeling overwhelmed day to day.
- Today’s personal assistant apps go far beyond basic voice commands, offering AI-powered conversation, task management, calendar optimization and fact-based research. Options like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Reclaim.ai, and Pi let you choose between productivity-focused help or more personal, conversational support.
- The “best” assistant depends on your needs, device ecosystem and work style, whether that’s Apple’s Siri, Google Gemini, Alexa, or niche tools like SoundHound or Monday. While free apps are powerful, paid versions or human-assisted services may be worth exploring if you need deeper, hands-on support.
1. Google Gemini
Available on: Apple Store or Google Play
Google is known for its accessibility, and its assistant is available across a number of products. Get Google Gemini on your phone, speaker, watch, laptop, TV or in your car. It connects to frequently used products like Netflix, YouTube and Spotify. You can tell your Roomba where to clean by using Google Gemini, and it can connect to smart home devices like a Nest thermostat.
2. Amazon Alexa
Available on: Amazon, Apple Store and Google Play
The Amazon Alexa voice-controlled assistant has the ability to connect your entire life. You’ll be able to use directives for thousands of smart home features, including lights, switches, TVs, thermostats and more. Check the weather. Hear the latest news. Connect your music and listen to your favorite songs on command. Request an Uber or order pizza.
Alexa is available on Amazon devices, like the Fire Tablet/Stick, Echo and Echo Dot, as well as in apps on Google Play and the Apple Store.
3. Siri
Available on: Standard on all Apple devices
You’re probably familiar with Siri. Apple introduced this voice-activated feature in 2011, and they’ve been adding features ever since. Siri will answer your questions and give you sports updates.
She’ll give you reminders and set alarms or timers while you’re cooking. Send texts and place calls or FaceTime just by using your voice. Siri makes it easy for you to live your life hands-free. It’s automatically available on all Apple devices.
4. Bixby
Available on: Standard on all Samsung devices
The Bixby assistant is like Siri for Samsung. It has a cool feature that lets you identify landmarks and other visuals by taking a photo. You can also translate foreign languages using Bixby, or point your camera at something you want to buy and it will give you pricing options. It will recommend businesses and restaurants, or create reminders and manage your schedule.
5. Monday
Available on: Apple Store
Geared more towards team workflows, Monday helps managers (or folks who have multiple tasks or projects) manage their tasks and keep things organized. You can check things off as you go, and see everything laid out in front of you, allowing you to know where everything stands at any given moment.
6. DataBot
Available on: Apple Store, Google Play
DataBot is a virtual talking robot. Because DataBot is available on the Windows OS, you can also access it via Xbox One. It will customize itself based on your preferred language, voice, name and behavior. It can speak and understand in English, Italian, Spanish, French, German or Portuguese. Find your daily horoscope, learn new jokes and play brain games with this app.
7. ChatGPT
Available on: Apple Store, Google Play
We’d be remiss if we had a virtual personal assistant round-up without including ChatGPT. Extremely simple to use, simply plug any question or issue into ChatGPT and get personalized results right away. Want a family meal plan for the week? Need help with a family conflict? Aren’t sure which move to make next in your career? ChatGPT can weigh in on everything.
8. Perplexity
Available on: Google Play, Apple Store
Similar to ChatGPT, Perplexity is great when you need fact-based answers, with sources. Perplexity can be great for school, work or when you don’t want to wade through a million different Reddit suggestions and get straight to the source of something.
9. SoundHound
Available on: Apple Store | Google Play
The SoundHound app claims to be the “best way to search using your natural voice.” It uses familiar sites like NPR, Accuweather, Yelp, Uber, Sportradar and Expedia to complete common tasks and to give you the most up-to-date information. If you’re looking for a new car, consider a Hyundai, Honda or KIA. Some models of these vehicles now include voice-enabled AI, powered by Houndify.
10. Reclaim.ai
Available everywhere.
Reclaim.ai is an AI-powered calendar assistant that automatically schedules tasks, habits, focus time and meetings in Google and Outlook calendars. It intuitively picks the best time slots, protects your priorities and adapts to conflicts through automatic rescheduling. It’s great for helping professional folks and families efficiently manage their time.
11. 24me
Available on: Apple Store
The 24me app comes equipped with a calendar, to-do list and notes built in, so you don’t have to jump between these separate apps on your device. It will connect the things you use most in life, like utilities, service providers, banks and social networks, and then it will automatically tell you what you need to do.
In that sense, it’s very similar to an actual personal assistant, who might be tasked with managing your schedule and keeping things running on time.
12. Pi
Available on: Google Play
Another conversation-based AI app, Pi aims to make things more personal. Customers say Pi feels much more organic than other AI-based apps. With Pi, you can prep for difficult conversations, brainstorm ideas or just chat on the phone (yes, really).
Paid virtual assistant apps
While the apps listed above are all free, there are still others on the market that come at a cost. Despite the added fees, you may find you’d prefer more personal assistance via paid apps that utilize actual human beings to complete requested tasks, such as Magic and Please.Do Also, some of apps above, like 24me, have paid versions that are free of ads and offer more features than the free versions.
Take some time to do your research and determine which is best for you and your business. Depending on your needs, you may find that it’s just as economical to use websites and apps like Care.com to hire a personal assistant near you.
