Best free AI courses
The 10 best AI courses that cost nothing to take, ranked every week.
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Every course on this list is free to take in full. We left out free trials and courses where only the first chapter is free, so you can finish any of these without paying.
Free courses have less public rating data than paid ones, so several are ranked mainly on our syllabus review and how recently they were updated. Some include a free certificate, like Hugging Face's AI Agents Course.
Who it's for: Anyone who wants to learn AI before paying for anything.
The top 10
Scored out of 100 from learner ratings, popularity, weekly momentum, freshness and a syllabus review. Courses from Hugging Face, Other, Anthropic Academy, DeepLearning.AI, Google, Udemy.
- 1
AI Agents Course
Hugging Face's free course on building agents with smolagents, LangGraph and LlamaIndex, with a free certificate.
Why it ranks #1
- Learner rating · 30%
- 50
- Popularity · 20%
- 50
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 50
- Curriculum · 15%
- 90
Curriculum verdict
Free, current and project-based. No public rating data, so it's ranked mainly on curriculum and freshness.
Best for
Developers who want a free, certified agent course
56
Free
View course - 2
Practical Deep Learning for Coders
Jeremy Howard's free, code-first deep learning course.
Why it ranks #2
- Learner rating · 30%
- 50
- Popularity · 20%
- 50
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 50
- Curriculum · 15%
- 90
Curriculum verdict
One of the most respected free ML courses; top-down and practical. No public rating data.
Best for
Coders who want deep learning without heavy math first
56
Free
View course - 3
Claude Code in Action
Anthropic's free official course on using Claude Code in real development work.
Why it ranks #3
- Learner rating · 30%
- 50
- Popularity · 20%
- 50
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 50
- Curriculum · 15%
- 80
Curriculum verdict
From the team that builds Claude Code, so it's current. No public rating data.
Best for
Developers who want the official introduction
55
Free
View course - 4
LLM Course
Hugging Face's free course on transformers, fine-tuning and LLMs.
Why it ranks #4
- Learner rating · 30%
- 50
- Popularity · 20%
- 50
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 50
- Curriculum · 15%
- 80
Curriculum verdict
Free and thorough on how models work. No public rating data.
Best for
Developers who want free LLM fundamentals
55
Free
View course - 5
ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers
A free short course from DeepLearning.AI and OpenAI on prompting through the API.
Why it ranks #5
- Learner rating · 30%
- 50
- Popularity · 20%
- 50
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 50
- Curriculum · 15%
- 70
Curriculum verdict
Short, free and clear; some examples use older models. No public rating data.
Best for
Developers who want a free prompting primer
53
Free
View course - 6
Machine Learning Crash Course
Google's free, self-paced introduction to machine learning.
Why it ranks #6
- Learner rating · 30%
- 50
- Popularity · 20%
- 50
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 50
- Curriculum · 15%
- 70
Curriculum verdict
Free and recently refreshed by Google. No public rating data.
Best for
Beginners who want a free ML start
53
Free
View course - 7
Elements of AI
The University of Helsinki's free, non-technical introduction to AI.
Why it ranks #7
- Learner rating · 30%
- 50
- Popularity · 20%
- 50
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 50
- Curriculum · 15%
- 60
Curriculum verdict
Free and well-known in Europe; predates much of generative AI. No public rating data.
Best for
Beginners who want a free, text-based course
52
Free
View course - 8
Introduction to Prompt Engineering
A free 33-minute intro to prompt engineering.
Why it ranks #8
- Learner rating · 30%
- 59
- Popularity · 20%
- 41
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 41
- Curriculum · 15%
- 40
Curriculum verdict
Very short; a starting point only.
Best for
People trying prompting for the first time
48
Free
View course - 9
AI Fundamentals: From Basics to Generative AI
Free two-hour course on AI basics and using LLMs for daily tasks.
Why it ranks #9
- Learner rating · 30%
- 57
- Popularity · 20%
- 53
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 0
- Curriculum · 15%
- 50
Curriculum verdict
Covers the essentials at no cost; not updated since 2024.
Best for
Beginners on a zero budget
45
Free
View course - 10
A Gentle Introduction to Generative AI
A free 44-minute introduction to generative AI.
Why it ranks #10
- Learner rating · 30%
- 53
- Popularity · 20%
- 58
- Momentum this week · 20%
- 50
- Freshness · 15%
- 0
- Curriculum · 15%
- 40
Curriculum verdict
Free and short, but last updated in 2024.
Best for
Anyone wanting a zero-cost taster
43
Free
View course
How to choose
Free with a certificate
Hugging Face's courses give a free certificate. Udemy's free courses don't include one. If you need a recognized certificate, see the AI certifications list.
Free and current
Free courses from the companies that make the tools, like Anthropic, Google and Hugging Face, tend to stay current because they update them with their products.
When to pay
A paid course is worth it once you want structured projects, a long-form curriculum or a certificate. The AI for beginners list ranks the best paid options.
Questions
What is the best free AI course?
This week's #1 is shown above. Hugging Face's AI Agents Course, fast.ai and Anthropic's Claude Code in Action are strong free picks for different goals.
Can I get a free AI certificate?
Yes. Hugging Face gives free certificates for its courses. Most Coursera certificates need a paid subscription after the free trial.
Are free AI courses good enough to get a job?
They can teach the same skills, especially fast.ai and Hugging Face. Employers care more about projects you've built than where you learned.
Why aren't Coursera courses on the free list?
Most Coursera courses now start with a free trial and then need a subscription. We only list courses you can finish without paying.
Related lists
Best AI courses for beginners
The 10 strongest AI courses for people starting from zero, ranked every week from learner data.
Best prompt engineering courses
The top 10 prompt engineering courses for ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, ranked every week.
Best machine learning courses
The 10 best machine learning and deep learning courses, ranked every week from learner data.
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