Free vs paid is the wrong first question. The right one: where does the money show up? Because it always shows up somewhere. - Free is one of three things: open source you self-host (free license, paid in your time), a free SaaS tier (free until execution limits), or a trial wearing a free costume. - Paid buys execution volume, support at midnight, security reviews you did not do, the right to not think about servers. - For a business agent touching customers or money, paid is usually the correct purchase. A self-hosted agent failing silently for a weekend costs more than the subscription. - Compare total cost, not sticker price: limits, self-hosting time, data staying home, migration cost. Lock-in is the quietest fee of all. Want the agent without the homework? PrivateLLM deploy sets up your private LLM on AWS for $50 plus usage.