Table of Contents
- What Are Free AI Tools for Content Creation?
- Why Free AI Tools Matter in 2026
- How We Tested and Selected These Tools
- Free vs. Freemium vs. Trial: What “Free” Actually Means
- Quick Comparison Table (All 15 Tools)
- The Best Free AI Tools for Content Creation in 2026
- The Complete Free Content Creation Workflow (Step-by-Step)
- Best Free Tool by Content Type (Quick Reference)
- When to Upgrade From Free to Paid
- FAQ: Free AI Tools for Content Creation
- Final Thoughts
Creating great content shouldn’t cost a fortune. Between blog posts, social media, videos, and podcasts, the average creator is being asked to do more with less — and most “free” AI tools out there are either time-limited trials, watermarked, or so restricted they’re barely usable.
I tested over 50 AI tools to find the ones that are genuinely free in 2026: no credit card required, no hidden paywalls, and enough free usage to do real work. The result is this guide on the best free AI tools for content creation — organized by what they actually do, with exact free-tier limits and honest notes on where each tool draws the line.
Whether you write blog posts, make YouTube videos, or manage social media for a small business, there is a free tool here that fits your workflow.
What Are Free AI Tools for Content Creation?
Free AI tools for content creation are software apps that use artificial intelligence to help you write, design, edit, record, or schedule content — without charging you upfront. They span everything from chatbots that draft blog posts to image generators that produce graphics in seconds.
In 2026, the category includes six main types: writing assistants, image generators, video editors, audio tools, social media schedulers, and SEO research tools. Together, these tools can cover an entire content workflow from idea to publish — at zero cost.
The key word, however, is genuinely free. Many apps advertise a free plan but restrict core features behind a paywall within minutes of use. This guide focuses on tools where the free tier is actually useful for real work, not just a teaser.
Why Free AI Tools Matter in 2026
The content game has changed faster than most people expected. Two years ago, creating a polished YouTube video, a well-researched blog post, and a week of social media content took either a team or a big budget. Today, a solo creator with the right free tools can produce the same volume — and often at comparable quality.
According to Artlist’s AI Trend Report 2026, 87% of creators have shifted to AI-assisted workflows. That shift happened partly because the tools got better, and partly because so many of them stopped costing anything to try. The barrier to professional-level content has collapsed, and that is genuinely good news for small businesses, freelancers, and anyone starting from scratch.
The problem, though, is that “free” has become a marketing word more than an accurate description. Some tools claim to be free but lock every useful feature behind a Creator or Pro plan within three messages. Others offer a generous free tier for the first month, then tighten limits quietly.
Because of this, the tools in this guide were selected using one simple test: can you do real, publishable work on the free tier? If the answer is yes, it made the list. If the free version is basically a demo, it didn’t.
How We Tested and Selected These Free AI Tools
Every tool in this guide was evaluated against four criteria. First, the free tier had to be genuinely accessible — no credit card required, no automatic trial countdown. Second, the free output had to be usable for real content: a full blog post, a publishable image, or a shareable video. Third, the core features had to be available without paying. And fourth, each tool had to be updated and actively maintained in 2026, not abandoned software riding on old reviews.
Tools that failed any of these tests were removed, regardless of how well-known they are. A few popular names didn’t make the cut for exactly that reason.
Free vs. Freemium vs. Trial: What “Free” Actually Means
Before diving into the tools, it’s worth being clear about what “free” actually means, because there are three very different things hiding behind that word.
Truly Free (No Catch)
These tools are free forever with no usage limit that blocks basic functionality. Google Lens, Bing Image Creator (after boosts slow down), and Adobe Podcast Enhance fall into this category. There are no subscription popups, no credit systems that run dry mid-project, and no watermarks on exports.
Freemium (Free Tier With Limits)
Most of the best tools fall here. ChatGPT, Claude, Canva AI, Leonardo AI, and Descript all offer genuinely usable free tiers — but with caps. You might get 150 AI image tokens per day, or 60 minutes of transcription per month, or rate limits on chatbot messages. However, the free allowance is enough to do real work if you are not trying to run a full-scale agency on it.
Free Trials (Temporary Access)
These are not free tools. Jasper, for example, gives you a trial that unlocks most features — then locks them behind a $39/month Creator plan once the trial ends. Similarly, InVideo AI’s free plan adds a visible watermark to every export, which makes it unsuitable for published work. If a tool’s primary goal is to convert you to paid, it belongs in the trial category regardless of how it’s marketed.
Quick Comparison Table (All 15 Tools)
| Tool | Category | Free Tier | Best For | Watermark | Commercial Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Writing | GPT-5.2 w/ rate limits | Blog posts, scripts, captions | No | Yes (text) |
| Claude | Writing | Claude 3.5 Sonnet w/ limits | Long-form articles, summaries | No | Yes |
| Google Gemini | Writing | Gemini 1.5 Flash | Google Workspace content | No | Yes |
| Copy.ai | Writing | ~2,000 words/month | Social captions, ad copy | No | No (free) |
| Writesonic | Writing | ~2,500–5,000 words/month | Blog posts, landing pages | No | No (free) |
| Canva AI | Image | 200 Standard uses/month | Social graphics, thumbnails | No | Yes |
| Adobe Firefly | Image | 25 credits/month | Commercial-safe images | No | Yes |
| Leonardo AI | Image | 150 tokens/day (~30 images) | High-quality images, mockups | No | Yes |
| CapCut AI | Video | Full editor, most exports free | TikTok, Reels, Shorts, YouTube | No | Yes |
| Canva Video AI | Video | Counts toward monthly limit | Reels, Shorts, presentations | No | Yes |
| ElevenLabs | Audio | 10,000 chars/month | Voiceovers, podcast intros | No | No (free) |
| Adobe Podcast AI | Audio | Free with Adobe account | Noise reduction, enhancement | No | Yes |
| Buffer AI | Social | 3 channels, 10 posts/queue | Scheduling, captions | No | Yes |
| Metricool AI | Social | 1 brand, 50 posts/month | Multi-platform scheduling | No | Yes |
| Perplexity AI | SEO/Research | Unlimited core searches | Research, content planning | No | Yes |
The Best Free AI Tools for Content Creation in 2026
Below are the 15 best free AI tools organized by what they do. Each section covers what is genuinely free, what is locked behind a paywall, the best use case, and output quality — so you know exactly what you are getting before you sign up.
AI Writing Tools
Writing tools are the category most content creators reach for first, and for good reason. A good AI writing assistant can cut drafting time by half or more. These five tools offer the most usable free tiers for blog posts, social captions, email newsletters, and video scripts.
1. ChatGPT (OpenAI)
What’s genuinely free: Access to GPT-5.2 with rate limits, plus GPT-4o Mini as a fallback. The free tier also includes web search, image uploads, basic image generation via DALL·E 3, and access to the GPT Store.
What’s locked (Plus $20/mo): Higher rate limits, priority access during peak hours, and consistent access to the most capable models without fallback.
Best use: Blog post drafts, social media captions, email newsletters, YouTube scripts, and brainstorming. Custom GPTs in the store let you set up reusable templates for your specific content types.
Output quality: Excellent. For most general writing tasks, ChatGPT on the free tier produces strong, editable drafts with the right prompt. Long-form content is supported, though heavy sessions will hit rate limits.
Brand voice on free: Partially. You can guide tone through prompts, and Custom GPTs allow you to embed reusable instructions — though creating custom GPTs is easier on paid plans.
2. Claude (Anthropic)
What’s genuinely free: Claude 3.5 Sonnet with dynamic usage limits. As of 2026, the free tier also includes file creation (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, PDF from conversations), limited Google Workspace connectors, and Skills — reusable custom instruction sets that previously required a paid plan.
What’s locked (Pro ~$20/mo): Higher and more consistent usage limits, priority access during peak times, and faster response speeds.
Best use: Long-form articles, document summarization, repurposing transcripts or webinars into written content, and nuanced writing where tone and coherence over thousands of words matter.
Output quality: Excellent, particularly for long-form. Claude handles extended context exceptionally well, which means a 3,000-word article stays coherent from start to finish — something shorter-context models struggle with.
Brand voice on free: Partially. The Skills feature (now available on free) lets you create reusable prompt templates that function like a brand voice library.
3. Google Gemini
What’s genuinely free: Gemini 1.5 Flash with rate limits, plus web search integration, image uploads, and Google Workspace integration (Gmail, Docs, Drive).
What’s locked (Gemini Advanced ~$20/mo): Access to Gemini Ultra, higher rate limits, and deeper agentic Workspace integration.
Best use: Drafting directly inside Google Docs, summarizing emails in Gmail, researching topics while keeping content in your existing Google workflow. For creators already living in the Google ecosystem, Gemini is the most seamless free option.
Output quality: Good to Excellent. Slightly behind ChatGPT and Claude for creative writing, but strong for structured content and research-based drafting.
4. Copy.ai
What’s genuinely free: Approximately 2,000 words per month, a Content Idea Generator, an Email Subject Line Generator, and access to basic templates for social posts, ads, and blog ideas. No credit card required.
What’s locked (Pro ~$36/mo): Higher word limits, advanced workflows, brand voice customization, and collaboration features.
Best use: Social media captions, email subject lines, ad copy, and quick blog idea generation. The free tier is genuinely useful for short-form content, though it runs dry quickly on long-form articles.
Output quality: Good. Copy.ai’s strength is marketing-flavored short copy. It’s less ideal for nuanced editorial writing.
5. Writesonic
What’s genuinely free: Approximately 2,500–5,000 words per month, access to Article Writer and Landing Page templates, and basic SEO features.
What’s locked (Starters ~$19/mo): Higher word limits, full GPT-4 access, brand voice, and SERP-based SEO mode.
Best use: Blog posts, landing pages, ad copy, and product descriptions. Among the dedicated writing tools (not general chatbots), Writesonic offers the most usable free word allowance for article-length content.
Output quality: Good to Excellent, especially for SEO-oriented content. Quality improves significantly with detailed prompts.
AI Image and Graphic Tools
Professional-looking visuals used to require a designer or a stock photo subscription. Now, the free tier of several AI image tools produces social media graphics, blog featured images, and product mockups in under a minute. These four tools are the most usable at zero cost.
6. Canva AI
Free image limit: 200 uses for Standard AI tools per month, or 20 uses for Premium AI tools. Resets monthly.
Watermark on free: No.
Commercial use: Yes — Canva Free allows commercial use for most AI-generated designs.
Best for: Social media graphics, blog featured images, YouTube thumbnails, and product mockups. Canva’s template library makes it the fastest tool on this list for non-designers who want a polished result without starting from scratch.
Ease of use: Very easy. Drag-and-drop interface, AI fills in or adjusts visuals based on a text prompt.
7. Adobe Firefly
Free image limit: 25 generative credits per month, resetting automatically.
Watermark on free: No.
Commercial use: Yes — Firefly is trained exclusively on Adobe Stock images, which means outputs are commercially safe with no copyright grey areas. This makes it the most legally defensible free image generator on this list.
Best for: Any content where commercial use is a concern — brand visuals, product images, blog headers. Firefly also handles text effects and generative fill (editing within an existing image) particularly well.
8. Bing Image Creator (Microsoft Designer)
Free image limit: 15 priority boosts per week. After boosts run out, generation continues but more slowly — making it essentially unlimited for patient users.
Watermark on free: No.
Commercial use: Yes, for most standard use cases (check Microsoft’s current terms for edge cases).
Best for: Quick blog featured images, social graphics, concept art, and thumbnails. The prompt-to-image workflow is the simplest of any tool here — just type and wait about ten seconds.
9. Leonardo AI
Free image limit: 150 tokens per day, which translates to roughly 30 high-quality images. Resets daily.
Watermark on free: No.
Commercial use: Yes (check current terms).
Best for: High-quality images comparable to paid tools like Midjourney, character design, product mockups, and detailed blog featured images. Leonardo gives you more control over style, resolution, and rendering than Canva or Bing — making it the better option for creators who want to fine-tune their visuals.
AI Video Tools
Video is the hardest content type to produce at scale, and also the one where AI tools have made the biggest practical difference. These tools handle editing, captions, background music, and even script-to-video conversion — several without adding a watermark on free exports.
10. CapCut AI
Free plan: Full video editor with AI features. Most exports are watermark-free on the free plan. No hard length limit on most videos.
Watermark on free exports: No (for standard exports).
Best use: Short-form social video for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. CapCut also handles longer YouTube videos well. Auto-captions, background removal, and AI voice cloning are available on the free tier — features that would cost $30–$50 per month on dedicated tools.
Quality: Excellent. CapCut is widely considered the most capable free AI video editor in 2026, subsidized by ByteDance’s enterprise revenue.
11. Canva Video AI
Free plan: Video creation and editing tools with AI features. Usage counts toward Canva’s monthly AI limit (200 Standard uses).
Watermark on free exports: No.
Best use: Social media video posts, presentation-style videos, and simple animated graphics. Canva Video is less powerful than CapCut for editing, but far easier for creators who want to turn a Canva design into a short animated clip without switching apps.
AI Audio and Podcast Tools
Audio content — podcasts, voiceovers, video narration — used to require a proper studio or an expensive freelancer. These three free tools handle most of what creators need: voice generation, transcription, and audio cleanup.
12. ElevenLabs
Free plan: 10,000 characters per month (roughly 10 minutes of audio) and up to 3 custom voices.
Watermark on free audio: No audio watermark, but commercial rights are not included on the free tier. Attribution to ElevenLabs is required.
Best use: Voiceovers for short YouTube videos or social content, podcast intros, and audiobook samples. The voice quality on the free tier is genuinely excellent — indistinguishable from human narration in most cases.
13. Adobe Podcast AI (Enhance)
Free plan: Free to use with an Adobe account. Limited by file size and duration per upload.
Watermark on free exports: No.
Commercial use: Yes.
Best use: Cleaning up audio recorded in a noisy environment. Adobe Podcast Enhance removes background noise, hum, and reverb from a recorded voice file in seconds. Upload a rough recording, and it comes back sounding like a professional studio take. This is one of the most underrated free tools in this entire list.
14. Otter.ai
Free plan: 300 transcription minutes per month, with a 30-minute cap per individual conversation.
Best use: Transcribing interviews, meetings, podcast recordings, and lectures. Otter’s automated summary feature is particularly useful for podcast creators who want to turn a 45-minute conversation into a five-point show notes document without listening back to the full recording.
AI Social Media Tools
Scheduling content across multiple platforms is one of the most time-consuming parts of a content workflow. These two tools handle it on the free tier, along with AI-generated captions and hashtag suggestions.
Buffer AI
Free plan: 3 social channels, up to 10 posts per channel in queue, and basic AI caption generation.
Platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, TikTok.
Best use: Solo creators and small businesses who want a simple, reliable free scheduler without analytics complexity. Buffer’s AI caption suggestions are functional rather than impressive — they give you a starting point, not a finished post.
Metricool AI
Free plan: 1 brand, 50 posts per month, and AI-powered post suggestions across 6 platforms.
Platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube.
Best use: Creators who want both scheduling and basic analytics on the free tier. Metricool shows you post performance, best times to publish, and competitor benchmarks — all without paying. For the free plan, it is the most capable social media tool on this list.
AI SEO and Research Tools
Good content needs to be found. These three tools help with keyword research, content planning, and on-page optimization — at least enough to inform a solid strategy without a paid SEO subscription.
Perplexity AI
Free plan: Unlimited searches with core models, web search integration, and file uploads (5MB per file, 3 per day).
Best use: Research for blog posts, finding what questions your audience is actually asking, analyzing competitor content angles, and building content outlines based on real-time search data. Perplexity cites every source, which makes fact-checking faster and more reliable than using a standard chatbot for research.
Surfer SEO (Free Features)
Free plan: Limited free audits and a basic SERP analyzer.
Best use: Running a quick content audit on an existing post, or getting a rough sense of how your content compares to top-ranking competitors before publishing. The free tier is very limited, but the specific data it provides (keyword recommendations, content score) is genuinely useful for a quick health check.
Semrush AI (Free Tier)
Free plan: 10 queries per day for keyword research and competitor analysis.
Best use: Spot-checking keyword difficulty and search volume before writing a new post. Ten queries per day is enough for a focused research session if you know what you’re looking for. It is not enough for deep keyword strategy — but as a quick validation tool, it does the job for free.
The Complete Free Content Creation Workflow (Step-by-Step)
Most tool lists stop at the list. Here is what the lists leave out: how to actually combine these tools into a repeatable workflow that produces a week’s worth of content without paying for anything.
The following seven-step process takes a blog post from idea to multi-platform distribution using only free tools. In practice, this workflow saves roughly 8–10 hours per content campaign.
| Step | Task | Free Tool | Output | Time Saved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Research & topic planning | Perplexity AI | Topic list + keyword ideas | ~2 hours |
| 2 | Draft the blog post | Claude | 2,000+ word article draft | ~3 hours |
| 3 | SEO optimize the draft | Surfer SEO (free audit) | Keyword recommendations + content score | ~1 hour |
| 4 | Create featured image | Canva AI or Leonardo AI | Blog header image | ~30 min |
| 5 | Repurpose into social posts | ChatGPT | LinkedIn post + Twitter thread + Instagram caption | ~1 hour |
| 6 | Create short-form video | CapCut AI | 60-second Reel or Short | ~2 hours |
| 7 | Schedule social posts | Metricool AI | 7-day publishing schedule | ~30 min |
How Each Step Works in Practice
Step 1 — Research with Perplexity AI: Start every piece of content by searching your topic in Perplexity. Unlike ChatGPT, Perplexity searches the live web and cites every source, which means you get current information with links to verify. Use it to find what questions people are actually asking and which angles competitors haven’t covered yet.
Step 2 — Draft with Claude: Paste your research notes and outline into Claude and ask it to write a full draft. Claude handles long-form content better than most free tools because it maintains context and tone across thousands of words without losing coherence. A solid prompt gets you a 2,000-word draft in under two minutes.
Step 3 — Optimize with Surfer SEO: Run the draft through Surfer’s free content audit. Even the free tier gives you a content score and a list of recommended keywords you may have missed. Add these naturally to the draft before publishing.
Step 4 — Create visuals with Canva AI or Leonardo AI: Generate your featured image using Canva’s Magic Media (for a template-based result) or Leonardo AI (for a more detailed, custom image). Both are free, both produce no watermarks, and both allow commercial use.
Step 5 — Repurpose with ChatGPT: Paste your published blog post into ChatGPT and ask it to generate platform-specific social content: a LinkedIn article excerpt, a Twitter thread, and an Instagram caption. This turns one piece of content into five or six without writing anything new.
Step 6 — Film with CapCut AI: Record yourself talking through the three main points of your blog post (even on a phone), then edit in CapCut. Use the auto-caption feature, add background music from CapCut’s free library, and trim to 45–60 seconds. The result is a Reel or Short that drives traffic back to the original post.
Step 7 — Schedule with Metricool AI: Load all your social posts into Metricool’s free scheduler, set the times based on Metricool’s “best time to post” suggestions, and let the tool publish automatically across all platforms.
Best Free Tool by Content Type (Quick Reference)
If you want one tool per category rather than a full workflow, here is the short answer for each content type:
| Content Type | Best Free Tool | Why It Wins |
|---|---|---|
| General writing | ChatGPT | Best overall quality + most features on free tier |
| Long-form articles | Claude | Best coherence across 2,000+ word drafts |
| Images (general) | Canva AI | Easiest + commercial-safe + template library |
| Images (quality-first) | Leonardo AI | 30 high-quality images per day, no watermark |
| Short-form video | CapCut AI | No watermark, full AI editor, excellent quality |
| Audio cleanup | Adobe Podcast AI | Best noise reduction of any free tool |
| Transcription | Otter.ai | 300 minutes/month, automatic summaries |
| Social scheduling | Metricool AI | 50 posts/month across 6 platforms |
| Research & SEO | Perplexity AI | Unlimited searches with cited, real-time sources |
When to Upgrade From Free to Paid
Free tools are genuinely enough for most individual creators. However, there are four specific situations where upgrading makes practical sense.
You’re hitting daily or monthly limits before finishing your work. If you regularly run out of ChatGPT messages before completing a project, or Canva AI credits before finishing your content batch, the free tier is no longer saving you time — it’s costing it. Upgrading to remove those limits pays for itself quickly.
You need commercial rights to audio or voice. ElevenLabs’s free tier produces excellent audio but does not grant commercial rights. If you’re monetizing a podcast, YouTube channel, or client video, you need the paid tier — or a different tool.
You need watermark-free video exports from a text-to-video tool. CapCut’s free exports are clean, but more advanced tools like InVideo AI add a watermark on free. If you need the text-to-video features of these platforms for published work, upgrading is the only real option.
You need brand voice consistency across a team. Free tiers rarely include saved brand voices or team collaboration features. As a result, if you are managing content for a team or client, tools like Jasper (Creator plan) or Copy.ai (Pro) become worth the cost purely for consistency and time saved on rewrites.
FAQ: Free AI Tools for Content Creation
What are the best free AI tools for content creation?
The best free AI tools for content creation in 2026 are ChatGPT (general writing), Claude (long-form articles), Canva AI (images and graphics), CapCut AI (video editing), Adobe Podcast Enhance (audio), Metricool AI (social scheduling), and Perplexity AI (research). All offer genuinely usable free tiers with no credit card required.
Is there a truly free AI content generator?
Yes. ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini are all truly free — no credit card, no trial countdown. They provide access to capable AI models with rate limits, but the free allowance is enough for blog posts, social captions, and email content. Bing Image Creator is also genuinely free for image generation with no visible watermark.
What AI tools are free for writing content?
The best free AI writing tools are ChatGPT (excellent quality, long-form support), Claude (best for 2,000+ word articles), Google Gemini (ideal for Google Workspace users), Copy.ai (free tier for short-form copy), and Writesonic (2,500–5,000 free words per month for articles). All are accessible without a paid plan.
What AI tools are free for image generation?
The best free AI image generators are Canva AI (200 uses per month, commercial-safe), Adobe Firefly (25 credits per month, commercially safe, no watermark), Bing Image Creator (15 boosts per week, then slower but unlimited), and Leonardo AI (150 tokens per day, roughly 30 high-quality images). None of these add watermarks on the free tier.
What AI tools are free for video editing?
CapCut AI is the strongest free AI video editor — no watermark, no hard length limit, full editing features, and excellent AI auto-captions. Canva Video AI is a solid alternative for creators already using Canva. More advanced text-to-video tools like InVideo AI include a watermark on free exports, which limits their usefulness for published content.
Can I use free AI tools commercially?
It depends on the specific tool and content type. Canva AI, Adobe Firefly, and Bing Image Creator allow commercial use of generated images on the free tier. ElevenLabs and Descript do not grant commercial rights for audio on free plans. ChatGPT’s free tier allows commercial use of text but not DALL·E-generated images. Always verify current terms before using AI-generated content in commercial projects.
What free AI tools do YouTubers use?
YouTubers commonly combine ChatGPT (scripts), Claude (video outlines and long-form research), Canva AI (thumbnails), CapCut AI (editing), and Otter.ai or Adobe Podcast AI (transcription and audio cleanup). Together, these five free tools cover the full YouTube content workflow from scripting to final export.
What free AI tools work best for small businesses?
For small businesses, the most practical free stack is: Google Gemini (writing inside Google Workspace), Canva AI (branded graphics), Metricool AI (social media scheduling), Perplexity AI (market and competitor research), and Adobe Podcast Enhance (if you record any audio content). This combination covers content creation, visual design, social distribution, and research — all at zero cost.
Final Thoughts
The best free AI tools for content creation in 2026 are genuinely powerful — not just technically, but practically. A solo creator using ChatGPT, Claude, Canva AI, CapCut, and Metricool can produce and distribute a week of multi-platform content in two to three hours without spending a dollar.
The key is being clear about what “free” actually means for each tool. Some tools offer unlimited free access; others give you enough to do meaningful work within a monthly cap; and a few are trials dressed up as free plans. The 15 tools in this guide all fall into the first two categories.
Start with the tool that solves your most immediate problem. If writing is the bottleneck, start with ChatGPT or Claude. Or visuals are the problem, open a free Canva account today. If you’re drowning in video editing time, CapCut is the fastest fix on this list. Add more tools as your workflow grows, and upgrade only when the free tier genuinely stops being enough.
→ Pick the one tool that solves your biggest bottleneck right now and try it today. All 15 tools above are free to sign up for from your browser.
Last updated: May 2026 | NerdyAI.co — Geeking out on AI tools so you don’t have to.
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