FWIW, Since some of you asked, I wanted to share the various AI tools that I currently pay for
If readers have other AI tools that you think are worthwhile paying for, please let the collective know.
Many readers may not realise that it is not possible in Hong Kong where I reside to create end-user or developer accounts of OpenAI, Gemini, Clause by their respective organisations Only when connected to chat.openai.com via a VPN to an endpoint outside of HK can one create a free account at OpenAI
If you want to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus or Claude then you need a credit card which isn't issued by a Hong Kong bank.
For Gemini and in particular AI Studio, you need a Google account which isn’t a HK account which itself is a big effort. You can get access to Gemini if you are Google Workspace (GWS) Enterprise (or maybe a lower tier also works). However, even if you are Google Enterprise then you still need to VPN to access NotebookLM.
Paid access to developer API’s of OpenAI and Anthropic API’s via their respective platforms also are not possible to be paid with HK issued credit cards
For developer access to various API’s, therefore my goto is OpenRouter but recently Vercel’s AI Gateway has also caught my eye and I’m researching pros and cons
The reasons for lack of access to AI models and their frontends are speculated to be geopolitics considerations between the United States and China and for various services Hong Kong is now considered equivalent to China
So if you are an existing ChatGPT/ChatGPT Plus and/or a Gemini/Claude user and visiting Hong Kong (I, for one, welcome our tourist overlords and their tourist dollars 😃 ) remember that you will have to enable a VPN and connect to an endpoint outside of HK to use those services
Whilst I’m grateful that I consider myself relatively privileged enough to be able to access to ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro and even Gemini (via my organisation’s GWS setup) and therefore able to use them, I feel for the vast majority of my fellow Hong Kong citizens and residents. I’ve not listed these below though
Therefore I tend to look out for wrappers of LLM’s that I can use without a VPN as well as recommend to friends and associates in Hong Kong
| Tool | Price | Short explanation of the tool |
|---|---|---|
| [Perplexity](https://perplexity.ai/pro?referral_code=3GSLJ2WN**](https://perplexity.ai/pro?referral_code=3GSLJ2WN) | USD 20/month | |
| USD 200/yr | Perplexity AI is an answer/research engine that uses AI to provide accurate answers to user queries by gathering information from web in real-time then reasoning through the question and providing the answer. Perplexity Pro which is the paid subscription gives me access to multiple LLM’s (4o, o3, 4.0-Sonnet, R1, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Grok v3, ) as well as ability to search on image/file uploads. Invaluable for research. Pace of shipping by the team is relentless. Read below for social signals from A-listers. Available via Web, iOS, Android, native MacOS/Windows app | |
| poe.com | USD 20/month | |
| USD 200/yr | Wrapper over many AI model both text and image generation, very rapid integration of new models. Switched to yearly plan | |
| Bearly | USD 20/month | |
| USD 200/yr | Bearly AI is a multiple platform desktop app [Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS] which wraps various LLM’s. It provides for the ability for users to create and store custom prompts which can be applied to chats, documents (in effect, a RAG [retrival augmented generation] tool. | |
| It also provides interfaces to transcription services powered by Whisper as well as image generation services powered by Flux | ||
| There are overlaps with poe.com but the community and dev team intrigue me enough to keep me invested into their vision. | ||
| MacWhisper Pro | Euro 20 one-time | MacWhisper is a macOS application that uses OpenAI's Whisper technology to transcribe audio files into text locally on your device, ensuring privacy and security |
| Whilst the free version could work for me, I think ethically and given the cost , its was worth paying for the Pro version. Relentless updates by the developer. I’m now able to send transcripts to LLM’s via openrouter.ai. As features are added, price has been increased by the developer. I purchased it when it was version 3. | ||
| Eightify | USD 36/yr | Generates summaries for Youtube videos. Chrome extension. Combined with Youtube Premium this lets me consume YT content at a much faster pace. |
| Replit | USD 120/yr | Replit is a cloud-based, AI-powered platform that enables users to build, deploy, and share software applications directly from their web browser, without the need for any local setup or installation. Originally launched in 2016 as an online integrated development environment (IDE), Replit has evolved into a comprehensive software creation ecosystem that leverages artificial intelligence to make programming and app development accessible to everyone, regardless of technical background |
In terms of AI agents which augment development capabilities when I require it on a laptop/desk then I switch between Cline and Kilocode
Recently I’ve been experiencng some pain in my wrists so I'm also investigating dictation tools such as Aqua Voice, Wispr Flow, SuperWhisper, even MacWhisper has a dictation mode. Nothing I've really found which is really awesome. My current favorite seems to be Aqua Voice. this specific paragraph is being typed via dictation with Aqua Voice. PS. I made minor edits and ofcourse added the links which in full disclosure are referral links for Aqua Voice and Wispr Flow
Since the nature of my work does not always involve generatiing art in the form of static images, motion design, video. I keep abreast of such tools (eg, Midjourney, Adobe Creative Suite, Scenario, Layer, Capsule) but don’t actively seek subscriptions to them