Which AI agent should I use? A beginner's guide

TL;DR: Answer five questions — your task, the apps it must touch, where it should run, your skill level, and your budget — and the right AI agent becomes obvious. Or skip ahead and let the selector match you.

1. What's the task?

Start with the job to be done: email and scheduling, sales outreach, customer support, coding, research, or general assistant work. The task narrows the field fastest.

2. What apps must it connect to?

List your must-haves — Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Notion, HubSpot, GitHub. An agent is only useful if it works with the tools you already use.

3. Where should it run?

Cloud is easiest; your computer gives control; a VPS keeps it running 24/7. Beginners should start with cloud.

4. What's your skill level?

Be honest. No-code? Favor friendly cloud apps. Comfortable with a terminal and APIs? Open-source and developer tools open up.

5. What's your budget?

Decide if you want free/open-source, a low-cost plan, or are fine paying for convenience. Many great agents have free tiers to start.

Shortcut

You don't have to figure this out alone — the Agent Selector asks exactly these questions and returns honest, ranked matches with setup notes. Prefer to browse? See all agents.