TL;DR / Key Takeaways
- monday.com and ClickUp include AI from their $9 plans (billed yearly).
- Notion's full AI starts on Business at $20 a member; Plus gets only a trial.
- Linear includes its AI agent on every plan, free included.
- A 5-person team pays about $300 (Trello) to $1,200 (Notion Business) a year.
- Basecamp has no built-in AI but connects to ChatGPT and Claude.
Short answer: monday.com and ClickUp put AI in their cheapest paid plans ($9 a seat a month billed yearly on both, with monthly AI credits included). Asana includes AI Studio from Starter ($10.99). Notion keeps full AI (Notion Agent, meeting notes, enterprise search) for its $20 Business plan. Trello is the cheapest way to get AI help on boards ($5). For software teams, Linear includes its AI agent on every plan, free included. Updated October 30, 2026.
How we checked: plans, AI allowances and prices come from each vendor's own pricing page, read October 30, 2026. Several show monthly-billing prices only in the browser; where we could not read a figure, we say so. AI features change quickly and are metered differently by each vendor (credits, requests or actions), so compare what each plan includes rather than the raw numbers.
AI project management tools at a glance
| Tool | Free plan | Cheapest paid (per seat, billed yearly) | AI on that plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| monday.com | Up to 2 seats, 3 boards, no AI | Basic $9 | 1,000 AI credits a month; Sidekick assistant, AI agents (limited) |
| ClickUp | Unlimited members, 500 AI credits to try | Core $9 | 1,000 AI credits per user a month, pooled |
| Asana | Up to 2 users | Starter $10.99 ($13.49 monthly) | AI Teammates, AI Studio (50K credits a month) |
| Notion | Yes; AI as a limited trial | Plus $10 (billing basis not stated) | Trial only; full AI from Business ($20) |
| Trello | 10 boards, 10 collaborators, no AI | Standard $5 ($6 monthly) | AI capture, summaries and generated boards |
| Wrike | Free plan | Team $10 (2 to 15 users) | AI Essentials; Copilot and agents at no extra cost |
| Linear | Unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues | Basic $10 | Linear Agent and MCP on every plan; extra AI credits optional |
| Motion | Free trial only | Teams Pro AI $19 ($29 monthly) | 7,500 AI credits per seat a month |
| Basecamp | 1 project, 3 users | Flat $29/month for 5 users | No built-in AI; connect ChatGPT or Claude |
What a 5-person team pays per year
| Tool and plan | 5 seats for a year, billed yearly (our math) | AI included |
|---|---|---|
| Trello Standard | $300 | Yes |
| monday.com Basic | $540 | Yes, 1,000 credits a month |
| ClickUp Core | $540 | Yes, 5,000 credits a month pooled |
| Wrike Team | $600 | Yes |
| Linear Basic | $600 | Yes |
| Asana Starter | About $659 | Yes |
| Notion Business | $1,200 | Yes, full AI |
| Motion Teams Pro AI | $1,140 | Yes |
monday.com
monday.com puts AI on every paid plan: Basic ($9 a seat billed yearly) includes 1,000 AI credits a month, its Sidekick assistant, a limited AI agent workforce and the Vibe app builder; Standard ($12) adds an AI meeting notetaker and AI columns with 2,000 credits; Pro ($19) adds an AI workflow builder with 3,000. Its FAQ says plans start from 3 users and that yearly billing is 18% cheaper than monthly.
ClickUp
ClickUp's free plan has unlimited members and 500 AI credits to try ClickUp Brain. Paid plans include AI credits per user, pooled across the workspace: 1,000 on Core ($9 billed yearly), 1,500 on Business ($17) and 10,000 on MAX ($100). Credits cover Super Agents, AI fields and image generation, and extra credits cost $10 per 10,000.
Asana, Notion and the rest
- Asana: AI Teammates, Asana Dash and AI Studio start on Starter ($10.99 billed yearly), with 50,000 AI Studio credits a month; extra AI requests cost $0.50 to $0.60 each.
- Notion: best as a wiki and docs tool that also manages projects; full AI requires Business ($20).
- Trello: the cheapest AI help for simple boards, from $5 a user billed yearly.
- Linear: built for software teams; its AI agent and MCP are on every plan, the free one included.
- Motion: schedules your tasks onto your calendar automatically; no free plan.
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Which one to choose
- A business team that wants AI on boards, dashboards and automations: monday.com.
- One tool for tasks, docs and chat with AI across all of it: ClickUp.
- Cross-team projects and portfolios: Asana.
- Docs and wiki first, projects second: Notion Business.
- Software teams: Linear.
- Smallest budget: Trello Standard.
Want AI to schedule your week rather than your projects? See our AI meeting note takers and calendar assistant guides.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI project management tool?
monday.com and ClickUp both include AI in their cheapest paid plans ($9 a seat a month billed yearly) and suit most business teams; Asana suits cross-team portfolios; Linear suits software teams and includes its AI agent free; Notion is best if docs come first, with full AI on its $20 Business plan.
ClickUp or monday.com?
Both start at $9 a seat a month billed yearly with AI credits included. ClickUp pools 1,000 credits per user across the workspace and has a free plan with unlimited members; monday.com includes 1,000 credits a month on Basic, adds AI agents and a meeting notetaker on higher plans, and says plans start from 3 users.
Does Notion AI cost extra?
On Free and Plus, Notion AI is only a limited trial. Full AI, including Notion Agent, AI meeting notes and enterprise search, starts on the Business plan at $20 per member a month.
Which project management tool has free AI?
Linear includes its AI agent on every plan including Free, and ClickUp's free plan includes 500 AI credits to try ClickUp Brain. monday.com's and Trello's free plans have no AI.