How To Build An App With AI For FREE (No Experience Required)

🚀 Join my community to build and launch your AI app today @ https://www.skool.com/aiapps 💡 Get 100s of validated app ideas and the prompts to build them @ https://readytobuild.app/ In this video I break down how you can build an app with AI completely free using these 5 AI tools. If you've been put off by subscription costs for Lovable, Bolt or Replit, then this is the video for you. I walk through the tools we'll use to build, and how to build completely free using Gemini 3 in the Google Gemini CLI, and Convex Chef to get your project started, along with deploying via Vercel. Chapters: 0:00 — Intro: build any app for free with 5 tools ​⁠ 1:02 — The goal: unlimited AI usage without paid subs ​⁠ 2:11 — Tech stack overview: front end, backend, DB, auth, AI, deploy ​⁠ 3:18 — Front end options: Vite/Next.js, React Native, Electron/Tauri ​⁠ 3:48 — Backend/DB/Auth with Convex (+ why vs Supabase) ​⁠ 4:42 — AI via OpenRouter: free models, easy swapping ​⁠ 5:17 — Deploy on Vercel (connected to Convex) ​⁠ 5:31 — When you’ll need to pay (users, high usage) ​⁠ 6:09 — Gemini CLI free limits (1,000 requests/day) ​⁠ 6:41 — Step-by-step build starting in Convex ​⁠ 7:35 — Using Chef to scaffold a web app ​⁠ 8:24 — Supabase vs Convex: free project limits ​⁠ 12:08 — Download code from Chef and switch to local dev ​⁠ 13:16 — Open project in Cursor (or VS Code) ​⁠ 14:01 — Gemini CLI basics: slash commands, init, modes ​⁠ 16:04 — Run locally: npm install + npm run dev ​⁠ 18:05 — Connect GitHub and deploy via Vercel ​⁠ 18:39 — Project summary file (Gemini.md) ​⁠ 20:14 — Build features with Gemini CLI (example: AI categorization) ​⁠ 21:10 — OpenRouter setup: API keys and free models ​⁠ 22:20 — Tradeoffs vs paid tools; still free path ​⁠ 22:24 — Full recap: tools and workflow end-to-end ​⁠ 23:51 — Outro Key points: - I walk through the tech stack to building apps completely free - I break down how to use Convex and the Google Gemini CLI - I walk through when you would need to start paying - I explain how to deploy you app for free using Vercel Follow me on social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashbychris/ https://x.com/chris_bgp