Toolradar Research
AI agents software statistics 2026
First-party data on the 913 AI Agents tools Toolradar tracks: 8.6% of the catalog, 903 added in 2026, 57% with a free path, and a $29 median entry price. The category is huge. Not all 913 rows are autonomous agents.
Founder, Toolradar & Dupple
Key findings
What the data shows.
- 01
913 published AI Agents tools, 8.6% of the 10,656-tool Toolradar directory. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026.)
- 02
903 of those 913 records, 99%, were added to the directory in 2026. That is a createdAt fact, not a claim that 99% of agent vendors launched this year. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026.)
- 03
520 tools (57%) offer a free path. 393 (43%) are strictly paid. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026.)
- 04
Among 248 tools with a numeric monthly entry price, the median is $29. The mean is $202 because a few enterprise rows pull it up. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026.)
- 05
333 rated tools hold 135,334 aggregated third-party reviews. Review-weighted average 4.31. Unweighted 4.38. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026.)
- 06
The catalog-wide free-tier share is 55% (5,824 of 10,656). AI Agents sits 2 points above that line. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026.)
About the research
How we built this report.
Toolradar tool database. Editorial review with weekly pricing verification.
2026. Snapshot taken September 21, 2026. Refresh due Dec 21, 2026.
Public scoring rubric. See how we rate for the full criteria.
Creative Commons BY 4.0. Quote, link, and reuse with attribution.
How large the category is
AI Agents is the sixth-largest category we publish, behind Productivity (1,752), Developer Tools (1,751), AI Assistants (1,457), Analytics (1,260), and AI & Automation (1,058). 913 tools is 8.6% of the directory.
"AI Agents" in this catalog is a wide net. Voice agents, RPA, support bots, computer-use browsers, and 2026-style autonomous loops share the same tag. That is why ActiveCampaign (17,363 reviews) and UiPath (8,494) sit on the most-reviewed list next to newer computer-use products. The headcount is real. The product definition is not tight. Treat 913 as "tools we filed under this category," not as 913 drop-in shopping agents.
How AI Agents tools are priced
This is slightly more free than the catalog, not a free-for-all.
n = 913 tools, September 21, 2026How AI Agents tools are priced
520 of 913 (57%) offer a free, freemium, or open-source path. 393 (43%) are strictly paid. Across the whole catalog, 55% of tools offer some free access (AI tools statistics). AI Agents is two points above that line. Analytics is the opposite pattern: 36% free on the September 21 dump (456 of 1,260).
The median published entry price is $29 a month, measured on 248 tools that expose a numeric monthly tier. The mean is $202. That gap is the tell: most listed entry prices cluster near $20 to $40, and a thin enterprise tail inflates the average. Do not budget $202.
How AI Agents tools are rated
333 of 913 tools carry a rating (36% of the category), on 135,334 reviews. Coverage is thin because 99% of the file is a 2026 add: third-party profiles have not caught up. Review-weighted mean 4.31. Unweighted 4.38.
Highest-rated tools with at least 500 aggregated reviews:
| # | Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Retell AI | 4.80 | 1,472 |
| 2 | Insider | 4.80 | 1,303 |
| 3 | Navattic | 4.80 | 1,095 |
| 4 | Vanta | 4.70 | 2,722 |
| 5 | Stampli | 4.70 | 2,476 |
Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026. The 500-review floor is the same rule as /statistics.
Most reviewed:
| Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| ActiveCampaign | 4.50 | 17,363 |
| Lucid Train | 4.50 | 8,828 |
| UiPath | 4.50 | 8,494 |
| Dialpad | 4.20 | 7,931 |
| Automation Anywhere | 4.50 | 5,839 |
Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026.
ActiveCampaign and UiPath on a page titled "AI agents" is the category-width problem in one table. They are real products with real review piles. They are not what a buyer means when they ask for a 2026 shopping or computer-use agent. The specialist satisfaction row (Retell, Navattic) is closer to that job.
Review volume by platform:
| Review platform | Tools with a profile | Aggregated reviews |
|---|---|---|
| G2 | 313 | 106,975 |
| Trustpilot | 35 | 13,731 |
| Capterra | 78 | 12,182 |
| SourceForge | 42 | 2,202 |
| PeerSpot | 15 | 198 |
| TrustRadius | 5 | 46 |
Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026.
G2 holds 106,975 of the 135,334 reviews, 79% of the pile.
What this is not
This page does not claim 913 autonomous agents launched in 2026. It claims 913 published Toolradar records currently sit in the AI Agents category, 903 of them created this year, and 57% of the set offer a free path. Name-match MCP servers are a different cut: MCP servers statistics. Free-tier share across categories is which software categories are actually free.
Methodology and sources
Every figure is computed from the Toolradar directory on September 21, 2026, published tools only. Ratings and review counts are aggregated across G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, SourceForge, PeerSpot, and TrustRadius. They are not Toolradar's own reviews. Added in 2026 means the record createdAt, not the vendor launch date. Median entry price is the minimum numeric priceMonthly across published tiers, then the median of those minima, n = 248. Live counters move as the directory grows; this article is a dated snapshot.
Cite this report
Use the data, credit the source.
Released under Creative Commons BY 4.0. You may quote, link, and reuse the data with attribution.
More research
Software pricing changes we will not print yet
As of September 21, 2026 the Toolradar pricing tracker holds 536 proposed diffs and zero applied changes. 52 of those proposals share one copied before-state. This page does not quote a new list price from that queue.
Which stores block which AI shopping agents
A dated access log, not a ranking. As of September 21, 2026 Amazon blocks Meta Muse on Amazon.com. A Ninth Circuit order on August 4 vacated the injunction that had barred Perplexity Comet. Wizard's named native checkout is still Best Buy.
Coding assistants that uploaded the workspace
A dated incident log. In September 2026 Z.ai's ZCode was reported to package a local workspace, including git history, and upload it while the user was logged in. The 313 MB and 564-attempt figures are one developer's machine, not an industry total.