Search for a free AI schematic generator and you will find a lot of free trials. We went through each vendor's pricing page in September 2026 and sorted the options into three groups: free with AI included, free because you bring your own AI, and paid or trial-only. Cherry Blossom closes the list as the paid pick, because it takes the schematic on to a checked board.
The best free AI schematic generator is ProtoFlow, a Mac desktop editor with a free plan that includes AI, needs no card and does not expire. tscircuit is MIT licensed and free if you already pay for a coding agent, and JITX is free for open-source designs under CERN OHL-P. Flux and Trace are trials for AI use, and Skimatly is a closed beta. KiCad is free forever, has no AI, and is where most of this output ends up.
Cherry Blossom is the paid pick if you want the board built and checked for you: you describe the circuit in plain English and get a schematic, a laid-out board and a manufacturing check, with the AI from $20 a month (its Free plan is the editor alone). See the plans.
We only called something free if you can keep generating schematics with AI, indefinitely, without entering a card. A 7-day or 14-day trial is useful for a test, but it is not free. Neither is a free editor where the AI is paid, even if the vendor's headline says free.
The grey area is bring-your-own-AI. tscircuit costs nothing, but the agent that writes the code for you does, unless you already pay for one. We list it as free and flag the catch.
The free options come first, ranked by how much you get for nothing. Cherry Blossom comes last, as the paid pick that goes from a sentence to a checked board.
Best for: A free AI schematic generator with nothing else to set up
Describe the circuit and ProtoFlow drafts a schematic with real parts and footprints, which you then edit by hand. Its site says the free plan needs no card, does not expire, and includes the full editor and AI features. Exports to KiCad, Altium, EAGLE, PADS and EDIF.
Best for: Developers with a coding agent already
An MIT-licensed framework that turns React/TypeScript code into schematics, PCBs, fab files and KiCad files. It is built for AI-written circuits: you tell your agent to use tscircuit. Free, but the agent is yours to pay for.
Best for: Open-source hardware projects and students
A code-based design tool where AI proposes edits to Python design code. The free plan is free indefinitely, but it requires designs under CERN OHL-P and is not compatible with proprietary or GPL designs.
Best for: Writing circuits as code, by hand or with a general coding agent
An open-source tool for designing electronics with code in its own .ato language, with an in-browser editor. The docs we read describe no built-in AI, and they warn it is under heavy development. It is here because code is something any coding agent can write.
Best for: Trying a full browser ECAD with an AI copilot
Flux's AI drafts schematics, picks parts from datasheets and runs checks. Its pricing page gives a two-week trial of premium features; after that the free plan lets you use public projects, and editing private projects, exporting and AI need a paid plan.
Best for: Testing prompt-to-board generation for a week
Trace generates multi-sheet schematics and routes the board. The trial is 7 days with $30 of AI credit, and needs a card.
Best for: Joining a waitlist for a schematic-only generator
Turns a sentence into an IEEE-style schematic, with KiCad and EasyEDA export. Closed beta; the waitlist needs only an email. Pricing is not announced.
Best for: The one worth paying for: a checked board from a sentence
You describe the board in plain English and an AI agent writes it as code, builds it, and shows you the schematic, PCB layout, 3D view and BOM. Footprints come from real part data, and a verification gate checks the board before you can order it. Export Gerbers, an editable KiCad project, a BOM and pick-and-place files, or open Circuit JSON.
ProtoFlow
Yes
No
Mac only; usage limits on AI
tscircuit
You bring the AI
No
You write or prompt code
JITX
Yes, for open source
No
Designs must be CERN OHL-P
atopile
No built-in AI
No
Pre-release, code only
Flux
Trial only
Not stated
AI and export are paid after 14 days
Trace
Trial only
Yes
7 days, $30 of credit
Skimatly
Unknown
No (waitlist)
Closed beta
KiCad
No AI
No
Free forever, draw by hand
Cherry Blossom
No
Yes
Free editor; AI from $20 a month
| AI free? | Card needed? | Catch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProtoFlow | Yes | No | Mac only; usage limits on AI |
| tscircuit | You bring the AI | No | You write or prompt code |
| JITX | Yes, for open source | No | Designs must be CERN OHL-P |
| atopile | No built-in AI | No | Pre-release, code only |
| Flux | Trial only | Not stated | AI and export are paid after 14 days |
| Trace | Trial only | Yes | 7 days, $30 of credit |
| Skimatly | Unknown | No (waitlist) | Closed beta |
| KiCad | No AI | No | Free forever, draw by hand |
| Cherry Blossom | No | Yes | Free editor; AI from $20 a month |
From each vendor's own pricing or product page, September 2026.
Because a schematic is only half the job, and Cherry Blossom does the other half too. The conversation that draws the schematic also lays out the board with footprints from real part data, runs a verification gate on every AI edit and produces Gerbers, a BOM and an editable KiCad project. See how it works on the prompt to PCB page.
Cherry Blossom's Free plan is the editor alone, to draw the schematic and board by hand. The AI is Pro's, at $20 a month with no API key to set up. If you only need a schematic drawing and your budget is zero, one of the free options above it is the better fit.
What it does not do. Cherry Blossom is an early beta. You change a board by asking the agent, not by dragging traces yourself, so fine manual layout happens after a KiCad export. It is not a circuit simulator, it has no real-time multi-user editing, and it is not built for high-speed or RF sign-off.
Generate the schematic with ProtoFlow or tscircuit, export it to KiCad (free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux), and lay out the board there. It costs nothing but your time. For free AI help on the layout side, see our list of free AI PCB design tools, and for paid generators ranked on output quality, see the best AI schematic generators.
tscircuit is on this list as a free option, so we checked what it produces with an AI agent at the keyboard. The agent built a 9 to 24 V in, 5 V at 3 A out supply with tscircuit on our own machine: the same tscircuit version and review tool that Cherry Blossom's agent uses. The final build took 73 seconds, with other boards building on the same machine. It had 0 design rule errors, and all 36 placed parts have LCSC part numbers. Nobody has manufactured it.
Even with a clean build and an outside review of the circuit, the agent's notes leave a person these jobs before ordering:
Check the fab's rotation and polarity for the diodes, the LED, the bulk capacitor and both MOSFETs against the printed cathode marks.
Confirm the 3.3 V regulator (LCSC C500795) is still in stock, or pick a substitute. Plan a successor for the supervisor chip too: its maker marks it not recommended for new designs.
Confirm on the part drawing that the screw terminals' wire entries face the board edges.
Decide whether the input needs automotive load-dump protection. The 400 W TVS diode on it is not sized for that.
After assembly, measure the loop gain and a load step, and check the catch diode's temperature at full load.
Run the fab's own DRC on the exported Gerbers.
Confirm on the bench that the board starts by 8.65 V and stays on down to 5.81 V at full load. The outside review found that the first version could fail to start from 9 V.
The quickest way to judge any of this is to describe a board and read what comes back: the schematic, the layout, and what the verification gate says about it. It runs in the browser, with the AI included from the Pro plan up.
Yes, and the best one is ProtoFlow, a Mac desktop editor whose site says the free plan needs no card, does not expire, and includes its AI features. tscircuit is MIT licensed and free, and works well if you already pay for a coding agent that can write the circuit as code. JITX is free for open-source designs under the CERN OHL-P licence, but not for proprietary work. Flux and Trace offer time-limited trials of their AI, and Skimatly is in closed beta. KiCad is free forever but has no AI. If you want the board as well as the schematic, Cherry Blossom is the paid alternative: you describe the circuit in plain English and get a schematic, a laid-out board and a manufacturing check, with the AI from $20 a month; its Free plan is the editor alone.
Not the AI. Flux has a free Explore plan, but its pricing page says that after a two-week trial, AI, exporting and editing private projects need a paid plan. You can use the editor for free; the AI costs money.
Yes, without the AI. The Free plan is the full editor, to draw the schematic and lay out the board by hand. The AI that generates them starts at Pro, with no API key needed.
Partly. A chatbot can write tscircuit or atopile code, which those tools then compile into a schematic. Nothing checks the parts or values for you, so review the result before you build anything.
Schematic, layout and a verification gate, in the browser. Exports to Gerbers and KiCad.
