GoldieBench Blog · 9 min read
Is A Free Skool Community Worth It? Six Free Groups Checked, How Skool Works, And The Models Members Build With
Is a free Skool community worth joining? My free pick, 5 more verified free groups, how Skool works, what creators pay and the AI models to build with.
A free Skool community is worth joining if you pick one that matches your goal, and the one I would join first is AI Money Lab.
I run AI Money Lab myself, so please weigh that pick knowing it is mine.
It costs nothing to join, and its public about page showed a Free label and 93.3k members on 14 October 2026.
A free Skool community is a group on the Skool platform that gives you a course, a feed of people and a calendar of events without charging you.
This post names six free groups I verified today, explains how free groups work, and shows what Skool charges if you want to create your own.
Near the end, I also show how the AI models people build agents with score on this site, because that is the question a bench reader asks next.
Six free Skool communities, verified today
| # | Free Skool community | Run by | Topic | Label on 14 Oct 2026 | Members shown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI Money Lab (mine) | Julian Goldie | AI, AI agents and AI SEO | Free | 93.3k |
| 2 | AI Automation Society | Nate Herk | AI automation and Claude Code | Free | 470.4k |
| 3 | AI Automation Agency Hub | Morningside Education | AI agencies | Free | 336.1k |
| 4 | Skoolers | Sam Ovens | Building a Skool community | Free | 152.5k |
| 5 | Synthesizer | Andrew Kirby | Teaching on Skool | Free | 47.1k |
| 6 | Unison Producer Growth Hub | Unison | Music production | Free | 49.8k |
Every label and member figure in that table comes from the group's own public about page on the day I checked.
My own community is first because this is my list on my own site, and I would rather tell you that plainly.
I have not taken the lessons inside the other five groups, so I only describe what their public pages state.
What a free Skool community is
Skool is a platform where a creator runs a community and a course in the same place.
A free Skool community is a Skool group whose owner charges members nothing.
You join from the group's public about page, which shows a Free label, the member count and the name of the owner.
Some groups are public, which means anyone can read the feed before joining.
Other groups are private, which means the owner or the team accepts you first.
A private group can still be free, and four of the six groups in my table are both private and free.
How a free Skool community works inside
| Part of Skool | What it is | Why it matters in a free group |
|---|---|---|
| Community | It is the feed where members post questions, wins and updates. | You can ask a real person when you get stuck. |
| Classroom | It holds the courses, organised into modules and lessons. | The free training lives here, so I open it first. |
| Calendar | It lists live events such as calls. | It shows you how active the group is. |
| Map | It shows where members are in the world. | You can find people who live near you. |
Most groups also have Members, Leaderboards and About tabs.
One Skool account works for every community, so joining a second group takes a single click.
A free group and a paid group use exactly the same features, and the only difference is the price the owner sets.
What each free Skool community offers
1. AI Money Lab
AI Money Lab is my free community for people who want to use AI in a business.Its about page lists free AI courses, 50+ free AI tools, 200+ ChatGPT SEO prompts and 1,000+ n8n workflows.
The page also says the training comes as video, audio, PDF and a printable version.
2. AI Automation Society
Nate Herk runs AI Automation Society, and it is a public group.
Its about page lists free Claude Code skills, GitHub repos, resource guides and 100+ n8n templates.
It also describes a 7-day challenge to build an AI executive assistant with Claude Code.
3. AI Automation Agency Hub
Morningside Education runs AI Automation Agency Hub, and the team says it also runs an AI agency called Morningside AI.
Its about page lists step-by-step resources, templates and playbooks for people starting an AI agency.
4. Skoolers
Sam Ovens runs Skoolers, and the page calls it a private club for Skool owners.
It lists training on starting a community, weekly news calls, a member map and meetups around the world.
5. Synthesizer
Andrew Kirby runs Synthesizer, and the page says it helps educators use Skool.
It lists the Synthesizer Roadmap course and weekly Skool growth coaching calls, and the page marks both as free.
6. Unison Producer Growth Hub
The Unison Producer Growth Hub is a free community for music producers.
Its about page lists five hours of free course videos, 3.5GB of free samples and presets, and project templates.
I added a music group on purpose, because a free Skool community does not have to be about AI or business.
Is a free Skool community worth your time?
My honest answer is yes, as long as you treat it like something you paid for.
| Question | What you get in a free Skool community | What you should not expect |
|---|---|---|
| Training | You get the courses the owner chose to make free. | You should not expect every lesson the owner has ever made. |
| People | You get a large feed with many members. | You should not expect a personal reply to every post in a very large group. |
| Live help | You get whatever events the owner puts in the calendar. | You should not expect weekly one-to-one coaching for free. |
| Cost | You pay nothing to join. | You should not expect it to cost you no time. |
A free group is the lowest-risk way to learn a skill with other people around you.
The main cost is attention, because it is easy to join five groups and finish nothing.
I recommend joining one free Skool community, finishing its first course and only then looking at a second.
I would also walk away from any group that guarantees an income or asks you to pay outside Skool.
How to join a free Skool community
First, open the group's about page and confirm that it shows a Free label today.
Second, read the description so you know what you get and who runs it.
Third, press the join button and create a Skool account with your email.
Fourth, answer the membership questions if the group asks any.
Fifth, wait to be accepted if the group is private.
Sixth, open the Classroom tab and start with the welcome course.
Seventh, post a short introduction that says what you are trying to build.
Owners can change a group's price, which is why the first step matters every time.
How to find more free Skool communities
Skool has a public directory at skool.com/discovery, and you can browse it without logging in.
The page is headed "Discover communities or create your own".
It has category tabs for Trending, Hobbies, Music, Money, Spirituality, Tech, Health, Sports, Self-improvement and Relationships.
A Filter button offers Type, Price and Language options.
When you set the Price option to Free, the page lists free groups only.
Each card shows the group's name, a short description, the member count and either a Free label or a monthly price.
A star rating appears on a card when the group has reviews.
I would shortlist three groups from the cards and read each about page before joining one.
Can you create a Skool community for free?
Joining is free, but creating your own group is a different question.
I read Skool's pricing page on 14 October 2026, and this is exactly what it shows.
| What the pricing page shows | Hobby | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $9 a month | $99 a month |
| Transaction fee | 10% | 2.9% |
| Members, courses, videos and live calls | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Button on the page | Try for free | Try for free |
The page's own description says you can get started for $9 a month with a 14-day free trial and cancel anytime.
The yearly option on the page is labelled as two months free.
I did not see a permanently free creator plan on that page.
So you can open a community without paying on day one, and it becomes a paid plan when the trial ends.
You can still let your members join for free, which is how all six groups above work.
Skool can change its pricing, so please read the page yourself before you decide.
Ready to go further? The AI Profit Boardroom (paid)
Everything above this heading is free, and this section is about a paid community.
The AI Profit Boardroom is my paid Skool community, and it has 3,400+ members.
It runs four coaching calls a week, so you can ask about your own project and get an answer live.
The classroom includes my installable Agent OS, which is the dashboard I use to run a crew of AI agents under one shared memory.
It also has courses on Hermes Agent, Grok Bot, DeepSeek Harness, Claude Opus 5.5 and Jev AI.
FatRank named it the #1 AI community after testing 27 communities.
It is a paid community, and the current price is on its about page.
My advice is to start free, prove to yourself that you will do the work, and pay for coaching when you need faster answers.
I rank paid and free groups together in my best Skool courses post.
The AI models people build agents with, and how they score here
This last section is for readers who join an AI community and then ask which model to use.
A Skool community is a group of people and a set of lessons, so no community on this page has a GoldieBench score.
What this site can show you is how the AI models behind those lessons perform on real one-shot builds.
GoldieBench scores each model's rendered builds from 0 to 10.
These are live averages for models I use and teach with, including two that are free to run on your own machine.
| Model | Maker | Live GoldieBench average | Why it matters to someone starting free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5 | Anthropic | 8.27 | It is a paid frontier model from the Claude family that Claude Code runs on. |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | OpenAI | 8.16 | It is a paid flagship that I use for the hardest tasks. |
| Kimi K3 | Moonshot AI | 7.89 | It handles a lot of the builds in my Agent OS. |
| GLM-5.2 | Zhipu / Z.ai | 7.77 | Its model page lists open weights that are free for individuals. |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Anthropic | 7.57 | It is the newest Claude on the board. |
| Qwable 5 27B Coder | DJLougen | 7.14 | It is free and runs locally, so it suits a free learning setup on a strong Mac. |
| Gemma 4 12B MLX | 3.98 | It is free and runs locally, and I list it so you can see an honest score for a small local model. |
Scores move as I re-test models, so check the live model page before you choose.
The local models board ranks everything you can run offline for free.
You can put models side by side on the compare page, and the scoring rules are on the methodology page.
My honest view is that the model matters less than the method you learn and the people you learn it with.
That is why I would join a free community first and choose a model second.
If you want a free course to follow next, read my best free AI agent course post or how to learn AI agents for free.
If you want to see the interface my members install, read my post on the best UI for Hermes Agent.
Also On Our Network
- Agent Operatorshow to find, check and join a free Skool community step by step
- AI Income Deskhow business owners and creators use a free Skool community
- AI Tool Verdictmy verdict table on six free Skool communities
- agentos.guidehow a free Skool community fits an Agent OS workflow
- aiprofitboardroom.comJulian's guide to the best free Skool community for AI learners
Pick one group, finish its first course and show up for the people in it, and you will get real value from a free Skool community.
FAQ
Is a free Skool community worth joining?
Yes, if it matches your goal and you actually do the lessons. A free group gives you training, people to ask and events without any money at risk, and the main cost is your time.
What is the best free Skool community?
Julian Goldie's pick is AI Money Lab, which is his own community and showed a Free label and 93.3k members on 14 October 2026. He also verified AI Automation Society, AI Automation Agency Hub, Skoolers, Synthesizer and Unison Producer Growth Hub as free that day.
How do I find free Skool communities?
Open Skool's public discovery page, press the Filter button and set the Price option to Free. Each card shows the member count and a Free label or a price.
Can I create a Skool community for free?
Skool's pricing page showed a Hobby plan at $9 a month with a 10% transaction fee and a Pro plan at $99 a month with a 2.9% transaction fee on 14 October 2026, and its description mentions a 14-day free trial. There was no permanently free creator plan on the page.
Do Skool communities have GoldieBench scores?
No. GoldieBench scores AI models on one-shot builds, not communities. Models Julian uses and teaches with include Claude Opus 5 (8.27), GPT-5.6 Sol (8.16), Kimi K3 (7.89) and GLM-5.2 (7.77) on the live board.
What is the paid step after a free Skool community?
Julian's paid community is the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members, four coaching calls a week and his installable Agent OS. The current price is shown on its about page.
Keep reading
Hermes Herald AI Agent: Which Brain To Run It On, With Real GoldieBench Scores
Herald OS: What It Is, How To Set It Up, And Which Benchmarked Models To Run Under It
Hark AI Agent: What It Is, The Model Behind It, And How Those Brains Score On GoldieBench🌐 Sister-site take: read this on agentos.guide