How do I reach the next rank?
Next: L1 Apprentice (Apprentice Summoner, Trying it out)
Start by creating an account and saying hello once. All three services below are free to start.
- Create an account with one of Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini (if unsure, pick the one you can sign in to with the email or Google account you already use).
- Your first request can be small: "Suggest three dinner ideas for tonight" or "Rewrite this paragraph in plainer words" is plenty.
- Once a week, ask it to look something up or draft a piece of text. Don't take the answer on faith; make it a habit to check anything important against the source.
Three services you can start for free (as stated on each company's official pages on October 30, 2026; features and limits change)
ClaudeAnthropic
Tools for making documents and other work together with the AI (Artifacts, Docs, Slides, Design) are available on the free plan. Chat on the web or in the desktop and mobile apps.
What the free plan includes: Free ($0). Models: Sonnet and Haiku. Web search, file creation, code execution, memory across conversations, and connections to apps and tools. Usage limits reset every 5 hours; up to 5 projects.
ChatGPTOpenAI
Beyond text conversations, the free plan includes web search, reading files and images, data analysis, GPTs (purpose-built AIs) and image generation.
What the free plan includes: Free. Everyday text conversations have no message cap (abuse-prevention limits apply). File uploads, image generation, voice and data analysis have separate usage limits. Memory, Deep Research and voice are limited.
GeminiGoogle
Works with your Google account as is. Image generation and editing, Deep Research, voice conversations with Gemini Live, Canvas and Gems (your own purpose-built AIs) are included on the free plan.
What the free plan includes: Free (Google account required). Model: Flash-Lite. Usage limits are based on compute used, reset every 5 hours, with a weekly cap.
No qualification is needed to open the gate. The moment you speak to it, you are an apprentice summoner.
The first spirit of this rank
Click the card to enlarge it
Sprite of Dappled Light
A tiny leaf-green sprite that alighted on an open palm beside a brook
Attributes: Flora · Wind · Spirit · Light
Who this spirit appears to
- You have published your work on the web
- You use AI no more than a few times a month
- You connect your everyday tools via connectors or MCP
No. 01 / 72. L0 Novice has 3 cards; which one you get depends on your answers and the kind of URL you enter as your best AI creative work.
Population share by rank (AI users)
Purple figures (L4 to L6) are this service's estimates, since no official statistics exist.
Why "Summoner"?
Someone who can program is a wizard who casts magic by combining spells of their own.
Someone who achieves the same with AI is a summoner: instead of writing the formulae, they call familiars and have them do the work.
This diagnosis was built from that definition. It expresses how well you wield AI as a summoner's rank.
Seven Ranks
The Seven Ranks
- L6 · GRAND SUMMONER Grand Summoner Master Summoner · Power to change the world share is estimated A grand summoner who passes the summoning arts to others and spreads them through the world.
- L5 · ARCHSUMMONER Archsummoner High Summoner · Commanding agents share is estimated A high summoner who commands many familiars at once and leads them as a host.
- L4 · BINDER Binder Binder of Pacts · Integration and automation share is estimated A binder who ties familiars to tools and rites so they keep working on their own.
- L3 · EVOKER Evoker Shaper of Works · Making deliverables An evoker who gives shape to documents and code together with familiars.
- L2 · SUMMONER Summoner Caller of Familiars · Daily use A summoner who calls familiars every day and entrusts them with work in words.
- L1 · APPRENTICE Apprentice Apprentice Summoner · Trying it out An apprentice who opens the gate now and then to put a question to a familiar.
- L0 · NOVICE Novice Unbound · Not yet using AI One who has not yet opened the summoning gate.
- PwC Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2026 (Shares for L0 to L3. 48 countries, about 50,000 respondents. 36% did not use AI in the past year, 19% once to a few times, over 20% daily. 10% use AI agents daily.)
- U.S. Census Bureau, March 2026 survey (For reference. About 55% of U.S. workers use AI at work.)
- The denominator for top-% and population shares is people who use AI (64% of workers, excluding the 36% who did not use AI in the past year). Statistics for all workers are rescaled by 64%.
- Figures for L4 to L6 are this service's estimates, since no official statistics exist. The PwC finding that 10% of workers use AI agents daily is used as an upper bound.
- The card art was produced with an image-generation AI (OpenAI), not drawn by hand. Text and frames are composited by this service.
Creator
Creatorthe person who made this diagnosis
PRIMAL GRAND SUMMONER (L6 Grand Summoner)
Author of AI Summoner Rank and Takt AI Console. I publish the things I build together with AI and grow them as people use them.
Things I have built with AI and released
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AI Summoner Rank
Eight questions rate how well you wield AI and give you a summoner's rank and a familiar card (this site).
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Takt AI Console
A Mac app for launching, directing and approving Claude Code across several projects from one place. The early-access release is free.
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Anisongs MCP (BYO-AI)
Connects the anime-song database "Anisongs" to Claude and ChatGPT through the MCP standard, so you can build anime-song playlists just by asking in everyday words.
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Anisongs app
The iPhone and Android app for the anime-song database "Anisongs". Receive playlists assembled by AI and export them to Apple Music or YouTube Music.
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Anisongs Web
A comprehensive database of anime songs covering works, tracks and artists (Japanese).
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Forfans LLC corporate site
Building the future with fans through the power of entertainment. The company that operates this diagnosis (Japanese).
For AI-related work inquiries, feel free to send a DM on X. X (formerly Twitter) @fujikix