Can you build your own agent without paying for tokens?
A newcomer asks whether they can create their own agent without depending on existing models or paying for tokens. Training a model from scratch is out of reach for one person, but the realistic free route is running an open model locally with a tool like Ollama, which costs nothing after the download but is noticeably weaker than paid models. The advice: learn the mechanics on a local model first, and only pay for tokens once there is a job worth automating.