How to get visibility for a new AI text tool without SEO budget?

So I've been building this site where people can mess around with text using AI tools. Got the main features working pretty well at this point. Thing is, actually getting people to discover it is way harder than the dev work turned out to be. Yeah SEO would help but I'm completely broke right now, can't spend on that. What's the play for getting some initial traction and feedback without a budget?

Launching with zero money is rough but plenty of successful products started exactly that way if you grind smart. The real move is finding where your potential users already hang out and contributing something useful to those spaces instead of just spamming your link everywhere. There are communities on Reddit for basically every niche imaginable, if you jump into discussions and help people out your tool will come up naturally when it fits. Same deal with Twitter, engage with folks posting about AI and productivity workflows, build some actual relationships before you ever mention what you're working on. Some people will tell you to post on Product Hunt right away but honestly it's so saturated now that you need momentum before launching there or nobody will even notice you.

Getting twenty engaged early users beats having a thousand randoms who bounce immediately, focus on quality over numbers at this stage. Look for places where people are actively searching for solutions instead of broadcasting to crowds who don't care. You can use Open Hunts https://openhunts.com/ . The whole point of the platform is helping tech products get discovery without needing ad budgets, people browse specifically to find new tools and they actually test stuff out. Post your project with a clear explanation of the problem it solves, that community tends to leave real feedback and share products that work well.