Writing essays has always be challenging, but a new wave of AI tools is making the process easier.

Students can now get help with everything from brainstorming ideas to polishing the final draft.

Below, we explore the best AI tools for essay writing – what powers them, their key features, pricing, and what students are saying about them.

Rank	AI Tool	Best for / Core Strength	From Price*	Stand-out Feature(s)
1	Aithor	End-to-end academic essay generator	Free trial / $24.99 mo (down to $7.59 mo annual)	Topic & outline builders, citation list from 10 M PDFs, “AI disguise” to humanize text
2	ChatGPT • Gemini • Perplexity AI	Rapid drafting & research-backed answers	Free–$20 mo (typ.)	ChatGPT’s robust drafts, Gemini’s live web facts, Perplexity’s numbered citations & Copilot mode
3	EduWriter.ai	Instant one-click essay drafts	Free / $9.99 mo	Full-length drafts + auto citations, paraphraser & “humanizer,” no account required
4	Paperpal	Real-time language & citation aid	Free / $11.5 mo+	Grammar + style fixes as you type, 250 M-article Research & Cite panel, AI Copilot
5	Jenni AI	Autocomplete-while-you-write workspace	Free / $12 mo	Smart sentence completions, one-click reference finder, PDF & Zotero library
6	Quillbot	Paraphrasing & polishing drafts	Free / $9–10 mo	Multi-mode paraphraser, summarizer, citation & plagiarism tools in Quillbot Flow
7	Scite	Evidence-based Q&A & citation checking	Free trial / $12 mo	Smart Citations (support vs. dispute), AI answers with study snippets, reference retraction checker

Aithor

Aithor is an AI essay writer designed specifically for academic writing. It uses a custom AI engine (with a transformer model similar to GPT) combined with a database of 10+ million full-text scholarly PDFs to generate content with real citations.

Key features:

• AI Topic Finder to brainstorm ideas, then an Outline Creator to build a structured outline for your essay.
• AI Paper Writer generates original content for each section of the outline.
• Aithor will also find and suggest references – after generating a draft, it provides a list of sources (with access to full PDFs) that were used to inform the content, so you can insert accurate in-text citations. It automatically formats citations in MLA, APA, etc., and builds a reference list for you.
• “AI Co-Writer” mode to refine or continue the draft with your input
• “AI disguise” option that rewrites text to be more human-like (to evade AI detectors).

Pricing:

• Aithor offers a free trial plan (letting you generate a limited amount, such as 400 words, to test the service).
• For full access, the student-friendly pricing is ~$24.99/month, with big discounts for longer commitments – e.g. quarterly at ~$14.99/mo or annual at effectively $7.59/month.

User reviews: Students who have used Aithor praise its ability to quickly produce a structured draft with relevant citations, saving significant time on research. Its outline and citation tools are seen as straightforward and very helpful for academic work.

However, some reviews note that the writing quality may require additional editing – the AI’s tone can be a bit flat or generic, and one independent test found the “undetectable AI” output still wasn’t fooling detection tools

ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity AI

Flaghip LLM interfaces are evidently must-have tools to generate high-quality essays and customized them easily.

Key features for essay writing

• ChatGPT excels at rapid-fire ideation and full-draft generation. Give it a prompt and it produces an introduction, logically ordered arguments, and a conclusion almost every time. It can also proof-read or change tone on command, but it does not fetch real sources; any citations it invents must be replaced.
• Gemini answers questions and writes essays much like ChatGPT yet pulls fresh facts (and images or links) straight from the web, and lets you export to Google Docs with one click. Draft-revision buttons show alternative phrasings, and you can upload images to discuss them. Source links appear only when Gemini quotes material directly, so you still have to check facts.
• Perplexity AI is built for research: every answer comes with numbered citations you can open in a new tab. “Copilot” mode breaks complex prompts into sub-questions and stitches a fully sourced answer together; follow-up queries stay in context, and Pro users can upload PDFs for instant Q&A.

Pricing

• ChatGPT: free for GPT-3.5; ChatGPT Plus gives GPT-4, faster responses, and extra tools for $20 / month. Team and Enterprise tiers add collaboration and admin controls at higher per-seat prices.
• Gemini: the standard chatbot is free. Power users can upgrade to Google One AI Premium (Gemini Advanced + extra Drive storage) at about €21.99 / $20 per month.
• Perplexity: generous free tier (unlimited quick searches + 5 GPT-4 Copilot runs daily). Perplexity Pro costs $20 / month and unlocks 300 GPT-4 queries a day, file uploads, and faster answers.

What students say

Perplexity is loved by research-heavy majors because it always cites. TechPoint reviewers note it “halves search time” for literature reviews and beats general chatbots in factual precision, though you still need to read the linked papers for nuance.

ChatGPT is the default brainstorming tool on campus: surveys show 97 % of Gen Z students lean on it for essays or homework, praising its speed but warning that every fact needs checking.

Gemini earns points for real-time information and Google-Docs export. Educators like its built-in fact-check panel, yet studies still find higher hallucination rates than GPT-4 for detailed references, so vigilance remains key.

EduWriter.ai

EduWriter.ai positions itself as a no-sign-up, student-focused tool that drafts complete papers in seconds and even adds real citations for you.

Key Features:

• Instant full-length drafts : Paste a prompt, choose essay type (argumentative, expository, etc.), and EduWriter outputs an introduction, body, and conclusion in one go. You can also generate outlines, thesis statements, or topic ideas if you prefer to build the essay step-by-step.
• Built-in citations and reference list : EduWriter automatically pulls scholarly sources and formats them in APA, MLA, or other styles—no external citation tool needed.
• Paraphraser, summarizer, and rewrite tools : Need to reduce wordiness or avoid plagiarism? The integrated paraphraser rewrites passages while preserving meaning, and the summarizer condenses long articles into quick notes for background reading.
• AI “humanizer” : If you’re worried a teacher’s detector might flag AI text, the Humanizer rewrites the draft to sound more natural and varied in sentence structure.
• No account required : You can test the generator immediately—handy when deadlines are tight and sign-up friction is the last thing you need.

Pricing

• Free plan – Generate up to 1 page per hour (roughly 275 words) with all core tools enabled.
• Premium plan – For $9.99 per month (shown at checkout), you can create unlimited essays up to 1,375 words (≈ 5 pages) per run and remove hourly limits.

What Students Say

• Saves time on first drafts. Reviewers highlight that EduWriter “gives a solid starting essay in seconds,” letting them focus on editing rather than staring at a blank page.
• Citation support is a plus. Users like not having to chase references elsewhere, though they still double-check source accuracy before turning work in.
• Great for quick homework, less so for deep research. Bloggers note the tool lacks advanced note-management or PDF-upload features found in premium platforms, so you may outgrow it for big research papers.
• Quality varies by prompt. Some drafts need smoothing or fact-checking, especially on niche topics, but that’s par for the course with any AI writer.

Paperpal

Built for students, Paperpal fixes language issues in real time, finds citations, and even checks submission readiness.

Key features :

• Real-time grammar & style corrections : As you type in Word, Google Docs, Overleaf, or the web editor, Paperpal underlines mistakes and suggests concise, academic wording.
• Academic paraphraser and translator : Rewrite clunky sentences, adjust tone, or translate 30 + languages while preserving technical terms.
• Research & Cite (250 M-article database) : Ask a question, get science-backed answers, and save the citation to your library in one click—ideal for evidence-based essays.
• Generative AI Copilot : Draft sections, craft abstracts, or expand outlines without prompt-engineering headaches.
• Chat with PDFs : Upload a paper, ask questions, extract key points, and grab related references without leaving the workspace.
• Plagiarism & submission-readiness checks : Run 30 + technical and similarity checks to avoid accidental plagiarism and meet journal or class rubric standards.
• Seamless integrations : Use the same AI inside Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Overleaf—no copy-paste gymnastics.

Pricing

• Free : Up to 7 000 words checked monthly, 200 language suggestions, and 5 AI-generation uses per day
• Prime / Premium : From $11.5 / mo (annual) or roughly $19 – 25 / mo monthly : Unlimited edits, unlimited AI Copilot runs, full plagiarism reports, consistency checks, and priority support.

Reviews :

Many highlight the Research & Cite panel as a huge time-saver for literature reviews. ESL students say the AI explanations teach them why a change improves clarity. They say Paperpal’s Prime tier is cheaper than hiring a proof-reader and more academic-aware than general tools, though still an extra bill.

Human oversight still needed. A few users report occasional over-corrections in highly technical sentences; they skim suggestions before accepting.

Jenni AI

Jenni AI is another popular AI writing assistant tailored for students and researchers. It functions as an “AI-powered workspace” where you can write your essay with AI support for generating content, managing sources, and editing.

Key features:

• Autocomplete your writing – as you write sentences, it suggests the next line or continuation, helping overcome writer’s block with AI-generated prose.
• Reference finder: you can highlight a statement and ask Jenni to find a citation, and it will search for relevant papers or sources to cite. In fact, Jenni includes a database of academic literature (integrating with Semantic Scholar and others) so that it can provide real citations and even summaries of papers.
• “Library” feature that lets you upload PDFs or search papers, then cite them in your essay with one click. Jenni also offers AI-based editing commands (to rephrase, expand, or shorten text) and has a built-in grammar and plagiarism checker. In essence, it combines the functions of a writing tool and a research organizer in one interface.

Pricing:

• There is a free plan (no credit card required) that allows about 200 AI-generated words per day, 10 AI chat queries, and 10 PDF uploads, among other basic features.
• For unlimited use, Jenni charges $12/month (or even less with annual discounts), which is considerably cheaper than many competitors. This unlimited plan gives full access to all features (unlimited autocompletion, chat, edits, PDF uploads, and priority access to new features).
• There are also team plans for academic institutions.

User feedback: Students often praise Jenni’s seamless workflow and citation features. The interface is clean and easy to navigate, and users like that they can do everything – from drafting to inserting citations – without switching tools. Reviews highlight the “life-saving” aspect for research papers, as Jenni helps refine arguments and ensure sources are cited properly.

On the downside, some tech bloggers found Jenni’s output quality not quite as good as ChatGPT’s for pure writing – one review noted it “performed worse than ChatGPT” in writing richness and that generating a full paper with Jenni’s autocomplete took a bit of time and editing. The strength of Jenni is acting like a smart assistant that guides and polishes your writing, rather than fully writing long essays at the click of a button.

Quillbot

Quillbot is an AI writing enhancer that many students use to improve their essays. It started as a powerful paraphrasing tool and has expanded into a suite including grammar checking, summarizing, and citation generation.

Key features:

• AI Paraphraser, which can reword a given sentence or paragraph in different styles (Standard, Fluency, Formal, Simple, Creative, etc.). You can control how aggressive the rephrasing is with a “Synonym slider” – higher settings will change the text more significantly.
• Summarizer, which condenses long texts into shorter summaries (paragraph or bullet-point formats). In tests, Quillbot’s summarizer was able to take a 1700-word article and produce a clear 100-word summary capturing the main ideas. This can save time when reviewing research sources or drafting an abstract.
• Grammar and Spell Checker (supporting multiple languages and dialects) to fix errors
• Plagiarism Checker is available to compare your text against online sources for originality.
• Citation Generator which instantly creates properly formatted citations (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) when you input a source URL or title. It can even produce in-text citation formats, a handy aid when finalizing your references.
• Quillbot Flow, where you can draft a document and use all these AI functions (paraphrasing, grammar, citations, plagiarism check) within one environment.

Pricing:

• Free plan with basic functionality – you can paraphrase up to a certain character limit (e.g. 125 words at once), summarize limited text, and use the grammar checker free.
• The premium plan costs around $9–10/month (annual plan ~$100/year). Premium gives you unlimited paraphrasing length, access to all modes (the Creative and Formal modes are premium-only), faster processing, and unlimited plagiarism checks.

User experience: Quillbot is praised for its simplicity – just paste text and choose an action. It’s not an essay writer per se, but rather a writing tutor. Students like using Quillbot to polish drafts and ensure their phrasing is clear. For example, if an AI-generated essay sounds a bit off, running it through Quillbot’s paraphraser in Fluency mode can make it read more naturally. The citation generator is also a favorite for quickly compiling bibliographies without fuss.

One thing to note: paraphrasing tools like Quillbot should be used carefully to avoid altering meaning.

Scite

Scite.ai is an AI-powered research tool that analyzes how those papers are cited and can answer questions with evidence from scientific literature. It’s especially useful for students writing research papers or literature reviews who need to ensure their sources are credible and their statements are backed by studies.

Key features:

• Smart Citations system. It has indexed over 30 million research articles and “reads” the citation contexts within them. When you look up a paper or topic on Scite, it doesn’t just show a list of papers – it shows how each paper has been cited by others: whether it was supported or contradicted by subsequent studies, or simply mentioned.
• AI research assistant (similar to a chatbot) where you can ask a question and it will formulate an answer by pulling in snippets from relevant research papers. For example, you could ask, “What are the health effects of vaping according to recent research?” and Scite will return an answer with excerpts from multiple studies, each snippet cited to the source.
• a Reference Check (you can upload your essay’s reference list, and Scite will verify if any of your citations have been retracted or have notable corrections), citation alerts, and visual citation maps to see networks of how papers cite each other.

Pricing:

• The Personal plan is about $12/month (or $10/month if billed annually) for individuals. This gives unlimited access to the citation database, the AI assistant, and all features.
• There is a free version or free trial with limitations (e.g. a cap on how many queries or citation views you can do per month).
• Scite also offers discounts for students and academics – often you can get a special code by contacting them or if your institution uses Scite.

User feedback: Among research students, Scite has become a go-to tool for literature reviews. Users love the way it provides context to citations – instead of just seeing that Paper A has 50 citations, you can see at a glance how many of those are supporting vs. disputing its findings. This helps in writing a balanced review or argument. The AI assistant is also highlighted for giving evidence-backed answers – rather than a generic AI answer, it quotes actual studies, which is great for trustworthy writing.

On the downside, some feel the interface can be a bit overwhelming at first, and there is a learning curve to interpreting the citation graphs.