The Best AI Writing Tools in 2025 Compared

Buchert Jean-marc
April 2, 2025

You’ve heard all the buzz about AI writing tools.

But how do you choose the right one for your content projects?

Based on my own experience and external reviews, I’ll explore here the best AI writing tools of 2025 across four categories—All-Purpose, Marketing & SEO, Book & Fiction, and Research & Essay.

Comparison Table of AI Writing Tools:

AI Tool & Category	Unique Strengths	Pros	Cons	Pricing
ChatGPT Canvas (All-Purpose)	Versatile conversational AI (GPT-4.5/4o); In-doc editing with AI (highlight & instruct)	Highly intelligent; multi-domain; Great for quick revisions (edit without regen); add links, meta, TOC easily	Beta feature; learning curve; only with ChatGPT (Plus for best use)	$20/month Included with ChatGPT (Plus recommended)
Perplexity AI (All-Purpose)	Answers with cited sources (search + LLM)	Factual reliability with sources; ideal for research queries; low hallucination	Shorter answers; not for creative writing; Pro needed for heavy use	Free basic; Pro ~$20-30/mo (GPT-4 answers)
Claude Sonnet 3.7 (All-Purpose)	Huge context (100K tokens); creative writing flair	Handles long docs; carries metaphors through text; friendly tone; safe outputs	Sometimes too verbose/“creative” off-track; less accessible than ChatGPT; $20/mo for full use	Free limited; Pro ~$20/mo (Claude.ai)
Rytr (All-Purpose)	40+ templates & tones; very affordable	Easy to use; multiple output variants; supports many languages; built-in plagiarism check	Not great for long-form (needs editing) fewer advanced features; outputs can be generic	Free 10k chars; Unlimited $9/mo (cheap)
OpenRouter (All-Purpose)	Hub for multiple models (GPT-4, Claude, etc.)	Flexibility to choose best AI; can compare outputs; one API for all models	Techier to use; needs setup/API keys; not a guided writer interface	Free platform; pay per model use (many free models)
Anyword (Marketing/SEO)	Data-driven copy + engagement score	Predictive performance scores for copy; enforces brand voice/rules; great for ads & CTAs	Score can distract; pricey; best for short marketing text	Starts $49/mo (marketing teams)
Copy.ai (Marketing/SEO)	Iterative copy refining; unlimited plan option	Easy and “brainy” to use; refines content with follow-ups; unlimited words on paid	Outputs sometimes clichéd; long-form less nuanced; many templates to navigate	Free 2k wds/mo; Pro $36/mo (unlimited)
WriteSonic (Marketing/SEO)	Fast article writer (in 2 minutes); GPT-4 option	Extremely quick full drafts; title & outline suggestions; factuality mode reduces errors	Repetitive filler in outputs; UI has many features (can overwhelm); quality varies by chosen mode	Free trial (10k words); Plans from ~$16/mo
Jasper (Marketing/SEO)	Brand Voice tuning; rich integrations (Surfer, etc.)	Consistent on-brand output; supports team workflows; integrates Grammarly & Surfer; uses GPT-4 + Claude	Higher learning curve; expensive for full features; many settings to configure	Creator $39/mo (limited); Teams $99+/mo
SEO.ai (Marketing/SEO)	AI writer built into SEO tool (real-time SEO score)	One-click SEO drafts; auto-optimizes titles, keywords; bulk generation for product pages	Expensive for small users; best for SEO pros; interface data-heavy for newbies	Pro $49/mo (basic) up to $399/mo (enterprise)
Surfer SEO / Surfer AI (Marketing/SEO)	SEO content editor + AI writer merged	Data-driven content outlines; content score ensures optimal keywords; can generate article that’s ready to rank	AI writing add-on costs per article; not for non-SEO content; outputs need human touch for uniqueness	Essential $79/mo (30 articles/mo); Surfer AI $29 per article
Sudowrite (Fiction)	Fiction-focused tools (Describe, Twist, Canvas)	Fantastic for creative inspiration; adds sensory detail with one click; Canvas helps plotting; non-judgmental and fun to use	Not an auto-book writer (needs guidance); interface rich (some might find it overwhelming)	Hobby plan $10/mo; Pro $25/mo (unlimited)
Squibler (Fiction)	Complete writing app with AI “Smart Writer”	Combines outlining + AI drafting; manages chapters & notes; can generate content from prompts; good collaboration	Pricey for full features; app can be slow at times; learning curve for the extensive tools	Free trial; Premium ~$29/mo
NovelAI (Fiction)	Endless story generation with memory (Lorebook)	Great for roleplay & fiction continuity; remembers story details via Lorebook; can generate anime-style images; highly private and customizable	Needs user input for direction; can stick to tropes; subscription required for heavy use	Tablet $10/mo; Scroll $15/mo; Opus $25/mo (max features)
NovelCrafter (Fiction)	Customizable multi-model platform (Codex wiki)	Extreme control: integrate GPT-4, open-source models, etc.; Codex ensures world consistency; story board & prompt customization; ideal for power-users	Steep learning curve; more technical to setup; UI utilitarian; smaller support team	Basic ~$5/mo; Pro ~$15/mo (user reported) (requires API keys for some AI)
Designrr (Books/eBooks)	Converts content to eBooks; AI “WordGenie” writes text	One-click turn blog/podcast into ebook; AI can fill gaps or create content; lots of design templates – fast lead magnet creation	Primarily for repurposing non-fiction; not suited for narrative; writing quality is straightforward (needs your expertise input)	One-time $27 (basic) or $97 (pro); or $39/mo pro plan (varies with promotions)
Paperpal (Research/Essay)	Academic writing feedback in real time (Word add-in)	Improves grammar, formal tone, clarity instantly; suggests academic word choices; context-aware for research writing; translation for ESL writers	Only in Word (no Google Docs); free version limited suggestions; doesn’t generate text – just refines yours	Free basic (500 checks/mo); Prime $8.25/mo (unlimited)
Jenni AI (Research/Essay)	AI co-writer with autocomplete + auto-citations	Writes alongside you (completes sentences); built-in citation finder inserts refs; plagiarism checker; easy to use for essays	Citations need fact-check (sometimes tangential); research Q&A not always thorough; full power requires subscription	Free trial; Unlimited $12/mo (annual) or $20/mo monthly
Aithor (Research/Essay)	Student-focused essay writer + Q&A search engine	Very affordable for students; quick essay drafts; integrated search answers questions instantly; also offers study tools (quizzes, summarizer)	Less polished than big-name models; must verify facts; interface can be slightly laggy; geared to textbook-style content	Free basic; Student plan ~ $6-8/mo (often 70% cheaper than ChatGPT)
Blainy (Research/Essay)	Research paper specialist with auto-citations & PDF chat	Automatically cites sources in APA/MLA etc.; huge speed boost (20× faster writing); “chat to PDFs” to extract info; paraphrasing tool to avoid plagiarism	Subscription needed for heavy use; must still verify that inserted citations truly back the point; relatively new tool (occasional minor bugs)	Free trial; Unlimited plan ~$12/mo (not officially listed, based on community info)
SciSpace (Research/Essay)	AI research assistant (explains papers + checks your writing)	Can simplify and explain complex paper text; answers questions about 200M+ papers; helps ensure your writing meets academic standards (Copilot suggestions); includes AI detector for academic integrity	Primarily assists (doesn’t fully write new research for you); free tier limits queries; to fully use, likely need to pair with your own knowledge and insight	Free limited Qs; Premium ~$10/mo (unlimited Copilot, explanations) (Academic institutional plans available)

Best AI Writers for All Use Cases (General-Purpose)

These AI writing assistants excel at a wide range of tasks, from blogging and emails to brainstorming and coding help.

ChatGPT with Canvas – Interactive Writing Editor

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is arguably the most well-known AI writer. It uses cutting-edge language models (GPT-4o and GPT-4,5) to produce human-like text. ChatGPT Canvas is a new feature that transforms ChatGPT into a more interactive writing canvas. Think of it as ChatGPT inside a Google Doc. This mode lets you work on a document and instruct AI to edit or add to specific sections without regenerating the whole text. It’s great for long-form content where you need to refine parts incrementally.

Unique Features:

In-document editing with AI. You can highlight a paragraph and ask Canvas to rewrite, expand, or alter it, and it will seamlessly adjust that section.
Most advanced frontier models : GPT4o, GPT4,5, o3 are all frontier models and good at writing style.
Structured Format: If you need clear, concise, and well-organized content, GPT-4 performs well at delivering coherent output across various content types.
Image & graph generator : ChatGPT can illustrate any blog with a table, graph, image produced by its built-in code & picture generator.
Web Search Integration: When paired with tools that allow real-time search, GPT-4 can pull in the latest information, making it more reliable for up-to-date content.
Deep Search : now ChatGPT can search through almost 100 sources to craft very detailed and informed writing reports.

Pros:

Huge time-saver for editing – you don’t need to prompt from scratch repeatedly; you can tweak content in-place.
Ideal for content marketers updating articles for SEO (e.g., adding links or keywords) or making quick revisions.
It offers more flexibility and control than the chat interface, acting like an AI-enhanced word processor. Many find it reduces rework since you can iteratively refine sections.

Cons:

Currently in beta – can have quirks. Some users have “mixed feelings” as it’s a new way of working, and the interface can be a bit complex at first.
It’s only available with ChatGPT (likely Plus users), so not a standalone tool.
It’s still using ChatGPT under the hood – so factual accuracy and creativity depend on the underlying model.

Pricing:

ChatGPT Plus is $20/month and gives access to Canvas, GPT-4,5, faster responses, more feature, advanced reasoning and deep research.
Higher-tier enterprise plans with enhanced context lengths and API access are also available.
ChatGPT Pro at $200/month with even higher rates, and more advanced reasoning models.

Perplexity AI – Fact-Checked Writing

Unlike pure text generators, Perplexity cites sources for everything it writes, making it a favorite for research-oriented writing. It’s an AI-powered search engine: ask a question or request content, and it returns a cited response.

Unique Features:

Built-in web search and citations. Perplexity looks up information online and generates answers with footnotes linking to sources. It’s focused on factual accuracy – you can actually click the citations to verify.
Access to the latest frontier model : Perplexity always gives access to advanced LLM models like Llama,
Conversational mode and a Copilot feature : you can refine queries in a chat-like interface.
Research filter : you can toggle search domains (e.g., “Scholar” for academic papers) to tailor the results.

Pros:

Extremely trustworthy for factual content – great for marketers or students who need to ensure accuracy and include references. It reduces the risk of hallucinations since you can see where info comes from. Robust factual answers and the ability to drill down into sources.
Quick and easy to use (no complex prompt engineering needed for basic Q&A). The interface allows follow-up questions, making research iterative.
Free to use for a generous number of queries.

Cons:

Less creative or verbose than ChatGPT. Perplexity’s responses tend to be short summaries (since it’s focused on Q&A), so for long-form writing you might need to expand on the answers.
It can be limited by the quality of search results – if info isn’t readily available, the answer might be shallow.
Not ideal for purely creative writing or opinion-based content.

Pricing:

Free version provides a solid taste (limited daily queries and standard model responses).
Perplexity AI Pro is about $20–$30/month, which unlocks 300+ searches a day, access to GPT-4 level answers, longer memory, and features like uploading PDFs or images for analysis. Pro also enables the latest “Copilot” with enhanced capabilities, useful for heavy research users.

Claude Sonnet 3.7 (Anthropic) – The LLM with the best writing style

Claude 3,7 by Anthropic, is an AI chatbot known for its friendly tone and creative flair. It produces thoughtful, well-structured writing and can handle very large inputs (like long transcripts or documents) thanks to its 100K token context window.

Unique Features :

Very large context and natural style. Claude can ingest and analyze huge documents (hundreds of pages) at once, which is a game-changer for summarizing or working with long content. It also has a “constitutional AI” design to give helpful answers and avoid harmful output.
A bit more personality and creativity than other LLM – it can carry metaphors or humor through a piece cleverly. In fact, Claude’s outputs often feel less formal and more “human” in storytelling or dialogue.
Style customization : Claude now has a tool that allows you to fine-tune the tone and style of the writing

Pros:

Great for creative writing and brainstorming. It’s “conversational and intuitive,” meaning it’s good at understanding nuanced instructions and maintaining context over long chats.
Claude’s responses can be quite clever and filled with analogies or anecdotes, which is useful for marketing copy or narrative pieces.
The huge context window means you can feed an entire content brief or data set and get a coherent output – very handy for summarizing reports or drafting based on long references.

Cons:

Sometimes too creative or verbose – Claude might drift off-topic or produce flowery language that needs editing. Users have observed that its imaginative analogies, while engaging, may need “reeling in” to fit a desired tone.
A bit less accessible than ChatGPT; you use it via Anthropic’s website or third-party platforms (no official standalone app with ChatGPT’s polish yet).
While Claude is good with factual info, it doesn’t cite sources like Perplexity, so you still must fact-check.

Pricing:

Free to try via Anthropic’s site (with usage limits reset each day and less powerful models) and through some partner apps.
Claude Pro subscription around $20/month for priority access and longer use (it was announced at similar price point to ChatGPT).
For businesses, Anthropic’s API is available (pay-per-million tokens usage model).

Rytr – Affordable Writing Assistant

Rytr is a budget-friendly AI writing assistant geared toward short-form content. It comes with 40+ use-case templates (blog ideas, product descriptions, emails, etc.) and supports multiple tones and languages.

Unique Features:

Pre-built use-case templates & tones. Rytr provides a menu of guided templates for common writing needs—just fill in fields like topic, and it generates multiple variants.
20+ tone options (e.g., casual, convincing, humorous) to tailor the style. A built-in plagiarism checker ensures outputs are original.
Generate 3 variations for each prompt at once, which is great for picking the best version. It supports 30+ languages, making it useful for non-English content.

Pros:

Easy and fast to use. The interface is very straightforward – ideal for those new to AI writing.
Great for idea generation and short snippets; users love how quickly it can spit out catchy ad copies or social media captions. The multiple variants and tones give you options without extra prompting. It even handles basic SEO tasks like meta tags.
Extremely affordable compared to most competitors, yet offers an unlimited plan at low cost, making it the “best value” choice for many.

Cons:

Not as advanced for long-form content. While Rytr can draft a full blog post, the quality often needs more editing and the content might not be as rich or structured as what more powerful models produce.
Lacks advanced features found in pricier tools – for example, it doesn’t deeply integrate with SEO research or allow highly customized training.
The output can sometimes feel generic or require the user to guide section by section (there’s a limit to how much it generates in one go).

Pricing:

Free Plan: 10k characters/month (about ~2,000 words) free.
Saver Plan: ~$9/month for unlimited characters (very generous). One of the cheapest ways to get endless AI-generated text, making Rytr a cost-effective entry point.
Premium Plan: $29/month adds better support for multiple languages/tones and higher quality settings.

OpenRouter (OpenRouter.ai) – Multi-Model Gateway

OpenRouter isn’t an AI writer per se, but a platform that gives you access to many AI models through one interface/API. For a writer it’s very convenient – you can choose the best model for each task (creativity vs. factual, for example) without juggling different accounts.

Unique Features:

Multiple AI models in one tool. OpenRouter supports 79+ models (and counting) including both top commercial models and free open-source ones.
Filtered and unfiltered model access, meaning you can even use more permissive versions for research or creative needs.
You can chat with several models at once in parallel comparisons, which is great for A/B testing outputs.For developers, it provides a single API to call different models.

Pros:

Unmatched flexibility. If one model gives a bland result, you can easily switch to another (say, from GPT-4 to an open-source model with a different style). Power users love that they can flip between free models and paid ones within one chat session.
Cost-efficient – you can use free community models for simple tasks and save your paid model credits for when quality really matters.
Early access to new models without separate signups. For example, if a new powerful model is released, it might show up on OpenRouter for users to try. Advanced features like custom prompt libraries and integration with apps (e.g., NovelCrafter) make it a robust choice for those comfortable with tech.

Cons:

More technical and not a standalone “writer app.” Beginners might find it less user-friendly – it’s geared towards AI enthusiasts. There’s no guided template for, say, “write a blog post about X” as some dedicated tools have. Instead, you interact more directly with raw models.
Access to certain models require API keys or credits (OpenRouter often lets you bring your own API key for OpenAI or others, or you purchase credits through them). There could be occasional latency switching between models.

Pricing:

Free account on OpenRouter gives access to many open models (some are completely free to use). For premium models (like GPT-4, Claude), you either pay per-use via OpenRouter credits or use your own API keys. OpenRouter’s pricing is generally pay-as-you-go for the model’s API cost, and it’s known to be ~70% cheaper than ChatGPT Plus for equivalent usage in some cases.

Best AI Writers for Marketing & SEO

For content marketers focusing on SEO, advertising, and conversion, these tools offer specialized features like keyword optimization, tone consistency, and performance predictions:

Anyword – Data-Driven Copywriting

Anyword is an AI writing tool built for marketers, particularly those running ads, social campaigns, or landing pages. It stands out by using data and predictive analytics to guide copy creation. Anyword can generate multiple copy variants and even predict an “Engagement Score” for each, indicating how well it might perform with your target audience

Unique Features:

Ad copy optimization and scoring. Anyword’s headline feature is its Predictive Performance Score – as you generate text, it rates the content’s potential engagement or conversion rate based on trained models.
Brand Guidelines where you can input your brand’s persona, terminology and style rules; the AI then follows these rules (for example, always say “AI” instead of “artificial intelligence”). It supports specific copy types: Facebook ads, Google Search ads, blog posts, product descriptions, and more, each tuned to best practices.

Pros:

Great for improving ad and social copy. Marketers love that Anyword keeps them “focused on marketing fundamentals” by highlighting key elements like problem statements or target audience in the editor. The engagement score is like having a built-in testing panel – it gives confidence in one variant over another.

Cons:

Scores can be distracting or require interpretation. While the gamified approach is helpful, some writers might find themselves over-fixating on raising the score rather than trusting their instinct.
Anyword’s main strength is short-form marketing copy; for very long articles, it’s competent but not as specialized as some pure long-form tools.
The interface has many options, which can overwhelm new users (different modes like “List”, “Paragraph”, “CTA” each with scores).

Pricing:

Free trial (credit-based, generate a certain number of words).
Paid plans start at $49/month for the Basic plan, which includes the core features and predictive scoring.
Higher-tier plans (from ~$99/month and up) unlock the full predictive analytics suite and higher word counts, as well as team collaboration features.

Copy.ai – Quick Copy Generation

Copy.ai is a popular AI writer for marketing content, known for its simplicity and friendly interface. It excels at creating copies for ads, social media, product descriptions, and even brainstorming blog sections.

Unique Features:

Conversation-style refinement. After Copy.ai generates content, it often asks follow-up questions or offers to improve the copy further. This built-in iterative process helps you refine tone or add details easily.
It comes with 90+ tools/templates (e.g., Instagram caption, LinkedIn headline, etc.).
Team members can share “projects” – good for agencies or teams maintaining consistency.
Copy.ai also introduced a Blog Post Wizard for longer content, guiding you from title to outline to final draft.

Pros:

Feels collaborative. Users often say “Copy.ai feels like a smart writing buddy”. The way it prompts you for input (instead of you always prompting it) makes the process feel more natural.
Excellent for producing short-form copy quickly – many small business owners use it to crank out ad variants or product copy in seconds.
The output quality is strong, described as “feels brainy” yet still requires minimal editing.
Unlimited plan option is a big plus for power users who produce a lot of content (no worrying about token limits). The free tier is also generous (2,000 words/month) for those starting out.

Cons:

Can generate generic marketing fluff. Some users note that first drafts often include clichés or overused phrases that need editing out (e.g., “in the world of digital marketing…” type filler).
While it iterates well, it might take a few rounds to get a really polished piece, especially for nuanced topics. The blog content it creates is decent but may lack the depth or factual detail that a research-oriented tool or a human writer would include.
The interface, while friendly, has many templates which can be a bit of a scrolling exercise to find the right one (though the search bar helps).

Pricing:

Free Plan: ~2,000 words per month (and limited functionality).
Pro Plan: $36/month (when paid annually) for unlimited words and projects. They also have team plans for multiple users.

WriteSonic – Fast Content Generation with SEO Options

WriteSonic is a versatile AI writer that offers both quick content generation and advanced AI-driven editing. It’s known for its speed – claiming it can generate a full SEO-optimized article in under 2 minutes.

Unique Features:

Choice of quality and one-click article drafts. WriteSonic uniquely lets you choose the underlying model quality for generation – e.g., “Premium” (GPT-3.5) or “Superior” (GPT-4) – so you can balance speed/cost vs. quality. Its Article Writer guides you through entering a topic and keywords, then generates an outline, intro, and full article almost instantly.
Suggests several title options up front for your piece, which is a nice touch to get your creativity flowing.
Emphasizes factual accuracy: it has a feature to enable “factual” mode which integrates real-time search to reduce hallucination.

Pros:

Highly efficient for bulk content needs. If you’re churning out lots of blog posts or product descriptions, WriteSonic can save immense time – users report creating publishable drafts very quickly.
The multi-language support is robust, making it useful for global teams.
Marketers appreciate the AI article writer’s SEO focus, which incorporates your target keyword and even includes relevant subheadings (it’s designed to target a keyword and produce a reasonably SEO-friendly draft).
The interface is user-friendly, with a clean editor for final tweaks.

Cons:

May produce filler and requires editing. In aiming to deliver full articles quickly, sometimes the drafts include repetitive phrases or generic filler content (common with AI-generated SEO articles).
Users have noted having to cut out “repetitive filler phrases” from WriteSonic’s outputs. While the tool tries to ensure factual accuracy, it’s not foolproof – you should still fact-check the article.
The multitude of features (AI article writer, Sonic Editor, Paraphraser, etc.) can be a bit overwhelming at first, and some advanced features are only on higher quality settings (which consume more credits).

Pricing:

Free Trial: Generates up to 10,000 words (enough to test a few articles).
Long-form Plan: starts at ~$16/month (annual billing) for ~60,000 words, and higher plans for more word credits. The pricing uses a credit system – choosing GPT-4 quality consumes more credits per word than GPT-3.5.
There’s also a custom plan called Unlimited for around $19/month that allows unlimited generations but only in the lower-quality mode. Overall, it’s affordable and you can tailor cost by adjusting quality per project.

Jasper – Feature-Rich AI Writer

Jasper (formerly Jarvis) is one of the most established AI writing platforms, aimed at businesses and content teams. Jasper’s strength lies in its rich set of features: you can define your Brand Voice, use it as a long-form document editor, and integrate it with tools like Surfer SEO and Grammarly.

Unique Features:

Brand Voice. Jasper can learn from your provided content to create a custom “Brand Voice” profile, so the AI mimics your style and tone consistently across pieces.
Jasper’s editor is like a full writing suite – it has content recipes, command mode (you can instruct it with commands like a chatbot), and workflows for specific tasks.
It integrates directly with Surfer SEO (for real-time SEO scoring as you write) and Grammarly (for polishing), making it a one-stop shop within your browser.

Pros:

Comprehensive and scalable for teams. Jasper is often praised for how tailored the output can be once you set it up – the Brand Voice feature helps maintain consistency, which content managers find extremely useful.
Great for longer content like blog articles, e-books, or reports, because the editor allows you to build and refine content iteratively (with features like rephrase, expand, etc.).
SEO optimization suggestions in real time (keywords to include, ideal word counts, etc.), marrying AI writing with SEO best practices. Jasper also supports team collaboration, with project folders and user seats, making it enterprise-friendly.
The community and support are notable – lots of training materials, recipes from other users, and fast support for subscribers.

Cons:

Higher learning curve and setup time. Jasper’s rich feature set means it’s not as plug-and-play as simpler tools – new users might need to spend time learning “recipes” or optimal workflows. To fully leverage Brand Voice, you need to feed it sufficient content or examples, which is an upfront effort (but pays off later).
Jasper is one of the pricier options, especially if you want the Boss Mode (long-form editor) and multiple user seats. Some small businesses or solo creators may find cheaper tools adequate for their needs.
While Jasper’s outputs are high-quality, remember it’s using models similar to others (GPT-4, etc.), so the core writing quality is comparable – what you’re paying for are the ecosystem and convenience. If you don’t need those, the cost might not feel justified.

Pricing:

Creator plan at $39/month is for individual creators (lower word limits).
The Teams/Boss Mode plan starts around $99/month for multiple users and higher word limits, giving full long-form capabilities and Brand Voice features.
Custom Business plans for advanced needs (brand voice for multiple brands, API access, etc.) are also offered. They no longer have an unlimited word plan; instead, pricing is tiered by word count (with GPT-4 generations counting more).

SEO.ai – AI Writer Designed for SEO Content

SEO.ai is an AI writing platform explicitly built for SEO content creation. It combines AI-generated writing with SEO analysis, helping you create blog posts and site copy that are optimized to rank.

Unique Features:

Integrated SEO workflow : With SEO.ai, you can generate an entire article draft in one click – it’s geared to produce “SEO-Optimized content in minutes, not hours.”
The tool has an SEO Score that updates as you write, indicating how well your content might rank. It provides keyword recommendations and content gap analysis: for instance, it can compare your draft against top-ranking content and suggest missing keywords or subtopics to include.
It also has an auto-optimize feature where with one click it can fix title tags, add missing keywords, improve subheadings, etc., across your content.
Templates for specific SEO tasks (e.g., writing product page descriptions, meta descriptions) are included. Uniquely, SEO.ai allows training a custom model on your website’s content to better match your site’s tone (enterprise feature).

Pros:

Built for content marketers and SEO specialists. If your goal is to create content that ranks, SEO.ai brings the necessary data into the writing process. Marketers appreciate that it doesn’t just generate text, but actively guides you to “appeal to both customers and search engine algorithms.”
The prompt library is handy for quick modifications (e.g., “make this friendlier” or “shorten this paragraph”).
The ability to train the AI on your brand’s tone is a big plus for agencies or larger sites maintaining consistency.
Users also like the bulk generation feature – you can input a list of keywords and have SEO.ai generate outlines or even full drafts for each, saving tons of time for large content batches.

Cons:

Premium pricing and potentially complex for beginners. SEO.ai is powerful but comes at a higher cost (it targets professionals and companies). The interface is rich with data – some newcomers might feel overwhelmed by the real-time metrics, scoring, and myriad options if they’re not familiar with SEO concepts.
Primarily focused on long-form SEO content and e-commerce pages; it’s not the tool you’d use for, say, writing a novel or purely creative work.
While SEO.ai strives to produce “ranking content,” it doesn’t necessarily ensure quality and user intent matter beyond just keyword stuffing (the tool does try to guide you to do it right, but one should use human judgment too).

Pricing:

Professional plans start at $49/month (with an annual discount), which allows a decent volume of AI-assisted content and basic SEO features.
The Team plan at $149/month adds more volume and collaboration.
Enterprise plan (~$399/month) unlocks the advanced features like custom model training and higher content output. All plans include a 7-day free trial.

Surfer SEO (Surfer AI) – Content Writer with SEO Optimization

Surfer SEO is well-known as an on-page SEO optimization tool, and it has recently integrated Surfer AI, an AI writing assistant that crafts content fully designed to rank.

Unique Features:

SEO-driven content scoring and AI article generation. Surfer provides a Content Score (out of 100) with a red/amber/green signal, based on factors like keyword usage, headings, paragraph length, and more.
The AI writer (Surfer AI) can generate a full draft in about 20 minutes, already aligned with Surfer’s recommendations (covering similar headings, using similar terms). Essentially, Surfer studies the top Google results for your target keyword and directs the AI to include the relevant topics and phrases those results cover.
It has a Content Planner that suggests clusters of related topics to cover in separate pieces, so you can plan an entire content strategy.
Surfer’s content editor can be used in multiple integrations like Google Docs or Jasper, and it has a WordPress plugin for direct optimization in your CMS.

Pros:

Proven SEO results – many marketers have used Surfer (even before the AI addition) to boost their on-page SEO and have seen improved rankings. Now with AI, it can actually write the article for you following those same guidelines.
Surfer AI is arguably one of the best for SEO-specific content because it strictly follows a data-driven outline (it’s described as having “wide-ranging content outlining features all designed to push your content up the rankings”).
The content score gamification and suggestions (e.g., “add 200 words about [subtopic]”, “mention [keyword] 2-3 more times”) make the editing process clear and actionable.
For content teams, Surfer helps ensure every piece is optimized from the first draft, potentially saving you from costly rewrites later.

Cons:

Higher cost and focused use-case. Surfer SEO (with AI) isn’t cheap and is likely overkill if you just want a general AI writer without the SEO part. The Surfer AI generation currently costs extra per article (around $29/article) on top of the monthly subscription, which can add up if you generate many pieces.
The content Surfer AI produces, while optimized, may still need a human touch to add uniqueness or expertise – there’s a risk that if everyone uses Surfer’s guidance, content could become too homogenized.
Surfer’s suggestions are only as good as the data from current top pages; if those pages aren’t great (maybe they rank due to backlinks or other factors), blindly following their blueprint might not create the best content for readers. So, human SEO insight is still important to combine with the tool’s output.

Pricing:

Start at $79/month (Basic) without the AI writer, which includes a certain number of content editor and audit credits.
The Pro plan is $159/month and Business $239/month for higher usage.
Surfer AI article generation (beta) is an add-on billed per article (approximately $29 per article as of 2025). They offer a 7-day money-back guarantee instead of a free trial.

Best AI Writers for Book & Fiction Writing

Not all AI writing is business copy. Some tools cater to novelists, fiction writers, and content creators looking to craft stories or books.

Sudowrite – AI Writing Partner for Fiction and Storytelling

Sudowrite is an AI writing assistant built by fiction writers, for fiction writers. Sudowrite helps you write novels, short stories, or even screenplays by offering suggestions for descriptions, dialogue, plot twists, and more.

Unique Features:

Story Bible: Organize characters, settings, and lore. Sudowrite stores these details and lets the AI access them as it writes, maintaining consistency in your narrative.
Brainstorm & “What If” Tool: Generate ideas for plots, twists, or character backstories whenever you’re stuck.
Describe & Dialogue: Get vivid descriptions or punchy dialogue suggestions for any scene.
Chapter and Scene Generation: A Chapter Generator can draft a chapter from a synopsis, and an Expand feature grows a short passage into a fuller scene.
Rewrite and Tone Shift: It can rewrite passages in different styles or intensify a certain tone.
Muse LLM: Sudowrite’s flagship Muse model is a fine-tuned AI specialized in creative writing. Writers praise its grasp of scene structure, dialogue, and humor, calling it “the best model” for prose.

Pros:

Excellent creativity booster. Many fiction writers using Sudowrite say it’s like brainstorming with a very imaginative friend. It can produce ideas you might not have thought of – e.g., suggest an intriguing twist or a richer metaphor – which you can accept or tweak.
The sensory descriptions it generates can really elevate your prose, adding vivid detail that makes scenes pop.
It’s also helpful for character development: you can ask it to generate character backstories or “secrets,” which might spark plot ideas.
Sudowrite’s tone is generally encouraging and it’s designed to never criticise your writing, making it a safe space to experiment.

Cons:

Not a full novel auto-writer. Sudowrite won’t magically write your book from start to finish (and it doesn’t claim to) – you need to guide it and weave its suggestions into your narrative.
Some features, like Canvas, are in beta and can be a bit overwhelming or “dense with writing solutions”, possibly overwhelming writers who are already stuck.
May occasionally produce ideas that don’t fit your vision or go off on tangents – so you have to steer it back.
Primarily aimed at fiction; while you could use it for creative non-fiction or other writing, you wouldn’t use it for, say, factual articles or marketing copy (other tools serve those better).

Pricing:

Starter plan is about $10/month (hobbyist writers), which gives you a generous allowance of AI generations (plenty for writing a novel if used wisely).
The Professional plan is around $25/month for unlimited usage and advanced features.
They also have an educational discount for students/teachers.

Squibler – End-to-End Book Writing App

Squibler is a very complete writing software for authors that has integrated AI features (branded as “Smart Writer”). Squibler is designed to take you from idea to finished book.

Unique Features:

Project & Document Management: You can create unlimited books or documents, broken into chapters or scenes. Squibler has a user-friendly drag-and-drop outline, a corkboard view for storyboarding, and a notes section for brainstorming. It’s a full writing environment (similar to Scrivener) – great for keeping all your research, notes, and chapters in one place.
Templates and Modes: Squibler provides templates for different writing needs – whether you’re drafting a novel, a screenplay, a blog post, or technical documentation. It even has script/screenplay formatting options. This flexibility caters to writers of various disciplines (fiction, nonfiction, journaling, etc.).
Smart Writer (AI Assistant): The marquee AI feature, Smart Writer, can generate content for you. Notably, Squibler offers a “full-length manuscript” prompt – you can select fiction, non-fiction, short story, or script, input some details, and it will auto-generate an entire draft book in minutes. (The developers do caution that this is more for a rough draft or idea kickstarter than a finished product.) The AI can also assist with smaller tasks: continue writing a paragraph, brainstorm plot ideas, or auto-complete a sentence. Essentially, anywhere in your document, you can invoke the AI to help write the next part.
AI “Visualize” (Text to Image): A distinctive feature – Squibler can generate images from your text descriptions. For example, if you’re writing a scene set in a medieval castle, you can have the AI create a quick image of a castle interior. This is useful for inspiration or even including simple illustrations in your notes or book. It’s not a core writing feature, but it’s a fun value-add for creative visualization.
Collaboration and Cloud Sync: Squibler is cloud-based; you can write from the web app and your work auto-saves. It supports real-time collaboration, so co-authors or editors can work with you (similar to Google Docs). You can share a link for others to view or edit your document – useful if you have an editor or a writing partner.
Goal Tracking & Analytics: There are built-in goal trackers – e.g., set a daily word count goal or target a completion date, and Squibler tracks progress. It also has some analytics on your writing (like readability scores, word count, etc.). This helps in maintaining a writing routine.
Import/Export Options: Squibler can import from Word, TXT, and even Scrivener, and export to DOCX, PDF, Kindle (MOBI), and ePub formats. This is critical for integration into the publishing process. (One caveat: the Kindle export’s table of contents wasn’t perfectly recognized by KDP in tests, so you might need to finalize formatting elsewhere. But basic export works.) Having direct export means you could write your entire book in Squibler and then generate a file ready for Amazon KDP or print.

Pros:

Holistic writing tool. Users appreciate not having to jump between a writing app and an AI tool; Squibler combines them.
The Smart Writer can speed up drafting significantly – one user noted they could generate a full rough draft quickly by describing each section and letting the AI do the heavy lifting (then editing after).
Praised for project management: you can set deadlines, track version history, and even use it for non-novel projects (it supports screenwriting format, documentation, etc. as noted in its versatility). For those who like Scrivener or yWriter, Squibler offers similar organization but with AI to prevent you from getting stuck.
A robust free version that lets you test it out (including some AI usage) without paying, which is great to see.

Cons:

Squibler is on the higher end price-wise for its full features – around $29/month – and some authors might hesitate especially if they don’t need the collaboration or management aspects. (However, note: if you do use the AI heavily, some have argued $29/month unlimited is actually generous, but it depends on perspective).
A noted issue is that the app can be “not fast enough” when navigating chapters/scenes; occasionally it lags, which can break flow for fast writers.
While the AI is good at straightforward narrative, it may not capture more nuanced literary style – you’ll likely revise AI-written sections for style and voice.
For pure plotting, some authors still prefer separate dedicated tools; Squibler’s all-in-one nature might mean it’s not the absolute best at plotting or the absolute best at AI generation, but rather very good at both.

Pricing:

Free version available with limited projects and the basic editor (and I believe limited AI credits).
Premium is $29/month (or about ~$16/month if billed annually), unlocking unlimited AI Smart Writer usage, unlimited projects, and full export options.

Novel AI – AI Storyteller with Imaginative Freedom

NovelAI is an AI-powered text generator geared primarily towards storytelling and fanfiction. It gained popularity for letting users create endless, customized narrative content privately. Unlike others, NovelAI runs on its own fine-tuned models optimized for fiction (with an anime storytelling flair) and emphasizes freedom and privacy.

Unique Features:

Story Writer & “Play” Mode: You write prose in a text area and NovelAI’s engine predicts what comes next, continuing the story. You can accept, edit, or retry the AI’s continuation. This loop feels similar to co-writing a story with an AI dungeon master.
Lorebook & Memory: You can maintain a Lorebook – a repository of world info (characters, world facts, etc.) that the AI will reference to stay consistent. You can also pin certain facts into the AI’s memory. This is crucial for longer fiction: it helps NovelAI remember your character’s eye color or the plot of previous chapters.
Multiple AI Models: NovelAI offers several AI storytelling models you can choose from, each with different “styles” and sizes. For example, Euterpe, Krake, Clio, Sigurd, Kayra, etc. are model names users can swap between. Some are larger and produce more coherent text; others might have a particular flair (e.g. more poetic, or more straightforward). This diversity lets you find a model that matches your preferred writing tone. NovelAI regularly adds new models and improvements.
Adjustable Settings: You have dials for creativity (randomness), output length, and other generation parameters. Advanced users can even use prompt programming or add special tokens to influence the style. It’s highly tweakable.
AI Modules & Themes: NovelAI has modules (essentially style or genre presets) you can apply so the AI writes in a certain manner – for instance, a “Haunted House” module might imbue a spooky tone. Additionally, the UI allows custom visual themes (a trivial point, but writers appreciate the ability to write on a cozy anime-themed parchment background, for example).
Image Generation: Alongside text, NovelAI provides a Diffusion-based image generator specifically tuned for anime-style art. You can create character portraits or scenery by typing descriptions. While not directly aiding writing, it’s a fun addition for inspiration or even self-published book illustrations.

Pros:

NovelAI truly shines in interactive storytelling – you can write a line and have it continue, or have a back-and-forth where you and the AI alternate writing. This is incredibly useful for overcoming writer’s block or just enjoying a collaborative storytelling experience.
The outputs feel natural for dialogue and narrative, often capturing the style of light novels or genre fiction well.
Users love that it’s a private sandbox: no judgment, and your content is not read by moderators.
The Lorebook and memory functions lead to impressively consistent long outputs for an AI (for instance, it will stick to your established lore across chapters).

Cons:

NovelAI’s models, to avoid copyright issues, don’t retain direct knowledge of published works or real facts beyond some generic understanding. That means if you want factual accuracy or information, this tool isn’t appropriate.
Some users also mention the content can become too predictable or formulaic for certain genres, because the AI might lean on tropes (though sometimes that’s exactly what you want).
It’s a paid-only service beyond a short free trial – no perpetual free use.
While they’ve improved the AI’s context management, very long or complex narratives may still challenge the AI, requiring the writer to step in and do some manual planning (the AI won’t fully plot a novel for you, but it will help write it).

Pricing:

Paper tier (free trial) gives a limited number of generations to test.
Tablet tier is $10/month – unlimited text generation with lower memory and some limits on image generation.
Scroll tier ~$15/month – higher memory (the AI can remember more context) and more image credits.
Opus tier $25/month for max memory (8192 tokens context, which is about 4–5k words of memory), unlimited text, and plenty of image generation.

NovelCrafter – Customizable Story Writing Platform

NovelCrafter is a newer entrant geared towards writers who want complete control and customization. It’s an AI-assisted writing platform where you can plug in different AI models (even bring your own via OpenAI, etc.), organize your novel, and even build custom AI “prompts” to use repeatedly.

Unique Features:

Comprehensive Planning (Codex & Universes): The Codex is an innovative feature that serves as an author’s database. You can store detailed profiles of characters, locations, world lore, and even define story “beats” or plot points. This isn’t just static reference; the AI can pull from the Codex to keep details consistent and even include them in generated text. For example, if your Codex notes that Character A has a scar and distrust of authority, the AI can incorporate those attributes when writing scenes with that character. You can also organize your work into Series and Universes if you’re writing multiple books in the same world.
AI Integration & Custom Models: NovelCrafter stands out for its open AI integration philosophy. It allows connecting to various AI providers: OpenAI (GPT-3.5, GPT-4), Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini, when available), Meta (Llama), Mistral, and even local models via tools like OpenRouter, Ollama, or LM Studio. This means you can choose which AI model does the writing for you. If you have an OpenAI API key, you can plug it in; if you prefer a local Llama 2 model for privacy or cost reasons, you can use that. NovelCrafter itself doesn’t lock you to one model, which is rare – it’s model-agnostic. This feature is gold for advanced users: you could use a fast local model for quick drafts and switch to GPT-4 for final polishing. The interface lets you select models or “Prose Modes” (which may group multiple models for optimal results). For instance, a “Workshop Chat” might use a specific model tuned for editing, while a “Scene Generator” might use a more creative model. This flexibility ensures NovelCrafter can adapt as AI tech evolves, and users aren’t stuck with one company’s AI.
AI Assistance Tools: Within the editor, NovelCrafter provides various AI-powered tools:
- Generate from Scene Beats: If you outline a chapter in beats (bullet points of what happens), the AI can expand those into prose.
- Scene Summarization & Character Extraction: As you write, the AI can summarize a scene or automatically pull out new characters into the Codex. This is useful for quickly updating your story bible on the fly.
- Workshop (AI Chat): There’s a feature akin to having an AI editor or writing coach: you can enter a “Workshop chat” where the AI can critique a passage, suggest improvements, or answer questions in a conversational format. (This is unlocked at higher tiers.) So, you might ask, “Does this dialogue sound natural?” and the AI will give feedback.
- Custom Prompt Recipes: NovelCrafter allows custom “prompt recipes” – essentially you can program your own AI actions. For example, you might create a prompt that says “In a sarcastic tone, continue the scene.” and save it as a button. This is powerful for advanced users who want to tailor the AI’s behavior. It leverages the notion of “smart tools, your rules”.
- Auto-Review (AI-isms): It even has a concept of detecting “AI-isms” (common tells of AI-generated text), so you can identify and edit out any unnatural phrasing the AI might produce.
Collaboration & Teams: NovelCrafter supports collaboration. At the higher “Specialist” tier, you can create and manage teams, invite co-writers or beta readers to your project with varying permissions. This is useful for writing groups or author-editor duos. The real-time collaboration isn’t as emphasized as in Squibler, but the teams feature suggests multiple users can work on a shared universe or series.
Cross-Platform & Data Ownership: It’s a web app but also supports offline use (via PWA) and works across devices. A notable promise: you’re not locked in – they make it easy to export your data, and your story elements aren’t trapped in proprietary formats. In fact, because you can use local models, you could theoretically use NovelCrafter entirely offline (via something like LM Studio hooking to a local model). It’s a very author-centric design in that way – giving you control rather than keeping you dependent.
Courses and Community: NovelCrafter offers free courses and “Novelcrafter Secrets” lessons to help writers improve, integrated into the platform. There’s also a Discord community for support. This adds a nice educational angle for new writers and shows the devs are actively engaging with users.

Pros:

Ultimate consistency. NovelCrafter basically gives you an AI writing lab. Writers who are particular about details love that they can ensure the AI has all their world info at its fingertips (via the Codex). This leads to extremely consistent narratives – the AI is far less likely to contradict established facts.
The ability to integrate with various AI providers means you’re not stuck if one service changes – you have backup options.
NovelCrafter’s interface is made for large projects; it’s organized by acts, chapters, scenes, etc., mirroring how writers think about structure. The Workshop mode is great for brainstorming and expanding ideas without affecting your main draft. Essentially, it can adapt to your writing workflow rather than forcing you to adapt to it.
Because it’s community-driven (they listen to authors), features like Tinkering Mode (to explore alternate ideas) are directly informed by writer needs.

Cons:

Steeper learning curve. NovelCrafter isn’t as plug-and-play as more streamlined apps. To get the most out of it, you’ll spend time creating your Codex entries, setting up model connections (e.g., grabbing API keys or using OpenRouter), and learning its interface.
While it “starts from $4.80/mo” as per one source (likely a limited plan), realistic use with AI models will likely require higher-tier subscription or external API costs.
The formatting and publishing features might be more limited than dedicated tools like Scrivener or Vellum – NovelCrafter focuses on the draft creation process.
Since it’s power-user oriented, sometimes the UI feels utilitarian (not as modern or simple as, say, Sudowrite’s pretty interface).
Minimal customer support is noted – it’s a small team, so you rely on community or documentation if you hit a snag.

Pricing:

Personal plan around $5-$10/month gives core features with some limits (and possibly requires using your own API keys for some models).
Professional plan ~$15-$25/month likely unlocks unlimited use of integrated models, more storage (Codex size), etc. (Exact pricing is evolving since it’s a newer platform). There’s usually a free trial period.

Designrr – Turn Content into Ebooks

Designrr is actually an eBook creation and content repurposing tool, which has recently added AI writing capabilities (via its “WordGenie” AI). It’s ideal for marketers or writers who want to create eBooks, lead magnets, or digital books quickly.

Unique Features:

AI Content Creation (WordGenie): WordGenie is Designrr’s AI writing assistant, powered by ChatGPT. With it, you can generate text within the Designrr platform. One headline feature is the ability to create a full eBook draft in minutes. Designrr provides a 5-step workflow: you give WordGenie a title or topic, it generates an outline, then writes content for each section, and compiles it into an eBook format (complete with a table of contents). For example, if you want an eBook on “10 Tips for Remote Work,” WordGenie can outline those tips and flesh out each one into a chapter or section. Users have reported that it indeed produces an entire book (perhaps 20-30 pages of content) in a matter of minutes. The content tends to be coherent and well-structured (ChatGPT-level quality), though fairly generic in tone. WordGenie can also assist on a smaller scale: you can ask it to expand a paragraph, draft a chapter based on bullet points, or write an intro/summary. Essentially it’s like having ChatGPT inside a design tool. Designrr’s site explicitly notes “WordGenie (powered by ChatGPT)” and emphasizes how it can “transform your writing process”.
Content Import and Transcription: Designrr shines in taking content you already have and turning it into something else. You can import from a blog URL, a Word/Google Doc, PDF, or even your social media posts. It will pull the text and then you can use its templates to format it nicely. For multimedia, Designrr has an AI transcription service (in Premium plans) to convert audio/video (like webinars, podcasts, YouTube videos) into text. This is very handy – e.g., you could record yourself talking for an hour and Designrr can transcribe it into a manuscript draft, which you then edit. The transcription uses AI (likely Whisper or a similar model), and they advertise it as “instant transcription”. So, repurposing is a big angle: turn your podcast into an eBook, turn your blog posts into a PDF anthology, etc.
Formatting & Templates: Once you have text (whether written in Designrr via WordGenie or imported), Designrr offers over 100 design templates and 922 Google Fonts to style your eBook. You can add images (there’s a library of copyright-free images included), and even generate 3D eCover images. It handles page numbering, table of contents generation, and basic layout automatically. You can tweak the layout in their drag-and-drop editor – for instance, adjust where images fall, or split text into columns. The result can be exported as PDF, ePub, Kindle .mobi, or even as an HTML flipbook for web embedding. These capabilities make it a favorite for quickly producing professional-looking lead magnets or self-published PDF books without needing InDesign skills.
WordGenie “Prompt to Book” Flow: There’s a guided flow (especially in newer versions) where you enter a prompt for what you want the eBook to be about, and WordGenie will: 1) generate a title and outline, 2) let you approve or tweak it, 3) generate content for each outline section, 4) compile it into the editor. Some reddit users and testimonials confirm using this to get a “comprehensive complete book in minutes”. After generation, you can use the editor to refine or add images. This is a unique feature among AI tools – while others generate text, Designrr directly goes the next step and formats it as a ready-to-go eBook with design and all. It essentially tries to deliver on the dream of one-click book creation.
Plagiarism Check & AI Detection: Not heavily advertised, but some versions of Designrr/WordGenie include plagiarism checks (since content is AI-generated, risk is low for direct plagiarism, but they may have that to assure originality). And with Content Shield (mentioned in context of INK in that publishdrive article) doing AI detection, it’s possible Designrr might integrate something to ensure the output passes AI-content detectors (though AI detection is becoming less relevant).

Pros:

Massive time-saver for creating eBooks or lead magnets. If you have a lot of existing content (like a series of blog posts) and want to compile them into a book, it can pull everything together and fill the gaps with AI-generated connecting text.
Very useful for marketers: you can quickly generate an eBook as a lead magnet by letting AI expand on a topic relevant to your audience. Another pro is the output quality in terms of layout – the eBooks look professional without needing a designer.
Can also help with tasks like outlining non-fiction so you don’t overlook key points.

Cons:

Geared towards repurposing and short books. Designrr’s AI is best for non-fiction or instructional content; it’s not the tool for crafting a novel or complex narrative. The writing quality is decent but may lack the depth and nuance a human expert would provide – you’ll want to edit the AI’s work to add your unique insights or voice.
Some users expecting a full self-publishing suite might be disappointed that it’s more for drafting and design; heavy editing and fine-tuned control over text content might still be easier in a dedicated editor then import into Designrr for final layout.
It’s primarily a paid tool (they often sell it as a one-time purchase or subscription), and if you only need the AI writing part, you might find cheaper AI writers – but the value is in combining writing + design.

Pricing:

One-time license deals are often available (e.g., $27 for basic, $97 for pro) which give you ongoing access.
Pro plan around $39/month that includes the AI writing (WordGenie) and full suite of features. They sometimes charge an extra fee for transcription minutes (if you import audio/video).

Best AI Writers for Research & Essay Writing

For academics, students, or professionals working on essays, research papers, or reports, accuracy and clarity are paramount. The tools in this category assist with scholarly writing :

Paperpal – AI Academic Writing Assistant

Paperpal is an AI writing assistant specifically designed for academic and research writing. It functions as an add-in for Microsoft Word (and also has a web version) that provides real-time suggestions to improve grammar, clarity, and academic tone.

Unique Features:

Real-time academic language feedback in Word. Paperpal checks your writing as you type in Word, highlighting errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and suggesting corrections.
Sentence structure analysis : flagging sentences that are too long or complex and suggesting simplifications)
Academic word choice improvements : suggesting more formal or precise vocabulary)
Readability enhancements : ensuring your text flows well and isn’t ambiguous.
Trained on academic literature, so it can detect discipline-specific issues and maintain an academic tone.
Academic translation for non-native English speakers: you can write in one of 25+ languages and Paperpal will suggest contextually correct translations to English.
Built-in plagiarism checker and can identify if a piece of text might be inadvertently too similar to existing literature. All suggestions come with explanations, which is great for learning.

Pros:

Elevates the quality of research papers significantly. Paperpal is like having a meticulous editor on call – it catches not only typos but subtle issues like inconsistent tense, informal phrasing, or slight deviations from academic style.
Researchers appreciate how it helps them write more clearly and correctly without leaving Word (it’s a seamless part of the writing workflow). The suggestions are tailored for academic writing, e.g., it will prefer “significant improvement” over “huge improvement” to maintain formality.
For ESL (English as Second Language) writers, it’s a godsend – things like contextual synonyms from published papers help them learn field-specific terminology. The two editing modes – Essential vs. Extensive – let you decide if you want just critical fixes or more extensive rewording suggestions.

Cons:

Free version limits and focus on Word integration. Paperpal’s full power is in Word via the add-in; if you use a different editor (Google Docs, LaTeX without Word), you can’t get real-time feedback (though you could use their web tool by copy-pasting, it’s not as smooth). The free plan allows only a certain number of checks (500 suggestions per month, 25 suggestions per document on free).
While it catches many issues, it’s not infallible – extremely complex sentences or highly technical phrasing might still need a human eye.
The plagiarism check is a nice addition but shouldn’t be solely relied on – it’s a bit of a black box (though claims high accuracy).

Pricing:

Free plan with basic suggestions (as mentioned).
Prime Plan is around $8.25/month (billed annually). Prime gives unlimited suggestions in real-time and the full suite of features (translation, plagiarism, etc.).

Jenni AI – AI Assistant for Essays with Citations and Autocomplete

Jenni AI is an AI writing tool popular among students and professionals for essay and report writing. What sets Jenni apart is its focus on providing citations and its autocomplete style interface.

Unique Features:

As you write or when you hit Jenni’s autocomplete shortcut, it generates the next lines of your essay, taking into account your existing text and instructions.
Built-in citation tool : you can highlight a claim and click “cite” – Jenni will search the web (or academic databases) and suggest a reference with a quote to support that claim. It will then insert an in-text citation (like APA/MLA style) and add the source to a bibliography automatically.
Ask Jenni feature (an AI research assistant) where you can ask it questions in the context of your essay, like “What’s a good example for this point?”.
Plagiarism checker is integrated too.

Pros:

Major time saver for essay drafting. Students and writers love that Jenni helps beat writer’s block by always suggesting a continuation – you don’t have to stare at a blank page; you get “Effortless Essay Writing” with AI help.
The “Seamless Citations” are a standout – it takes the drudgery out of formatting references and ensures you back your statements with evidence. This not only speeds up the writing process but also teaches you by example where to strengthen an argument with a source.
Jenni also adapts well to your prompt – if you give it a thesis statement, it will try to maintain that direction.
Jenni’s interface is simple and user-friendly, with a minimal learning curve – often described as just like writing with a smart autocomplete always there to help.

Cons:

While Jenni can generate text and cite sources, you should always double-check the sources – occasionally, like other AI, it might produce a citation that looks real but isn’t perfectly relevant or up-to-date (though it tries to fetch real ones, hallucination is still possible if it can’t find a good source).
Users noted that the Ask Jenni research assistant didn’t always deliver helpful answers to deep research questions – sometimes it would give a generic response or restate things rather than find a specific citation (this feature has room to improve).
Jenni is also not tailored for highly creative writing; it excels at structured content, so an imaginative essay might come out formulaic.

Pricing:

Free trial allows a limited word count to test it.
Unlimited plan is about $12/month (annual) or $20/month (monthly) for full access (as of the data from late 2024). This gives unlimited AI generations and citations.

Aithor – Student-Friendly Essay Writer with Search and Q&A

Aithor (often styled as AIthor) is an AI writing platform aimed at students for writing academic essays and assignments. One of its differentiators is an integrated search engine and other study tools.

Unique Features:

Aithor has an “Intelligent Search Engine” built in, which means you can ask it factual questions or for sources and it responds quickly like Google, but with AI understanding. This is useful when researching for your essay.
For writing, it outperforms general chatbots in academic contexts by being specifically tuned for student essays – it will structure an essay with introduction, body, conclusion if asked, and try to use appropriate academic tone.
Offers a few unique study tools: Custom Tests/Quizzes – you can have it generate practice multiple-choice questions on a topic (good for exam prep), Text Condenser – it can summarize long texts into key points (handy for reviewing articles), and Link Analysis – input a URL and it’ll analyze and summarize the page.
Organizational features like saving your essays or chats in folders for easy access later. I

Pros:

All-in-one help for homework and writing. Students find Aithor convenient because it covers from brainstorming to final review. You can chat with it to get ideas, then use it to write paragraphs, then ask it to quiz you on the content – a very holistic approach.
It’s often used to overcome writer’s block on essays – you describe your assignment and Aithor generates a solid draft you can then personalize (this can save a lot of stress on starting an essay).
The writing it produces is typically well-structured for academic tasks – e.g., it knows to include a thesis statement if asked for an essay.
Aithor emphasizes undetectability – marketing suggests it produces content that won’t be flagged by AI detectors (though one should always be cautious and add their own voice).

Cons:

While it’s great at straightforward essays, it might not handle very complex prompts or niche subjects as well as a more powerful model.
The interface tries to do a lot (search, chat, tests, etc.), which can be a bit cluttered or slower on some devices (it was noted the app can feel sluggish at times if doing heavy tasks).
Privacy could be a concern – as with any tool, uploading your assignments to it means trusting the platform (Aithor mentions privacy but it’s always good to be cautious).
Being student-focused, it might not have advanced citation features like Jenni or Paperpal – it can provide info and answers, but proper referencing might be more manual.

Pricing:

Freemium model. Aithor promotes itself as “70% more affordable than ChatGPT” – indeed they have a free tier with basic usage
Premium plans around $6-$8/month for students (depending on any student discount) which is cheaper than ChatGPT Plus.

Blainy – Research Paper Writer with Auto-Citations and PDF Chat

Blainy markets itself as “the world’s #1 research paper writer”, aimed at academics and students who need to write papers with proper scholarly apparatus. It combines AI text generation with the ability to search a vast database of academic papers and insert citations automatically in various styles.

Unique Features:

Blainy’s killer feature is that it can search millions of academic papers (journals, conference proceedings, etc.) and pull relevant information into your essay.
As you write with Blainy, you can highlight where you want a citation, and it will fetch relevant references and insert the in-text citation in APA, MLA, IEEE, or Harvard format as needed.
It also has a mode to chat with PDFs – you can upload a journal article PDF and ask Blainy questions about it or have it summarize sections. This is extremely handy for literature reviews.
AI Autocomplete like Jenni (predicts and completes sentences)
Paraphrase & Rewrite tools to help reword or shorten content without changing meaning (useful to avoid plagiarism or just improve clarity). It also boasts about outcomes: claims like “users saw 20x faster writing” and improved grades using Blainy, emphasizing its effectiveness. Essentially, Blainy combines an AI writer, a scholarly database, and a personal tutor into one platform.

Pros:

The auto-citation alone is a huge pro: it ensures your paper is backed by sources and saves hours that would be spent on manual citation searching and formatting. Students who aren’t sure where to find references can lean on this to discover relevant literature (and possibly then read those papers via the provided links).
The PDF chat feature means you can quickly extract insights from sources without reading them end-to-end – great when you have a pile of papers to review.
Users have reported finishing research drafts in a fraction of the time and feeling more confident about the content’s credibility.
It’s tailored to academics so it understands the formal tone and structure expected in research writing (introduction, methodology, etc. if prompted).

Cons:

Blainy is a premium priced product (it offers a free trial or free tier but for heavy use, a subscription is needed). This might be a barrier for some students unless their institution provides access.
While it finds sources, there is always a risk of over-reliance – you should still read the sources or at least verify that they truly support the point (no AI can guarantee that without your confirmation). Some users might get the temptation to generate a whole paper with minimal input – this could lead to a disjointed paper if not guided well, and of course, one should adhere to academic integrity (using it as a tool, not cheating).
As with any citation tool, occasionally a reference might be slightly off or incomplete – one should double-check the bibliography.

Pricing:

Free trial available.
Unlimited plan about $12/month”

SciSpace – AI Research Assistant for Reading and Writing Papers

SciSpace (formerly known as Typeset) includes an AI assistant called SciSpace Copilot that is designed to help researchers and students both understand scientific papers and write them.

Unique Features:

“Chat with PDF” literature review : SciSpace’s most lauded feature is the ability to highlight any text in a scientific paper PDF and get an explanation or simplification. If a paragraph of a paper is full of jargon or complex math, the Copilot will break it down in plain language. It can also answer questions about the paper (“What were the main findings?”).
On the writing side, SciSpace Copilot works somewhat like a smart editor: it can suggest better wording, check grammar, and even answer your questions as you write (like “How do I phrase this to meet journal X guidelines?”).
SciSpace also has an AI Detector tuned for academic content to ensure your text doesn’t read as AI-generated if that’s a concern. It’s integrated into a full platform where you can format your manuscript for journal submission and manage references.

Pros:

The PDF chat/citation explanation feature is a game-changer for many – it’s like quickly consulting an expert about a paper without hunting through forums or asking colleagues. This can save hours when doing a literature review because you can extract the key points of many papers in a short time.
For writing, SciSpace ensures you maintain a formal, academic tone and correct any style issues in real-time (similar to Paperpal’s concept, but SciSpace can also generate text on prompt, e.g., draft a section based on notes).
It’s multi-modal in a sense: text and math. It can even explain formulas in a paper or in your text (useful if you need to verify you described something correctly).
SciSpace’s focus on productivity for researchers – with 200M+ papers accessible and tools to manage citations, it’s like a Swiss Army knife for academic work (some call it a better combo of ChatGPT + Zotero + Grammarly for scientists).

Cons:

SciSpace won’t generate a full paper out of thin air (and it’s not meant to); it’s strongest when you have content and need to refine or understand it. If you ask it to write a section entirely, it may do so, but the content likely comes from summarizing known info – there’s a risk of it not adding novel insight (which is fine for background sections but not for novel research content).
Since SciSpace uses a combination of models and its own training on academic text, it might be a bit too rigid or conservative in suggestions sometimes (aiming for safe, academic phrasing could potentially make text dry, so you might want to add a bit of your own style where appropriate).
While it covers many journals, extremely niche formatting or lesser-known publication guidelines might not be fully supported (though they constantly add more).

Pricing: Freemium.

SciSpace offers free use with limited Copilot questions per month.
The Individual Premium is around $10/month (giving unlimited questions to Copilot, unlimited paper downloads/explanations, etc.).
They also have higher plans for teams or institutions.

What are the Best AI Models for Writing?

Foundational LLM models are the ones powering AI writing tools. What if you want to leverage directly from their default interface?

Here are the AI models that generate the best style, consistence, and prose :

1. Claude Sonnet 3.7

Claude Sonnet 3.7 is known for producing some of the most engaging and well-structured prose among AI models.

Pros

Engaging Writing: The output is more natural and less robotic compared to many other models, making it perfect for creative projects.
Good at Mimicking Style: Whether you need a friendly tone for a blog post or a formal one for a business report, Claude Sonnet can adapt well.
Consistency in Reasoning: It can produce well-reasoned and logically structured text over long pieces of writing, reducing the need for heavy editing.

Cons

XML Writing Format: One of the major drawbacks of Claude Sonnet 3.5 is its limited output formats. It often generates content in XML format, which can complicate the process of extracting usable content.
No Web Search: Unlike some other models, it does not have real-time web search capabilities. This limits its ability to pull in the latest data or fact-check information during content generation.
Easily Censored: The model tends to be heavily censored when it comes to generating content that involves sensitive topics. This can limit its versatility, particularly for businesses that need more nuanced or critical discussions in their content.

Pricing

Claude Sonnet 3.7 is available primarily through Anthropic’s custom API, with prices starting at around $0.02 per thousand tokens.It’s also available from Claude Chat interface starting at 20$ month.

2. GPT-4o/GPT-4,5

GPT-4o is widely recognized as one of the most powerful language models available today. Developed by OpenAI, it’s designed to handle a wide range of tasks, from casual conversation to detailed content creation.

Pros

Easy-to-Read Content: You’ll find GPT-4o excels at creating content that’s not only informative but also accessible to a wide audience. Its friendly tone makes it a great option for customer-facing content.
Adaptability: Whether you need a formal tone for business writing or a casual style for blogs, GPT-4o can adapt to your needs, which saves you time on editing.
Web Search Integration: When paired with tools that allow real-time search, GPT-4o can pull in the latest information, making it more reliable for up-to-date content.
Structured Format: If you need clear, concise, and well-organized content, GPT-4o performs well at delivering coherent output across various content types.

Cons

Repetitive Outputs: If you’re working on long-form content, GPT-4o may sometimes fall into repetitive patterns, which can make the text feel monotonous.
Bland Tone in Longer Texts: While it produces helpful content, GPT-4o can sometimes generate bland, unengaging text, especially in long-form articles. This means you might need to refine the tone to make it more compelling.

Pricing

GPT-4o is available through OpenAI’s API, with pricing based on usage. Rates typically start at $0.03 per 1,000 tokens for basic tasks, making it affordable for most content creation needs. You can also access GPT-4 through platforms like ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 per month, giving you access to its advanced features and faster response times.

3. Llama 3.3 700B

Llama 3.3 700B, developed by Meta, is a powerful open-source language model that focuses on performance and flexibility. Unlike proprietary models like GPT-4 or Claude, Llama 3.3 can be run locally without needing to rely on cloud-based solutions..

Pros

Customizable and Private: Since it’s open-source, Llama 3.3 offers a level of customization that proprietary models don’t. You can fine-tune it to suit your specific needs, and since you can run it locally, you retain complete control over your data, ensuring privacy and security.
Good Consistency: You won’t need to worry about the model losing track of the narrative or logic in long-form writing. It maintains a consistent reasoning flow, which reduces the need for post-editing.
Better Style than GPT-4: When it comes to writing style, many users find that Llama 3.3 produces more polished and natural-sounding text compared to GPT-4, especially in longer pieces.

Cons

No Writing Format Options: Unlike other models that can output in various formats (like XML, Markdown, etc.), Llama 3.3 lacks formatting options. This could slow you down if your content requires specific structure or formatting.
No Web Search: Llama 3.3 doesn’t include real-time web search functionality, limiting its ability to pull in up-to-date information or fact-check live data. If your content needs to be updated regularly, you might need to supplement it with another tool that has web search capabilities.

Pricing

Because Llama 3.3 is open-source, the model itself is free to use, making it an extremely cost-effective solution. However, the costs associated with running it locally, such as hardware and server maintenance, can add up depending on the scale of your operations.

4. Gemini 2.5 Pro

Gemini 2.5 Pro is a powerful AI model developed by Google DeepMind that focuses on delivering highly structured and well-organized content. With its long context window and web search integration, it’s designed to help users generate content that is accurate and up-to-date.

Pros

Long Context Handling: If you’re working on a complex document that requires attention to detail across multiple sections, Gemini 2.5 Pro’s long context window ensures that your content remains consistent and logically connected, reducing the need for significant post-editing.
Structured Output: You’ll find Gemini 2.5 Pro particularly helpful if your content needs to follow a specific format. Whether you’re writing technical documentation or generating business reports, this model keeps your content structured and easy to read.
Web Search: With web search integration, you won’t have to worry about outdated information. Gemini 1.5 Pro can access real-time data, making it a strong choice for content that requires current information.

Cons

Boring Tone: While the model is effective at delivering accurate and structured content, its tone can be somewhat bland. If you’re aiming for engaging or creative copy, you may need to spend extra time refining the output to add personality.
Not the Smartest: Despite its strengths in structured output and web search, Gemini 1.5 Pro is not as advanced in handling complex reasoning tasks. If your content involves deep analysis or sophisticated problem-solving, other models may perform better.
Censorship: Gemini 2.5 Pro can be somewhat conservative in its content generation. If your content touches on sensitive or controversial topics, it may limit the scope of what you can write.

Pricing

Gemini 1.5 Pro is available through Google’s enterprise-level services, making it more accessible to larger businesses or content teams with specific needs. Pricing details are typically customized based on usage and scale, so it’s necessary to consult Google directly for a quote. It’s worth noting that this model, given its advanced features, is likely to be more expensive than models like GPT-4 or Llama 3.1.

5. Grok 3

Grok 3, developed by Anthropic, is a newer AI model designed for users who want a more creative and uncensored approach to content generation.

Pros

Creative and Unconventional: If you need AI-generated content that breaks away from typical, predictable structures, Grok 3 is your go-to model. It excels at producing unique and creative writing, which can add a fresh perspective to your content.
Less Restriction, More Freedom: Grok 3 operates with fewer restrictions than models like GPT-4, enabling you to explore sensitive or controversial topics that other models may censor. This is especially useful if your content needs to push boundaries.
Strong for Brainstorming: Grok 3 is great for generating ideas. Its ability to handle open-ended prompts means it can offer a wide range of suggestions for creative projects or content campaigns.

Cons

Lacks Structure: While Grok 3 is fantastic for creativity, it’s not as strong when it comes to structured or formal content. If you need organized reports or technical writing, this model may not provide the level of detail or formatting required.
Not Ideal for Factual Content: Unlike models with web search or real-time data integration, Grok 3 isn’t designed for fact-based writing. If your content requires up-to-date or highly accurate information, this model will likely fall short.
Tone Control: Grok 3’s uncensored nature means that its tone can be inconsistent or even controversial, so you may need to edit the output to ensure it aligns with your brand’s voice.

Pricing

Grok 3 is available through X’s premium plan, and pricing starts at 10 dollars per month.

With this information in hand, test and choose the AI writing tool that fits your requirements !

Jean-marc Buchert is a confirmed AI content process expert. Through his methods, he has helped his clients generate LLM-based content that fit their editorial standards and audiences' expectations. Click to learn more.

Explore our tips and prompting techniques for quality AI content

AI Writing Tools

The Best AI Writing Tools in 2025 Compared

Sommaire

Best AI Writers for All Use Cases (General-Purpose)

ChatGPT with Canvas – Interactive Writing Editor

Unique Features:

Perplexity AI – Fact-Checked Writing

Unique Features:

Pros:

Claude Sonnet 3.7 (Anthropic) – The LLM with the best writing style

Unique Features :

Pros:

Cons:

Rytr – Affordable Writing Assistant

Unique Features:

Pros:

Cons:

Pricing:

OpenRouter (OpenRouter.ai) – Multi-Model Gateway

Best AI Writers for Marketing & SEO

Anyword – Data-Driven Copywriting

Copy.ai – Quick Copy Generation

WriteSonic – Fast Content Generation with SEO Options

Jasper – Feature-Rich AI Writer

SEO.ai – AI Writer Designed for SEO Content​

Surfer SEO (Surfer AI) – Content Writer with SEO Optimization

Best AI Writers for Book & Fiction Writing

Sudowrite – AI Writing Partner for Fiction and Storytelling

Squibler – End-to-End Book Writing App​

Novel AI – AI Storyteller with Imaginative Freedom

NovelCrafter – Customizable Story Writing Platform

Designrr – Turn Content into Ebooks

Best AI Writers for Research & Essay Writing

Paperpal – AI Academic Writing Assistant

Jenni AI – AI Assistant for Essays with Citations and Autocomplete

Aithor – Student-Friendly Essay Writer with Search and Q&A

Blainy – Research Paper Writer with Auto-Citations and PDF Chat

SciSpace – AI Research Assistant for Reading and Writing Papers

What are the Best AI Models for Writing?

1. Claude Sonnet 3.7

Pros

Cons

Pricing

2. GPT-4o/GPT-4,5

Pros

Cons

Pricing

3. Llama 3.3 700B

Pros

Cons

Pricing

4. Gemini 2.5 Pro

Pros

Cons

Pricing

5. Grok 3

Cons

Pricing

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