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AI writing tools can save you time and help you draft, edit, and refine your content, suggesting improvements in tone, structure, and clarity to let you focus on the creative aspects of your writing. Given the vast selection of choices, selecting the right tool can be daunting. I reviewed and compared the top AI writing tools based on features, pricing, and performance to help you find the best options.
Here are my picks for the best AI writing tools:
- Grammarly: Best overall
- Copy.ai: Best for marketing and sales content
- QuillBot: Best for paraphrasing
- Writesonic: Best for writing factually accurate articles
- Rytr: Best for versatile content creation
- Frase: Best for SEO writing
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Comparison chart: Best AI writing tools
The table below provides a concise overview of the best AI writing tools, including their overall ratings, key advantages, drawbacks, and starting price so you can easily compare options.
| AI writing tool | Overall rating | Pros | Cons | Starting price(monthly billing) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grammarly | 4.4/5 | Comprehensive features | Occasionally misinterprets terms not in its database | $12 per user per month |
| Copy.ai | 4/5 | High tone customization | Lacks built-in plagiarism checker | $49 per seat per month |
| QuillBot | 4/5 | Robust multilingual support | Complex interface | $19.95 per user per month |
| Writesonic | 3.8/5 | Bulk AI article generator | Struggles following complex prompts | $20 per user per month |
| Rytr | 3.7/5 | High versatility | Restrictive free version | $9 per user per month |
| Frase | 3.6/5 | Built-in SEO optimization tools | Poor summarization | $45 per user per month |
Overall, I picked Grammarly as the top AI writing tool, ranking first for core features while tying for security, compliance, and ease of use. Continue reading to learn more about each platform’s use case, pricing, and key features, or skip ahead to see my scoring logic.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Grammarly
Best Overall
Overall Rating: 4.4/5
- Cost: 3.9/5
- Core features: 4.8/5
- Security and compliance: 5/5
- Customer support: 3.5/5
- Ease of use: 5/5
Grammarly is a powerful, all-around AI writing tool with real-time grammar and spell-checking, tone adjustment, and generative AI features. It can create anything from outlines to short stories based on your prompts and generate enhanced versions of your existing text.
Grammarly can spark ideas for brainstorming and modify writing tones for different contexts and audiences, making it ideal for various writing tasks. Additionally, you can upload files into the tool and have it analyze the writing or summarize lengthy content.
However, this artificial intelligence (AI) tool supports fewer languages than some competitors, which may be a drawback for multilingual users. Consider Rytr for an alternative with expanded multilingual capabilities.
Interface design
Grammarly has a well-designed interface with a writing assistant that scores your overall writing and lets you tailor writing recommendations. You can use the generative AI to set your voice and style or check your content for plagiarism and AI writing without navigating to another page. The platform is customizable so you can configure certain elements and views to your preference.
Why I picked Grammarly
Grammarly is the best overall writing tool on my list for its rich set of writing features and versatility. It is suitable for a wide range of users, from students to professionals. It also operates seamlessly across multiple platforms, including web browsers and desktop applications, providing real-time assistance wherever you work.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Comprehensive features | Brief free trial duration |
| Customizable style guide | Fewer supported languages compared to others |
| Plagiarism and AI checker | Occasionally misinterprets names or terms not in its database |
Pricing
- Free: Includes 100 AI prompts
- Pro: $12 per user per month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Learn more on Grammarly’s pricing page.
Features
- Real-time grammar, punctuation, and style corrections
- Personalized writing suggestions and feedback
- Plagiarism and AI checker
- Generative AI assistance
Copy.ai
Best for Marketing and Sales Content
Overall Rating: 4/5
- Cost: 5/5
- Core features: 3.9/5
- Security and compliance: 4/5
- Customer support: 3/5
- Ease of use: 3.8/5
Copy.ai is an AI writing tool primarily used to create high-quality marketing and sales content. It has more than 90 templates for generating social media posts, email campaigns, and product descriptions. It also gives fresh ideas and suggestions to spark inspiration when creativity wanes.
Copy.ai’s Brand Voice feature enables you to tailor your content’s general tone and style, ensuring that all your written materials align with your brand identity. The platform also has a library of pre-made prompts and templates for easier content creation.
A notable downside of Copy.ai is its lack of a plagiarism checker. If you need a plagiarism detector, Grammarly is an excellent AI detector software to consider.
Interface design
Copy.ai’s interface presents a variety of features and lets you choose from a selection of generative AI tools, including GPT-4 and Claude. It also has a textbox for interaction with the AI tool and a separate Editor for typing and modifying content. While these options provide functionality, they can be overwhelming, particularly since it’s necessary to understand the capabilities of each model to make the most of them.
Why I picked Copy.ai
I recommend Copy.ai for how its robust features streamline content creation. Its prompt library is a valuable starting point for new marketing and sales content writers, and its generous free version makes it accessible for small businesses.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Comprehensive prompt library | No plagiarism checker |
| Extensive tone customization | Lacks data encryption |
| Consistent AI-generated content | Poor summarization features |
Pricing
- Free: Includes one seat and 2,000 words per month
- Starter: $36 per user per month, billed annually; $49 per user per month, billed monthly
- Advanced: $186 per month, billed annually; $249 per month, billed monthly
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Learn more on Copy.ai’s pricing page.
Features
- Real-time grammar, punctuation, and style corrections
- Personalized writing suggestions and feedback
- Plagiarism and AI checker
- Generative AI assistance
QuillBot
Best for Paraphrasing
Overall Rating: 4/5
- Cost: 3.9/5
- Core features: 4.7/5
- Security and compliance: 4/5
- Customer support: 4/5
- Ease of use: 2.5/5
QuillBot is an AI-powered writing tool renowned for its advanced paraphrasing capabilities, which improve text fluency, clarity, and readability. It delivers multiple paraphrasing models so you can adapt the output to different contexts. It can translate text to over 30 languages and has a Citation Generator for academic writing. QuillBot Flow, its AI assistant, provides structured guidance to simplify writing projects.
While Quillbot offers sophisticated features, it sometimes misses grammatical errors on the first pass and may require additional corrections. Grammarly is a better fit if grammar accuracy is your priority.
Interface design
QuillBot’s interface includes a sidebar that lists all its tools like its paraphraser, grammar checker, AI detector, plagiarism checker, and AI assistant. However, each tool has its tab, requiring you to switch between them to use various features — which complicates the workflow, as you cannot use all functionalities on the same page.
Additionally, QuillBot Flow is tucked away in its own tab, which takes you to a completely new page with its own set of options.
Why I picked QuillBot
I picked QuillBot as one of the best AI writing tools because of its extensive features and accessibility. Its browser extensions and native mobile applications allow you to write flexibly across devices and on the go. In addition, its customer support channels, which include phone assistance, are a rare offering that sets it apart from competitors, delivering direct help when needed.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| AI and plagiarism checker | Inconsistent output quality |
| Supports over 30 languages | Occasionally misses grammatical errors |
| Offers phone support | Complex AI interface |
Pricing
- Free: Includes 50 text prompts a day
- Monthly: $19.95 per user per month
- Semi-Annual: $13.31 per user per month
- Annual: $8.33 per user per month
Learn more on Quillbot’s pricing page.
Features
- Paraphrasing tool
- AI and plagiarism detection
- Citation Generator
- QuillBot Flow
Writesonic
Best for Writing Factually Accurate Articles
Overall Rating: 3.8/5
- Cost: 2.8/5
- Core features: 4.4/5
- Security and compliance: 5/5
- Customer support: 3/5
- Ease of use: 3.8/5
Writesonic is a comprehensive AI writing tool that specializes in ensuring articles are factually accurate through real-time web search. Its AI Article Writer feature helps you create detailed content by simply providing a topic and specifying keywords, brand voice, and references to tailor the output to your preference.
The platform can also generate images and optimize content for search engines through keyword research and readability analysis. Chatsonic, its AI assistant, can also analyze files.
Writesonic’s free version, however, is quite restrictive, offering only 25 one-time credits — limiting your ability to fully explore its functionalities. If you want an AI writing assistant with a free tier that has extensive features, try QuillBot.
Interface design
Writesonic boasts a clear layout and well-organized elements, making navigation intuitive. With its clean and unobtrusive design, beginners and experienced users alike can easily find the features they need.
Moreover, the platform’s image generation capability lets you create complementary visuals to complete your content without switching to another AI software. The platform also has enterprise-grade security features.
However, some of its main functionalities can be difficult to use. Customizing content, for example, involves several steps, as you must input numerous details for highly tailored results. Also, its plagiarism checker is hidden and only appears when you highlight text, making it less straightforward.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Bulk AI article generator | Limited free trial credits |
| Chatsonic AI assistant | Inconsistent Chrome extension performance |
| Includes an AI image generator | Occasionally struggles following complex prompts |
Pricing
- Free: Includes 25 AI credits, one time
- Basic: $16 per user per month, billed annually; $20 per user per month, billed monthly
- Lite: $39 per user per month, billed annually; $49 per user per month, billed monthly
- Standard: $79 per user per month, billed annually; $99 per user per month
- Professional: $199 per month for two users, billed annually; $249 for two users per month, billed monthly
- Advanced: $399 per month for five members, billed annually; $499 for five users per month
Learn more on Writesonic’s pricing page.
Features
- Content templates
- AI topic clustering
- Paraphraser
- AI assistant
Rytr
Best for Versatile Content Creation
Overall Rating: 3.7/5
- Cost: 3.5/5
- Core features: 3.7/5
- Security and compliance: 4/5
- Customer support: 3.5/5
- Ease of use: 3.8/5
Rytr is an AI writing tool for marketers, bloggers, and all-around content creators. It generates high-quality texts for anything, from articles and blog posts to poems and social media updates. You can also choose from a multitude of tones and use cases, making it adaptable to diverse needs. Rytr’s MyVoice feature facilitates personalized writing, while its plagiarism checker ensures writing originality.
The free version of Rytr is limited to only 10,000 characters per month, which may not suffice when dealing with larger projects. If you want an AI writing tool with a free version that supports larger text volumes, I recommend QuillBot.
Interface design
Rytr houses a wide array of features to accommodate all skill levels, even non-writers. It has dropdown menus for selecting use cases and tones, as well as the option to add a custom voice for personalized output. When generating content, you can also adjust the creativity level and the number of content variants. Additionally, its text editor gives full formatting control so you can fine-tune the output.
However, as packed as this platform is feature-wise, the numerous options can be confusing for first-time users, making it less user-friendly.
Why I picked Rytr
I consider Rytr to be one of the top AI writing tools today because it combines efficiency and adaptability for diverse content creation needs. Its ability to quickly generate text is complemented by a wide selection of languages, tones, and use cases, making content creation easy for different industries.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Ideal for a variety of use cases | Free version limited to 10,000 characters |
| Supports over 35 languages | Doesn’t support file uploads |
| Built-in plagiarism checker | Occasionally forgets the interaction context |
Pricing
- Free: Includes 10,000 characters per month
- Unlimited: $7.50 per user per month, billed annually; $9 per user per month, billed monthly
- Premium: $24.16 per user per month, billed annually; $29 per user per month, billed monthly
Learn more on Rytr’s pricing page.
Features
- MyVoice
- Plagiarism checker
- AI paragraph generator
- Email generator
Frase
Best for SEO Writing
Overall Rating: 3.6/5
- Cost: 3.9/5
- Core features: 2.6/5
- Security and compliance: 4/5
- Customer support: 3/5
- Ease of use: 5/5
Frase is an AI writing tool specifically made for SEO optimization to help content creators increase online visibility. You can select the type of content you want to create — such as blog posts or cold emails, for example — and specify the topic. Frase’s AI tool will then automatically compose SEO-friendly content for you. These outputs are customizable, allowing you to adjust the tone to formal, informal, persuasive, or friendly.
Frase can also analyze top-ranking pages to identify relevant themes and keywords so you can craft articles that are sure to rank well in search results.
It’s worth noting, however, that Frase lacks a built-in plagiarism detection feature. If you need a plagiarism checker with your AI writing tool, I’d recommend Writesonic.
Interface design
Frase’s interface is uncluttered, with a visually pleasing color scheme that feels easy on the eyes. It presents only a handful of options that serve a clear and relevant purpose. It balances simplicity with customization, letting you adjust tone and format text. Frase’s customization tools are carefully selected for practicality, making the interface efficient.
Why I picked Frase
I highly recommend Frase as one of the best AI writers because it simplifies writing SEO-focused content while providing a user-friendly interface. Compared to its competitors, it makes content writing and optimization easier so you can focus on the task without being overwhelmed by unnecessary complexity.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| User-friendly interface | Doesn’t support file uploads |
| Prebuilt templates for content creation | Poor summarization feature |
| Built-in SEO tools | No plagiarism detector |
Pricing
- Free: Includes 10,000 AI words for one user
- Basic: $45 per user per month; $459 per year
- Team: $115 for up to three users per month; $1173 per year
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Learn more on Frase’s pricing page.
Features
- SEO analytics
- Content templates
- SERP data enrichment
- AI paraphrasing tool
5 key features of an AI writing tool
AI writing tools are equipped with important features that streamline the writing process and elevate content quality. Each feature contributes to boosting efficiency and meeting content quality standards.
NLP capabilities
Natural language processing (NLP) allows AI writing tools to interpret and generate human-like text by analyzing language patterns, context, and semantics. This enables the creation of coherent, contextually accurate, and engaging content. By simulating human writing, NLP ensures that the output aligns with the specific subject matter and your expectations.
Customizable tone
With customizable tone settings, you can adjust your content style to match your desired voice, whether it’s professional, friendly, or persuasive. This is particularly important when writing for different audiences or platforms. For example, when you’re drafting an email, being able to tweak the tone ensures your message connects with the right readers.
Prompt adherence
Prompt adherence means that the AI writer closely follows the instructions. This helps keep the content focused and relevant to your needs and gets you precise outputs for complex writing tasks without having to spend a lot of time editing.
Text summarization
Summarizing text helps turn long documents, articles, or reports into shorter texts that highlight the main ideas and points without omitting key details. AI productivity tools with impressive summarization features are useful for creating executive summaries or quick content overviews and save time and effort by automatically pulling out the most important information.
Multilingual support
The tool’s AI language support makes it possible to produce, translate, or edit content in various languages. This capability is a must if you want to communicate in a lot more ways and to a lot more people, promoting inclusivity and making information accessible to a wider audience.
How I evaluated the AI writing tools
To determine the top AI writing tools, I evaluated them based on five categories: core features, costs, security and compliance, customer support, and ease of use. These criteria cover the key factors that must be considered when choosing an AI tool to make sure it meets your writing needs.
My evaluation combined hands-on testing, vendor demos, and user reviews to gain a well-rounded perspective. While I aimed to be as accurate as possible, it’s important to consider that features and pricing can change frequently, so I recommend double-checking the latest details before deciding which tool is better for you and your business.
- Core features (30 percent): For this category, I examined the fundamental capabilities of each AI writing tool, including NLP capabilities, summarization, prompt adherence, tone customization, and multilingual support.
These details establish how successfully the tool can maintain a specific tone, meet formatting requirements, and process diverse input types. Tools that perform well in these areas give greater flexibility for different types of content.
Criteria winner: Grammarly
- Costs (25 percent): I evaluated costs based on the availability of a free version, the duration of the free trial, and the transparency of the pricing structure. I factored in features offered in the free version and any restrictions it might have. Clear pricing helps you determine whether the tool has enough value for its cost, while free versions and trials let you test the features before committing to a paid plan.
Criteria winner: Copy.ai
- Security and compliance (20 percent): For security and compliance, I assessed how well the AI writing tools protect data and adhere to regulations like GDPR or CCPA. I also checked encryption standards to find out the tool’s security level. This ensures that you can trust the AI writing tool to handle data safely and responsibly, especially in professional or corporate settings.
Criteria winners: Grammarly and Writesonic
- Customer support (15 percent): This criterion reflects how effectively the AI tool helps you navigate challenges. I considered the availability of multiple support channels, response times, and the quality of self-help resources, like guides and forums. Reliable support accelerates the resolution of technical issues and helps you maximize the tool’s productivity.
Criteria winner: QuillBot
- Ease of use (10 percent): To gauge the intuitiveness of the AI tools, I evaluated their design and accessibility, centering on smooth navigation and setup, as well as a minimal learning curve. A user-friendly interface allows users of all skill levels to use the tool effortlessly. Tools that are simple yet robust encourage higher adoption rates and increase user satisfaction.
Criteria winners: Grammarly and Frase
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Based on my research, Grammarly is the best AI tool for writing. It has solid features, reasonable pricing, reliable support, strong security, and user-friendly features.
Yes, there are many AI writing tools with free tiers, including Grammarly, QuillBot, Copy.ai, Frase, Rytr, and Writersonic. However, you must be aware of their limitations, such as reduced functionality and lack of advanced features compared to their paid versions.
The best free AI tool depends on your specific needs. For example, ChatGPT is one of the best free AI tools for conversational AI, while Canva is for design. Read our article on the best free AI apps and tools to explore more options for personal and business use cases.
Yes, many AI tools support multiple languages. For instance, Rytr supports over 35 languages, including English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, and Arabic. Grammarly’s paid plan also allows you to use the translation feature on the text that you’ve written, with a maximum of 4,000 characters at once.
AI writing tools typically have built-in plagiarism detection features powered by AI algorithms that compare submitted text against a massive database of published content. These tools show a detailed report on the likelihood of the text being machine-generated, as well as recommend the best way to paraphrase the text or provide proper citation.
Bottom line: AI writing tools enhance content creation
AI writing tools can significantly enhance your content creation process, delivering valuable support for generating ideas, structuring content, and refining drafts. The best AI tool will complement your writing workflow, boosting productivity and elevating your style and creativity.
With a wide range of options to consider, finding the right fit can be difficult. This guide’s in-depth review of each AI writing tool’s features and overall value aims to help you make a well-informed choice that aligns with your goals.
Find out the major players in AI and GenAI by reading our articles on the top AI companies and top generative AI companies today.