The shortlist
5 things that do it. Ours is in there, labelled, not on top.
Where one of our products fits, it sits in the list with an "ours" label, never forced to the top. Ours: made by the same studio that runs this site.
AI writing tool aimed at novels and screenplays.
- Free
- A free trial, no credit card required, per its pricing page.
- Paid
- from $10 per month billed yearly (Hobby & Student)
- Best at
- Its Professional plan is described as best suited to longer projects like novels or screenplays, with developmental edits, line edits and beta reads.
- The catch
- AI features stop working without a paid plan, though you keep access to what you wrote.
- web
Writing platform for novelists with a Codex for characters and locations plus AI help.
- Free
- No permanent free plan; a 21-day trial with unrestricted access to all features.
- Paid
- from $8 per month (Hobbyist, the cheapest plan with AI)
- Best at
- Story organisation: the Codex tracks characters and places while you write.
- The catch
- No permanent free plan, only a 21-day trial, and the cheapest plan (Scribe) has no AI features. From Hobbyist you bring your own AI key.
- web
AI writing tool for novels and screenplays that helps with plot consistency and editing.
- Free
- 1,000 AI credits a month, no time limit, test book or screenplay creation.
- Paid
- from $15.83 per month (Plus, billed annually)
- Best at
- A free plan that does not expire, with 1,000 AI credits a month to test book creation.
- The catch
- The free plan is for testing; full-length manuscripts, AI editing and PDF or DOCX export are on the paid Plus plan.
- web
General AI assistant for chatting, drafting and editing text.
- Free
- Free plan: chat on web, desktop and mobile, with up to 5 projects, per its pricing page.
- Paid
- from $17 per month (Pro, billed annually)
- Best at
- Free plan with Projects (up to 5) for keeping chapters and notes together as documents.
- The catch
- It is a general assistant, not a manuscript tool: there is no built-in book structure, so you manage the chapters yourself.
- web
- desktop
- ios
- android
ScriptGrain
oursMeasures your writing style from your own samples and drafts new text in that voice.
- Free
- One voice profile, one writing analysis and one free draft, no card required.
- Paid
- from £12 per month (Writer, 40 credits)
- Best at
- Drafting in your own measured voice, up to 15,000 words in one draft, with a free draft to try.
- The catch
- One draft is capped at 15,000 words, so a whole book is built piece by piece. It is a drafting tool, not a manuscript organiser.
- web
The same shortlist, as a table
| Thing | Free tier | Paid from | Platforms | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sudowriterel="nofollow noopener" | A free trial, no credit card required, per its pricing page. | $10 per month billed yearly (Hobby & Student) | web | AI features stop working without a paid plan, though you keep access to what you wrote. |
| Novelcrafterrel="nofollow noopener" | No permanent free plan; a 21-day trial with unrestricted access to all features. | $8 per month (Hobbyist, the cheapest plan with AI) | web | No permanent free plan, only a 21-day trial, and the cheapest plan (Scribe) has no AI features. From Hobbyist you bring your own AI key. |
| Squiblerrel="nofollow noopener" | 1,000 AI credits a month, no time limit, test book or screenplay creation. | $15.83 per month (Plus, billed annually) | web | The free plan is for testing; full-length manuscripts, AI editing and PDF or DOCX export are on the paid Plus plan. |
| Clauderel="nofollow noopener" | Free plan: chat on web, desktop and mobile, with up to 5 projects, per its pricing page. | $17 per month (Pro, billed annually) | web, desktop, ios, android | It is a general assistant, not a manuscript tool: there is no built-in book structure, so you manage the chapters yourself. |
| ScriptGrain ours | One voice profile, one writing analysis and one free draft, no card required. | £12 per month (Writer, 40 credits) | web | One draft is capped at 15,000 words, so a whole book is built piece by piece. It is a drafting tool, not a manuscript organiser. |
How we checked
What we read, and what we haven't tested yet.
On 2026-10-02 we read the pricing pages of Sudowrite, Novelcrafter, Squibler, Claude and ScriptGrain, plus the ScriptGrain home page and Amazon KDP's content guidelines. Nothing was tested hands-on. ChatGPT's pricing page returned an error, so we left it out.
If none of these fit
The manual way.
Planning to sell on Amazon KDP? Its guidelines say you must tell KDP about AI-generated text, images or translations. Content you wrote yourself and only edited or brainstormed with AI counts as AI-assisted, and that needs no disclosure.