Today there are 138 different AI essay writer software. We spent 73 hours comparing the top 50 to find the seven best you can use to generate high-quality essays.
What is the Best AI Essay Writer?
1. Jenni AI
Our Verdict — Best Of The Best
Price: Starts at $30/month
Jenni AI is an academic writing workspace where you read, write, and cite in one place. We think it’s the best because it puts research, drafting, and citations in one workspace, with every claim traceable back to a real source.
The Best Part:
Citations as you type. Search a library of real papers, hit Cite, and Jenni adds the reference while you keep writing.
The Worst Part:
Serious use means going Plus. The free tier is enough to test the workspace, but steady essay writing runs through the paid plans.
Get it if you want essays where every claim is backed by a source you can show.
I recommend you start with the free plan, then get the Plus plan for $12/month, billed annually.
(free plan)
Best For
Jenni AI is best for students and academics who need essays with real, traceable citations.
Top Features
Cite while you write. Pull from a library of real papers and drop in-text citations without leaving the draft.
AI autocomplete. When you stall, Jenni suggests the next sentence and keeps the essay moving.
A research library. Save sources into collections, read the PDFs, and keep everything attached to the essay it belongs to.
Every claim traceable. Jenni is built so each statement can be traced back to its source — exactly what reviewers want to see.
Start free. The free plan lets you test the whole workspace before spending anything.
Pricing
Jenni AI offers three pricing plans:
- Free: Free forever, for students who want to test the workspace before committing to a paid plan.
- Plus: $30/month, or $12/month billed annually, for students who write essays every week and want unlimited AI assistance.
- Pro: $73/month, or $29/month billed annually, for academics who want unlimited autocomplete, edits, chat, and reviews.
Annual subscriptions provide up to a 60% discount.
Try Jenni AI today with the free plan.
2. Rytr
Our Verdict — Best For Short Essays
Price: Starts at $9/month
Rytr is a 100% straightforward AI writing assistant. We think it’s the best for short essays because it turns a prompt into a clean draft in seconds, at a price any student can afford.
The Best Part:
Great bargain on the Lite plan. Get unlimited characters without breaking the bank at only $9/month.
The Worst Part:
It has fewer features than other tools. Alternatives like QuillBot and Grammarly provide a more comprehensive set of tools and integrations.
Get it if you want an easy-to-use AI writing tool that won’t break the bank.
I recommend you start with the free plan, then upgrade to the Lite plan at $9/month once you’re familiar with the tool.
(free plan)
Best For
Rytr is best for students who need short essays drafted fast, at a price that fits a student budget.
Top Features
Straightforward and easy-to-use interface. Waste no time and get straight to writing with the software’s simplified interface.
Low-rate subscription option. Enjoy a convenient AI writing experience with a small investment starting at only $9/month.
Writes in your voice. Match your own voice or pick from 22 tones, so every essay draft sounds like you wrote it.
Output customization feature. Add your own custom template based on your style and preferences to get the best out of their AI.
38 languages. Write your essays in any of 38 languages and get up to three drafts at once to compare.
Pricing
Rytr offers four pricing plans:
- Free: Free forever, for students who want to try the software and generate up to 10,000 characters a month.
- Lite: $9/month for students and writers who want unlimited characters with the minimum investment possible.
- Personal: $19/month for everyday communication, with 2 connected sources, 250 active relationships, and 10 person research runs a month.
- Pro: $49/month for power users who want all connected sources, 1,000 active relationships, morning and evening briefings, and custom use cases.
Annual plans provide up to a 21% discount.
Try Rytr today with the free plan.
3. QuillBot
Our Verdict — Best For Paraphrasing
Price: Starts at $19.95/month
QuillBot is a smart AI-powered assistant that can write your essays from scratch. We think it’s the best for paraphrasing because of its nine paraphrasing modes, built-in plagiarism checker, and varied writing templates.
The Best Part:
Kickstart your writing with templates. QuillBot offers pre-made templates for essays, research papers, and blog posts, making it easier to get started and avoid the blank page syndrome.
The Worst Part:
Tight caps on the free plan. QuillBot’s free plan only paraphrases up to 125 words at a time, so heavier work needs Premium.
Get it if you want an efficient tool that can help you create well-written essays without breaking a sweat.
I recommend you kick it off with the free plan, then upgrade to Premium for $19.95/month.
(free plan)
Best For
QuillBot is best for students and professionals who want a quick and reliable AI to write essays.
Top Features
Outline or full content, your choice. QuillBot can produce an essay outline for you to follow, or go the whole nine yards and generate the complete content.
Keep it original. Use QuillBot's built-in plagiarism checker to ensure every piece of writing is unique and authentic. You'll never be caught on the wrong foot for plagiarized content.
Keep it all in one place. With QuillBot, you can search the internet for academic or non-academic content right within the tool — no more juggling between tabs.
Nail your references. Just pop in a URL and QuillBot's built-in citation creator will generate accurate citations for you, in any style — be it APA, MLA, or Chicago.
Seamless integration with Microsoft Word. QuillBot's Microsoft Word add-on lets you write and edit your essays right within your familiar workspace.
Pricing
QuillBot offers three pricing plans:
- Free: Free forever, for beginners who want to dip their toes into the world of AI-powered writing and get a taste of QuillBot’s features.
- Premium: $19.95/month ($8.33/month billed annually), for students and professionals who want to produce unlimited essays, all nine paraphrasing modes, and the plagiarism checker.
- Team Plan: Custom pricing, for organizations that want centralized billing, team usage metrics, and a user management dashboard.
Annual plans provide a 58% discount.
Try QuillBot today with the free plan.
4. Grammarly
Our Verdict — Best For Students
Price: Starts at $12/month
Grammarly is the AI writing partner that polishes your essays as you write them, anywhere you write them. We think it’s the best for students because of its grammar and tone fixes, built-in plagiarism detection, and rewrites that still sound like you.
The Best Part:
It works everywhere you write. Grammarly follows you into Google Docs, Word, your browser and your phone, so every essay gets the same polish no matter where you type it.
The Worst Part:
The free plan won’t rewrite for you. Free covers corrections and tone checks, but full sentence rewrites, plagiarism detection and AI checks all sit behind the Pro plan.
Get it if you want essays that read clean and credible, with your own voice still on the page.
I recommend you start with the free plan, then get the Pro plan for $12/month.
(free plan)
Best For
Grammarly is best for students who want polished, plagiarism-free essays that still sound like they wrote them.
Top Features
Rewrites that keep your voice. Highlight a clunky sentence and Grammarly rewrites it clearly, without making it sound like a machine wrote it.
Catch plagiarism before your professor does. Pro checks your essay against billions of web pages and academic papers, and flags anything you still need to cite.
Tone that matches the assignment. Grammarly reads how your essay comes across — formal, confident, friendly — and shows you how to shift it when it misses the mark.
AI detection built in. Run your draft through the AI checker before you submit, so your own work never gets mistaken for a chatbot’s.
Citations in seconds. Paste a source and Grammarly formats the citation in APA, MLA, or Chicago for you.
Pricing
Grammarly offers three pricing plans:
- Free: $0/month for students who want to fix spelling and grammar mistakes and see their writing tone.
- Pro: $12/month for students who want full-sentence rewrites, tone adjustments, plagiarism and AI detection, and 2,000 AI prompts per month.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing for larger organizations that want dedicated support, custom roles and permissions, and data loss prevention.
Try Grammarly today with the free plan.
5. Copy.ai
Our Verdict — Best For Brainstorming Essays
Price: Starts at $29/month
Copy.ai is an AI platform for sales and marketing teams, and its Chat plan gives you an AI chat assistant for everyday writing. We think it’s the best for brainstorming essays because Chat gives you unlimited words and access to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini models to explore your ideas.
The Best Part:
Top AI models in one chat. Chat gives you OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini models, so you can compare how each one approaches your essay topic.
The Worst Part:
Built for business teams. Copy.ai now focuses on go-to-market teams, so its cheapest plan is a five-seat team plan at $29/month.
Get it if you want unlimited AI chat for brainstorming essay topics, outlines, and arguments.
I recommend you start with the Chat plan at $29/month.
(Chat plan)
Best For
Copy.ai is best for study groups and small teams who want to brainstorm essay ideas with several AI models in one place.
Top Features
Unlimited words in Chat. Write and rewrite as much as you want without watching a word count.
Unlimited chat projects. Keep a separate project for each essay or class.
Several AI models. Switch between OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini models inside one tool.
Five seats. The Chat plan includes five seats, so you can share it with up to four other people.
Workflows for bigger jobs. Move up to Enterprise to automate multi-step writing tasks, like SEO articles, with AI workflows.
Pricing
Copy.ai offers two pricing plans:
- Chat: $29/month, for small teams that want five seats, unlimited words in Chat, and access to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini models.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, for larger go-to-market teams that want AI workflows, integrations, and guided onboarding.
Try Copy.ai today with the Chat plan.
6. WordAi
Our Verdict — Best For Rewriting Your Own Drafts
Price: Starts at $17/month
WordAi is an AI rewriter that takes your own draft and rewrites every sentence from scratch. We think it’s the best for rewriting your own drafts because it restructures each sentence of your writing while keeping your meaning intact.
The Best Part:
Rewrites from scratch. WordAi understands the meaning of each sentence and restructures it, so your own draft comes out clearer and easier to read.
The Worst Part:
You need a draft first. WordAi rewrites text you already have, so it won’t write an essay for you from a prompt.
Get it if you already have your own draft and want clearer, fresher wording, and check your school’s AI policy before you submit.
I recommend you start the 3-day free trial, then get the Starter plan for $9/month billed annually.
(3-day free trial)
Best For
WordAi is best for writers who want to rework their own drafts into clearer, fresher wording.
Top Features
Creativity control. Make WordAi more conservative to keep more of your original wording, or more adventurous for bigger changes.
HTML support. Paste formatted text and WordAi keeps your HTML intact while it rewrites.
Grammar fixes as it goes. WordAi corrects spelling and grammar mistakes while it rewrites your text.
Clearer sentences. It splits long run-on sentences and trims wordy passages into clear, concise ones.
Bulk rewriting and API. Upload many articles at once, or add WordAi to your own workflow with its API.
Pricing
WordAi offers three pricing plans:
- Starter: $17/month, or $9/month billed annually, for writers who want to rewrite up to 50,000 words a month.
- Power: $57/month, or $27/month billed annually, for heavy users who want to rewrite up to 3,000,000 words a month.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, for teams that want high-volume usage, multiple user accounts, and an account manager.
Annual subscriptions provide up to a 53% discount.
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’ve rewritten fewer than 10 articles.
Try WordAi today with a 3-day free trial.
7. ClosersCopy
Our Verdict — Best For Persuasive Essays
Price: Starts at $49.99/month
ClosersCopy is an AI copywriting tool built around proven sales copy frameworks. We think it’s the best for persuasive essays because its 700+ frameworks help you structure an argument that moves your reader.
The Best Part:
700+ writing frameworks. Pick a proven structure for your piece instead of starting from a blank page.
The Worst Part:
Pricey for students. Plans start at $49.99/month, and the entry plan limits you to 300 AI runs a month.
Get it if you write persuasive pieces often and want frameworks that guide your argument from start to finish.
I recommend you start with the Power plan at $49.99/month.
(14-day money-back guarantee)
Best For
ClosersCopy is best for writers who want persuasive essays, sales pages, and marketing copy built on proven frameworks.
Top Features
Longform editor. Write full-length pieces, like essays and blog posts, with the Longform tool.
SEO Audit and SEO Planner. Audit and plan your content for search, with 50 SEO audits a month on Power and unlimited audits on the higher plans.
Workflows. Build workflows to speed up the writing tasks you repeat.
Team seats. Power includes two seats, Superpower includes three, and Superpower Squad includes five.
Community and support. Join a community of 12,000+ members, with email support on every plan.
Pricing
ClosersCopy offers three pricing plans:
- Power: $49.99/month, for writers who want 300 AI runs and 50 SEO audits a month, with two seats.
- Superpower: $79.99/month, for writers who want unlimited AI writing, unlimited SEO audits, and three seats.
- Superpower Squad: $99.99/month, for teams that want unlimited AI writing and five seats.
All plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Try ClosersCopy today with the Power plan.
Our Top Three Picks
Here’s a quick summary of our top three picks:
Here’s a quick comparison of our top seven picks:
Tool | Entry Offer | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
Jenni AI | Free plan | Starts at $30/mo |
Rytr | Free plan | Starts at $9/mo |
QuillBot | Free plan | Starts at $19.95/mo |
Grammarly | Free plan | Starts at $12/mo |
Copy.ai | None | Starts at $29/mo |
WordAi | 3-day free trial | Starts at $17/mo |
ClosersCopy | 14-day money-back guarantee | Starts at $49.99/mo |
Here are the top 50 AI essay writers we considered in this review:
- Jenni AI
- Rytr
- QuillBot
- Grammarly
- Copy.ai
- WordAi
- ClosersCopy
- Writesonic
- TinyWow
- EssayAiLab
- Textero
- PerfectEssayWriter
- ChatGPT
- Writer.com
- Writefull
- Linguix
- Spin Rewriter
- Claude
- Zoho Writer
- EssaySoft
- Textio
- Ref-N-Write
- Autocrit
- ProWritingAid
- Gemini
- Hemingway Editor
- Dr Assignment Auto Writer
- Ginger Software
- WhiteSmoke
- Ludwig Guru
- Slick Write
- Jasper
- Paperpal
- Scribbr
- EasyBib
- Trinka
- Yomu AI
- SEOMagnifier
- Dupli Checker
- EssayGenius
- Cite This For Me
- BibMe
- HyperWrite
- Simplified
- Text Blaze
- Wordtune
- NeuralText
- Copywritely
- Sudowrite
- Smodin
Frequently Asked Questions About AI Essay Writers
What is the best AI essay writer?
Jenni AI is our top pick. You research, draft, and cite inside one workspace, and every claim can be traced back to a real source, which is why it lands first.
Are AI essay writers free?
Most of the top tools give you a free plan, including Jenni AI, QuillBot, Grammarly, and Rytr. Paid plans unlock more features when you need them.
How do I choose the right AI essay writer?
Match the tool to your goal. Reach for Jenni AI overall, Rytr for short essays, QuillBot for paraphrasing, and Grammarly for student essays. Decide whether you need templates, plagiarism checking, citations, or AI detection, then try a free plan before you commit.
Can AI essay writers check for plagiarism and add citations?
Yes. Many essay writers include a built-in plagiarism checker and generate citations in APA, MLA, and Chicago. Some also search the web for research and plug into Microsoft Word.
Can Turnitin detect essays written by AI?
Turnitin has an AI writing detector that many schools use, so AI-generated text can get flagged. Use these tools to brainstorm and polish your own work, and follow your school’s AI policy.
Which AI essay writer is best for matching my writing style?
Rytr is our pick for matching your writing style. Add your own custom template based on your tone and preferences, and its drafts keep sounding like you.
Which AI essay writer is best for students?
Grammarly is our pick for students. The free plan cleans up grammar and tone anywhere you write, and Pro adds full rewrites, plagiarism checks, and AI detection.
Which AI essay writer is best for short essays?
Rytr is our pick for short essays. It also gives you a free plan to start.
The Bottom Line
To recap, here are the best AI essay writers to try this year: