The 5 Best AI Essay Writing Tools (Free & Paid)

Writing a good essay can take a lot of time and effort. It can be tiring, frustrating, and difficult – even for someone like me who writes every day for a living. If writing isn’t your strong suit, it can feel even harder. That’s why there are many tools and websites designed to help you complete your paper.

Some of these services aren’t entirely ethical, and I don’t recommend paying someone to write your essays for you. However, there are some useful AI tools that can make the writing process faster and easier.

What Is an AI Essay Writer Tool and How Does It Work?

An AI writing tool uses artificial intelligence to help you write, edit, and improve papers. It analyzes your input, processes large amounts of information, and generates content based on your topic.

An AI essay helper can create draft versions, suggest improvements, fix grammar mistakes, and enhance structure. It can also provide new ideas, conduct research, and offer customization options that make essay writing faster and more efficient.

Today, I’ll share five of the best AI writing assistants for essays that you can start using right away. Let’s get started.

1. MyStylus – Best AI Tool for Academic Writing

MyStylus.ai is an AI-powered academic writing assistant designed to help students and researchers create structured, well-organized papers. The platform supports a wide range of writing tasks, including essays, research papers, case studies, article reviews, and even theses.

What sets MyStylus apart is its guided workflow. Users start by defining the paper’s title, academic level, citation style (APA, MLA, etc.), and desired length – with support for up to 50 pages. The tool then helps find relevant sources through its built-in source finder or allows you to upload your own PDFs for analysis. Based on your inputs, MyStylus generates a detailed outline, which you can further customize by choosing a writing style such as analytical, comparative, argumentative, or systematic review.

The editor produces each section – introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and conclusion – while showing originality scores, citations, and key points. You can regenerate, edit, or accept the text at any step, and even build a bibliography automatically. Finished papers can be exported directly to Word, with all references included.

Additional features like an AI detector, rewriter, summarizer, and built-in AI chat assistant make MyStylus a versatile choice for academic writing.

Pricing

• Annual: $10.92 per month
• Quarterly: $15 per month
• Monthly: $24 per month

Bonus: you can use the promo code EDP593F to get 10% off your subscription.

2. ChatGPT – Free AI Content Generator

ChatGPT is one of the most popular AI tools for writing, research, and creative projects. It’s not made just for essays, but its flexibility and free access make it a favorite for students and writers.

What it offers

• Easy-to-use conversational interface
• Broad knowledge across many subjects
• Custom instructions for consistent results
• Code help and analysis
• Image analysis with GPT-4
• Plugins for extra features

Pricing: Free to use. ChatGPT Plus costs $20/month for faster replies and better models.

ChatGPT works best through conversation. You can ask questions, brainstorm ideas, refine arguments, and generate drafts step by step. We previously published a detailed guide on how to use ChatGPT to write essays.

The free version already gives you a lot, though it has some limits. The Plus plan is more reliable if you need frequent use.

Even though it doesn’t have essay-specific tools, its versatility makes it great for idea generation, research help, and first drafts you can polish later.

3. Paperpal – AI Writing Tool for Academics and Research

Another useful option is Paperpal. The platform is primarily focused on editing, but it also offers plenty of writing support through templates. These templates include outlines for research articles, case reports, essays, and even statements of purpose.

For example, if you want to write a research paper, you can specify your field – say, natural sciences – and your topic, such as beach erosion. Paperpal then suggests how to structure your introduction, which key points to include, and which research questions to consider. It doesn’t hand you a finished essay but instead provides a clear academic framework to expand on.

One major advantage is that it integrates directly with Microsoft Word. Once installed, you can open Paperpal inside Word and work with it alongside your document.

Rewriting and Editing

Paperpal’s assistant allows you to paraphrase, improve fluency, expand, or summarize text. It also has a standout feature: document-wide scanning and suggestions. It reviews your entire text for grammar, style, and consistency – similar to Grammarly but more powerful. This makes Paperpal especially useful for polishing drafts.

It also includes a plagiarism checker (in partnership with iThenticate), which makes it safer for academic use.

Paperpal is available for free, but there is also a paid plan that offers more options.

4. Jasper – AI Built for Marketers

Next on our list is Jasper, an AI-powered writing tool that creates many types of content, including blog posts, product descriptions, web copy, and email campaigns. While mainly built for marketing, its advanced language tools also work well for business writing and essays.

Jasper helps writers overcome writer’s block and can transform essays into different formats, tones, and languages. This makes it especially convenient for students juggling multiple assignments. Jasper can reduce your workload and save valuable time.

Key features

• Writing essays in over 30 languages
• Unlimited word generations with every plan
• Over 50 templates for content creation
• Advanced editing and revision tracking
• A Chrome browser extension for direct use

While Jasper is more expensive than other tools, starting at $69 per month, its wide range of features gives it strong value.

5. JotBot – The AI Essay Writer That Writes Like You

JotBot is an AI-powered writing tool that combines content generation with style adaptation. Upon setup, users can specify their topic, request an outline, or upload existing essays to allow the system to replicate their personal writing style. The tool then generates paragraphs aligned with the uploaded material, offering a more natural and personalized tone.

A standout feature of JotBot is its interactive sidebar, which suggests subtopics such as impact, historical background, and controversies. Users can drag these suggestions directly into their essay and choose to accept or reject individual sentences as they are produced. The editor also supports manual writing, generating new ideas and continuations based on user input, making it effective for overcoming writer’s block.

JotBot operates on a credit-based system. Free accounts include 10 daily credits, though the platform does not clearly explain how credits are consumed during tasks. A paid subscription at $14 per month unlocks unlimited credits, autocomplete, and source integration.

While JotBot provides engaging features and strong customization, it is important to note that its generated text may still register as AI-written when checked with detection tools. For best results, users should treat its suggestions as drafts to refine rather than final submissions.

Using AI for Writing an Essay

AI essay writing tools can be a big help for students and researchers. The goal isn’t to find a perfect tool, but to learn how to use it the right way.

Whether you use a free or paid tool, remember these four simple rules:

• Decide what you need help with (research, ideas, editing, etc.).
• Let the AI help your thinking, not do it for you.
• Always review, edit, and fact-check what the AI creates.
• Follow your school’s rules on using AI.

Most importantly, use AI to improve your own writing and critical thinking skills, not to replace them.