I tested the 7 best AI content writing software tools in 2026 (here's my verdict)

The market for AI writing tools is expanding rapidly. With many options available, it can be challenging to find a tool that produces high-quality, natural-sounding content consistently.

For content teams in 2026, the goal is to create SEO-friendly articles that resonate with readers, build trust, and rank on search engines. The challenge is to scale content production while maintaining high quality.

This guide evaluates seven of the top AI content writing tools to help you understand their features, strengths, and ideal use cases. Among the tools reviewed is the eesel AI blog writer, which our team at eesel used to increase daily search impressions from 700 to over 750,000 in three months.

What is AI content writing software?

AI content writing software is more than just a general chatbot like ChatGPT. These are specialized tools built for specific jobs like marketing, SEO, and creating long-form content. Think of them as a structured workflow for producing a certain kind of content, not just a blank text box.

These tools mix powerful large language models (LLMs) with features that professional content creators need. This usually includes SEO analysis, brand voice settings, content templates for different formats, and sometimes even plagiarism checkers. They’re made to streamline the whole content creation process.

The idea isn't to replace human writers. It's to give them a really good assistant. These tools can handle the heavy lifting of research, drafting, and optimization. That frees up writers to focus on strategy, creativity, and adding those unique human insights that an AI can't come up with.

How we chose the top AI content writing software

To make sure this list was actually useful, I put every tool through real-world tests. I didn't just skim their marketing pages; I used them to draft blog posts, write ad copy, and outline content plans.

We looked at a few key things during the evaluation:

• Output Quality: Does the content sound like a person wrote it? Is it accurate, well-researched, and interesting, or just a jumble of keywords?
• Ease of Use: Is the interface simple and easy to figure out? Or do you feel like you need to read a manual just to get going?
• SEO & Marketing Features: Does the tool help you create content that will actually get seen? Does it have features for keyword research, on-page optimization, and hitting marketing targets?
• Customization: Can you train the AI to write in your brand's voice and style, or are you stuck with a generic tone?
• Value for Money: Do the features and the quality of the content justify the price?

  

The top AI content writing software at a glance

If you're in a hurry, here's a quick rundown of our top picks. The table below shows the key features and pricing for each tool we tested so you can find the right one for you.

A review of 7 top AI content writing software tools

Here's a closer look at each of the top AI content writing tools, including their strengths, weaknesses, and who they're a good fit for.

1. eesel AI blog writer

The eesel AI blog writer is designed to do one thing very well: take a single keyword and turn it into a complete, SEO-optimized blog post with media. What makes it different is that it doesn't just give you a block of text. It delivers a fully structured article with headings, AI-generated images, relevant YouTube video embeds, and even pulls real quotes from Reddit to add social proof. The output is also optimized for both regular search engines and AI Answer Engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity, which is getting more important.

Its main strength is its ability to produce content that is almost ready to publish right away. This saves hours of manual work you'd normally spend on research, writing, formatting, and finding images. The main drawback is its narrow focus on long-form blog posts. If you mainly need short ad copy or social media updates, this isn't the tool for you.

Pricing:

• It's completely free to try.
• The paid plan is simple: $99 for 50 blog generations.

2. Jasper

Jasper is one of the older AI content platforms and is built for marketers in bigger companies. It does more than just generate text, with an "AI Content Automation" system. Using intelligent Agents and a context layer called Jasper IQ, it learns your brand voice, product details, and marketing style. This helps keep everything consistent, from blog posts to big multi-channel campaigns.

It's not even close to ChatGPT if you use good knowledge files and instructions. It's just an overpriced wrapper.

Reddit

Jasper's strengths are its well-developed features and deep customization options. It also has enterprise-level security features like SOC 2 compliance, making it a solid choice for large companies that need to stick to a style guide and protect their data. These advanced features are reflected in its pricing. The business plan has custom pricing, which requires a consultation with their sales team.

Pricing:

• Pro: Starts at $59/month per seat (billed yearly).
• Business: Custom pricing.

3. Surfer

Surfer is less of a content generator and more of an SEO tool that uses AI. Its main feature is the Content Editor, which looks at the top-ranking pages for your keyword and gives you a real-time "Content Score" to guide your writing. It suggests which keywords to use, how long your article should be, and how it should be structured. It also offers an AI Tracker to see when your brand gets mentioned in AI chats like ChatGPT and AI Overviews.

SERP research & briefs: Frase, Surfer pull top-page headings, questions, entities, and gaps to build a brief fast.

Reddit

Surfer is great for helping you create content that matches what's already ranking well on Google. Its data-first approach removes a lot of the guesswork from on-page SEO. Surfer's primary function is SEO optimization rather than end-to-end content generation. Its strength lies in its data-driven guidance for on-page SEO.

Pricing:

• Essential: Starts at $79/month (billed annually).
• Scale: Starts at $175/month (billed annually).

4. Writesonic

Writesonic positions itself as an all-in-one platform for both regular SEO and what it calls Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), which is about optimizing for AI search. It has an AI Article Writer along with tools for checking out competitors and a real-time SEO checker. On its pricier plans, it can also track your brand's visibility on AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

A big plus is its all-in-one approach, which aims to help you win at all types of search from one place. The AI article writer is fact-checked and includes handy features like automatic internal linking. Some of its advanced GEO features are included in the higher-tier plans, which is a consideration for teams evaluating their budget and needs.

Pricing:

• Free Plan: Available with limits.
• Lite: Starts at $39/month (billed annually).
• Professional: Starts at $199/month (billed annually) to get the GEO features.

5. Claude

Developed by Anthropic, Claude is known for writing text that feels very creative, conversational, and human. A key feature is its huge context window of over 200,000 tokens. This lets it analyze and summarize very long documents (about 500 pages worth) at once, which is great for research-heavy content.

Claude. But if you want to write a story using AI you have to write a detailed outline. Then you have to let it write one chapter at a time, edit each chapter with text prompts, and continue in this way. When it's done you'll still need to edit the whole thing, remove em dashes, replace repetitive phrases like '...and the result was immediate and spectacular.' and basically polish it. But, for me, Claude is best.

Reddit

Claude's main strength is the quality of its writing; it often needs less editing to sound natural compared to other models. But since it's a more general tool, it doesn't have the specialized SEO and marketing features you'd find in platforms like Surfer or Jasper. You'll need other tools to handle the optimization part.

Pricing:

• Free Plan: Available with usage limits.
• Pro: Starts at $17/month (billed annually).
• Team: Starts at $25/user/month (billed annually).

6. Copy.ai

Copy.ai has grown from a simple copy generator to a full Go-To-Market (GTM) AI platform. It's made to automate marketing and sales tasks through "Workflows" that follow best practices for different jobs. It also has a huge library of free tools and templates for almost everything, from ad headlines and product descriptions to cold emails and social media posts.

Copy.ai is great for automating repetitive GTM tasks and creating short-form copy quickly. Its workflow system is useful for making marketing operations more efficient. Its primary focus is on automating GTM tasks and generating short-form copy, making it less specialized for in-depth, long-form blog content.

Pricing:

• Free Tools: Available.
• Chat: Starts at $24/month (billed annually).
• Growth & Enterprise: Custom pricing.

7. Rytr

Rytr is a popular choice for anyone who wants an affordable and simple AI writing assistant. It has a clean interface with over 40 different use cases, including blog outlines, emails, and social media captions. One of its neat features is "MyVoice," which can analyze a piece of your writing to learn and copy your unique tone.

The biggest advantages of Rytr are its low price and simplicity. It's a good starting point for freelancers, solo creators, or anyone on a budget. It is effective for brainstorming and creating short-form copy. Its long-form content generation may require additional editing to align with specific brand voice and quality standards.

Pricing:

• Free Plan: 10,000 characters per month.
• Unlimited: Starts at $7.50/month (billed annually).
• Premium: Starts at $24.17/month (billed annually).

How to choose the right AI content writing software

With so many choices, picking the right one depends on what you need. Here’s a simple way to figure it out.

• Know Your Main Use Case: What will you be creating most of the time? Are you focused on long SEO articles, short ad copy, or automating marketing workflows? Pick a tool that's good at your most common task. For instance, you’d use Surfer for deep SEO work but go with the eesel AI blog writer when you need full blog posts, quickly.
• Think About Your Budget: Tools range from free plans to enterprise options that cost hundreds a month. It's a good idea to start with a free or cheap tool like Rytr or the free trial of eesel AI to get a feel for what you need before you lock into an expensive annual plan.
• Decide How Much Editing You'll Do: How much time are you willing to spend tweaking the output? Some tools give you polished drafts that need very little work, while others give you a rough start that needs more effort. A tool like Claude might need less editing for tone, while a tool like eesel AI aims to cut down the time you spend on structure, formatting, and finding assets.
• Test the Brand Voice Features: If keeping your brand consistent is important, make sure to see how well a tool can adapt to your tone. Features like Jasper's Brand IQ or Rytr's MyVoice are built for this. Give them samples of your content and see how well the AI can copy your voice.

Watching reviews and walkthroughs can also provide valuable insights into how these tools perform in practice. Seeing a tool in action can often make the decision clearer than just reading about its features.

A detailed video review testing over 20 different AI writing tools to see how they stack up.

Final thoughts on AI content writing software

After trying all these tools, one thing is obvious: AI content writing software is an assistant, not an author. These tools are great for handling research, drafting, and optimization, but you still need human creativity, strategy, and expertise.

The biggest improvement in quality comes from tools that understand context: not just the context of a keyword, but the context of your brand, your audience, and your business goals. This is where tools that create complete, ready-to-publish content really stand out, because they handle more of the boring tasks and let you focus on the bigger picture.

If you want to see how an AI can generate a full, SEO-optimized blog post with all the assets included, try the eesel AI blog writer for free. Just put in a keyword and see the difference for yourself.