I tried the 6 best AI writing tools for 2026 (here’s what I learned)

The world of AI writing tools has expanded rapidly. One day you hear about a new chatbot, and the next, there are hundreds of apps all claiming they'll write your content, nail your SEO, and more. It’s a lot to sort through, and figuring out which one is the right fit can be a challenge.

To help, I've reviewed some of the most popular AI writers to see what they offer. My goal was to provide a clear overview of what these tools can do. I put them to the test on different tasks, from SEO blog posts and sales emails to creative writing. The biggest lesson is that the "best" tool really depends on what you’re trying to get done.

What are AI writing tools?

Before we get into the reviews, let's quickly clarify what we're talking about. AI writing tools are pieces of software that use powerful language models (the same tech behind things like ChatGPT) to generate, rewrite, or polish text so it sounds like a human wrote it.

But they're not all the same. They usually fall into a few categories, as this graphic shows.

1. AI content generators: These are the tools that create content from scratch. You give them a prompt, like "write a blog post about the benefits of remote work," and they’ll produce an article, an email, or an ad.

2. AI writing assistants: Think of these as a spellchecker on steroids. They help you improve text you've already written by catching grammar mistakes, suggesting better phrasing, and making sure your tone is right.

3. AI optimization tools: These tools are focused on one thing: helping your content rank higher in search engines. They analyze your writing and tell you what you need to change to make Google happy.

Of course, a lot of the newer tools are a mix of all three, but they usually have one area where they truly excel.

How we picked the best AI writing tools

To provide a structured comparison, every tool was evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Output Quality: Does the content sound natural? How much editing does it need before it’s usable? The less, the better.

• Ease of Use: How quickly can a new user figure it out? A confusing interface is a deal-breaker for most of us.

• Core Use Case: How well does it do its main job? If it’s for SEO, does it actually help you rank? If it’s for fiction, does it help you tell a better story?

• Features and Integrations: What unique features does it have? Does it play nice with the other tools you already use?

• Value for Money: Is the price fair for what you get? Does it save you enough time to be worth the cost?

A quick comparison of the best AI writing tools

If you’re in a hurry, here’s a quick rundown of the top contenders and what they’re best for.

Tool	Best For	Free Plan	Starting Price (Billed Monthly)
eesel AI blog writer	Complete, publish-ready SEO blogs	Generate first blog free	$99/month for 100 blogs
Jasper	AI content automation for marketing teams	No, 7-day trial	$69/month per seat
Copy.ai	GTM AI Platform for sales & marketing	Free tools available	$29/month
Sudowrite	Creative and fiction writing	Yes, free trial with credits	$19/month
Surfer SEO	On-page SEO optimization	No	$99/month
Grammarly	Improving your everyday writing	Yes	$30/month

The 6 best AI writing tools to try today

Alright, let's get into the details. Each of these tools is a solid choice in its own category, so the right one for you really hinges on the kind of writing you do.

1. eesel AI blog writer

eesel AI blog writer is designed to produce a complete article from a single keyword. It’s built to take you from a keyword to a fully-formed, SEO-optimized blog post. It generates text, adds AI-generated images, builds tables, finds relevant Reddit quotes, and structures the content for search engines.

One of its most interesting features is its optimization for AI Answer Engines (AEO). This helps your content show up in new AI-powered search results, like Google AI Overviews and Perplexity.

• Pros and Cons: A key benefit is the time saved, as it handles research, writing, formatting, and visuals. It is specifically designed for long-form blog content and may not be the best fit for short-form content like social media captions.

• Pricing: You can generate your first blog free to see the quality for yourself. After that, the paid plan gets you 100 complete blog posts for $99 a month.

2. Jasper

Jasper is a powerful AI platform built for marketing teams that need to create a lot of on-brand content consistently.

It has some impressive features, like "Jasper IQ", which learns your brand's voice, style, and company info to make sure everything it writes sounds like it came from you. It also has "Content Pipelines" that let you automate your entire content workflow, from idea to final draft. It's a solid tool for teams that need control and consistency.

• Pros and Cons: Jasper’s main strength is its wide range of features for marketing teams, allowing for the creation of various content types that adhere to brand guidelines. The output is a first draft that requires human fact-checking, editing, and formatting. The platform's extensive features also mean there may be a learning curve for new users.

• Pricing: Plans start at $69 per month per seat for the Pro plan. You can also get a 7-day free trial to check it out. For a detailed breakdown, see our Jasper AI pricing guide. If you're exploring options, check out Jasper AI alternatives or see how it compares in our Jasper AI vs Copy.ai and Jasper AI vs Writesonic comparisons.

3. Copy.ai

Copy.ai has evolved into a comprehensive platform. It now calls itself a "Go-To-Market (GTM) AI Platform," which means it's built to help sales and marketing teams automate their workflows and work together more smoothly.

It's less about writing a single blog post and more about fueling your sales engine. For instance, its "Prospecting Cockpit" can find useful info on potential customers, and its "Inbound Lead Processing" feature can use AI to score new leads for you automatically. It’s all about creating and automating the process of finding and talking to customers.

• Pros and Cons: Copy.ai is effective for GTM playbooks, prospect research, and generating personalized outreach at scale. It focuses more on sales enablement and is less suited for creating long-form blog content.

• Pricing: Copy.ai has a bunch of free AI generator tools you can use. The paid Chat plan starts at $29 per month. For more details, see our Copy.ai pricing breakdown. You can also explore Copy.ai alternatives or read comparisons like Copy.ai vs Rytr and Copy.ai vs Surfer SEO.

4. Sudowrite

Sudowrite is designed for creative writers. It serves a different purpose than marketing-focused tools. It was designed for fiction authors and creative writers.

Think of it as an AI writing partner that helps you brainstorm ideas, push through writer's block, and add some extra flair to your stories. It has some really cool features like a "Story Bible" to keep track of your characters and plot points, a "Describe" button that adds rich sensory details to a scene, and a "Write" feature that can continue your story in your own voice.

• Pros and Cons: Sudowrite is a valuable tool for creative projects. It is a collaborative tool for creative writing, helping with character development and prose polishing. It is not designed for business or marketing content like SEO articles or sales emails.

• Pricing: Plans start at $19 per month for the Hobby & Student plan, and it comes with a free trial.

5. Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO is an AI-powered optimization tool. Its main job is to help content you’ve already written (or are in the middle of writing) rank higher on Google.

A key feature is the "Content Editor". You tell it what keyword you're targeting, and it analyzes all the top-ranking pages for that term. It then gives you a real-time "Content Score" and a simple checklist of things to do to improve your article, like keywords to add, the ideal word count, and how to structure your headings. It provides a data-driven approach to on-page SEO.

• Pros and Cons: Surfer excels at simplifying complex SEO rules into a data-driven system and integrates with Google Docs and WordPress. The tool is primarily focused on guiding and optimizing writing rather than generating full content from scratch, and its price point is a consideration.

• Pricing: Starts at $99 per month for the Essential plan. For a complete breakdown, see our Surfer SEO pricing guide. Interested in alternatives? Check out Surfer SEO alternatives or read our Surfer SEO review.

6. Grammarly

Grammarly is a well-known AI writing assistant that focuses on making your writing better, not just creating it for you.

Its main job is checking your work for grammar, spelling, clarity, and tone. But it's also added some neat generative AI features it calls "AI agents". These include a "Paraphraser" that can rewrite sentences for you in different ways and even a "Humanizer" that tries to make AI-generated text sound more natural.

• Pros and Cons: A major advantage of Grammarly is its wide availability through browser extensions that work across many platforms. The free version is useful for catching basic mistakes. Its generative AI features are designed for improving short pieces of text rather than creating long-form content from a prompt.

• Pricing: The free plan is very powerful and is enough for most people. The Pro plan, with all the advanced features, starts at $30 per month.

How to choose the right AI writing tool for you

Here’s a simple way to figure out which tool is the right fit.

Identify your primary use case

First things first, what are you actually trying to do? Are you a content marketer who needs to publish SEO blogs consistently? A sales rep trying to automate outreach? Or an author working on your next novel? Your answer will point you in the right direction. For example, a blogger who needs to be efficient should check out a tool like eesel AI blog writer, while an author should go straight to Sudowrite.

Consider your desired workflow

Next, think about how you like to work. Do you want the AI to hand you a nearly finished product that you just need to review and publish? Or do you prefer getting a rough draft that you can then shape and edit yourself? A tool like eesel AI is built for the first approach, aiming to deliver a complete post. A tool like Jasper is better for the second, giving your marketing team a solid starting point to work from.

Evaluate the human element

Finally, remember that these are just tools. They're here to help you, not replace you. Decide how much control you want over the final product. Some tools give you tons of knobs and dials to tweak the output, while others are built for speed and convenience, handling more of the process for you so you can focus on other things.

For a deeper dive into how different tools perform, check out this video review that tests several popular options.

This video review tests nine popular AI writing tools to find the best option for your needs.

Final thoughts on AI writing tools

After all this testing, the biggest thing I learned is that there’s no single, one-size-fits-all AI writer. The "best" tool is simply the one that fits the job you need to do.

To break it down one last time:

• For complete, SEO-optimized blogs, eesel AI blog writer is a suitable option.

• For automating sales and marketing workflows, Copy.ai has a platform dedicated to your GTM strategy.

• For creative fiction and storytelling, Sudowrite is in a league of its own.

• For optimizing content you've already written to rank better, Surfer SEO is the gold standard.

The best way to determine the right fit is to try the tools. Many offer free trials or free versions.

Other tools worth exploring include Rytr, a budget-friendly option (see Rytr pricing and Rytr alternatives), HyperWrite for AI-assisted writing (check HyperWrite pricing and HyperWrite alternatives), and Writesonic for versatile content generation (see Writesonic pricing and Writesonic alternatives).

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