How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Blog writing splits into three jobs, drafting, editing and optimizing, and no single tool leads at all three, so many bloggers pair a drafter with an editor or an SEO scorer.
- Jasper leads for brand-voice long-form drafts, while Rytr is the cheapest usable option and Grammarly is the editing layer most writers add regardless of drafter.
- Writesonic and Surfer SEO cost more because they add SEO research and AI-search visibility tracking, which only pays off if ranking is the goal.
- Every AI draft needs human editing and fact-checking before publishing, since models invent details with confidence.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Jasper | Brand-voice long-form drafts | $59 per seat/month (billed annually) | Free trial (7 days) |
 Copy.ai | Short copy and team workflows | $24 per month (billed annually) | Free trial |
 Writesonic | SEO articles at volume | $79 per month (billed annually) | Free trial |
 Rytr | Budget solo drafting | $7.50 per month (billed annually) | Yes (10,000 characters/month) |
 Surfer SEO | Scoring drafts against search results | $49 per month (Discovery, billed annually) | Free trial (7 days) |
 Frase | Research briefs and outlines | See website | Free trial |
 Scalenut | SEO planning plus drafting | See website | Free trial |
 Grammarly | Editing and polish on any draft | $12 per month (Pro, billed annually) | Yes (basics plus 100 AI prompts/month) |
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The best AI blog writing tools
Starting price$59 per seat/month (billed annually)
Free planFree trial (7 days)
Jasper is built for marketing teams that publish on a schedule and need every post to sound like one company. You can train a brand voice from writing samples, store product knowledge and style rules, and work in a shared canvas where drafts move from outline to finished post. That structure matters when several writers produce related pieces for one campaign.
The price is the catch, and it is charged per seat. A solo blogger who writes a few posts a month will usually do better with a general assistant plus an editor. A team that publishes daily, reviews inside Jasper and leans on brand voice controls can justify the cost, but count seats honestly before buying. Try the trial on a real campaign rather than a single test paragraph, and check whether the cheaper monthly rate of $69 per seat changes the math.
What we like- Brand voice training from samples
- Long-form templates and campaign workflows
- Shared canvas for teams
Watch out for- Per-seat pricing adds up fast
- No free tier beyond the trial
#2Copy.ai
Best for: Short copy and team workflows4.4/5 on
Capterra (67 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit copy.ai
Starting price$24 per month (billed annually)
Free planFree trial
Copy.ai has moved toward go-to-market teams, with chat-based writing plus workflows for sequences and CRM tasks, but it remains a strong blog tool for teams that also need short copy. The Chat plan costs $24 per month on annual billing and covers five seats with unlimited words, which works out to under $5 per seat. That seat math is the best in this list for a small team.
The trade-off is focus. Since the Fullcast acquisition, Copy.ai has pushed workflow features that solo bloggers will never open, and its long-form drafting is solid rather than special. If your blog is one part of a wider marketing operation, the breadth is a plus. If you only want blog drafts, a dedicated long-form tool or a general chatbot may serve you better.
What we like- Five seats on the Chat plan
- Unlimited words
- Go-to-market workflow templates
Watch out for- Shifted toward sales workflows
- Less focused on long-form blog drafting than before
#3Writesonic
Best for: SEO articles at volume4.7/5 on
G2 (2,133 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit writesonic.com
Starting price$79 per month (billed annually)
Free planFree trial
Writesonic has repositioned as an AI search visibility platform, and that shapes who should buy it. The Starter plan at $79 per month on annual billing covers 15 articles plus tracking across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Gemini, so you can see whether your posts get cited by AI answers as well as ranked in search. Higher tiers scale article volume steeply.
For a content operation that must rank and be cited, that combination is the most complete stack here. For a casual blogger, it is overkill: you pay for tracking you may never open. Writesonic fits publishers with a real content engine and a ranking goal, not writers who publish twice a month and care mostly about prose quality.
What we like- Article packs built for SEO
- AI-search visibility tracking
- Bulk generation workflows
Watch out for- Starter covers only 15 articles a month
- Pricey for casual bloggers
#4Rytr
Best for: Budget solo drafting4.7/5 on
G2 (822 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit rytr.me
Starting price$7.50 per month (billed annually)
Free planYes (10,000 characters/month)
Rytr is the budget answer, and it is honest about what you get. The free tier allows 10,000 characters per month, and the Unlimited plan costs $7.50 per month on annual billing ($9 month to month). More than 40 templates cover common jobs, and support for 30-plus languages helps non-English bloggers. Paid plans add plagiarism checks.
Output quality is competent for short and mid-length posts, social copy and emails, but long-form articles need heavier editing than Jasper-class output. That is a fair trade at this price. Rytr suits solo writers, students and small site owners who need steady drafting help and cannot justify $50 or more per month.
What we like- Cheapest paid plan here
- Permanent free tier
- 40-plus templates and 30-plus languages
Watch out for- Output suits short-to-mid form best
- Long-form drafts need more editing
#5Surfer SEO
Best for: Scoring drafts against search results4.8/5 on
G2 (546 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit surferseo.com
Starting price$49 per month (Discovery, billed annually)
Free planFree trial (7 days)
Surfer SEO does a different job from the drafters above: it scores your draft against live search results and tells you what to fix. The Discovery plan starts at $49 per month on annual billing, with Standard at $99, and the monthly rates run higher at $59 and $119. You get term suggestions, structure guidance and a content score that moves as you edit.
That makes Surfer a companion tool rather than a replacement drafter. Pair it with Jasper, Rytr or a general chatbot, and use it to close the gap between a good draft and a draft that covers what searchers actually want. Bloggers who do not care about ranking should skip it, since its value appears only when search traffic is the goal.
What we like- Live SERP-based content scoring
- Clear optimization targets
- Integrates with common editors
Watch out for- It optimizes drafts rather than writing them
- No free tier beyond the trial
#6Frase
Best for: Research briefs and outlines4.8/5 on
G2 (311 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit frase.io
Starting priceSee website
Free planFree trial
Frase starts before drafting, by researching what top-ranking pages cover and turning that into a brief. It pulls questions people actually ask, maps the topics a post should address, and then lets you draft against that outline. For bloggers who publish to rank, that research step prevents the common failure of writing a good post about the wrong angle.
Pricing is not published as a simple entry rate, so the article marks it "See website" rather than repeating a stale figure from a comparison guide. Frase fits bloggers who already think in briefs and outlines, and it pairs well with a dedicated drafter. Writers who publish from personal experience rather than search demand will get less from it.
What we like- SERP-driven briefs and outlines
- Question research from real searches
- Drafting built in
Watch out for- Pricing not published on the entry page
- Best as part of an SEO workflow
#7Scalenut
Best for: SEO planning plus drafting4.7/5 on
G2 (316 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit scalenut.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planFree trial
Scalenut covers the full SEO content workflow, from keyword planning and clustering through briefs and long-form drafting. Its cruise mode can produce a full article from a keyword and a few inputs, which suits teams publishing at volume with a consistent structure. Content clusters help publishers plan topic coverage instead of writing isolated posts.
As with Frase, the entry price is not published in a form this article can verify, so it is marked "See website". Scalenut suits content teams and agencies that plan in clusters and publish steadily. Solo bloggers who write from expertise rather than keyword plans may find the planning layer more machinery than they need.
What we like- Keyword planning through drafting in one workflow
- Content clusters
- Cruise-mode long-form generation
Watch out for- Pricing not published as a simple entry rate
- Depth exceeds casual needs
#8Grammarly
Best for: Editing and polish on any draft4.7/5 on
G2 (14,073 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit grammarly.com
Starting price$12 per month (Pro, billed annually)
Free planYes (basics plus 100 AI prompts/month)
Grammarly is the editing layer most bloggers add no matter which drafter they choose. The free plan covers grammar basics plus 100 AI prompts per month, and Pro costs $12 per month on annual billing. It works in browsers, documents and common editors, so it polishes drafts wherever they are written rather than forcing a new workflow.
Its limits are scope: Grammarly improves existing text, it does not research or draft a post from scratch, and it cannot verify facts. That makes it a complement, not a rival, to Jasper or Rytr. Almost every blogger benefits from it, and the free tier is enough for light use, which is why it closes this list despite not being a drafter at all.
What we like- Works everywhere you write
- Clarity and tone suggestions
- Free tier is genuinely useful
Watch out for- It edits drafts rather than writing them
- Pro is $30 per month on monthly billing
How we chose
We compared tools on drafting quality for blogs, SEO features, pricing transparency, free tier quality and the limits reviewers cite most often. Sources included vendor pricing pages and independent comparisons checked in October 2026, including a seven-tool blog-writing comparison and a nine-tool writing comparison. Where a price could not be verified on the vendor's own page, the article says "See website" instead of repeating a guide figure. We did not claim hands-on testing, and we treated third-party price figures as guides only.
What to check before you sign
First, decide which job you are buying. If you need drafts, compare Jasper, Copy.ai, Writesonic and Rytr on output quality and seat count. If you need ranking, add Surfer SEO or Frase for research and scoring. If you only need polish, Grammarly alone may be enough. Buying a drafter when you need an optimizer, or an optimizer when you need a drafter, is the most common waste in this category.
Second, test with your own topics. Run the same brief through two tools and compare the drafts after editing, not before. Count the editing time, because a cheap tool that needs an hour of fixes costs more than a pricier tool that needs fifteen minutes. Check factual accuracy on a topic you know well, since confident-sounding errors are the biggest risk with AI drafts.
Third, set an editorial rule before publishing anything. Every AI draft should pass human editing, fact-checking and a plagiarism check, and posts on money, health or safety topics need extra care and a disclaimer where appropriate. Decide who owns accuracy on your site, and keep that person in the workflow even when volume pressure grows.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI blog writing tool overall?
There is no single winner, because drafting, editing and optimizing are different jobs. Jasper leads for brand-voice long-form drafts, Rytr is the cheapest usable drafter, Surfer SEO leads for search optimization, and Grammarly is the editing layer most writers add. Pick by the job you actually need done.
Is there a free AI blog writing tool?
Yes. Rytr offers 10,000 characters per month free, Grammarly offers free grammar basics plus AI prompts, and general chatbots offer generous free tiers. Free plans suit light use, while steady publishing usually needs a paid plan for volume and features.
Can AI write a whole blog post by itself?
It can produce a full draft, but it should not publish unchecked. Models invent facts, dates and quotes with confidence, and they cannot verify claims. Treat AI output as a first draft, edit it, check every factual claim, and add your own experience and examples before publishing.
Do AI writing tools help with SEO?
Some do directly. Writesonic, Surfer SEO, Frase and Scalenut add keyword research, SERP analysis or content scoring, which helps posts cover what searchers want. Pure drafters like Rytr and Jasper help with prose but do not replace keyword research or optimization.
How much should a blogger pay for an AI writing tool?
Solo bloggers can start free with Rytr or Grammarly, then move to $7.50 to $12 per month for paid drafting or editing. Teams publishing daily should budget $24 to $59 per seat per month for Copy.ai or Jasper, and add $49 or more for SEO scoring if ranking matters.
Will readers or search engines penalize AI-assisted posts?
Search engines reward helpful, original content regardless of how a draft started, and penalize thin or misleading content. The risk is not the tool, it is publishing unedited, generic or inaccurate output. Human editing, real examples and verified facts are what keep AI-assisted posts safe.
Sources we checked (4)
- https://dev.to/stimlau/best-ai-writing-tool-for-blogs-in-2026-tested-grammarly-quillbot-jasper-surfer-3pjm
- https://dev.to/stimlau/7-best-jasper-alternatives-in-2026-tested-with-pricing-4k9
- https://rankite.com/blog/best-ai-content-generation-tools
- https://rankite.com/blog/best-ai-tools-for-writers
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.