9 Best AI Text Generators - Tested (Free & Paid)

Chances are you’ve heard whispers—or shouts, more like—about the power of AI text generators. Folks have discovered all sorts of ways to make content creation so much simpler, with some people fully delegating their entire workflow to AI.

There are all sorts of ways to use an AI text generator. There are also all sorts of text generators for content on the market, making it a tad overwhelming to pin down the “right” one for you.

I and the Piktochart team rolled up our sleeves to dive into a pool of AI text generators, rigorously putting them through their paces. We’ve weighed in on everything from the tool’s accuracy to user-friendliness, customization capabilities, and even bang for your buck.

So, whether you’re aiming to offload some of your content chores or are on the hunt to elevate your writing skills, our in-depth guide is geared to point you to the AI text generator that aligns seamlessly with your goals.

How do AI text generators work?

AI text generators are mostly built on beefy algorithms or Large Language Models like GPT-3 and GPT-4. These algorithms use machine learning and natural language processing to understand context and churn out relevant text. That’s how these tools are trained, gobbling up everything from books and articles to web pages.

Many text generators essentially piggyback on their foundational models, such as OpenAI. But they’re not all copycats. Some go the extra mile by offering specialized features like custom “voices” or guidelines.

Now, what happens when you input a prompt? The tool takes a good guess at what should come next based on what it’s learned so far.

It’s not just for AI specialists or tech enthuasiasts, either. These tools have practical uses ranging from writing articles to generating code, catering to a wide user base like bloggers, marketers, and students.

Next up, let’s dive into the methodology behind how we tested each of these AI text generator tools to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Our methodology

Given that some of these tools are better at different functions, I decided to use a variety of tests to see their use cases for multiple purposes, and to see if subscribing to a tool made sense as an all-in-one marketing tech stack.

I tested each AI writing generator with the same five prompts:

Write a 300-word article about the benefits of renewable energy (recording time it takes to generate content, as well as give a preview on content quality)
Generate a social media caption about the benefits of renewable energy (test how versatile the AI writing tool is for different content needs)
Explain the theory of renewable energy in layman’s terms (check if the AI text generator made any grammatical or factual errors)
Write a paragraph about renewable energy, first in a formal tone, and then in a casual tone (measure how versatile the text generators are at switching between tones and styles)
Generate a list of 5 blog post ideas for a renewable energy services company (checking how use full the idea generation was)

After playing around with the tools, renewable energy came up as a topic that I wasn’t so familiar with. I stuck with it because it helped me see if the AI writers could produce high quality content that was easy to understand for the general public.

We signed up for the cheapest plan that provided access to a tool’s AI writing assistant so we could put all the tools to the test with our prompts.

With that said, let’s dive into our list of the best AI text generators.

Copy AI

As the name indicates, Copy.AI is designed to be your all-in-one copy generator. Whether you need to create social media captions or create product descriptions, the AI writing generator handles them all.

Logging in for the first time, I immediately noticed the clean and minimalist interface. The magic happens from its Chat tool, which is where I spent all of my time testing the prompts.

There’s also a separate Editor that pops out when you click a small tab on the right. It was serviceable if you want to edit the copy further.

Overall, I found Copy AI easy to use. It handled all our prompts with ease and the output was pretty good, given I didn’t provide a brand voice or further instructions outside of the minimal prompts.

We stayed on the free version, but it could save you time with its Workflow features. Available only on paid plans, the tool can automatically generate personalized content off simple prompts.

For small teams with a limited budget, I can see this being a valuable tool that can handle the majority of their content needs.

Pricing

Free forever
Pro ($36/month billed annually)
Team ($186/month billed annually)
Growth ($1,000/month billed annually)
Scale ($3,000/month billed annually)

The main difference between the paid plans lie in the in number of seats and workflow credits available.

For our test, the Free plan gave us enough words to work with. However, if you’re planning to use this more frequently, you’ll likely need to sign onto a paid plan so you’re not limited by the word count.

Free product rating: 5 stars

User friendly interface: 5 stars

Overall output quality: 5 stars

What we like

Simple to use and get started
Produces compelling copy with minimal instructions
Responsive to different types of prompts

What we do not like

Templates and prompt library assumes that users understand most sales copy and marketing theory
Lowest paid plan pricing higher than competitors
Not as effective at longer articles compared to other AI text generation tools on this list

Prompt 1

We asked Copy AI to generate a 300-word article in the chat, and it churned it out pretty quickly (within a few seconds). Task completed successfully.

What I wasn’t expecting was the output to be as good as it was. While the task isn’t meant to judge the tool on its content, I liked that it crafted a compelling narrative (albeit one of doom and gloom), in that renewable energy is a necessary solution to an impending crisis.

I did notice it didn’t try to insert any factual evidence or statistics to back up its claims, but overall I was impressed by the output.

Prompt 2

Pretty solid result. The output had emojis, hashtags, and a generic positive message about switching to renewable energy. A couple of minutes editing this, and you could start sharing it on your brand’s different platforms.

All of the tools follow a similar pattern when producing a generic social media caption, which is probably more of an issue with the lack of specific instructions in the prompt rather than the tool.

Prompt 3

Copy AI passed this test with ease. I liked that it produced an answer that was simple to read and understand without patronizing the reader, as you’ll see in different tools for this task.

However, it didn’t produce any statistics or cite sources for its information. I would have liked to see it refer to recent studies, but its answer was pretty good overall.

Prompt 4

Generating two responses in different styles wasn’t an issue here. In fact, none of the tools on our list had a problem with executing the task. The main differences lie in the casual tone response.

All AI writing tools write like an encyclopedia or an academic when producing a formal response. For Copy AI, the casual approach read like two friends were talking over lunch.

Prompt 5

The list of blog titles and headlines it gave was okay but didn’t blow me away. Contextually, they all made sense, but it left the impression that they tried to shoehorn keywords at the beginning of the headline.

I’m all for different approaches, and the tool could be a good way to help with writer’s block if you’re stuck for ideas. Perhaps if I spent longer with the tool and fully personalized my needs by sharing my data and workflows, it might provide stronger suggestions.

Jasper AI

Jasper is well-known for its long-form content generator. This year, they released a set of AI text generation tools to expand its offerings.

For our tests, I went with a blank template to see what the tool could do without a template. It was quick, sure, but it kept pausing, and I had to nudge it along to hit that 300-word mark—a tad frustrating, but not a dealbreaker. For long-form content, you’re probably best sticking with its main tool.

For the social media task, I went with a TikTok template and asked for something upbeat. The AI came through, but just a heads-up—it’s not intuitive right off the bat.

For blogging, this tool has the goods, but if you’re looking for a one-stop shop for all your content needs, you might want to shop around a bit more.