Novel AI review 2026: features, pricing, free trial and honest verdict

Short answer first: NovelAI is a browser-based AI writing studio and anime image generator made by Anlatan. You write a story, the AI continues it in your style, and you steer every line. In late October 2026 it's one of the better tools for long, private, writer-led fiction, but it isn't a "type a prompt, get a finished book" machine, and there's no free plan beyond a small one-time trial.

A quick honesty note before we go any further. Nobody on our team ran a hands-on test for this review, so I'm not going to pretend I timed chapters or broke the image generator with a stopwatch running. Instead, I reviewed NovelAI as it stands in late October 2026 using NovelAI's own documentation, independent reviews, community testing and a few dozen user comments. When someone else did the testing, I'll tell you who.

The headline: the writing side got a big brain upgrade this year, the new V5 image model is impressive, and the fine print around Opus limits and expiring Anlas is where people get grumpy.

Novel AI at a glance

Item	Details
Our rating	3.5 / 5
Best for	Fiction writers who want to co-write long stories line by line, and anime-style illustrators
Pricing	Free trial; Tablet $10/mo, Scroll $15/mo, Opus $25/mo (checked October 2026)
Website	novelai.net
Platforms	Web browser only, no native mobile app

What is Novel AI?

RoboRhythms sums it up neatly as a "subscription AI writing studio and anime image generator from Anlatan." It runs in your browser. There's no official phone app and no character chatbot feature, which matters if you came here from Character AI expecting the same thing.

The writing side works differently from ChatGPT-style tools. You don't chat with it. You type the opening of a scene, hit send, and the model continues the text. You edit, retry, nudge and keep going. Think of it as a co-writer that finishes your sentences rather than an AI novel generator that spits out chapter one on command. A Capterra reviewer from publishing put it plainly: NovelAI won't take a single prompt for a whole chapter, so you have to guide it along step by step (Capterra).

Privacy is a big part of the pitch. According to RoboRhythms, stories are encrypted with a key tied to your password, which is why it calls NovelAI "one of the more private AI tools."

Key features

GLM-4.6 and Xialong for storytelling

NovelAI's older in-house models (Kayra, Clio, Krake) have been overtaken by bigger ones. GLM-4.6 is now available on all paid tiers and was also opened to free trial users, per RoboRhythms. Opus subscribers also get Xialong, a 355-billion-parameter fine-tune of ZhipuAI's GLM-4.6 released on March 31, 2026, plus Llama 3 Erato.

The community summary of Xialong on r/NovelAI says it was tuned as a creative co-writer rather than a chatbot, with training aimed at cutting down looping and repetition. Krake and Clio were released as open source on September 24, 2026 and will eventually leave the site (RoboRhythms).

Memory, Lorebook and context

For book writing AI, memory is everything. NovelAI's Memory and Lorebook let you store characters, places and rules so the AI keeps them straight, a strength AI Companion Pick highlights for "long-form prose." How much the AI can hold in its head depends on your plan: 8,192 tokens on Tablet, 12,288 on Scroll and 28,672 on Opus (RoboRhythms). The Opus figure matches NovelAI's official subscription docs.

NovelAI image generator (Diffusion V5)

The novel AI image generator is the other half of the product, and it's very much anime-style. NovelAI Diffusion V5 launched on August 21, 2026 in two flavours, Curated and Full. According to WeavAI, it was trained from scratch using 268,000 B200 GPU hours, is more than twice the size of V4.5, and moves to a 32-channel VAE for sharper eyes, accessories and text.

The party tricks: up to 22 characters in one image, transparent backgrounds from a prompt, and full multi-panel manga pages with dialogue rendered into speech bubbles. WeavAI notes short text works well but long passages often need retries. A couple of tools haven't caught up yet. Precise Reference and Vibe Transfer still fall back to V4.5 (WeavAI).

One thing you should know: NovelAI allows mature content. RoboRhythms recommends the Curated model if you want to avoid sensitive images by accident. If you're working on anything involving real people, stick to your own characters and licensed material.

Text to speech

Every paid tier includes unlimited text and text-to-speech generation, so you can have your chapters read back to you, which is handy for catching clunky dialogue (NovelAI docs).

Pricing and plans

Here's what each plan includes, checked October 2026 against NovelAI's subscription page and RoboRhythms.

Plan	Price	Story memory	Writing models	Images
Paper (trial)	Free, one time	Limited	GLM-4.6	30 images up to 1024x1024
Tablet	$10/mo	8,192 tokens	GLM-4.6	1,000 Anlas, then pay per image
Scroll	$15/mo	12,288 tokens	GLM-4.6	1,000 Anlas, then pay per image
Opus	$25/mo	28,672 tokens	GLM-4.6, Xialong, Erato	10,000 Anlas, plus free V5 images under a refilling cap

Is Novel AI free? What the trial really includes

Not really. The Paper trial gives an email-verified account 50 text generations, 30 images and 100 text-to-speech generations, and your stories carry over if you subscribe (NovelAI docs). It doesn't refill, and RoboRhythms says NovelAI has no current plans for a free version. Fifty generations is enough to see if you like the feel. It's not enough to write anything long.

The Opus and Anlas fine print

Anlas is NovelAI's image currency. On Opus, V4.5 images are free as long as you make them one at a time, at normal size or above, with 28 steps or fewer and no base image. V5 is different: usage limits apply, and once you pass them, images cost Anlas until the limit refills (NovelAI docs). WeavAI estimates the V5 allowance at roughly 1,800 standard images a week, while RoboRhythms puts it at about 7,000 a month.

The bigger gotcha: starting 31 days after the V5 release, unused subscription Anlas reset to zero when your plan ends (NovelAI docs). RoboRhythms calls that the change that "bothers me most." On the plus side, a new medium effort mode for V5 Full, added October 8, 2026, is about 42% cheaper per image (RoboRhythms).

Performance and independent testing

Since I didn't test it myself, here's what people who did found.

Writing quality. The move to GLM-4.6 is the biggest jump NovelAI has made in years. In an r/NovelAI thread asking whether it had improved, the top comment said "Yes, it's definitely improved," and another user called it "an incredible jump forward from the old models." It's not flawless out of the box, though. One commenter said the untuned model "by default it sucks," another said it "likes to inject business talk into stories," and repetition still crops up.

Settings matter a lot. A recurring theme is that NovelAI rewards tinkering. In a beginner thread, one user said "NAI is great once you dial in the settings," while another found the tuned model "tends to get overly robotic as opposed to base GLM which gets overly flowery." That's the learning curve AI Companion Pick warns about.

Xialong. Reactions are split. The community summary on Reddit described a positive reception for prose, speed and creativity, but commenters pushed back. One called it "'preachy'" and prone to repetition, another said "The very first person it named was Elara," a cliché name many hoped was gone, and a third said the prose is better but it won't act as a proper game master.

Images. V5 got a warm welcome. On the launch thread, comments included "Actually best update ever, wtf." and "This is the future," though some flagged UI bugs and worries about Opus limits. A Trustpilot reviewer in February 2026 called NovelAI the "best web-based AI generator for furry and anime images" but described character reference changes as "a complete buggy mess" (Trustpilot).

So, does it work? For long, hands-on fiction where you stay in charge, yes. For "write my book for me," no, and that's by design.

Who it's for

• Fiction writers who like control. If you want an AI book creator that follows your lead rather than taking over, NovelAI's continue-the-text approach fits.
• Privacy-minded writers. Encrypted stories are a real differentiator.
• Anime and manga artists. V5's multi-character scenes and comic pages are strong, and Opus makes heavy use affordable.
• Interactive fiction fans who don't mind fiddling with presets.

Who should skip it? Anyone who wants a chat assistant, a phone app, a non-anime image style, or an outline-to-chapter workflow. Business writers will be happier with a general AI writer.

Novel AI alternatives worth considering

Sudowrite. Built for novelists who want structure: Story Bible, a Braindump to Outline to Prose workflow and its Muse fiction model. Plans run from $10 to $44 a month on credits, per AI Companion Pick. Pick it if you want the AI to draft whole scenes from an outline.

Novelcrafter. A novel-planning workspace where you can bring your own AI key. Plans start at $4 a month, with a 21-day free trial and no credit card required (Novelcrafter). It's a good way to write a book with AI cheaply if you already pay for a model.

Claude or ChatGPT. General assistants are strong at brainstorming, outlining and editing, and both have free tiers. See our Claude AI review and ChatGPT review. Our guide to writing better AI prompts will help you get more natural prose out of them.

If you only want images, our roundup of the best AI image generators covers styles NovelAI doesn't.

Verdict: who should use it and who should skip it

NovelAI is a niche tool that does its niche well. The GLM-4.6 upgrade fixed its biggest weakness, V5 is one of the most capable anime image models around, and the privacy story is genuinely good. But it's browser-only, the free trial is tiny, the best writing model sits behind the $25 Opus plan, and the new Anlas rules feel stingy.

My call: if you write long fiction and like staying hands-on, start with Tablet at $10. Go Opus only if you'll use Xialong or generate lots of images. If you want an AI to draft a book from an outline, try Sudowrite instead.

Scores: Features 8, Ease of use 6.5, Value 7.5, Performance 7.5. Overall, 3.5 out of 5.

One last thing. If you plan to publish or submit AI-assisted writing, check the rules first. Many publishers and schools require disclosure, and our explainer on how AI detectors work shows why heavily AI-written text can get flagged.

FAQ

Which AI is best for writing a book?

It depends on how you write. NovelAI suits writers who want to co-write line by line with long memory and privacy. Sudowrite suits people who want outline-to-prose drafting, and Novelcrafter suits planners who want to bring their own model. General assistants like Claude and ChatGPT are great for brainstorming and editing.

How to write a book with AI for free?

Use a free tier of a general assistant for outlining and feedback, and trial tools before paying. Novelcrafter offers a 21-day free trial without a card, and NovelAI's one-time trial includes 50 text generations. Keep the actual writing yours, and use AI to unblock, not replace, your voice.

What is Novel AI?

NovelAI is a subscription, browser-based AI storytelling and anime image generation service from Anlatan. It continues the text you write rather than chatting, encrypts your stories, and offers plans from $10 to $25 a month as of October 2026.

Which AI is best for book writing?

There's no single winner. For immersive fiction where you steer every line, NovelAI is a strong pick. For structured, chapter-level drafting, Sudowrite is more direct. For low cost and flexibility, Novelcrafter with your own AI key is hard to beat.