Free AI Writing Assistants in 2026: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Notion AI, Grammarly and Copilot

Six assistants come up whenever someone asks for a free AI writing tool: ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, Notion AI, Grammarly and Microsoft Copilot. All six have a $0 plan, but they are not the same kind of free. ChatGPT is the only one that promises unlimited everyday text chats. Gemini, Claude and Copilot give you a free allowance that refills over time without saying how big it is. Grammarly gives you a fixed number of AI prompts a month, and Notion gives you a trial that runs out.

Every row and section below was read on the vendor's own pricing or help page on 2026-10-27. Where a vendor publishes no number, this page says so instead of guessing. ChatGPT Free and Mistral are in our verified catalog and link their offer pages; the free plans of Gemini, Claude, Notion AI, Grammarly and Copilot are not yet, so their rows link the vendor's page.

The free plans at a glance

Source: the vendor page linked in each row and the sources under each section, checked 2026-10-27. Prices on some vendor pages change with your country; the ones quoted here are the U.S. prices where the page showed them.

ChatGPT Free: the only unlimited text chat

OpenAI's pricing page lists "Unlimited text chats with GPT-6" on Free, and its help center adds that this is "subject to abuse-prevention safeguards" (the help center names GPT-5.6 Luna as the Free model; the default model changes over time). For writing this is the part that matters: you can draft, rewrite, shorten and change the tone of text all day without a counter.

Everything around the chat is capped separately. File and image uploads, image creation, voice, data analysis and deep research each have their own limit, and ChatGPT tells you when you hit one and when it resets. The comparison table shows what Free can read at once: a 27K-token context for GPT Instant, which OpenAI translates to "~12 pages of text" of input (Go and Plus: about 40 pages). Paste a long report and the start of it will fall out of view.

Two catches. OpenAI says ads may appear on Free in some countries, and its pricing page states "Content is used to train our models", with an opt-out available on every plan. Turn that off in settings before you paste work you care about.

Source: ChatGPT pricing, ChatGPT Free, ChatGPT Free Tier FAQ, checked 2026-10-27.

Google Gemini: the most tools on a free plan

Gemini's free plan, with nothing more than a Google account, includes the Flash-Lite model, image generation and editing, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas (a side-by-side editor for drafts) and Gems (saved instructions, useful for a house style). It also includes Gemini Notebook, which Google calls a "research and writing assistant" for working from your own sources.

The limit is compute-based rather than a message count. Google's help center says limits "factor in the complexity of your prompt, the models and features you use, and the length of your chat" and that "your limit refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit". A short prompt such as a subject line costs very little; a long editing session, a 100-page PDF or Deep Research costs much more. Google's own tip: start a new chat when you change topic, so Gemini does not re-read the old one.

Without a paid plan the context window is 32K tokens. Google AI Plus ($4.99 a month in the U.S.) doubles the usage limit and raises the context to 128K tokens; Google AI Pro ($19.99 a month) gives 4x the free usage and 1 million tokens, and adds Gemini inside Gmail and Docs. Students may get AI Pro free: see the Gemini AI Pro student guide.

Source: Gemini plans, Gemini Apps limits and feature availability, checked 2026-10-27.

Claude Free: good drafts, an unpublished allowance

Claude's Free plan is "free for everyone" and covers chat on web, desktop and mobile, web search, creating files and running code, memory across conversations, connectors, Artifacts, and Claude Docs, Slides and Design. Its comparison table allows up to 5 projects on Free, which is enough to keep a style guide and reference files for a few ongoing pieces. Research, Claude in Microsoft 365 and Claude in Chrome are paid.

Anthropic does not publish the Free allowance. Its help center says usage depends on "the length and complexity of your conversations, the features you use, which Claude model you're chatting with", and that Pro gives "more usage per session than the Free plan". Paid plans have a session limit that resets every five hours plus a weekly limit. Long chats with big attachments use the allowance fastest, so start a new chat for each piece and keep reference material in a project.

Pro costs $20 a month billed monthly, or $17 a month billed yearly.

Source: Claude pricing, How do usage and length limits work?, What is the Pro plan?, checked 2026-10-27.

Notion AI: a trial, not a free plan

Notion's Free plan lists "Trial of Notion AI", and so does Plus at $10 a seat a month. Notion's help center is explicit: "Everyone can try Notion AI for free. Once you've used all your trial usage, you will see a message that an upgrade to the Business or Enterprise Plan is necessary to continue using AI features." Every AI action counts as one response, whether it creates content, edits text, fills an AI block or answers a question, and every click on Try again counts as another. Notion does not publish how many responses the trial includes.

Only a workspace owner can upgrade, on desktop, and Business costs $20 a seat a month. So Notion AI is worth trying if your drafts already live in Notion, but it is not a long-term free writing tool. Notion says feedback you give on AI answers is not used to train Notion AI.

Source: Notion pricing, Try Notion AI on Free and Plus plans, Notion AI FAQs, checked 2026-10-27.

Grammarly Free: corrections plus 100 AI prompts a month

Grammarly Free is the only one here built around text you write yourself. It catches spelling and grammar mistakes and shows the tone of what you write, in Grammarly's browser extension, desktop apps and mobile apps. Its generative AI, which helps you "compose, rewrite, ideate, and reply", is capped at 100 prompts a month on Free.

Rewriting full sentences with one click, adjusting tone, fluency suggestions, and plagiarism and AI-text detection are Pro features. Pro is listed at $12 a month and raises the AI allowance to 2,000 prompts a month.

Source: Grammarly plans, Introducing generative AI assistance, checked 2026-10-27.

Microsoft Copilot: free with a capacity limit

Microsoft Copilot (copilot.com or copilot.microsoft.com, with a free Microsoft account) lets you chat, search and "draft content, generate images, and turn ideas into polished work" on the web, Windows, Mac and mobile. Microsoft's pricing FAQ describes the free tier as "a limited free version of Copilot subject to available capacity and limits": when you hit a limit you upgrade or come back later. No number is published.

Copilot inside Word, Outlook and the other Microsoft 365 apps is not part of the free tier: it comes with Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99 a month), Family ($12.99) or Premium ($19.99), and Microsoft notes that usage limits apply there too.

Source: Copilot, Microsoft 365 plans for individuals, checked 2026-10-27.

Which one to use

• Long drafts and many rewrites in one day: ChatGPT Free, because text chat has no counter. Keep pieces under about 12 pages per chat.
• Research before you write: Gemini, for Deep Research and Notebook on the free plan; watch the weekly limit.
• Careful prose and a reusable style: Claude Free with a project holding your style guide; expect to wait for the limit to refresh on heavy days.
• Proofreading your own writing everywhere you type: Grammarly Free; save the 100 AI prompts for the rewrites that matter.
• Drafts that already live in Notion: try Notion AI, knowing the trial ends.
• A second opinion when the others are capped: Copilot, or Mistral Vibe Free from our catalog. For more chat assistants side by side, see free ChatGPT alternatives.

A practical setup costs nothing: one chat assistant for drafting (ChatGPT or Claude), Gemini for research, and Grammarly for the final pass.

Limits and the catch

• "Limited" usually means no number. Only Grammarly (100 prompts a month) and the context sizes of ChatGPT and Gemini are published. The rest change with load, and vendors say so.
• Free plans may train on what you paste. OpenAI says ChatGPT content is used for training unless you opt out; read each vendor's data settings before pasting client work, and see why "free" chats may train on your data.
• Assistants invent facts and quotes. Check every figure, name and citation a draft contains: why AI makes things up.
• Plans change. We re-check vendor pages regularly; the date at the top of this page is our latest check.