NovelAI is a tool built to create deep knowledge. It is not termed a generic AI chatbot or any type of marketing tool. It is designed for writers, work-builders, and anime artists who want an AI that is actually considered narrative.
This review covers everything that NovelAI is, how it works, what’s changed recently, where it falls short, and whether it’s worth your money in 2026. It also covers things most other reviews skip entirely, like the Lorebook system, how to get better output, and what the image generator is actually good for.
What Is NovelAI?
It is an AI-assisted writing tool. Its key feature is that it is also a subscription-based AI. Many people used it for image generation. It has been designed by a company of Aniatan, which was launched in 2021. It takes a lot of time in its development, and now it is well known as a feature-rich tool for fiction writers and anime artists.
It is a collective collaborator for the content factory. It also involves you writing, and AI will continue it. The story’s main character, theme, dialogue, and complete description in style and a very good tone have been written by using NovelAI. It is used as a purposeful assistance. The text generated by this tool has been published on different platforms, such as published literature and Wikipedia, to crawl different data.
Instead of text, it acts as an image generator, which is specifically for anime style, which is in a text-to-speech system, and a lorebook tool for organising world-building animations
In short: NovelAI is for people who want a creative collaborator, not a content factory.
Who Is NovelAI For?
NovelAI attracts a fairly specific crowd. It works best for:
- Roleplayers play a major role in interactive text-style partners.
- Anime artists who want AI-generated character art without Midjourney’s general-purpose aesthetic
- Writers who value privacy NovelAI encrypts everything you write on their servers using XSalsa20 encryption
How NovelAI Works: The Basics
It is up to you when you are writing a new story, writing a few sentences, and hitting send. It will help you to write, edit, or ask it to regenerate. The more you add, the more results you get
The experience feels less like prompting an AI and more like writing with a co-author who has read a lot of books but doesn’t always know your characters as well as you do. That’s both its strength and its biggest weakness.
The Two Main Modes
AI Storyteller (default mode): It builds a narrative story. The most common mode that writers use.
Text Adventure Mode: You type the text, and there is a response by the AI. It is an interactive fiction or D&D-style scenario.
NovelAI Features Worth Knowing About
Most reviews cover the basics and stop there. These are the features that actually matter once you get past the first few sessions.
The Lorebook – NovelAI’s Most Underrated Feature
It is a dynamic world-building database built into every story. You use it for different characters, locations, factions, magic systems or any piece of love you want from AI.
Memory and Author’s Note
Two other context tools are worth understanding:
Memory is a persistent text field the AI always reads. Use it to store your story’s premise, the current chapter’s location, or things that must always stay true. Think of it as your story’s sticky note.
Author’s Note is similar, but it’s weighted more heavily by the AI meaning it has a stronger influence on tone and direction. Writers often use it to drop in style guidance like “write in a terse, noir style” or “the protagonist is about to realize she’s been lied to.”
Using all three together Memory, Author’s Note, and Lorebook is how you get genuinely consistent, on-brand output from NovelAI. Skipping them is why some people feel the AI is random and uncontrollable.
The Current AI Models
NovelAI has replaced its older models (Euterpe, Sigurd, Calliope, Krake) with newer, more capable ones. As of 2025, the main text models are:
- Kayra – the standard model available on Tablet and Scroll plans. Solid for most fiction writing, trained specifically on literature, handles long-form prose well
- Clio – a lighter model optimized for speed and casual use
- Erato (Llama 3 70B) – the flagship model available on the Scroll and Opus plans. Noticeably better at complex narrative logic, character voice, and maintaining consistency over long stories
If you’re seriously using NovelAI for writing, Erato on the Scroll plan is the one to aim for. The quality jump over Kayra is real.
Image Generation and Anlas Credits
NovelAI’s image generator runs on its own diffusion models (currently V4) trained specifically on anime-style art. It’s genuinely one of the best anime image generators available; it handles character consistency, detailed clothing, and expressive faces better than general-purpose models like Stable Diffusion’s base models.
Image generation costs Anlas NovelAI’s internal credit currency. Every plan includes a monthly Anlas refill. Standard image generations cost around 5 Anlas each. The Opus plan ($25/month) includes unlimited normal-resolution image generations.
The platform also supports:
- img2img: upload an existing sketch or rough image and NovelAI refines it into polished anime art
- In painting: select a specific area of an image (like a face or outfit) and regenerate just that part while keeping the rest intact
- Vibe Transfer: use a reference image to influence the style of what you’re generating, great for keeping character designs consistent across multiple images
The image generator is not great for realistic human faces or photography-style art. That’s simply not what it was trained for. If you want anime characters, it’s excellent. For everything else, Midjourney or DALL-E is a better choice.
Text-to-Speech
NovelAI includes an AI text-to-speech system that converts your story text into audio. The voice quality is notably better than robotic TTS tools; it handles emotional pacing and emphasis more naturally. Available on paid plans, it’s useful for proofreading (hearing your writing out loud catches errors your eyes skip) and for creating rough audiobook drafts.
Privacy and Encryption
This is something almost no other review mentions, but it matters. Every story you write on NovelAI is encrypted using XSalsa20 encryption before being stored on their servers. That means even Atlanta employees can’t read your stories. For writers working on sensitive material, dark fiction, adult themes, or simply stories they don’t want attached to their name this is a meaningful advantage over tools like ChatGPT or Claude, which process and may review user data.
NovelAI also doesn’t impose content restrictions on your writing in the way that general-purpose AI tools do. This makes it popular among writers in genres that other platforms flag or refuse to help with.
NovelAI Pricing: What You Actually Get
As of 2025, NovelAI has three paid tiers plus a free trial.
Free Trial (Paper Tier)
- 50 text generations (one-time, no monthly refresh)
- 30 image generations up to 1024×1024 resolution (one-time)
- Access to the Kayra model
- No credit card required to start
The free trial is genuinely useful for testing whether you like how the tool works. You won’t be able to use it for a full project, but it’s enough to get a real feel for the experience.
Tablet – $10/month
- Unlimited text generations
- Kayra 13B model
- 16,384 characters of context memory
- 1,000 Anlas monthly (for image generation)
- Access to image generation
- AI text-to-speech
Good for: casual users, people who primarily want the text generation and don’t need the best model.
Scroll – $15/month
- Unlimited text generations
- Access to Erato (Llama 3 70B) the best model
- 32,768 characters of context memory (2x more than Tablet)
- 100 TTS generations monthly
- Unlimited image generation (at normal resolution)
- 1,000 Anlas monthly
Good for: serious fiction writers. The jump from Kayra to Erato is significant, and the larger context window means the AI can hold more of your story in memory at once. This is the tier most dedicated writers recommend.
Opus – $25/month
- Everything in Scroll
- 10,000 Anlas monthly
- Early access to experimental features
- Unlimited image generation at all sizes
Good for: prolific image creators who generate a lot of art. If you’re primarily a writer, Scroll covers your needs.
Quick verdict on pricing: The Scroll tier at $15/month is the sweet spot for most writers. Tablet is a bit limiting because you miss the best model. Opus is mainly worth it if you’re generating hundreds of images per month.
What NovelAI Does Well
It stays in fiction mode. Most AI tools drift toward safe, informational, corporate-sounding output. NovelAI stays literary. It writes prose that reads like a novel, not a press release.
The Lorebook is genuinely powerful. No competitor handles world-building memory as elegantly for writers. Sudowrite has some similar features but is significantly more expensive.
Anime image generation is best-in-class. For this specific art style, it outperforms most alternatives.
Privacy is real. End-to-end encryption for your stories is a genuine differentiator.
It runs in your browser. No GPU needed, no downloads, works on any device.
Where NovelAI Falls Short
The learning curve is steep. Getting good output requires understanding Memory, Author’s Note, and the Lorebook. New users who skip all that and just type prompts often feel disappointed. The tool rewards investment.
Context length is still limited on lower tiers. Even on Scroll, 32,768 characters sounds like a lot, but for a 100,000-word novel, the AI is only ever seeing a slice of what you’ve written. Long projects require careful use of Memory and Lorebook to compensate.
Image generation relies on learning tag-based prompting. Unlike Midjourney’s natural language approach, NovelAI image prompting works best with specific tags and keywords. There’s a learning curve before you get consistent results.
No API access for standard users. If you want to integrate NovelAI into your own tools or automate workflows, the platform currently doesn’t offer a public API for regular subscribers.
Subscription cost adds up. At $15/month for the tier that actually makes sense for serious writers, it’s not expensive by SaaS standards but it’s more than free tools like ChatGPT’s basic tier.
NovelAI vs. Competitors
NovelAI vs. Sudowrite
Sudowrite is the other major fiction-specific AI writing tool. It’s stronger for structured long-form work; it has features like “Guided Mode” for outlining novels and a better chapter management system. But it’s more expensive (starts at $19/month) and doesn’t include image generation or the same depth of world-building tools. NovelAI is better for exploratory, collaborative writing. Sudowrite is better for writers who want more editorial structure.
NovelAI vs. ChatGPT
ChatGPT can write fiction, but it’s not optimized for it. It defaults to safe, sanitized output, it doesn’t maintain consistent character voices over long sessions, and it has no dedicated world-building memory. For a quick story idea, ChatGPT works fine. For actually developing a creative project, NovelAI is purpose-built in ways ChatGPT is not.
NovelAI vs. Character.AI
Character.AI is built for chatting with AI characters, not writing fiction. If you want to roleplay as characters, Character.AI has a large library of premade personas. If you want to write stories with developed narrative arcs, NovelAI is the better tool.
Tips for Getting Better Results
These are practical things that make a real difference once you start using NovelAI seriously.
- Don’t skip the Lorebook. Set up character and location entries before you write more than a few scenes. The AI will stay consistent far longer.
- Use Author’s Note for tone control. If the AI keeps going in a direction you don’t want to be too dark, too slow, too comedic, put a style note in the Author’s Note field. It has more influence on AI than most other context fields.
- Write the beginning carefully. NovelAI learns from what you’ve already written. A strong, stylistically clear opening trains the AI’s tone for everything that follows.
- Regenerate rather than edit bad output. If the AI writes something you don’t like, hit regenerate first. If it does it repeatedly, that’s a sign your context needs adjustment not that the tool is broken.
- Use the Memory field for story-level facts. “The story is set in 1920s New Orleans. The protagonist is a Black woman named Clara who can hear the dead.” Putting that in Memory means the AI never loses track of the setting.
- For image generation, learn the basic tags. Looking at the NovelAI community on Reddit and Discord there are shared prompt templates for different character types, art styles, and quality tags that dramatically improve output.
- Try Text Adventure mode for stuck scenes. Even if you’re not normally a roleplay person, switching to Text Adventure mode for a scene you’re stuck on can unlock directions you wouldn’t have thought of in the standard interface.
Is NovelAI Worth It?
For creative fiction writers who want a dedicated AI collaborator, yes. The Lorebook, the Erato model on the Scroll plan, and the literary training data combine into something genuinely useful for developing stories over time.
For anime artists, yes it’s one of the best specialized tools for that art style, with real control features like inpainting and img2img.
For someone looking for a quick way to generate marketing copy or blog posts, no. Better tools exist for that, and NovelAI’s strengths are completely wasted on non-fiction tasks.
The free trial costs nothing and takes five minutes to set up. Starting there makes sense before committing to a subscription.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does NovelAI have a free version?
NovelAI offers a free trial of 50 text generations and 30 image generations that activates when you create an account. Once those run out, you need a paid plan. There is no ongoing free tier, but the trial is enough to test whether the tool works for you.
Is NovelAI safe and private?
Yes. NovelAI encrypts all stories stored on their servers using XSalsa20 encryption. Even Anlatan staff cannot read your stories. The platform also has no content moderation on fiction text, which is part of why it’s popular for mature creative writing.
What is the best NovelAI plan for writers?
The Scroll plan at $15/month. It gives you access to Erato (the best text model), double the context memory of the Tablet plan, and unlimited image generation. The difference between Kayra and Erato is meaningful for complex, long-form fiction.
Can NovelAI write a whole novel for me?
No, and neither can any AI tool in 2025. What it can do is help you write one. It works best as a collaborative tool you set the direction, develop the characters, and make the creative decisions. The AI handles prose generation, explores story branches, and keeps the writing flowing when you get stuck.
What is Anlas in NovelAI?
Anlas is NovelAI’s internal currency for image generation. Each paid plan includes a monthly Anlas refill. Standard images cost a small number of Anlas per generation. The Opus plan also includes unlimited normal-resolution image generations at no additional Anlas cost.
What happened to Euterpe, Sigurd, and Krake?
These were NovelAI’s original text models. They’ve been retired and replaced by newer, more capable models Kayra (standard), Clio (lightweight), and Erato (flagship). If you used NovelAI a couple of years ago and found the models underwhelming, it’s worth trying again with the current generation.
Is NovelAI good for roleplaying?
Yes. Text Adventure mode is specifically designed for interactive fiction and roleplay. The Lorebook also makes it easy to set up character sheets, world rules, and game mechanics that the AI will consistently follow during a session.
Does NovelAI own what I write?
No. According to NovelAI’s terms, content you create belongs to you to the fullest extent of applicable law. They do note that AI-generated content could potentially reproduce copyrighted material, so if you’re publishing commercially, review your output carefully
