ChatGPT vs NovelAI

ChatGPT

• General-purpose help with writing, questions and brainstorming
• People who want chat, voice, images and web search in one assistant
• Trying an AI assistant at no cost before paying

NovelAI

• Fiction writers who want an AI that continues their own prose
• Interactive fiction and text adventures with persistent lore
• People who want story writing and anime-style image generation in one subscription

ChatGPT

• Pro is sold at three price points, $100, $200 or $500 per month, well above the $20 Plus plan.
• Business requires at least 2 users. SCIM, EKM and role-based access control are reserved for Enterprise and Edu.
• OpenAI began testing ads in the free version for logged-in adult US users in January 2026, according to Wikipedia.
• OpenAI's pricing page says the Go plan may include ads.

NovelAI

• There is no free plan: the Paper trial's generations are granted once and do not refill.
• Subscriptions renew every 30 days, and the subscription docs list no annual option.
• There are no native apps; it runs in a browser or as an installable progressive web app.
• Forgetting the account email or password means losing access to stories stored on the server, because of the local encryption.

ChatGPT

Conversational help

Answers questions, drafts and reworks text, explains topics and reads uploaded photos in a chat, with history synced across your devices.

Image generation

Creates original images from a description, or transforms existing images from a short instruction.

Advanced Voice Mode

Hold a real-time spoken conversation in the mobile app by tapping the soundwave icon.

Search and Deep Research

ChatGPT Search draws on the web for more up-to-date answers, and Deep Research generates a report from extensive web searches.

Codex

A coding agent that runs on the web, in a CLI, in an IDE extension and on iOS from the Plus plan, with integrations such as automatic code review and Slack.

GPTs and agents

GPTs customize ChatGPT's behavior for a specific use case, and ChatGPT agent carries out multi-step tasks.

NovelAI

Story editor

Write in the editor and send to have the AI continue the text. Every generation and edit is kept in a branching history, and a retry produces a new output.

Lorebook

Entries for characters, locations and factions are inserted into the AI's context when their activation keys appear in the story. Lorebooks can be imported and exported.

Text Adventure mode

Actions typed with a > symbol tell the AI what a character does, and it writes the narrative response. Pre-made scenarios are available to start from.

Text to speech

Streamed voices read inputs and AI outputs aloud for subscribers. A local option uses the browser's own speech synthesis instead.

Image generation

NovelAI Diffusion models produce anime-style images from prompts and tags, with inpainting, a canvas and Director Tools for edits. Images are paid for in Anlas.

Encrypted story storage

Stories saved to NovelAI's servers are encrypted in the browser first. Text sent for a generation is transmitted unencrypted over HTTPS and, per the FAQ, not stored or logged.

ChatGPT

• Free$0

  Unlimited text chats, with limits on uploads, image creation, voice chats, deep research and memory.

• Go$8

  per month

  More messages with tools, more uploads, image creation and voice chats than Free, and longer memory. OpenAI notes this plan may include ads.

• Plus$20

  per month

  Advanced reasoning models, expanded deep research and memory, plus projects, scheduled tasks and custom GPTs.

• Business$20

  per user / month, billed annually

  For 2 or more users: a dedicated workspace with admin controls, SAML SSO and MFA. $25 per user / month when billed monthly.

• ProFrom $100

  per month

  A choice of three usage tiers at $100, $200 or $500 per month, with the highest limits, pro reasoning and an always-on agent.

• Enterprise & EduCustom

  Sold through sales, with priority request processing, SCIM, EKM, user analytics, domain verification and role-based access control.

NovelAI

• Tablet$10

  per month (renews every 30 days)

  Unlimited text and text-to-speech generation, plus 1,000 Anlas a month to spend on image generation.

• Scroll$15

  per month (renews every 30 days)

  Everything in Tablet with a larger context size, so the AI takes more of the story into account.

• Opus$25

  per month (renews every 30 days)

  Largest context (28,672 tokens), the Xialong model, 10,000 Anlas a month and Anlas-free standard images within a usage limit.

ChatGPT

• Annual discount

  Business is cheaper when billed annually

  OpenAI's pricing page lists Business at $20 per user / month when billed annually, against $25 per user / month when billed monthly.

NovelAI

No public discounts listed.