Pangram vs Winston AI (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Pangram grades higher than Winston AI: 2.6 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 9, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 9, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Pangram grades higher on the free plan and ease of use. Winston AI grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Pangram
Detects AI-written text and images, with a free daily allowance
Winston AI
AI text and image detector with a plagiarism checker
Which one is for you
Pick Pangram if
- Fits if you're a teacher checking whether an essay was written by the student
- Works for editors screening submitted articles before they run
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want help writing, as it only checks what's already written
- Tight if you mark a whole class on the free plan, at about 2,000 words and 3 image scans a day
- Pricey if you scan in bulk through the API, at $0.05 per 100 words once Individual's $10 of monthly API credit runs out
- Watch out: refunds are for individual plans only, within 14 days and with fewer than 20 credits used
- Watch out: Team starts at 2 seats, Professional is billed at sign-up, and zero data retention needs sales-priced Enterprise
Pick Winston AI if
- Fits if you check text and images for AI and want plagiarism too
- Works for small teams that can share credits on Advanced
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 2,000 credits for 14 days, with no plagiarism, OCR or PDF reports
- Not for you if you want to cancel mid-term, because annual plans can't be cancelled during the term
- Watch out: plagiarism checks start on Essential, not the free account
- Watch out: the page advertises a 50% coupon code, so list prices here may not match what you pay
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAPangramGood | 2.4GPAWinston AIFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CGraded against its own alternatives, as it checks text rather than helping you write it. Individual is $15 a month billed yearly ($20 monthly) for 300,000 words, above Grammarly's and Paperpal's $12 and nearly twice QuillBot's $8.33, which all do more besides. | C$10 a month billed annually ($18 monthly) for Essential, close to the category's $9.75 middle. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree for good with no payment method: 20 credits a day, about 2,000 words, plus 3 image scans, and it resets daily. One person checking the odd essay or article could live on that. A teacher marking a whole class in an evening couldn't. | CA free account with 2,000 credits for 14 days, with no paid plan needed. It doesn't renew. |
| Features | CIt does AI detection fully: scores and marked passages across 20+ languages, image and video checks, similarity checks, OCR for scanned files and feed scanning. But it's a much smaller job than a writing tool's, as it only tells you who wrote the text. | BAI text and image detection, plagiarism, OCR, reports and writing feedback. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | BNo store rating on record, but there's nothing to set up: paste the text or upload a file, and the result comes back with the suspect passages marked. | CNo store rating on record. An account, credits and plan tiers to learn. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb and a Chrome extension, with Google Docs and Gmail on paid plans, Canvas, Moodle, Google Classroom and Brightspace for schools, and an API. No desktop or phone app. | BWeb and a browser extension, with Zapier, ChatGPT and an API. |
| Best for | checking whether text was written by AI | AI text and image detection |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Pangram and Winston AI. How we grade
Price against what you get
Pangram starts at $15 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Winston AI starts at $10 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Winston AI starts $5 a month lower. Of the other writing tools on the chart, 16 score higher than Pangram for less, and 12 score higher than Winston AI for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Winston AI also covers grammar & style.
At a glance
| Pangram | Winston AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $15 per month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly) | $10 per month, billed annually ($18 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | 20 credits a day, enough for 2,000 words, plus 3 image scans a day, file uploads and scans of single social posts. No payment method needed. | None |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial of the Individual and Team plans; Professional is billed at sign-up | Free account with 2,000 credits for a 14-day trial, no paid plan needed to start |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Pangram Labs | Winston AI |
| Price read from | pangram.com | gowinston.ai |
| Checked | Nov 9, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Pangram
- The free plan stops at 20 credits a day: one credit is 100 words, rounded up, so it covers about 2,000 words. Credits reset daily.
- API use is billed apart from the plans at $0.05 per 100 words, $0.25 per image and $0.05 per second of video; Individual includes $10 of API credit a month, Professional $200.
- Refunds apply only to individual plans, within 14 days of purchase and with fewer than 20 credits used.
- Zero data retention, custom hosting and custom LMS or ATS integrations need the sales-priced Enterprise plan.
Winston AI
- The free account is a 14-day trial with 2,000 credits, not a plan that renews.
- Plagiarism detection, OCR scanning and PDF reports are not part of the free trial; they start on Essential.
- Annual plans cannot be canceled during the term; monthly plans end at the close of the paid period.
- The pricing page also advertises a 50% coupon code on every paid plan; the prices here are the list prices, without the code.
Key features
Pangram
- AI text detection
- Scores a text for AI generation and marks AI-written or AI-assisted segments; Pangram benchmarks it against 26 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others.
- AI image and video detection
- Checks images of at least 256 x 256 pixels and uploaded videos, frame by frame, for AI generation: 3 image scans a day free, 100 a month on Individual and 500 on Professional.
- Similarity checks
- Paid plans can run a similarity (plagiarism) check on any scan; each one uses 5 credits, or 500 words of allowance.
- Chrome extension and feeds
- The Chrome extension checks text in the browser, and on paid plans it automatically scans your feeds on social media, Substack and similar sites.
- Docs, Gmail and school systems
- Paid plans add Google Docs and Gmail; schools connect it to learning systems such as Canvas, Moodle, Google Classroom and Brightspace.
- Developer API
- A pay-as-you-go API and an MCP server check text at $0.05 per 100 words and images at $0.25 each, with 20% off bulk text submissions.
Winston AI
- AI text detection
- Scores text for AI authorship, naming models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, with detection in several languages including English, Spanish, German and Portuguese.
- Plagiarism checking
- Highlights copied passages and shows their sources. Detection of paraphrased content is listed on the paid plans.
- AI image and deepfake detection
- Scans pictures for AI generation and shows forensic details such as C2PA and Exif data.
- Reports and OCR
- Paid plans produce shareable PDF or link reports and can scan pictures and handwriting.
- Team use
- Advanced allows up to 5 members and Elite unlimited members. Enterprise-grade security and shared billing sit on the custom plan.
- Browser, Zapier and API
- Pages list scanning from the browser, a Zapier connection and API access, which is requested through a form.
Plans
Pangram
Free$0
Up to 2,000 words and 3 image scans a day, file uploads and single-post scans on social media and Substack.
Individual$15
per month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly)
300,000 words and 100 image scans a month, $10 of API credit a month, similarity checks, OCR for scanned files, feed scanning, Google Docs and Gmail.
Professional$45
per month, billed annually ($65 billed monthly)
Individual features at 5 times the volume: 1,500,000 words and 500 image scans a month, plus $200 of API credit each month.
Team$20
per seat / month from 2 seats, billed monthly
Individual features for each member, with an admin and member dashboard and one bill; $40 a month for the first 2 seats.
EnterpriseCustom
Sold through sales: API access, zero data retention and custom hosting, custom LMS or ATS links, volume pricing and dedicated support.
Winston AI
Free$0
2,000 credits, 14-day trial
AI text and AI image detection with email and chat support. Plagiarism checking, OCR scanning, PDF reports and team invites are not included.
Essential$10
per month, billed annually ($18 billed monthly)
100,000 credits a month. Adds writing feedback, OCR scanning, shareable PDF reports and plagiarism detection to AI text and image detection.
Advanced$16
per month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly)
200,000 credits a month, HUMN-1+ website certification and up to 5 team members.
Elite$26
per month, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)
500,000 credits a month and unlimited team members.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom pricing for organizations, reached through a contact form; the vendor lists school access, API access and reselling as options.
Ways to pay less
Pangram
- Annual discount
Save $60 to $240 a year with annual billing
Individual is $15 a month billed annually against $20 monthly (save $60), Professional $45 against $65 (save $240), and a 2-seat Team saves $120.
Winston AI
- Annual discount
Save 45% with annual billing
The pricing page lists a 45% saving when paying yearly instead of monthly, for example $60 a year for Essential against $18 a month.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Pangram or Winston AI?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Winston AI is cheaper to start with: $10 a month, against $15 a month for Pangram. Pangram starts at $15 per month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly), and Winston AI starts at $10 per month, billed annually ($18 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Pangram or Winston AI?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Pangram has a free plan. Winston AI does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.