Paperpal vs Writefull

Paperpal

• Researchers preparing manuscripts for journal submission
• Students writing theses and essays who need citation help
• Non-native English speakers polishing academic prose
• Writers who want checks inside Word, Google Docs or Overleaf

Writefull

• Researchers and students writing papers or theses in English
• LaTeX users who want language checks inside Overleaf
• Departments that want one group license for up to 100 people

Paperpal

• The Free plan stops at 200 grammar edits a month and 5 uses a day of the paraphrase, translate and research tools.
• Plagiarism checks have a monthly word cap on every paid plan; going over it means buying a one-time add-on valid for a month.
• The one-time multi-year option exists for Prime only, and the full Journal Fit report needs Pro.
• No desktop or mobile app is listed: it runs on the web, in a Word add-in and in Chrome and Edge extensions.

Writefull

• The Free plan has a daily quota on language suggestions and writing features.
• Writefull Revise and Writefull Cite are not part of Premium or Group plans; they need an institutional license.
• Writefull's own language models give feedback on English text only; other languages go through GPT.
• It runs inside Word, Overleaf and a browser. The terms of use state that refunds are not issued.

Paperpal

Grammar and consistency checks

Suggests grammar, tone and consistency fixes tuned to academic writing. The Free plan allows 200 edits a month, Prime 20,000 and Pro has no cap.

Paraphrase, trim and translate

Rewrites sentences in an academic tone, cuts word count and translates text, with translation powered by DeepL in over 30 languages.

Research and citations

Answers questions with cited findings from more than 300 million research articles and formats citations in over 10,000 styles.

Chat with PDFs and a library

Upload papers and ask questions about them: 5 files a month on Free, 150 on Prime and 500 on Pro, with library storage from 300 MB to 10 GB.

Plagiarism and AI detection

Checks similarity against a stated 99 billion sources and flags AI-written text. Plagiarism checks are capped at 10,000 words a month on Prime and 30,000 on Pro.

Submission readiness checks

Runs more than 30 pre-submission checks on language, structure, figures, disclosures and metadata. The full Journal Fit report is limited to Pro.

Writefull

Language edits for research writing

Suggests grammar and word-use corrections from Writefull's own models, which are trained on journal articles and cover English only.

GPT edits for other languages

Switching the language check to GPT revises non-English text in Overleaf. Premium adds a custom prompt to steer those edits; Word does not have the switch yet.

Rewriting tools

Paraphrase a passage, make it concise, scientific or punchy, split or join sentences, and get synonyms that fit the sentence.

Title and Abstract Generators

Suggests titles from a selected passage and drafts an abstract from the full text. Both run on Writefull's own models.

LaTeX help in Overleaf

TeXGPT writes LaTeX on request, and the Table and Equation Generators turn a prompt or an uploaded image into LaTeX code.

Ask AI in Word

An assistant inside the Word add-in answers writing questions, either asked freely or about a selected word or passage.

Paperpal

• Free$0

  200 grammar edits a month, 5 writing and research uses a day, chat with 5 files a month and 300 MB of library storage. No card required.

• Prime$12

  per month, billed annually ($144); $25 billed monthly

  20,000 grammar edits, 10,000 words of plagiarism checks, 25,000 words of AI detection and 500 writing and research uses a month, with 2 GB of storage.

• Pro$29

  per month, billed annually ($348); $59 billed monthly

  Unlimited grammar edits, AI detection and writing tools, 30,000 words of plagiarism checks a month, full Journal Fit reports and 10 GB of storage.

• Enterprise / InstitutionCustom

  Institution-wide pricing with access management and shared libraries, arranged through sales, with a free trial on request.

Writefull

• Free$0

  Limited daily use of language edits, rewriting features, TeXGPT, Ask AI and the LaTeX generators. The quota resets the next day.

• Premium$12.50

  per month, billed annually ($150); $17 quarterly; $21 monthly

  Unlimited suggestions and feature use, under a fair use policy, across Writefull for Word, Writefull for Overleaf and Writefull X.

• Group$135

  per additional user / year for seats 2 to 49; first seat $150

  Annual Premium access for 2 to 100 people with an admin portal for inviting members. Seats beyond the 49th cost less, down to $105.

• InstitutionCustom

  Priced on expected student and researcher numbers. Covers all five tools, adding Writefull Revise and Writefull Cite.

Paperpal

• Annual discount

  About half off with annual billing

  Prime costs $144 billed annually against $25 a month ($300 over a year), and Pro $348 against $59 a month ($708), a saving of roughly 51 to 52%.

• Other savings

  Prime Multi-year Saver: one payment for 2 or 3 years

  Prime can be bought for 2 years at $229 or 3 years at $289 as a single payment with no auto-renewal. The option is not offered for Pro.

• Education

  Student discount through an institution email

  Paperpal's pricing FAQ offers a discount to students who sign up with an institution email address and recommend that their institution buy a license.

Writefull

• Annual discount

  About 40% less with annual billing

  Premium is $150 billed once a year, equal to $12.50 a month, against $21 billed monthly. Quarterly billing is $51, or $17 a month.

• Education

  15% student discount for recommending Writefull

  Students who email a staff member at their institution about Writefull for Institutions, copying Writefull in, get 15% off a Premium plan.

• Other savings

  Group license discounts for 2 to 100 people

  A group license lowers the yearly price per seat as the group grows, from $150 for the first seat to $135 for seats 2 to 49 and less beyond that.