Two BYOK tools, two very different philosophies
AI-powered manuscript generation. Give it a premise and it produces complete outlines, characters, world-building, and full-length chapters. You edit and refine.
Writing companion and organizer. Provides AI chat, inline suggestions, and the Codex story bible system. You write the book with AI assistance.
See exactly how FictionAI and NovelCrafter differ across every category
| Feature | FictionAI | NovelCrafter |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $9.99/mo | $4-20/mo |
| BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) | ||
| AI Generation | Full chapters & novels | Writing suggestions & chat |
| Codex / Story Bible | Auto-generated world & characters | Manual Codex entries |
| Series Support | AI-powered multi-book arcs | Manual project organization |
| World Building | AI-generated world systems | Manual Codex entries |
| Character Tools | AI character generation & arcs | Character Codex sheets |
| Export Options | DOCX, EPUB, KDP-ready | Markdown, DOCX |
| Context Window | Up to 1M tokens | Model-dependent |
| Novel Pipeline | Premise to publish workflow | Writing companion only |
| Outline Generation | Full AI-generated outlines | Manual outlining tools |
| Multiple AI Models | Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, 50+ | Any OpenAI-compatible model |
FictionAI generates complete manuscripts. NovelCrafter helps you write them yourself.
FictionAI takes a premise and produces a complete novel — outline, characters, world, and full chapters. NovelCrafter provides AI suggestions while you do the actual writing.
NovelCrafter's Codex is a powerful manual story bible. FictionAI auto-generates equivalent content — characters, world rules, locations — from your premise, saving hours of setup.
FictionAI offers a structured pipeline from idea to published book. NovelCrafter provides a flexible toolbox of writing aids. Choose based on whether you want generation or assistance.
Both use BYOK — these are platform fees only (AI costs are separate and identical)
| Tool | Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| FictionAIBest Value | Standard | $9.99/mo | Full generation, all models, series, BYOK |
| NovelCrafter | Hobbyist | $4/mo | Basic Codex, limited sessions |
| NovelCrafter | Scribe | $8/mo | Full Codex, more sessions |
| NovelCrafter | Sage | $15/mo | Advanced features, priority |
| NovelCrafter | Wordsmith | $20/mo | All features, max sessions |
Both tools use BYOK. AI usage costs (paid to providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) are the same regardless of which platform you choose.
Common questions about FictionAI vs NovelCrafter