Best Free AI Writing Tools for Students
AI writing tools cover five jobs students actually have: catching grammar mistakes, rewording sentences that don't work, making prose readable, citing sources, and translating foreign-language material. The seven tools here each do at least one of those jobs on a free tier — most without a credit card, and none require a student email to start. We list each tool's free limits: QuillBot's 125-word paraphrase cap, Wordtune's 10 rewrites a day, DeepL's 50,000 characters a month. We also say plainly where free stops — Hemingway's free editor flags problems but won't rewrite them. Student discounts exist for some of these tools; where they do, the terms are on each card below.
None of these deals has been through our official-page check yet — each is marked Not yet verified below. Catalog last changed 2026-09-07 · how we verify.
| Tool | Student deal | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Grammarly | Free tier + education plans | Not yet verified |
| QuillBot | Free tier + student discount | Not yet verified |
| Wordtune | Generous free tier | Not yet verified |
| LanguageTool | Generous free tier | Not yet verified |
| Hemingway Editor | Genuine free web editor | Not yet verified |
| Jenni AI | Free tier for academic writing | Not yet verified |
| DeepL | Free tier + 30-day trial | Not yet verified |
Grammarly Best for grammar everywhere you write
The free tier handles grammar, spelling, and tone basics in any app you write in, and it's worth checking whether your school licenses Premium for free before paying ~$12/mo.
Grammar and tone checker that works in any app you write in, free for the basics, and some schools cover Premium.
- Free: grammar, spelling, and tone basics everywhere you write
- Premium: full-sentence rewrites, plagiarism detection, citation support
- Premium is ~$12/mo billed annually — but check if your school licenses it for free first
QuillBot Best for paraphrasing
The free paraphraser reworks up to 125 words per run in Standard and Fluency modes with no credit card and no time limit, and verified students get 25% off the annual Premium plan.
Paraphrasing tool for rewording and shortening drafts, free up to 125 words a run, 25% off annual Premium for students.
- Free tier: paraphraser capped at 125 words per run with 2 modes (Standard + Fluency) plus basic grammar checking — no credit card, no time limit
- Premium unlocks unlimited paraphrasing, all paraphrasing modes, and a plagiarism checker (25,000 words/mo); $19.95/mo monthly or $8.33/mo billed annually ($99.95/yr)
- Student discount: 25% off the annual plan (~$6.25/mo) with student/.edu email verification — confirm current price on their site
Wordtune Best for daily sentence rewrites
The free Basic plan includes 10 rewrites and AI suggestions per day plus unlimited spelling and grammar checks, and a valid .edu email takes 30% off paid plans.
AI rewriting assistant with 10 rewrites a day and unlimited grammar checks free, 30% off paid plans with a .edu email.
- Free (Basic) plan: 10 rewrites & AI suggestions per day, 3 AI summaries per month, unlimited spelling and grammar checks; no credit card required
- Advanced $6.99/mo (~$4.89/mo billed annually): 30 rewrites/day, 15 summaries/month
- Unlimited $9.99/mo (~$6.99/mo billed annually): unlimited rewrites and summaries
LanguageTool Best for writing in more than one language
The free plan checks spelling, grammar, and punctuation in 30+ languages, up to roughly 10,000 characters per check, with add-ons for Chrome, Word, and Google Docs.
Grammar and punctuation checker for 30+ languages, in browser plus Word and Docs, free up to 10,000 characters a check.
- Free plan: checks spelling, grammar, punctuation and basic style in 30+ languages, with a limit of roughly 10,000 characters per check.
- Premium adds advanced style/'picky mode' suggestions, paraphrasing, and a much higher character limit (~100,000+; exact figure varies by source, so check their site).
- Premium runs ~$5/mo on longer plans; annual is a bit higher and month-to-month is much pricier (~$20-25/mo). A 20% limited-time discount and a 14-day money-back guarantee are currently shown, so check their site.
Hemingway Editor Best for readability
The free web editor gives a readability grade and highlights dense sentences, passive voice, and adverbs with no login — just know it flags issues without rewriting them, which is what paid Plus adds.
Readability editor that highlights dense sentences, passive voice and adverbs, free in the browser with no login.
- Free web app (no login): paste text for a readability grade plus highlights for dense sentences, passive voice, adverbs, and simpler-word swaps
- Free tier flags problems but does not auto-fix or rewrite them
- Editor Plus adds AI rewrites, grammar checking, and 5,000 AI sentences/mo: $10/mo or $100/yr ($8.33/mo); a 10K-sentence tier runs $12.50/mo
Jenni AI Best for cited academic drafts
The free plan's 10 daily AI autocompletes come with in-text citations drawn from 200M+ papers in styles including APA, MLA, and Chicago, no credit card required.
Academic writing assistant that autocompletes papers and adds APA or MLA citations, free at 10 autocompletes a day.
- Free plan (no credit card): 10 AI autocompletes/day, 5 AI chat messages, 5 AI edits, 10 PDF uploads
- Paid Plus $12/mo (5,000 autocompletes/mo, 500 edits, 500 chat); Pro $29/mo unlimited — annual billing advertised at ~60% off; check their site
- Cites from 200M+ papers with 10,000+ styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE), imports PDFs and Zotero/Mendeley libraries
DeepL Best for translating sources
The free version covers 50,000 characters plus one document translation per month, and since DeepL lists no student or education discount as of mid-2026, the free tier is the deal.
Translation tool for reading foreign-language sources and drafting in another language, free for 50,000 chars a month.
- Free version: 50,000 characters/month plus 1 document translation/month (files up to 5 MB)
- Individual plan is $8.74/mo billed annually (monthly billing costs more, ~$10.40/mo) and adds 300,000 chars/month + 3 documents/month (up to 30 MB)
- Paid plans include a 30-day free trial, cancel anytime
The rest of the catalog
Those are the 7 picks for this list. The full catalog runs to 68 deals across coding, writing, research, studying, design, and productivity.