NovelAI review: story writing and anime images for $10 to $25 a month

We read the public homepage and pricing table, NovelAI's documentation, the Terms of Service (effective December 8, 2025) and the Privacy Policy (effective September 10, 2026) from a US connection. We did not sign up. Our rule is to open free accounts only on services whose terms require users to be 18+ and explicitly ban content involving minors; NovelAI's terms have the first and not the second.

So the editor, the image generator, the free-trial counters and the deletion flow are described here from NovelAI's own documentation, not from our use.

NovelAI is made by Anlatan, a US company. It is two tools in one browser tab: a story editor where the AI writes alongside you, and an image generator trained for anime-style art. There are no ready-made AI girlfriends or companion bots. You write the setup, add lore entries the AI should keep in mind, and steer the story, or switch to a text adventure mode.

It works in any modern browser and can be installed as a web app on a phone. There is no official App Store or Google Play app, and several unrelated apps in the US App Store use the NovelAI name.

Three monthly plans, all in USD and billed every 30 days: Tablet at $10, Scroll at $15 and Opus at $25. Every paid plan includes unlimited text generation. The higher tiers mainly buy a longer memory, so the AI keeps more of your story in mind, and Opus adds the largest text model and free standard-size images within a usage limit that recharges over about a week.

Images run on Anlas, NovelAI's credits. Tablet and Scroll come with 1,000 a month and Opus with 10,000. The cost per image depends on size and settings and is not listed, and extra Anlas packs are priced inside the account. Unused subscription Anlas now reset to zero when you cancel. Refunds are not offered unless NovelAI agrees to one.

The free trial, called Paper, gives 30 images, 50 text generations and 100 text-to-speech clips once you verify your email. That is enough to see whether the writing style suits you, not to finish a story. Anything you write during the trial carries over if you subscribe.

This is where NovelAI stands out. The Privacy Policy says your stories are encrypted in your browser with a key derived from your password, so the company stores them but cannot read them, and that prompts sent for generation are not kept. Uploaded images sit in an encrypted cache for up to an hour, and your image history stays on your device. The trade-off: lose your password and your saved stories are gone.

You can delete the account from Account settings; NovelAI sends a confirmation email first. Backups are kept for 90 days and fraud-prevention records for as long as the service runs. Anything you post to the public Explore gallery is published with its prompt.

NovelAI's terms require users to be 18 or older. Beyond that, they set no content rules. We found no clause in the terms, privacy policy or documentation about content involving minors, real people or deepfakes, and the homepage promises "No restrictions." The image tools accept uploaded pictures as references. If clear, published rules matter to you, this is a real gap.

Pick it if you want to write long fiction or interactive adventures with an AI, care about your drafts staying private, and like predictable monthly pricing without token math for text.

Skip it if you want a companion that chats back like a person, with voice or photos, or if you need a phone app, a refund option or a service with written content rules.