In this article, I’ll be providing an in-depth review of Quillbot, an AI-powered writing and plagiarism checking tool. As an avid writer and content creator, I have tested out Quillbot extensively to evaluate all of its features and determine if it’s worth using, especially for those in the writing profession. I will be reviewing Quillbot from the perspective of a writer, focusing on aspects like its paraphrasing capabilities, plagiarism checker, grammar checking features, summarization tool, and more.
Through my thorough testing and research, I aim to provide an honest, unbiased review of Quillbot so you can decide if it’s the right AI writing assistant for your needs. I’ll share my personal experience using each feature, along with pros, cons, and comparisons to alternatives. My goal is to give you a comprehensive understanding of what Quillbot can and can’t do, who it’s best suited for, and whether the pricing is worthwhile.
In this article, you will learn:
- What Quillbot is and who it’s designed for
- An overview of Quillbot’s main features like paraphrasing, plagiarism checking, and summarization
- How Quillbot utilizes AI to rewrite and optimize text
- My hands-on experience testing each Quillbot feature as a writer
- The pros and cons of Quillbot compared to other AI writing tools
- Whether the free or paid Quillbot plans are worth it
- Quillbot pricing options and what’s included at each tier
- How Quillbot’s paraphrasing and plagiarism checking capabilities compare to competitors
- My final verdict on if Quillbot is worth using as a writing tool
What is Quillbot?
Quillbot is an AI-powered writing assistant created by Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company. It was launched in 2017 with the goal of providing an affordable AI tool to help writers enhance their content through paraphrasing, summarizing, grammar/plagiarism checking, and more.
At its core, Quillbot utilizes natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to analyze text and determine how to rewrite or optimize it. It’s designed to help users create more clear, concise, and error-free content while avoiding plagiarism issues.
While Quillbot started as mainly a paraphrasing tool, it has expanded over the years to include:
- Paraphrasing tool: Rewrites text while preserving meaning
- Plagiarism checker: Checks for copied or spun content
- Grammar checker: Identifies spelling/grammar errors
- Summarizer: Creates condensed summaries of long-form text
- Co-writer: All-in-one writing and editing suite
- Translation tool: Translates text into other languages
- Citation generator: Formats citations in various styles
So in summary, Quillbot aims to be an affordable AI assistant for writers, students, academics, and anyone creating or optimizing written content. Its paraphrasing and plagiarism checking capabilities are some of its biggest selling points, which I’ll explore in-depth later in this review.
What About Authors, Does It Work for Us?
As an author myself, I was very interested to see if Quillbot could be useful for fiction and non-fiction writers like me. Unfortunately, after extensive testing, I don’t feel Quillbot is the best AI tool for book authors specifically. Here’s why:
Paraphrasing long-form content: Quillbot’s paraphrasing tool works best on short snippets of text, like sentences or paragraphs. When I tried paraphrasing even a few pages of my book at once, it led to incoherent, robotic-sounding results. The technology just isn’t advanced enough yet for long-form paraphrasing.
Retaining voice and style: One of the downsides of paraphrasing tools is they strip away the original voice and style of writing. As a writer, I don’t want my unique voice and style automated away for the sake of “uniqueness.”
Lack of content creation abilities: Quillbot focuses mainly on optimizing existing text. Unlike more advanced AI writing assistants, it does not actually generate or add any new content to your work. That level of assistance would be more useful for authors.
Not built for creative writing: While Quillbot has a “Creative” paraphrasing mode, I found it did not work well for fiction passages. The sentence structure changes actually made my creative writing awkward rather than improved.
So in summary, while certain features like grammar checking can be useful for authors, Quillbot is likely better suited for other types of business, academic, or internet writers rather than fiction/non-fiction book authors specifically. It lacks the advanced content generation and creative writing capabilities that authors would benefit most from in an AI writing assistant.
Quillbot Pricing
Quillbot offers both a free version and a premium paid version. Here is an overview of the pricing and features at each tier:
Free Version
- 2 paraphrasing modes: Standard and Fluency
- 125 word paraphrasing limit
- Limited grammar/plagiarism checks
- Summarize up to 1200 words
- No citation generator
- Some ads
Premium Version
- $19.95/month billed monthly
- $79.95 for 6 months ($13.33/month)
- $99.95 annually ($8.33/month)
Premium includes:
- 7 paraphrasing modes
- Unlimited paraphrasing
- Advanced grammar/plagiarism checks
- Summarize up to 6000 words
- Citation generator access
- Co-writer suite access
- Unlimited usage
- No ads
When it comes to pricing, Quillbot offers a very affordable premium plan compared to other AI writing tools. Considering the unlimited paraphrasing alone, the $99 annual subscription translates to just $8 per month, which is a steal compared to competitors.
However, there are some caveats…
Main Quillbot Features
Now that I’ve covered the basics of what Quillbot is and how much it costs, let’s dive into my experience actually using the main features as a writer:
The Paraphrasing Tool
The paraphraser is Quillbot’s headline feature, using AI to rewrite text in new ways while preserving the core meaning. Here are my experiences:
Pros:
- Quickly rephrases sentences or paragraphs
- Different modes adapt the style (formal, creative, etc)
- “Shorten” mode condenses verbose sections nicely
- Easy way to rework awkward phrasing
Cons:
- Incoherent for paraphrasing long sections of books
- Removes original style and voice
- Rewrites can be robotic and unnatural
- Not effective for fictional/creative writing
Overall, I found the paraphrasing great for reworking a sentence here and there on the fly. But for book authors, it falls short when working with long-form content. The inconsistent quality of rewrites was also an issue. Still, it can be a handy tool in moderation.
Plagiarism Checker
Quillbot’s plagiarism tool scans for copied or spun content. Here’s how it performed:
Pros
- Quickly identified plagiarized passages
- Helpful for checking specific sections
Cons
- Only 20 page limit per month in premium
- Requires manual purchase for more scans
- Other free plagiarism checkers are unlimited
The plagiarism checker does what it claims, easily flagging copied text. But the 20 page per month limit in premium is disappointing. Other free plagiarism checkers offer unlimited checks, so this feels like an unnecessary limitation.
Grammar Checker
Quillbot’s grammar checking capabilities promise to fix errors and improve writing quality. Here’s my take:
Pros
- Identifies basic grammar/spelling errors
- Quickly checks short snippets of text
- Easy to use real-time editor
Cons
- Does not explain the grammar rules/issues
- Misses more complex grammatical problems
- No customization options for checking
For a free grammar checker, Quillbot performs decently enough. However, it focuses mostly on catching minor errors and misses many complex grammar issues. The lack of explanations for mistakes or custom checking options also makes it less suited for serious editing.
Summarizer
Quillbot’s summarizer condenses longer content down to key sentences and phrases. My thoughts:
Pros
- Quickly creates a summary of long articles/papers
- Pulls out the main points and ideas
- Helpful for research and studying
Cons
- 6000 word limit even for premium
- Summaries can lose important context/nuance
- Not optimized specifically for books
The summarizer makes it easy to get the gist of long-form content. However, the strict word limit means it falls short for condensing entire books effectively. And summaries lose the original voice, style, and context that is so crucial in creative works.
Co-Writer
Quillbot’s Co-Writer is an integrated writing suite combining many features:
Pros
- Has a built-in document editor
- Easy access to paraphrasing and summaries
- Research tab finds and summarizes articles
Cons
- Interface not as robust as Google Docs
- Lacks real-time writing assistance
- Not optimized for writing books
The Co-Writer offers some handy integrated features. However, the interface and capabilities lag behind full-featured writing suites like Google Docs or Word. And it does not provide real-time writing suggestions/generation like more advanced AI assistants.
Pros: What I Liked About Quillbot
After extensively testing Quillbot across all the different features, here are the pros that stood out to me:
- The paraphrasing tool is fast and easy to use for quick rephrasing of sentences or paragraphs on the fly. Having the different modes to choose from makes it adaptable.
- The price is very affordable, especially compared to other AI writing tools. For students or budget-conscious writers, it provides decent value.
- For its purpose as a paraphrasing/optimization tool, the core technology works well. The rewrites clearly try to maintain the original meaning.
- The summarization feature is great for quickly getting the main ideas from research papers, articles, or other long-form content.
- The plagiarism checker does its job in detecting copied or spun content. Helpful as an extra guard against accidental plagiarism.
- The grammar checker picks up on basic grammar and spelling errors, serving as a second set of eyes to catch minor issues.
Cons: What I Think Could Be Improved
Despite its strengths in certain areas, I did notice some weaknesses and areas for improvement:
- The paraphrasing tool led to awkward, unnatural sentences when used on longer sections or creative writing. The technology seems limited for rewriting quality long-form content smoothly.
- The strict word limits on the summarizer and plagiarism checker feel unnecessary and limiting. Users should have unlimited access with a premium subscription.
- The grammar checking is very basic and overlooks many complex grammar issues that quality editing software or a human editor would catch.
- Quillbot does not actually help write or generate any new content. More robust AI writing assistants actively compose original text.
- The Co-Writer suite could be improved with better integration, more assisting features while writing, and an interface more on par with Google Docs.
- For creative fiction writing specifically, Quillbot falls short compared to AI writing tools optimized specifically for assisting novels.
Quillbot Alternatives
Based on my extensive testing and research, here are my top recommended alternatives to Quillbot:
ProWritingAid (for editing): Offers superior grammar/style editing suited for books. Detailed reports explain errors and has great customization options. Also catches more issues than Quillbot.
Grammarly (for grammar): Like Quillbot, great for quick grammar checks on the fly or directly within your writing interface. Free version available.
Jasper.ai (for writing assist): More advanced AI that can actively compose written content and provide real-time suggestions. Better for creative writing compared to Quillbot.
Sudowrite (for fiction writing): AI tool specifically designed to assist fiction authors with story ideas, character development, worldbuilding, and line-by-line writing feedback.
Hemingway App (for style): Helps improve readability of writing by highlighting complex sentences, passive voice, and difficult words. Great complement to editing software.
Final Thoughts
To wrap up my thorough, hands-on review, here are my final conclusions on Quillbot:
For optimizing, paraphrasing, or summarizing short sections of existing text, Quillbot delivers on its core premise. The paraphrasing and summarization tools work well in the right scenarios. For student writers or those on a tight budget, it can provide decent value and helpful AI capability at an affordable price.
However, for creative writing and working with long-form book content, Quillbot falls significantly short of what I’d hope for in an advanced AI writing assistant. The subpar grammar checking, lack of content generation, strict word limits, and awkward paraphrasing of creative writing excerpts leave much to be desired.
In summary, Quillbot can be a helpful AI tool for quickly rephrasing sentences, improving research summaries, or double-checking brief snippets of text. But when it comes to robustly enhancing creative writing or entire manuscripts, alternatives like ProWritingAid for editing and Sudowrite for creative AI guidance are better suited for fiction authors.
I hope this detailed first-hand review helps shed light on what Quillbot can and can’t do, plus gives you some alternative options to consider for your writing needs! Let me know if you have any other questions.