Sudowrite vs Novelcrafter: Story Bible or Codex, credits or your own AI key (2026)

Sudowrite or Novelcrafter: the short answer

Sudowrite is the better choice if you want an AI that writes good fiction prose with little setup. Novelcrafter is the better choice if you want to organise a long novel or series in detail and decide which AI model writes for you and what it costs.

The deciding difference is how the AI is supplied. Every Sudowrite plan includes a monthly credit allowance for Sudowrite's own fiction models, Muse and Ballad, plus about 30 others, and you cannot connect your own key. Novelcrafter does not sell AI at all: from the Hobbyist plan up you connect your own OpenRouter or OpenAI key, or a local model through Ollama or LM Studio, and pay that provider directly. The cheapest Novelcrafter plan, Scribe, has no AI features.

Sources: Sudowrite: pricing and FAQ · Sudowrite docs: What plans are available? · Sudowrite docs: Prose modes and models · Sudowrite docs: Is there a trial? · Novelcrafter: pricing · Novelcrafter help: Does Novelcrafter provide its own AI? · Novelcrafter help: Bring your own key · Novelcrafter help: Free trial · Sudowrite docs: Web app vs mobile app differences · Novelcrafter help: How can I use Novelcrafter as a web app? · Sudowrite docs: Exporting files · Novelcrafter docs: Exporting a novel · Novelcrafter Privacy Policy

Sudowrite vs Novelcrafter pricing: credits or your own AI bill

Sudowrite has three plans: Hobby & Student (US$19 a month, or US$10 a month billed annually, 225,000 credits a month), Professional (US$29, or US$22 annually) and Max (US$59, or US$44 annually, 2,000,000 credits). Sudowrite's own pages disagree on Professional's allowance: the help center says 1,000,000 credits a month while the pricing page also shows 450,000, so check the checkout page before you buy. Only Max credits roll over, for up to 12 months; on the other plans unused credits expire at each refresh. You can buy extra credits that do not expire, but only while subscribed.

Credits are not words. Sudowrite's documentation says cost depends on the model and how much context is sent: its own example puts 200 words from Write at about 70 credits on GPT-5 Nano and over 8,000 credits on Claude 4.1 Opus. The model you choose matters more than the plan name.

Novelcrafter's plans are Scribe (US$4 a month, no AI), Hobbyist (US$8, adds AI through your own key, scene-beat generation, AI scene summaries and character extraction), Artisan (US$14, adds Workshop Chat) and Specialist (US$20, adds inviting collaborators and teams). Prices are localised by region. On top of that you pay your AI provider per use; Novelcrafter's cost guide points to free OpenRouter models and to fixed-price providers if you want a predictable bill.

Which costs less depends on volume. A light user on Novelcrafter Hobbyist with a cheap model can spend well under Sudowrite's entry price; a heavy user drafting whole chapters with premium models can spend more through an API key than on a Sudowrite plan. Sudowrite is easier to budget because the ceiling is the plan; Novelcrafter is easier to tune.

Sources: Sudowrite: pricing and FAQ · Sudowrite docs: What plans are available? · Sudowrite docs: Do credits roll over? · Sudowrite docs: How many credits do features use? · Novelcrafter: pricing · Novelcrafter help: Bring your own key · Novelcrafter help: How much does AI cost?

Story Bible vs Codex: how each keeps the AI consistent

Sudowrite's Story Bible is a pipeline. You start with a Braindump, Genre and Style, and Sudowrite can generate each later field from the earlier ones: Synopsis from the braindump, Characters from the synopsis, an Outline from all of them, then Scenes, then a full chapter Draft. A background Saliency Engine chooses which Story Bible details are relevant for each request. One limit worth knowing: Scene and Draft generation only use the characters and worldbuilding entries that are explicitly mentioned.

For longer books, Sudowrite's Chapter Continuity lets you link a document to the one before it, so Write and Draft can pull up to 20,000 words from as many as 25 linked earlier chapters. Series folders share characters and worldbuilding across books.

Novelcrafter's Codex is a wiki rather than a pipeline. Entries are typed (characters, locations, objects, lore, subplots) and carry aliases, so the AI receives an entry when its name or nickname appears in your scene beat, the text before it or your chat message. Each entry has four AI-context options, from always include to never include. Progressions let a character's details change from a given scene onward, so the AI does not use a spoiler too early, and a Mentions tab shows every place an entry appears.

In practice: Sudowrite's Story Bible gets you from a vague idea to a full draft faster, because it generates the planning documents for you. Novelcrafter's Codex rewards writers who already know their world and want precise control over what the AI sees, especially across a series.

Sources: Sudowrite docs: What is Story Bible? · Sudowrite docs: Saliency Engine · Sudowrite docs: Chapter Continuity · Sudowrite docs: Series support · Novelcrafter docs: The Codex · Novelcrafter docs: Codex tracking and AI context · Novelcrafter docs: Progressions and additions · Novelcrafter docs: Codex mentions · Novelcrafter docs: Series Codex

Drafting and editing tools compared

Sudowrite is built around generation buttons: Write continues your text, Rewrite rephrases, Describe adds sensory detail, Expand slows a moment down, Brainstorm makes idea lists, First Draft writes a scene of roughly 800 to 1,000+ words, and Draft writes a 3,000 to 5,000+ word chapter from your Scenes. Professional and Max add Feedback, described as developmental edits, line edits and beta reads. Plugins let you build your own tools.

Novelcrafter works through scene beats: you type “/”, describe what should happen, pick a prompt and a model, and accept, retry or discard the prose. Prompts are fully editable and can be saved to a library, and Chat can use your whole novel, an outline, chapters or Codex entries as context. Its Plan view has a grid, a spreadsheet-style matrix of characters and subplots across scenes, and an outline of scene summaries.

Sudowrite has more polished one-click tools; Novelcrafter gives you more control over the prompt behind each generation.

Sources: Sudowrite docs: Features · Sudowrite docs: Scenes and Draft · Sudowrite: pricing and FAQ · Novelcrafter docs: Generating prose · Novelcrafter docs: The chat interface · Novelcrafter docs: Plan views

AI models and mature content

Sudowrite's default fiction model is Muse, which Sudowrite says was trained to avoid common AI clichés and works best in English. Its documentation also lists Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Kimi and Mistral models. Sudowrite's documentation is not consistent about what powers its “Excellent” mode (one page says Claude 3.7 Sonnet, another says its Ballad engine).

For dark or adult fiction, Sudowrite documents a filter level per model: Muse is described as having virtually no filters, while GPT-5 and the Basic mode are strict. Novelcrafter does not filter content itself; what you can write depends on the provider and model you connect, and its help pages explain refusals and recommend local models for maximum control. Novelcrafter's terms require users to be 18 or older. Both products prohibit sexual content involving minors.

Sources: Sudowrite docs: Prose modes and models · Sudowrite docs: Which AI model should I use? · Sudowrite docs: Sudowrite Muse · Novelcrafter docs: Writing NSFW content with AI · Novelcrafter Terms and Conditions · Novelcrafter help: Does Novelcrafter provide its own AI? · Novelcrafter help: Connecting Claude

Privacy, export and collaboration

Novelcrafter's privacy policy says it does not, under any circumstances, use your writing to train AI models and does not store or log the text or prompts you send to the AI; your text goes to the provider you connected, under that provider's terms, or stays on your machine with a local model. Sudowrite's pricing FAQ says your writing is not used to train Sudowrite's or OpenAI's models; its privacy policy does not address AI training, and the FAQ wording does not mention the other providers it offers.

Sudowrite exports documents as DOCX (one at a time or merged), a ZIP of a whole project, and CSV for outline, characters and worldbuilding; it imports TXT, DOC, DOCX, RTF, ODT and Scrivener backups. Collaboration is read-only share links with comments. Novelcrafter exports DOCX and Markdown, optionally with the Codex, chats and snippets, and imports DOCX, Markdown and HTML. Editors can be invited to a shared novel on the Specialist plan, but Novelcrafter warns that changes are not real-time.

Sources: Novelcrafter Privacy Policy · Novelcrafter Terms and Conditions · Sudowrite: pricing and FAQ · Sudowrite Privacy Policy · Sudowrite docs: Exporting files · Sudowrite docs: Importing files · Sudowrite docs: Collaboration options · Novelcrafter docs: Exporting a novel · Novelcrafter: Importing your novel · Novelcrafter docs: Collaboration and co-authoring · Novelcrafter: pricing

Sudowrite and Novelcrafter on a phone

Sudowrite has a companion app for iPhone and Android with Write, Rewrite, Chat and dictation; you can read and edit the Story Bible on the phone, but generating Story Bible content happens through Chat, and some features stay on the web. On October 15, 2026 the US App Store listing showed 4.4 stars from 390 ratings (updated October 11, 2026) and Google Play showed 3.8 from 725 reviews.

Novelcrafter has no store app. Its help center explains installing the site as a web app from Chrome, Edge or Safari. Apps called “Novel Crafter” on the App Store come from other sellers, not from Novelcrafter.

Sources: Sudowrite docs: Web app vs mobile app differences · Sudowrite - AI Novel Writing on the US App Store · Sudowrite - AI Novel Writing on Google Play · Novelcrafter help: How can I use Novelcrafter as a web app?

Writing in languages other than English

Sudowrite says it works in almost any language, but there is no single language setting, some features such as Draft and Plugins can fall back to English, and Muse works best in English. Novelcrafter writes in any left-to-right language the connected model supports; right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew are not supported by its formatting, and Codex auto-pluralisation is English-only.

Sources: Sudowrite docs: Can I use Sudowrite in other languages? · Sudowrite docs: Sudowrite Muse · Novelcrafter help: What languages can I write in? · Novelcrafter docs: Codex tracking and AI context

Which one should you choose?

Match the tool to how you work, not to a feature count.

Sources: Sudowrite: pricing and FAQ · Sudowrite docs: Is there a trial? · Novelcrafter help: Free trial · Novelcrafter Privacy Policy

Where AIBookCraft fits if neither feels right

Some writers comparing Sudowrite and Novelcrafter really want something simpler that works on a phone. AIBookCraft is an AI book-writing app for iOS, Android and the web from SecondEarth AI, Inc.: it turns an idea into an outline, helps you draft chapter by chapter, generates covers and exports PDF or DOCX, with the same manuscript on every device. Writing and editing your own chapters is free; AI chapter drafting is part of Pro at US$5.99 a month on the web. The apps are listed as “AI Book Writer Story Maker” on the App Store and “AI Book Writer Story Generator” on Google Play.

Where AIBookCraft is weaker: it has no equivalent of Sudowrite's Muse model, Feedback or Plugins, and none of Novelcrafter's Codex depth, model choice or bring-your-own-key setup. If those are what you need, choose one of the two tools above.

Sources: AIBookCraft: About and product facts · AIBookCraft pricing (Free, Pro, Interactive Stories credits) · AIBookCraft press kit (store names and fact sheet)

A one-chapter test before you subscribe

Use the free trials on the same material so the comparison is about your book, not a demo.

1. Write a half-page note on two characters and one setting that matters to the plot.
2. In Sudowrite, paste it into the Story Bible braindump, generate a synopsis and outline, and draft one scene. In Novelcrafter, create Codex entries for the same characters and setting and write the scene from a scene beat.
3. Add a detail that changes midway, such as a secret revealed in chapter two, and check whether each tool keeps it hidden before that point (Novelcrafter Progressions, Sudowrite Chapter Continuity).
4. Note the credits Sudowrite used and the cost your AI provider charged Novelcrafter for the same scene.
5. Export the scene and open it on your phone and in your usual editor.