Best NovelAI Alternatives (2026): Free, Mobile and Story-First Options

The best NovelAI alternative depends on what sent you looking. If you want to play an illustrated story on your phone without a subscription, Euphoria draws every scene with your own character and keeps the plot and memory going across chapters. If you want a real free tier, AI Dungeon has one. If you want to stop paying altogether and own the setup, KoboldCpp or SillyTavern. If you are writing a novel rather than playing one, Sudowrite. Prices and limits below are as of 12 November 2026.

The short list

App	Best for	Free tier (as of Nov 2026)	Paid	Platforms
NovelAI (for reference)	Novel-quality prose, lorebook, bundled images	One-time trial: 50 text actions, 30 images	$10 (Tablet), $15 (Scroll), $25 (Opus) per month	Browser, installable as a web app
Euphoria: AI Choices	Illustrated multi-chapter stories with your own character	Free download	Optional in-app purchases from $1.99	iOS, Android
AI Dungeon	Playing an open story with a real free tier	Unlimited on free models, 4k context	$14.99/mo (Journey) to $99.99/mo	Web, iOS, Android
KoboldCpp	Running a story model on your own computer	Free, open source	Nothing beyond your hardware	Windows, Linux, macOS
SillyTavern	Full control over models and lore	Free, open source	Your own API keys or GPU	Self-hosted
DreamGen	Open-weight story models in a browser	No free plan shown	$7.83/mo (Starter) to $48.30/mo (Pro)	Web
Sudowrite	Writing and editing a novel	Free trial	From $10/mo on yearly billing	Web

What NovelAI does well, and a disclosure

We make Euphoria: AI Choices, which is on this list, so weigh our view accordingly. Every number here is sourced in the footer.

NovelAI deserves its reputation. Arcanum RPGs, which reviewed it in June 2026, wrote that its prose “reads like a novel” and that nothing else in its directory matches it on that front. The Lorebook is more than a memory feature; the reviewer called it “a worldbuilder disguised as a memory feature”. The Opus tier at $25 a month gets a context of up to 28,672 tokens, the Opus-only models Llama 3 Erato and Xialong (a 355-billion-parameter finetune of GLM-4.6 released on 31 March 2026, which NovelAI calls its most capable writing model yet), 10,000 Anlas a month and unlimited image generation on its older image models. Stories are encrypted on your device before they reach NovelAI’s servers, and image prompts are not stored at all.

People who look for alternatives tend to have one of four reasons:

• There is no free plan. The official FAQ says there are “no plans for a free version”. The trial is 50 text generations and 30 images, provided once. Arcanum’s review puts it bluntly: “no genuinely usable free tier, only a limited trial.”
• It is browser only. There is no native iPhone or Android app. NovelAI’s answer to “will there be a phone application?” is to install the website as a Progressive Web App.
• Long stories drift. The same review found reasoning “noticeably weaker than the current alternatives” and said that “in longer play it creates plot holes with some regularity”. The Lorebook helps, but the model’s handling of it “isn’t airtight”.
• The pricing got more complicated in 2026. Since the NovelAI Diffusion V5 launch in August 2026, V5 images on Opus draw from a rechargeable limit of roughly 7,000 images a month, and subscription Anlas now reset to zero the moment a subscription ends. Opus itself stays at $25.

The contrast we care most about is writing studio versus story. NovelAI gives you a blank page and the tools to steer a model. A story app gives you a plot that already has a shape. In Euphoria, a story runs across chapters with a coherent plot and memory that carries from one to the next, so a choice in chapter one still matters in chapter five. Every scene is illustrated with your own character, wearing the outfits you choose, and you can type any action and let the AI write the scene. We explain the difference in AI story apps vs AI chat apps.

If you want to play a story on your phone: Euphoria

Euphoria: AI Choices is the right swap if what you liked about NovelAI was the fiction, not the fiddling. You create and dress a character, and that character appears in every illustrated scene. Story variables track relationships, health and skills, which gives early choices weight in later chapters. You can pick a suggested choice or type anything. It is free on iOS and Android, rated 16+, with optional in-app purchases (5 Keys for $1.99, 30 Keys for $9.99), and stories can be shared with the community or exported as a PDF.

What it lacks compared with NovelAI: there is no browser version, no lorebook you edit by hand, and no raw model settings. If you want a story that stays consistent without maintaining it yourself, that is the point. If you want to tune samplers, it is not for you. Our guide on creating an AI character that stays consistent covers how character setup works in story apps.

If you want a real free tier: AI Dungeon

AI Dungeon is the pick Arcanum ranks first, and for a simple reason: its free Wanderer tier is playable, with unlimited play on the free models, a 4k context and 25 Memory Bank slots. It also has iOS and Android apps. Paid tiers buy context and memory: Journey at $14.99 a month (8k context, 100 memories, 760 credits), Legend at $29.99 (16k, 200 memories, 1,650 credits), Mythic at $49.99 (32k, 400 memories) and Ultimate at $99.99. Journey and Legend include a one-week trial.

The trade-offs: AI Dungeon is a game, not a writing studio, so its prose is plainer than NovelAI’s, and matching NovelAI’s Opus context costs more here than NovelAI’s $25. Memory over long stories remains the thing you manage yourself. Our guide on getting an AI to remember your story helps, and AI Dungeon alternatives covers the app in depth.

If you want to stop paying: KoboldCpp or SillyTavern

If the subscription is the problem, two open-source tools remove it, at the cost of setup.

KoboldCpp is the closest free cousin to NovelAI’s interface. It is a single executable with no install, licensed under AGPL-3.0, with downloads for Windows, Linux and macOS on Apple Silicon. It runs open-weight story models on your CPU or GPU, and the bundled KoboldAI Lite interface has memory, world info, author’s notes, characters, scenarios and persistent story saves, which is most of NovelAI’s toolbar. The catch is hardware: the quality you get depends on the model your machine can run, and nothing is drawn for you.

SillyTavern is a free, open-source front-end that connects to any model, local or hosted, with its own World Info lorebook. You pay a provider directly for an API key, or nothing if you run a model locally. Arcanum ranks it second, as the pick for “worldbuilding control without the subscription”. It is a chat-style tool, so expect to build the scenario yourself, and there are no ready-made stories or scenes.

If you want a hosted middle ground: DreamGen

DreamGen runs open-weight storytelling models in a browser with a scenario codex, which puts it between NovelAI and the self-hosted tools. Plans are Starter at $7.83 a month (5,000-token context, 375 monthly credits plus 45 a day), Advanced at $19.35 (15,000 tokens, 2,250 monthly credits plus 75 a day) and Pro at $48.30 (30,000 tokens, the same credits and 20% off credit packs). Arcanum describes the interface as “rougher” than NovelAI’s. Its pricing page showed no free plan when we checked, although Arcanum’s September listing says one exists, so confirm before you sign up.

If you are writing a book: Sudowrite

Sudowrite is the writing-studio alternative. Where NovelAI has no outlines or chapter management, Sudowrite is built around them, with rewrite, describe and expand tools, a “match your writing style” feature and continuity checks across a series. Plans are Hobby & Student at $10 a month (225,000 credits), Professional at $22 and Max at $44 (2,000,000 credits, with unused credits rolling over for 12 months), all on yearly billing; monthly billing costs more. There is a free trial with no card required but no free tier. Developmental edits and beta reads are only on Professional and Max.

What you give up: there is no image generation, and Sudowrite applies content filtering that NovelAI does not. If writer’s block rather than a tool is the problem, our post on beating writer’s block with an AI story app takes a different route.

Who each alternative is for, and who should skip it

• You want an illustrated story on your phone that remembers itself: Euphoria. Skip it if you want a browser version or hand-edited lore.
• You want to play for free and upgrade later: AI Dungeon. Skip it if prose quality matters more than play.
• You own a decent GPU and want zero subscriptions: KoboldCpp. Skip it if you do not want to pick and download models.
• You want every model and every lore setting under your control: SillyTavern. Skip it if you want a story ready to go.
• You want open models hosted for you, cheaply: DreamGen. Skip it if a polished interface matters.
• You are drafting and editing a novel: Sudowrite. Skip it if you need images or unfiltered output.
• You like NovelAI’s prose and lorebook: stay on Opus, and buy Anlas in packs if you run out, since purchased Anlas never expire.