Sudowrite vs NovelAI: Which AI Co-Writer for Australian Authors?
Our pick: Sudowrite. The verdict below says who should buy the other.
Compared: 28 June 2026 · Category: Writing & Content AI
Verdict (TL;DR): These are two fiction-AI tools pulling in opposite directions. Sudowrite (our score: 17/25, ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good) is a craft-aware co-writer that respects your voice and structures your book. NovelAI (our score: 13/25, ⭐⭐⭐ Good) is an uncensored, model-tunable generation engine for genre and fan-fiction writers who want freedom over polish. For the typical Australian author — someone writing a novel they hope to finish and sell — Sudowrite is the winner. NovelAI wins only for a narrow buyer: the genre or roleplay writer who needs minimal content restrictions and an anime image generator in the same tab.
The tension
Both tools claim the fiction writer. Neither does the same job.
Sudowrite sells taste and structure. It wraps your manuscript in a Story Bible — premise, characters, outline — and gives you scene-level tools that work with the book you've planned. The pitch is a co-writer that holds your story in its head and respects your voice.
NovelAI sells freedom and control over the model. It hands you a text engine with configurable tone, genre and a persistent memory, and — crucially — almost no content guardrails. The pitch is a generation platform you tune yourself, no subject off-limits, with an anime image generator bolted alongside.
That difference decides everything. One is built for the literary novelist who wants a craft partner. The other is built for the genre and fan-fiction writer who wants an uncensored sandbox. The question for an Australian buyer is which writer you are — and then which tool earns the USD billing that both of them carry.
What it costs in Australia
Both tools bill in USD only. Neither shows AUD pricing, and neither issues a GST-inclusive Australian tax invoice. The AUD figures below are our own conversion at roughly 1.40 AUD per USD — shown so you can compare like with like, not prices either vendor quotes.
| Sudowrite | NovelAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Hobby & Student — US$10 (≈ A$14.00) | Tablet — US$10 (≈ A$14.00) |
| Mid plan | Professional — US$22 (≈ A$30.80) | Scroll — US$15 (≈ A$21.00) |
| Top plan | Max — US$44 (≈ A$61.60) | Opus — US$25 (≈ A$35.00) |
| Free trial | Yes — no credit card | Yes — 30 image generations |
| Billing currency | USD | USD |
| GST invoice | No AU tax invoice | No AU tax invoice |
Pricing checked 28 June 2026. Sudowrite from its USD pricing page (Hobby US$10 / Professional US$22 / Max US$44 per month) — sudowrite.com/pricing, Wayback: archived 29 Jun 2026. NovelAI from its homepage (Tablet US$10 / Scroll US$15 / Opus US$25 per month) — novelai.net, Wayback: archived 29 Jun 2026. AUD figures are our 1.40 conversion, not vendor billing, and exclude any GST your card or the vendor may apply.
On headline price they're close. NovelAI's top tier (US$25) is cheaper than Sudowrite's Professional-versus-Max gap suggests, but the comparison is unfair, because the plans buy different things. Sudowrite's credits feed prose tools. NovelAI's tiers buy image-generation headroom — the Opus plan's main draw is 10,000 monthly bonus Anlas (NovelAI's internal credit) for high-resolution art, versus 1,000 on the lower tiers. If you only want to write, you're paying NovelAI partly for an image engine you may never open.
Value read: For a writer, Sudowrite's Professional at US$22 (≈ A$31/month) matches a novel-length project and is the tier most authors should pick. NovelAI's Tablet at US$10 is the honest entry point if you want to test the writing tools without funding the art side. Neither is cheap against a general assistant like Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus, which cost about the same and do far more kinds of work — you're paying both for fiction specialisation.
Feature diff
| Sudowrite | NovelAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Core job | Craft-aware fiction co-writer | Uncensored, tunable generation engine |
| Structure | Story Bible: premise → characters → outline → drafted scenes | Persistent "memory" (characters, world) per session |
| Scene tools | Write, Describe, Expand, Rewrite, Feedback, Canvas | AI text continuation with tone/genre/style settings |
| Model control | Auto-routes between Claude, OpenAI models, in-house Muse — you don't pick | You tune sampler, guidance, steps; Anlatan's own models |
| Content limits | Standard guardrails | Markets "no restrictions" — generates adult/explicit content |
| Image generation | Visualize (character art, a minor extra) | Core feature — strong anime/manga diffusion models |
| Trains on your work? | No — states it doesn't train on your writing | Content encrypted; you retain ownership; no logging without consent |
The split is plain. Sudowrite is about respecting and shaping a voice — the Story Bible holds your book's context so the chapters it drafts stay consistent, and Rewrite and Expand work at the line and scene level the way an editor would. It's a co-writer, not a ghostwriter; the prose still needs your hand.
NovelAI is about control and freedom. You tune the generation settings yourself, the model carries a session memory for genre fiction, and the content orientation is the deliberate differentiator — a significant share of its base chooses it precisely because it doesn't block mature material. Its story output holds narrative consistency better than a general chatbot, but it's "competent for genre fiction" and "requires significant editing to reach publishable quality," per our review. The anime image engine is genuinely strong; it's also irrelevant to a writer who only wants words.
On the AI-copyright nerve, both give writers something. Sudowrite states plainly it does not train on your writing — a clear, vendor-stated position for guarding an unpublished manuscript. NovelAI encrypts stored content, claims no ownership of your work, and says it doesn't log request content without consent. Note one asymmetry: NovelAI states its image models are trained on licensed datasets, but independent verification of that claim isn't publicly available — a point for visual creators to watch, less relevant to pure prose work.
Australian fit
This is where both tools lose marks, and where the gap between them is narrow but real.
Sudowrite — Australian Fit 2/5. USD-only billing, no AUD pricing, no GST-inclusive tax invoice. No Australian data residency: it's a US company under Californian law, and its privacy policy permits storing data outside your country. Support is email-only (hi@sudowrite.com) with no AU presence. The one AU-relevant plus is the no-train pledge.
NovelAI — Australian Fit 1/5. USD-only via Stripe, with GST treatment not disclosed on the pricing page — an Australian consumer should expect GST added on top, pushing the Opus tier toward A$42/month. Data is stored on US servers with no Australian residency option and no mention of Privacy Act 1988 alignment. Support runs US business hours (9am–5pm, Monday to Friday US time), so an Australian with a billing problem waits.
Neither serves Australians well. But Sudowrite at least pairs its offshore billing with a clear data-handling stance a novelist can rely on. NovelAI's combination of undisclosed GST, US-only data and US-hours support is the weaker package for anyone here — and its uncensored, anime-leaning orientation puts it outside most professional and organisational contexts entirely. Under our scoring, neither tool can be an Excellent five-star pick: the Australian Fit gate requires Australian Fit of at least 4/5, and both fall well short. That's not a quirk of these two products — it's the price of a category where the serious tools are all US-built.
Who buys which
Buy Sudowrite if you're a novelist who wants a craft partner. You're writing a novel, a short story or a screenplay you hope to finish and sell. You want structure — a Story Bible that plans the book — and scene tools that respect your voice rather than replace it. You care that the tool won't train on your manuscript. The USD billing stings, but Professional at US$22 (≈ A$31/month) is a fair price for fiction specialisation, and the no-card trial lets you prove it on your own pages first. This is the typical Australian author, and Sudowrite is the better tool for them.
Buy NovelAI if you're a genre, fan-fiction or roleplay writer who wants freedom. You're working in mature or explicit territory that mainstream tools block, you want to tune the model yourself rather than have it routed for you, and an anime image generator in the same subscription is a bonus, not a distraction. Start on Tablet at US$10 and use the 30 free generations to judge the output before committing. Outside that niche, the writing tools are unpolished and the Australian friction is real.
The verdict
For the typical Australian buyer — the novelist who wants a craft-aware co-writer that respects their voice — Sudowrite is the winner. It scores 17/25 (⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good) against NovelAI's 13/25 (⭐⭐⭐ Good), and the four points are earned where it counts: a real drafting workflow, a deeper fiction-specific feature set, and a clear no-train pledge. Both tools carry the same USD-billing tax on Australian buyers, but Sudowrite gives more back for it.
NovelAI isn't beaten so much as aimed elsewhere. For the genre or fan-fiction writer who wants an uncensored, model-tunable sandbox — and doesn't mind US-hours support, undisclosed GST and offshore data — it does its specific job well. That's a narrower buyer than Sudowrite's, and a smaller share of the Australians we write for. If you write fiction you mean to publish, start with Sudowrite's free trial. If you write for a community that values freedom over polish, NovelAI's 30 free generations will tell you fast whether it's your tool.
We'll refresh this comparison if either vendor's pricing, AU billing or data policy moves.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sudowrite or NovelAI better for Australian writers?
For the typical Australian novelist, Sudowrite is the better choice. The AI Directory Australia scores it 17/25 (Very Good) against NovelAI's 13/25 (Good). Sudowrite offers a structured Story Bible, scene-level craft tools and a no-train pledge. NovelAI is better only for genre or fan-fiction writers who want minimal content restrictions and a built-in anime image generator.
How much do Sudowrite and NovelAI cost in Australian dollars?
Both bill in USD with no AUD pricing. Sudowrite runs Hobby US$10 (approx A$14.00), Professional US$22 (approx A$30.80) and Max US$44 (approx A$61.60) per month. NovelAI runs Tablet US$10 (approx A$14.00), Scroll US$15 (approx A$21.00) and Opus US$25 (approx A$35.00) per month. Neither issues a GST-inclusive Australian tax invoice; expect GST added on top for Australian consumers.
Do Sudowrite or NovelAI store data in Australia?
No. Both are US companies with no Australian data residency. Sudowrite operates under Californian law and states it does not train on your writing. NovelAI stores data on US servers, encrypts content and claims no ownership, but makes no mention of Australian Privacy Act 1988 alignment and runs support on US business hours.
Read next
Sources
- Sudowrite pricing page (USD-only; Hobby US$10 / Professional US$22 / Max US$44 per month; free trial, no credit card) — sudowrite.com/pricing — Wayback: archived 29 Jun 2026 — checked 28 June 2026
- NovelAI homepage and pricing (USD-only; Tablet US$10 / Scroll US$15 / Opus US$25 per month; 30 free generations) — novelai.net — Wayback: archived 29 Jun 2026 — checked 28 June 2026
- The AI Directory Australia — Sudowrite review (score 17/25; data, billing and AU-fit detail) — reviewed 3 June 2026
- The AI Directory Australia — NovelAI review (score 13/25; content orientation, Anlas economy, US data and support) — reviewed 26 June 2026
Exchange rate used for AUD conversions: US$1 ≈ A$1.40 (directory standard). AUD figures are editorial conversions for comparison only; both vendors bill in USD and neither issues a GST-inclusive Australian tax invoice.
The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. We don't accept payment for positive reviews. Affiliate links are disclosed. Read our Methodology and Affiliate Disclosure pages.
Compared by Adam for The AI Directory Australia. First published 28 June 2026.
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