Paperpal
Paperpal is an AI academic writing tool that checks grammar, references, plagiarism and AI-generated text and helps draft, paraphrase and cite papers. It is built for manuscript, thesis and journal-submission work in English.
#14 in Writing & Translation ToolsGrammar CheckersPlagiarism CheckersFree plan
Who it's for
Best for
Grad students polishing thesis chapters and papers written in English
Academic authors editing their own manuscripts before journal submission
Not for
Writers who need output that clears AI-detection checks without edits
Beginners who want finished text with no human editing step
Free plan$0
Prime$25/mo
Pro$59/mo
Features
Academic grammar and tone check
Corrects grammar, tone and academic phrasing with AI trained on scholarly writing, targeting the problems that show up in theses, papers and assignments.
Plagiarism and AI detection
Identifies unintentional similarity and missing citations before submission, and detects AI patterns so the writing can be refined to reflect the author's voice.
Reference and citation check
Fixes citation issues, broken links and AI-hallucinated references, and cites accurately in more than 10,000 styles inside the writing workspace.
Chat with PDFs and sources
References and PDFs are uploaded and questioned, with cited findings drawn from more than 300 million verified research articles to build a literature review.
Plugins for Word, Docs and Overleaf
Paperpal runs as a plugin for MS Word, Google Docs, Chrome and Overleaf, and on the web, so editing happens inside the existing writing environment.
What users say
Pros
- Paperpal Prime became a standing daily workhorse for editing academic writing before submission.
Cons
- Text run through Paperpal has come back flagged as machine-written by Turnitin.
- Edited text still came out weak enough that a human had to step in.
A selection of the review sources we used:
Summarized from public user reviews and community discussions. View details
Global Traffic Rank
Top 500k
Alternatives
Rank#14 in category#5 in category#18 in category#9 in category
Free planYesYesYesYes
ProStanding daily workhorse for academic editingCatches small slips, safety net for English phrasingHandy citation tool, explained proofreading, solid checksEasy grammar fixes and flexible paraphrasing modes
Better forAccessing human proofreading with explained edits and Turnitin-powered plagiarism reports.Paraphrasing text across multiple stylistic modes like creative, simple, and fluent
Weaker atFormatting academic citations, validating reference lists, and editing in Overleaf.Editing in real time inside Word or Overleaf and chatting with research papers.Validating academic reference lists, formatting citations, and integrating with Overleaf.