NovelAI Free Alternative: Five Options That Cost Nothing to Start
The best NovelAI free alternative depends on what you used NovelAI for. If you want to write long fiction with an AI for free, KoboldAI Lite on the volunteer AI Horde is the closest thing to NovelAI’s editor that costs nothing at all. If you want to play a story rather than write one, AI Dungeon’s free tier and LLM RPG’s no-account trial get you into a game fastest. And if you have a decent graphics card, KoboldCpp or SillyTavern running a model on your own computer is free for good, with no cap but your hardware.
Below is what NovelAI’s free option actually includes today, the five free alternatives side by side, what each one asks of you in return, and who should simply stay with NovelAI. Every claim about another product was read off that product’s own pages in November 2026.
What NovelAI gives you for free
NovelAI has no free plan. It has a free trial, which its documentation calls the Paper tier, and then three paid tiers. From NovelAI’s subscription documentation, as of November 2026:
“You get 50 free Text generations if you’re logged in with an e-mail verified account.”
The same page lists 30 free image generations and 100 free text-to-speech generations, and notes that stories made during the trial carry over if you subscribe. After that, the cheapest tier is Tablet at $10 a month, then Scroll at $15 and Opus at $25.
| NovelAI tier | Price (Nov 2026) | Text generations |
|---|---|---|
| Paper (free trial) | $0 | 50 |
| Tablet | $10 / month | Unlimited |
| Scroll | $15 / month | Unlimited, larger context |
| Opus | $25 / month | Unlimited, largest context |
Fifty generations is enough to judge whether you like how NovelAI writes. It is not enough to finish a story. That gap is the reason people search for a free alternative, and it is worth being clear about what “free” can mean before picking one. For the full tier breakdown, including what Anlas buy, see our NovelAI pricing guide.
Three kinds of free
Free alternatives to NovelAI fall into three groups, and they trade different things for the zero price:
- Free because volunteers pay for it. The AI Horde runs on computers people donate. You pay with patience: a queue, and a model chosen from whatever is online.
- Free because you run it. KoboldCpp and SillyTavern are free, open-source programs. You pay with setup time and your own hardware.
- Free to start. AI Dungeon and LLM RPG are hosted services with a free way in and paid plans above it. You pay nothing until you want more than the free allowance.
None of these is a trick. They are just honest about different costs.
The five options at a glance
| Option | Free how | Setup | Best for | What you give up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KoboldAI Lite + AI Horde | Volunteer computers | None, runs in a browser | Writing, NovelAI-style | Speed, model choice |
| KoboldCpp | Runs on your PC | Download one file and a model | Writing and roleplay, offline | Needs capable hardware |
| SillyTavern | Free software, bring a model | Install, then connect a backend | Character chat, deep control | A steep learning curve |
| AI Dungeon free tier | Free account | Sign up, play | Open-ended text adventures | Smaller memory than paid tiers |
| LLM RPG | Free trial, then a welcome grant | None for five turns | Playing inside a world or a book | Free turns run out |
KoboldAI Lite on the AI Horde: the closest free editor
KoboldAI Lite is a browser front end for AI writing, with a story mode, a memory box, an author’s note and world info, which are the same ideas NovelAI’s editor is built on. When you open it, the first AI provider on its connection screen is the AI Horde. The Horde describes itself plainly on its home page:
“Volunteers share their computers so anyone can make images and text here, for free.”
That is the whole deal. You get a NovelAI-style writing space for nothing, and the text comes from whichever volunteer models are online at that moment. At busy times you wait in a queue. Models come and go. Some advanced sampling settings in Lite are marked as not supported on the Horde.
Choose it if you liked NovelAI’s editor and want to keep writing without paying, and you can tolerate a slower, less predictable writer.
KoboldCpp: free for good, on your own computer
KoboldCpp is what you move to once the Horde queue gets old. Its own README puts it this way:
“KoboldCpp is free and open-source software for running GGUF large language models (LLMs) on your own computer.”
It ships as one executable for Windows, Linux and macOS, with no installation, and it bundles the same KoboldAI Lite interface. You download a model file, point KoboldCpp at it, and write. There is no generation limit, no account and no connection needed once the model is on disk.
The cost is hardware. A small model runs on most modern machines; a model that writes as well as a paid service wants a graphics card with plenty of memory.
Choose it if you have a capable PC, value privacy, and want unlimited writing with no subscription at all.
SillyTavern: maximum control, once you have a model
SillyTavern is a free, open-source interface for talking to AI models. Its documentation says it “will always be free and open-sourced” and is honest about the learning curve, calling it something to embrace “as part of the fun.” It does not include a model. You connect it to one: KoboldCpp on your own machine, the AI Horde, or a paid API.
It shines at character roleplay, with character cards, personas and a lorebook (called World Info) that you fill in yourself. If you want a world that is already written for you, our SillyTavern alternative piece covers that trade in detail.
Choose it if you enjoy tinkering and want to control every part of the prompt.
AI Dungeon’s free tier: the quickest free adventure
If you mostly used NovelAI’s Text Adventure mode, AI Dungeon is the more direct free swap. Its home page calls it “a free AI text adventure game”, and a free account plays with no time limit. Paid memberships add more context, more models and a monthly credit allowance; the free tier has the smallest memory. We break down every tier in Is AI Dungeon free?.
Choose it if you want open-ended adventures on any device today, with nothing to install.
LLM RPG: play the story instead of writing it
LLM RPG is our product, so weigh this section accordingly. It is built for a different job from NovelAI’s. NovelAI helps you write; LLM RPG puts you inside a world as your own character, with a game master narrating each turn and the people of that world acting on their own goals while you are elsewhere.
What is free, as of November 2026:
- Five turns with no account and no card, from the home page.
- A welcome grant of 50 credits when you sign in, about 50 turns on the standard game master. It is a one-time grant, not a monthly refill.
- 24 ready-made worlds, from fantasy and wuxia to cyberpunk and horror.
- Your own book, uploaded as a .txt or .epub. The lore is extracted into an atlas of its characters, places and factions, so the narration keeps the book’s facts straight. On the welcome grant alone, extraction is capped per book, and you see the price before anything is spent.
After the free credits, Pro is $9 a month for about 1,000 turns. So this is free to start rather than free for ever, the same shape as NovelAI’s trial, with a longer free run.
Choose it if you want to step into a novel you love, or a ready world, and play rather than co-write. Start a free run here.
When NovelAI’s free trial is enough
Plenty of readers should not switch at all:
- You are testing NovelAI before paying. Fifty generations is exactly what the trial is for. Use them on the kind of story you would actually write.
- You want images too. NovelAI’s image generator is a large part of what its subscription buys, and none of the free text options above replace it.
- You write long fiction and want one polished tool. NovelAI’s editor, Lorebook and modules are mature. If $10 a month is within reach, Tablet is good value for unlimited text. Our NovelAI review covers what you get.
How to move a story without losing it
NovelAI lets you download all your stories at once, and its documentation suggests doing so. Before you try anything else:
- Export your stories from NovelAI so nothing lives only in one account.
- Copy your Lorebook entries into a plain text file. KoboldAI Lite’s world info and SillyTavern’s World Info both take short keyed entries in a similar shape, so the text moves across by hand.
- Try one free option for an evening on a story you already know well. You will learn more from a familiar story than a new one.
- Keep the one that fits how you actually use AI fiction. Writers usually land on KoboldAI Lite or KoboldCpp. Players usually land on AI Dungeon or LLM RPG.
If you want more choices beyond these five, our list of games like AI Dungeon compares more of the field.
The short version
There is no free NovelAI, but there are good free ways to do what you used it for. Write for free with KoboldAI Lite on the AI Horde, or with KoboldCpp if your computer can carry a model. Tinker for free with SillyTavern. Play for free with AI Dungeon’s free tier or LLM RPG’s trial. And if you write every day and want images too, NovelAI’s own Tablet tier may be the cheapest thing that does everything you need.