NovelAI Cost: Three Tiers, Anlas and a 30-Day Cycle

What does NovelAI cost, and for how long?

NovelAI cost is three prices and one cadence. The docs say the subscriptions renew exactly 30 days after payment, and the terms say service is based on 30-day intervals, not calendar months. That detail is worth money because it changes the yearly bill.

Checked October 27, 2026. Source: docs.novelai.net. Prices change with region, promotions and the store you buy through.

The tier table is published as an image on the docs Subscription page, but the same figures appear in the docs text and FAQ. The first row is the trial, not a plan: the FAQ states there are no plans for a free version of NovelAI.

The 30-day arithmetic

A year has 365 days, so a 30-day cycle renews about 12.17 times, not 12. Our arithmetic:

• Tablet: $10 × 12.17 is about $121.67 a year, against $120 if it were monthly.
• Scroll: $15 × 12.17 is about $182.50, against $180.
• Opus: $25 × 12.17 is about $304.17, against $300.

The difference is small, a couple of dollars a year on Tablet, but it is a fact of the billing that a page quoting "$10 a month" does not state. No annual or discounted term is recorded for NovelAI, so we have no yearly price to quote.

What the money buys: memory and Anlas

Text generation is unlimited on every paid tier, so the tiers differ in memory (the context the model can see) and in Anlas, the credit for images and other metered actions. Tablet gets about 32,768 characters, or 8,192 tokens, Scroll 12,288 tokens and Opus 28,672 tokens. Our arithmetic on memory: Tablet and Scroll both work out to about $1.22 per thousand tokens, and Opus to about $0.87. So Opus is the cheapest way to buy memory by the token, even though it is the dearest tier.

Bonus Anlas are 1,000 a month on Tablet and Scroll and 10,000 on Opus, which also lists image generation as "Unlimited*" with usage limits. The FAQ says the 10,000 Anlas bundled with Opus would cost $14 on their own. If that is the standard price, then $11 of the $25 is the rest of the plan, and moving from Tablet to Opus is $15 more for the extra memory, the Opus-only models and those Anlas. The FAQ does not say whether the $14 is the discounted subscriber price (subscribers get 20 percent off Anlas purchases) or the full one. Anlas pack prices were not recorded.

Anlas rules: what you keep and what you lose

• Subscription Anlas refill on the renewal date, only up to the tier amount.
• They reset to zero when the subscription ends, including when you cancel early.
• Anlas you buy do not expire.
• Extra Anlas can only be bought while you are subscribed.

The practical consequence is that Anlas left over from a bonus are not worth saving past a cancellation, whereas bought ones are. The trial allowance is fixed too: 50 text generations, 30 images up to 1024x1024 and 100 text-to-speech generations, one time, with a note that it may reset on big releases. This is a trial, not a free tier, because it does not refill.

Web only, one price

NovelAI has no native phone app. The docs FAQ points to the mobile browser and an installable Progressive Web App, so there is no App Store or Google Play listing. That removes the web-against-store gap that exists for Sudowrite and AI Dungeon: what the pricing page says is what you pay, plus whatever your payment processor adds. The pages we read do not name the payment processor.

Cancelling and refunds

Cancelling. The terms put the responsibility on you to contact the agent or use the payment center. The docs say tier privileges remain until the paid period ends, and the terms say you will not be charged for the next month. The FAQ says to email support if cancelling fails. Our guide to cancelling a story app subscription covers the general steps.

Refunds. The terms say the subscription services do not offer refunds unless explicitly granted by the company.

Is it worth paying? By need

• To try it: the Paper trial needs an email-verified account, and no card requirement is recorded. It is capped, so test the one feature you care about.
• For text only: Tablet at $10 is the cheapest way to unlimited generation, with the smallest memory. A long story is where memory bites.
• For images too: Opus, because the Anlas are bundled. Check the image limits, since the unlimited label carries an asterisk.

General advice. The review is our NovelAI review. Its main rival on price is AI Dungeon's tiers, set out in AI Dungeon against NovelAI, and a writers' tool is compared in NovelAI against Sudowrite. The shortlist is NovelAI alternatives, and the section starts at erotica app pricing.