Expert Guide

Best Free AI Email Writers in 2026: Free Limits Compared

Seven tools compared on their free allowance, the unit it is counted in, whether the free plan drafts email at all, and the cheapest paid step in dollars.

Louis CorneloupFounder, Dupple · 24,000+ AIpresso subscribers · Updated Oct 2026

Product links may be affiliate links. How we rate 7 tools compared

TL;DR

Short answer: Rytr has the clearest free allowance for drafting text: 10K characters a month, free forever with no card, as its pricing page printed on October 10, 2026. Grammarly gives 100 AI prompts a month on its free plan. Neither free plan writes replies inside your inbox.

For drafting inside Gmail, the free tier does not cover it: Gemini in Gmail sits on Google AI Plus at $4.99 a month. Fyxer and Mailbutler leave drafting off their free plans, and Claude and Microsoft Copilot draft text on free tiers whose usage limits are not printed as a number.

Key facts7 tools compared: Rytr, Grammarly, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini in Gmail (Google AI…

Updated: October 17, 2026
Top pick: Rytr (best for: Writers who want a free drafting allowance they can count in characters, with no card needed to start)
Top pick price as of October 17, 2026: Rytr: Free forever: 10K characters a month. Unlimited $7.50/m and Premium $24.16/m, billing basis not stated.

7 tools compared: Rytr, Grammarly, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini in Gmail (Google AI Plus), Fyxer, Mailbutler
Grammarly (best for: People who write in a browser or Word and want grammar fixes first, with a small AI allowance): Free: 100 AI prompts a month. Pro: 2,000 prompts per member a month, priced only in euros.
Claude (best for: Anyone who wants a free drafting assistant and can accept usage limits with no printed number): Free $0, limits on a rolling five-hour window. Pro $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front), $20 monthly.
Microsoft Copilot (best for: People with a Microsoft account who want a free drafting assistant and will test it first): Free with a Microsoft account. No numeric free limit is printed, and this page quotes no paid price.

A free AI email writer drafts a reply or a cold email from a few words, a pasted thread or rough notes. The free tier is where you test one before paying, and it is where the catch sits. A free plan can count characters, prompts or credits, or print no number at all, and the same word "free" hides all of them.

This page compares seven tools on the allowance each vendor publishes on its own site, checked on October 10, 2026.

Toolradar data: Toolradar's Best AI Writing Tools in 2026 evaluates 128 tools.

That is the size of the category, not the length of this list: we ranked only the tools whose free terms are printed on the vendor's own page.

Top Picks

Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.

#1 Top pick

Rytr

A text generator whose free plan gives 10K characters a month, one tone and no plagiarism checks.

Pricing

Free forever: 10K characters a month. Unlimited $7.50/m and Premium $24.16/m, billing basis not stated.

Best for

Writers who want a free drafting allowance they can count in characters, with no card needed to start.

Visit Rytr Details

Grammarly

A grammar checker with an AI layer: 100 prompts a month free, and full-sentence rewrites on Pro.

Pricing

Free: 100 AI prompts a month. Pro: 2,000 prompts per member a month, priced only in euros.

Best for

People who write in a browser or Word and want grammar fixes first, with a small AI allowance.

Visit Grammarly Details

Claude

A general chat assistant that can write an email on its free plan, with usage limits the vendor describes but does not count.

Pricing

Free $0, limits on a rolling five-hour window. Pro $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front), $20 monthly.

Best for

Anyone who wants a free drafting assistant and can accept usage limits with no printed number.

Visit Claude Details

Best Free AI Email Writers in 2026: Free Limits Compared: 7 tools compared, updated Oct 2026
Tool	Pricing	Best for
Rytr	Free forever: 10K characters a month. Unlimited $7.50/m and Premium $24.16/m, billing basis not stated.	Writers who want a free drafting allowance they can count in characters, with no card needed to start.
Grammarly	Free: 100 AI prompts a month. Pro: 2,000 prompts per member a month, priced only in euros.	People who write in a browser or Word and want grammar fixes first, with a small AI allowance.
Claude	Free $0, limits on a rolling five-hour window. Pro $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front), $20 monthly.	Anyone who wants a free drafting assistant and can accept usage limits with no printed number.
Microsoft Copilot	Free with a Microsoft account. No numeric free limit is printed, and this page quotes no paid price.	People with a Microsoft account who want a free drafting assistant and will test it first.
Gemini in Gmail (Google AI Plus)	Free $0: no Gmail writing listed. AI Plus $4.99/mo lists Gemini in Gmail, Vids and more.	Gmail users who want writing help in the inbox and will pay for the lowest AI tier that includes it.
Fyxer	Free: 400 credits a month and no drafted replies. Pro $37/person/mo billed annually, $49 monthly.	Gmail and Outlook users who want replies drafted for them and will pay for Pro.
Mailbutler	Free-forever Starter with tracking, signatures and a watermark. Smart $14 a month ($11 yearly) adds AI compose.	People who want free email tracking and will pay for Smart only when they need AI drafts.

Pricing read from each vendor's own pricing page, checked Oct 2026. 1 of 7 publishes prices for some plans and quotes the rest.

Lowest monthly figure each vendor publishes, checked Oct 2026. A tilde marks a figure the vendor states approximately. Per-seat and usage charges can sit on top of it. 4 of 7 do not publish a comparable monthly price and are left out rather than estimated.

Top Pick

Rytr

A text generator whose free plan gives 10K characters a month, one tone and no plagiarism checks.

Pricing: Free forever: 10K characters a month. Unlimited $7.50/m and Premium $24.16/m, billing basis not stated.

Best for: Writers who want a free drafting allowance they can count in characters, with no card needed to start.

Pros

The free plan is free forever and needs no card, and the page prints its allowance as a number.
The page lists Email as a use case, so the free allowance covers email drafts as well as other text.
Unlimited generations are printed at $7.50 a month, a single figure that is easy to set against other paid steps.

Cons

The free plan has no tone match, no plagiarism checks and one language, and the page prints no limit per draft.
The page has a yearly toggle that gives 2 months free, but it does not say which toggle its prices use.

Grammarly

A grammar checker with an AI layer: 100 prompts a month free, and full-sentence rewrites on Pro.

Pricing: Free: 100 AI prompts a month. Pro: 2,000 prompts per member a month, priced only in euros.

Best for: People who write in a browser or Word and want grammar fixes first, with a small AI allowance.

Pros

The free plan prints its AI allowance as 100 prompts a month, a plain number you can plan around.
Spelling, grammar and a tone view are on the free plan.
Pro has a 7-day free trial, which the page states, so you can test the rewrites before you pay.

Cons

Full-sentence rewrites, plagiarism checks and AI-text detection sit on Pro, so the free plan is mostly a checker.
No US-dollar Pro price is shown on Grammarly's plans page, so this page quotes none.

Claude

A general chat assistant that can write an email on its free plan, with usage limits the vendor describes but does not count.

Pricing: Free $0, limits on a rolling five-hour window. Pro $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front), $20 monthly.

Best for: Anyone who wants a free drafting assistant and can accept usage limits with no printed number.

Pros

The free plan costs $0 and has no fixed message count, and the page says it covers everyday questions.
One prompt box handles emails, summaries and rewrites, so you do not need a second tool for each job.
Pro gives at least five times the usage of Free per five-hour session, as the page states.

Cons

The free plan prints no number, so you cannot tell in advance how many emails it covers.
Claude for Microsoft 365 is listed as a Pro feature, so Office users get it only on Pro.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft's assistant, free with a Microsoft account, with usage limits the page mentions but does not quantify.

Pricing: Free with a Microsoft account. No numeric free limit is printed, and this page quotes no paid price.

Best for: People with a Microsoft account who want a free drafting assistant and will test it first.

Pros

The page says the free tier is available with a Microsoft account.
The page's own tile says it can draft content and turn ideas into polished work.
The page says some capabilities are subject to usage limits, so check the limit against your own workload.

Cons

No free limit is printed as a number, so the page cannot tell you how many drafts you get.
The page describes no Outlook drafting or email feature, so the free plan may not write inside Outlook at all.

Gemini in Gmail (Google AI Plus)

Google's writing help inside Gmail, listed on AI Plus. The free plan lists 15 GB of storage and no Gmail writing.

Pricing: Free $0: no Gmail writing listed. AI Plus $4.99/mo lists Gemini in Gmail, Vids and more.

Best for: Gmail users who want writing help in the inbox and will pay for the lowest AI tier that includes it.

Pros

The page names Gemini in Gmail on the AI Plus tier, so the feature and its price sit in one place.
Billed monthly for a year, AI Plus comes to $59.88 at that rate.
Usage is printed as 2x the free limit, which refreshes every five hours until a weekly limit.

Cons

The free plan gives no Gmail writing and no usage number, so the inbox feature starts on the paid tier.
The footnote says Gmail features are available in select languages, so check that yours is one before you pay.

Fyxer

An email assistant whose free plan gives 400 credits a month, about 20 chat messages, and no drafted replies.

Pricing: Free: 400 credits a month and no drafted replies. Pro $37/person/mo billed annually, $49 monthly.

Best for: Gmail and Outlook users who want replies drafted for them and will pay for Pro.

Pros

The free allowance is printed as a credit count, and the page converts it into chat messages.
Pro raises the pool to 3,000 credits per paid member and adds replies drafted in your tone.
Annual billing is the lower of Pro's two prices, so that is the figure to set against yearly rivals.

Cons

The free plan drafts no replies and sorts no inbox, so it is a test allowance rather than an email writer.
Pro has no free trial, according to the page, while Team offers 14 days.

Mailbutler

An email tracking tool whose free Starter plan has no AI compose, so AI drafting starts at the Smart plan.

Pricing: Free-forever Starter with tracking, signatures and a watermark. Smart $14 a month ($11 yearly) adds AI compose.

Best for: People who want free email tracking and will pay for Smart only when they need AI drafts.

Pros

The free plan is free forever, and the page says a trial moves you onto it with no card needed.
Smart Compose drafts an email from a few keywords and drafts replies, as the page describes.
The page's yearly toggle lowers the Smart price, so compare yearly figures with rivals' annual prices.

Cons

Every email sent on the free plan carries a visible Mailbutler watermark.
The free plan leaves out AI compose, so the drafting you came for needs a paid Smart seat.

What it is

An AI email writer is a tool that drafts or rewrites an email from a short prompt, a thread or rough notes. Some sit inside the inbox as a Gmail or Outlook add-on. Others sit in a browser tab, where you paste the thread in and copy the draft out.

On this list, each inbox tool keeps its AI drafting off the free tier.

For a broader view of the category, see our best AI writing tools guide, and for the chat assistants, our best AI chatbots guide.

Toolradar keeps tool pages for Rytr, Grammarly, Fyxer and Mailbutler.

For the chat side of the same question, see our Claude and ChatGPT reviews.

Why it matters

The free allowance decides whether a tool fits your week before you pay anything, and the unit matters as much as the number. Rytr's monthly character allowance covers about ten emails of 1,000 characters each, a length we assume and did not measure.

Grammarly's allowance counts requests, not emails, so one email can take more than one prompt. Fyxer's pool is counted in credits, and each chat message costs 20 of them.

For the chat apps themselves, see our Gemini review and ChatGPT review.

The writing help inside Gmail is a separate feature on a separate tier. For the wider field of writing tools, see our best AI writing tools guide. The question for an inbox is where the drafting feature is switched on, and on this list the answer is the paid plan.

Key features to look for

The unit

Rytr counts characters, Grammarly counts prompts and Fyxer counts credits. Claude and Gemini print usage as a rolling window or as a multiple of Free, and Microsoft Copilot prints no number at all.

Drafting on the free plan

Fyxer's free plan drafts no replies and sorts no inbox. Mailbutler's free Starter plan has no AI compose. Gemini in Gmail is listed on AI Plus, not on the free plan.

Watermarks

Mailbutler's free plan puts a visible Mailbutler watermark on every email it sends. We did not find a watermark rule on the other free plans' pages, so test one send before you rely on any free plan for client mail.

Reset window

Claude's free plan resets on a rolling five-hour session window. Gemini's limit refreshes every five hours until a weekly limit is reached, per its footnote.

Paid step in dollars

Mailbutler Smart is $14 a month, or $11 on yearly billing. Fyxer Pro is $49 a month, or $37 on annual billing. Grammarly prints its Pro price only in euros.

Pricing

Every price here is the figure the vendor's own page printed on October 10, 2026: Rytr pricing, Grammarly plans, Claude pricing, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI plans, Fyxer pricing and Mailbutler pricing.

The Smart plan at $11 a month on yearly billing is $132 a year, and at $14 a month it is $168. AI Plus at $4.99 a month is $59.88 a year.

Methodology: we read each vendor's own page, recorded the free allowance and its unit, what the free plan leaves out, and the cheapest paid step, and kept only what the page states.

Where a page prints no number, the table says so. We did not run any tool on a real inbox, so this page makes no quality claim.

Shortwave's plan table lists paid seats and a 14-day trial with no free plan, and Copy.ai's pricing text lists no free plan either, so neither is ranked.

Superhuman, Lavender, Boomerang and MailMaestro are left out because we could not confirm a free allowance for any of them.

Plan	Price	Best for
Rytr Free	Free	10K characters a month, one tone, no plagiarism checks
Rytr Unlimited	$7.50/m	Unlimited generations, billing basis not stated on the page
Grammarly Free	Free	100 AI prompts a month, spelling and grammar fixes
Grammarly Pro	Not quoted in USD	2,000 prompts per member a month, full-sentence rewrites, AI-text detection
Claude Free	Free	No fixed message count, limits on a rolling five-hour window
Claude Pro	$17/mo billed annually	At least five times Free usage per session, Claude for Microsoft 365
Microsoft Copilot Free	Free	Free with a Microsoft account, no numeric limit printed
Gemini Free	Free	15 GB storage, no Gemini in Gmail listed
Google AI Plus	$4.99/mo	Gemini in Gmail, 400 GB storage, 2x Free usage access
Fyxer Free	Free	400 credits a month (about 20 chat messages), no drafted replies
Fyxer Pro	$37/person/mo billed annually	3,000 credits per paid member, replies drafted in your tone
Mailbutler Starter	Free	Tracking and signatures, watermark on sent emails, no AI compose
Mailbutler Smart	$14/mo ($11 yearly)	Smart Compose, Smart Improve and Smart Timing

Mistakes to avoid

×Reading "free" as "free for email drafts". Fyxer's and Mailbutler's free plans leave the drafting out, so the plan name hides the feature you came for.

×Mixing units. Characters, prompts and credits are three different meters, and one email can draw on each one differently.

×Sending a client email from a free Mailbutler plan without knowing that every email carries a visible watermark.

×Comparing a yearly price with a monthly price as if they were on the same basis. Put both on one billing basis first.

×Planning around a limit nobody prints as a number. Claude's and Copilot's free limits are not counted on their pages, so test your real workload for a week before you rely on them.

Expert tips

→For a drafting budget you can count, start with Rytr's character allowance: draft one of your usual emails, count its characters, then divide the monthly allowance by that count.

→Test Grammarly's free prompts on a real draft, and price Pro only if the rewrites are what you keep using. Pro has a 7-day trial.

→For Gmail, try the free Gemini app first, and expect writing inside the inbox only on AI Plus.

→Before you pay for an inbox tool, send one test email and check the watermark, the language support and whether the draft sounds like you.

The bottom line

For a free drafting allowance you can count, start with Rytr, which is free forever and metered in characters. For a free general assistant that writes emails with no printed number, Claude is the one to test. If the drafting must happen inside Gmail, the free tier is not enough: Gemini in Gmail is on AI Plus.

For the chat apps overall, see our best AI chatbots guide.

Cite this: AIpresso, "Best Free AI Email Writers in 2026: Free Limits Compared", October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free AI email writer in 2026?

Rytr, if you want a number you can count: its free plan is free forever and metered in characters, as its pricing page printed on October 10, 2026. Claude is the broader free option, with usage limits that its page describes but does not count.

Is there a free AI email writer inside Gmail?

Not on the free tier. Google's page lists Gemini in Gmail on AI Plus, and the Free plan lists 15 GB of storage without Gmail writing.

Does Fyxer draft replies on its free plan?

No. Fyxer's free plan gives 400 credits a month, about 20 chat messages, and its pricing page lists replies drafted in your tone only on Pro, at $37 a person a month billed annually or $49 monthly.

Does Mailbutler's free plan include AI writing?

No. The free-forever Starter plan has tracking and signatures, and every email it sends carries a visible Mailbutler watermark. AI Smart Compose sits on the paid Smart plan.

How many emails does Rytr's free plan cover?

Rytr prints 10K characters a month, not an email count. At 1,000 characters per email, which is our assumption and not a measured length, that is about ten emails. The page prints no limit per draft.

Is Grammarly's free plan an AI email writer?

Mostly it is a grammar checker. The free plan has 100 AI prompts a month plus spelling and grammar fixes. Full-sentence rewrites, plagiarism checks and AI-text detection sit on Pro, and Grammarly prints the Pro price only in euros.

Sources

Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.