Best AI Writing Assistants for Mac in 2026: 9 Picks Compared

Start with Apple's Writing Tools, the best AI writing assistant on a Mac for most people: free, built into macOS 27 on any Mac with M1 or later, and available in almost every app. Add Grammarly if you want corrections as you type on Mac and iPhone, and ChatGPT or Claude when you need a first draft from scratch.

Writing assistants have quietly split into three kinds. Some fix the sentence you already wrote, some write the whole thing from a prompt, and some live inside one app, like Word, Google Docs or your email client. Picking the wrong kind is why so many people pay for a tool and still copy and paste between windows all day. Below are nine options, each with the job it does best, with prices and limits from each maker's own pages.

AI writing assistants for Mac compared

The table puts the nine side by side. Each section after it links the page the price or feature comes from; plans change often, so check before you pay.

How to choose an AI writing assistant

Choose by where your words start and whether you want a fixer or a drafter. If you write the draft and only want it cleaner, a built-in or as-you-type tool is enough. If you start from a blank page, you want a chat assistant. If your work lives in one app, the AI inside that app saves the copy and paste.

• Fix or generate. Writing Tools, Grammarly and Raycast mostly improve text you select. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini can write a full draft from a sentence of instructions.
• Where it reaches. System-wide tools follow you into Mail, Slack and browser fields. In-app tools (Word, Docs, Spark) only work where they live, but they can see the whole document or thread.
• Your devices. If half your writing happens on an iPhone, check for a keyboard or app there. Grammarly and Apple's tools cover both; Raycast stays on the computer.
• How you pay. Free built-ins, subscriptions, or iA Writer's one-time price. Several paid plans also meter AI use by prompts or credits, which matters more than the headline price if you write a lot.
• Your voice. Every tool here can flatten your writing into the same polite corporate tone. The ones that let you describe a style, or learn from your own files, make that easier to avoid.

I keep a short style note for my own writing: American spelling, no em dashes, product names spelled the way the company spells them, and a ban on "excited to announce." It goes at the top of any chat where I ask for a draft, and it does more for the result than switching tools ever has.

1. Apple Writing Tools: built into macOS 27 at no cost

Apple Writing Tools proofread, rewrite and summarize text in almost any Mac app, at no cost. On macOS 27, select your text, Control-click the selection, then pick Writing Tools > Show Writing Tools, as Apple's Writing Tools guide describes. From there you can:

• Proofread to check for errors.
• Rewrite in a Friendly, Professional or Concise tone.
• Summarize or pull out Key Points.
• Use Describe a change to type the edit you want in plain words.
• Click Compose in an empty field to have ChatGPT write a first draft, if you've turned on the ChatGPT extension. Apple notes it's only offered in regions where ChatGPT is.

Writing Tools need Apple Intelligence, which Apple's requirements page says runs on any Mac with M1 or later, the MacBook Neo, iPhone 15 Pro and every iPhone 16 or later, and iPads with M1 or later plus the iPad mini with A17 Pro or A20 Pro. Your device language and Siri language have to match one of the supported languages. On macOS 27, Apple also says Siri AI can draft text from scratch or give feedback on what you've written, and in Mail and Messages it can mirror your style, punctuation and tone. Siri AI is labeled beta.

The weak spot is length. Writing Tools work on the selection in front of you, so they're great for a paragraph and clumsy for a ten-page report. They also don't know anything about the email thread or project behind your text.

Best for: everyone with a supported Mac or iPhone, as the first thing to try. Skip it if: you're on an Intel Mac, which can't run Apple Intelligence.

2. Grammarly: corrections as you type, everywhere

Grammarly checks your writing as you type in Mac apps, browsers and on your iPhone, then suggests fixes for grammar, clarity and tone. Grammarly's Mac page says the desktop app works in Apple Mail, Pages, Microsoft Word and Outlook, Gmail and Google Docs, work tools such as Jira, Salesforce and Zendesk, and social sites, with a Safari extension for the browser. It needs macOS 10.15 or newer, so unlike Apple's Writing Tools, it still runs on an older Intel Mac.

On iPhone and iPad, the Grammarly Keyboard flags mistakes in real time in Messages, WhatsApp, Gmail and Outlook, cleans up dictated text by removing filler words, and offers AI rewrites. Most of my phone writing happens in transit, a reply on LinkedIn or a quick note to a client, and that's exactly where typos slip past me, so a keyboard that checks as I go is worth more there than on the Mac.

Grammarly's plans page lists Free at $0 with 100 AI prompts a month, and Pro at $12 per member a month with 2,000 prompts. Free covers spelling, grammar and tone detection; tone changes, full-sentence rewrites, plagiarism checks and AI-text detection need Pro.

Best for: people who want help without changing how they write. Skip it if: an always-on extension reading your text in every app is a problem for your employer.

3. ChatGPT: the all-purpose drafting assistant

ChatGPT writes full drafts from a prompt and, in its Mac app, can use what's on your screen as context. OpenAI's desktop page describes the desktop app as using context from your email, screenshots, files and anything on your screen. It's also on iPhone and the web, and OpenAI's pricing page says a free version is available to everyone, with Go, Plus and Pro above it.

ChatGPT is the right tool when you're starting from nothing: a job post, a speech outline, ten subject lines to test. It's weaker when the text needs to sound like a particular person, because its default voice is recognizable. Give it an example of your own writing and a short list of words you never use, and edit the draft as a draft, not a finished piece.

If you're weighing it against other chat assistants on price and privacy, the ChatGPT alternatives comparison goes plan by plan.

Best for: first drafts, brainstorming and rewriting with lots of back-and-forth. Skip it if: you only need light proofreading; Writing Tools or Grammarly are faster.

4. Claude: long drafts and documents

Claude is a chat assistant from Anthropic with Mac, iPhone and web apps, and it's a strong fit for long-form writing you return to over several sessions. Claude's download page says the Mac app has a quick-entry window you can open from anywhere, and that conversations, projects and memory sync across your devices.

Projects are the useful part for writers. You keep your brief, earlier drafts and style notes together, so a new chat starts with them instead of from zero. Claude's pricing page lists the Free plan with up to 5 Projects and limited usage that resets every 5 hours and weekly, Pro at $17 a month billed yearly ($200 up front) or $20 billed monthly, and Max at $100 a month.

When I was working on a long product announcement, I put the positioning doc and the previous year's launch post into one project, and every redraft came back already knowing which claims we could make. Without that, I'd have pasted the same background into five separate chats.

Best for: reports, essays and launch copy you build up over days. Skip it if: you mostly need quick fixes in other apps; Claude works in its own window.

5. Microsoft Copilot in Word: AI inside your Word documents

Copilot in Word drafts, rewrites and summarizes inside the document you're working on, and it runs in Word for Mac. Microsoft's Copilot in Word guide lists Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac, Word for iPad and Word for the web, and says it can start a draft from a prompt, an outline, notes or a file you reference, rewrite selected text, change its tone or make it more concise, and answer questions about the document with a Chat only option that leaves the text untouched.

It needs an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription or a Microsoft Copilot license, and Microsoft notes that your organization's settings can switch it off even when your plan includes it. If you already live in Word for contracts, proposals or anything with tracked changes, keeping the AI in the same file is cleaner than pasting drafts in from a chat window.

Best for: people whose writing ends up as a .docx. Skip it if: you don't pay for Microsoft 365 and write mostly in other apps.

6. Gemini in Google Docs: drafting from your Drive

Gemini in Google Docs writes and edits inside a Doc and can pull in material from your Drive, Gmail, Chat and the web. Google's help page says you click Gemini, type a prompt, optionally add source files, and then accept or reject each suggestion, or use Accept all. Select text and the Refine bar offers Rephrase, Shorten, Elaborate, Bulletize and Summarize.

Two details matter. You need an eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan. And the option to match the writing style of an existing file is, for personal accounts, part of Workspace Experiments, Google's trusted tester program. Gemini in Docs works in the browser on your Mac, so it's a natural pick if your team already writes in shared Docs.

Best for: teams in Google Workspace drafting from material already in Drive. Skip it if: you write in Mac apps rather than the browser.

7. iA Writer: write it yourself, see what the AI touched

iA Writer is a focused writing app for Mac, iPhone and iPad that keeps track of which words are yours and which came from AI. iA says its Authorship feature automatically dims changes made by Apple's Writing Tools, so you can see exactly what the AI altered, and you can mark text pasted from other AI tools as AI-written too.

That makes it the opposite of the other tools on this list: it assumes you're the writer and treats AI as a contributor to keep an eye on. When I paste a paragraph from a chat into a draft, the dimmed lines are a to-do list of what I still need to put in my own words before it goes out under my name.

iA Writer's pricing page lists $49.99 once on Mac (macOS 10.15 or later) and $49.99 once for iPhone and iPad through the App Store, with a 7-day free trial and no subscription. iA notes that a one-time payment isn't a lifetime license: minor updates are free and major ones may cost extra.

For writers thinking about AI more broadly, from revision notes to who owns AI-assisted text, the AI for writers guide covers the rules publishers and the Copyright Office have set.

Best for: writers who want AI help without losing track of their own voice. Skip it if: you want the app to write for you.

8. Raycast AI: keyboard-first fixes on any Mac app

Raycast is a Mac launcher, and its AI Commands run writing fixes on whatever text you've selected, from the keyboard. Raycast's manual lists built-in commands including Improve Writing, Fix Spelling and Grammar, Change Tone to Professional and Change Tone to Friendly: select text in any app, open Raycast, search for the command and press Return. Quick Fix goes further, correcting the selection in place with a double press of the right Shift key by default; it needs Accessibility permission and uses AI credits.

Raycast's free plan doesn't include AI. Raycast's pricing page lists Pro at $10 a month or $96 a year with 500 AI credits a month, Plus at $20 a month with 3,000, and Max at $50 a month with 7,500. If you already use Raycast to open apps and paste snippets, this is the cheapest way to add an AI fixer to the same habit. The Raycast alternatives page covers the launcher itself.

Best for: keyboard-heavy Mac users who want a fix without leaving the field they're typing in. Skip it if: you don't want another launcher.

9. Spark +AI: AI writing for email

Spark is an email app for Mac and iPhone whose +AI features draft, proofread, translate and summarize email. Spark's pricing page lists a Writing Assistant, Quick Replies for short responses, and, on Pro, Auto-Drafts that write reply drafts in your voice for you to review and send. Spark +AI is off by default; you turn it on in the app's settings.

The free plan gets a limited preview of the AI. Plus costs $10 a month or $99 a year, and Pro $20 a month or $199 a year, with a 7-day trial on both, and one subscription covers Spark on all your devices. Because email is where most of my day's writing happens, an assistant that sees the whole thread beats one that only sees the paragraph I selected.

If you're staying in Apple Mail, the Apple Mail AI guide shows what's built in on macOS 27 before you switch apps.

Best for: people who write mostly email and want replies drafted from the thread. Skip it if: you're happy with your current mail app.

Which AI writing assistant should you pick?

Start with the free built-in, then add one tool for the job it doesn't cover. Most people need two at most: something that fixes text where they type, and something that drafts from scratch.

How to get better writing from any AI assistant

1. Write the first sentence yourself. It sets the tone and the point, and the assistant follows it more closely than a description of what you want.
2. Give it your rules. Spelling, words you avoid, the length you need, who's reading. A short note pasted in beats a long prompt.
3. Ask for one change at a time. "Make it shorter" and then "make it warmer" works better than both at once.
4. Check every name, number and date. Rewrites can quietly change a figure or a product name, and a summary can drop the one detail that mattered.
5. Read it out loud before sending. If a sentence sounds like nobody you know, rewrite it in your own words.

The mistake I see most is accepting a rewrite of something sensitive in one click. A customer apology that says "we got this wrong" is better than the polished version that says "we regret any inconvenience," and a tool tuned for polish will pick the second one every time.