Paperpal review

Pros and Cons

  Paperpal Online Reputation

So, Paperpal is rather oddly represented on review sites. Aside from Trustpilot, you won’t find much mention of this AI writing tool. I didn’t even bother with Reddit, as there are just a handful of marketing posts and no real user experiences. But let’s work with what we’ve got.

Paperpal has fewer than a hundred reviews, which is pretty low for a brand like this. The feedback ranges from high praise to outright hate, which is kind of funny. Some users call Paperpal a decent writing tool but mention issues with subscription renewals.

On the flip side, I’ve also seen some scathing reviews calling Paperpal a training ground for a half-baked AI at the expense of its users. Overall, the online community gives Paperpal around 3.5 to 3.7 out of 5, which is fairly average. Still, I’m not going to judge Paperpal prematurely. Next up: my personal user experience. Besides, here are the real writing services reviews if you’re interested.

Paperpal Review

What is Paperpal actually? Honestly, I’ve been trying to answer that question myself for a while now. It can’t really be tested as a traditional writing service. At the same time, it doesn’t have enough features to be considered a true generative alternative to academic experts. That said, I did give Paperpal a proper test, and I’m ready to share a few interesting details with you.

What is Paperpal?

On paper, it all sounds pretty grand. Paperpal is an AI writing tool developed in Singapore in 2020. The company behind it, Cactus Communications, positions it as the *ultimate* (of course) solution for students, researchers, and writers. Paperpal can generate academically oriented content, revise and rewrite existing text, and even provide valid citations for your work. It also includes a built-in translator and templates for various task types.

Paperpal is fully web-based, but you can use it either through the main site or via integrations with MS Word, Overleaf, Google Docs, and Editorial Manager. The company claims its tool supports high-quality reviewing and is powered by data from over 400 academic journals, universities, and publishers. Still, I’ve always trusted only what I’ve personally tested, and this Paperpal review will be no exception.

How Paperpal works

This AI writing tool works like a multifunctional text editor. Paperpal starts by asking about the purpose of your work, your role (student, instructor, researcher), and your writing style. Then, it moves you into an option-selection mode. The tools Paperpal offers include:

1. Creating an outline for your paper
2. Writing a paragraph based on the given instructions
3. Building a structure or extracting key points
4. Rewriting or paraphrasing a sample
5. Translating or adapting a sample
6. Inserting citations and research into your text

But don’t let Paperpal bury you in marketing promises. It’s still an AI writing tool, and a fairly average one. No, it’s not a disaster, but it’s also far from a breakthrough like ChatGPT or Claude. Let’s just say it’s a distant cousin on low settings, asking for a timeout after a minute of running. But let me walk you through more details about Paperpal in the next part.

 Writing process

Is Paperpal worth it? That’s a tricky question. Maybe the best way to answer it is by showing you how Paperpal performs in a real-world scenario. Let’s say you want to write an essay about Napoleon — his actions and the controversial consequences. You open Paperpal AI, head to the editor, and choose an action like “write a paragraph from a given prompt.”

In the free version, you get five attempts to test Paperpal AI’s output. Be prepared: the text might come out either very templated or in bulleted lists, which doesn’t suit essay formatting well. You can ask the platform to rewrite sections or edit them manually if the attempt falls flat. Paperpal (its generated results) appear in the right-hand column of the editor, and if you like one, you can drop it into your main draft.

The best-performing feature is generating text from your own notes. But that kind of defeats the purpose. At that point, you might as well use another chatbot or just write it yourself. Given that Paperpal AI often produces clunky results, you’ll still need to manually polish the final paragraphs. As for the additional tools like the translator or citation generator, Paperpal functions more like Google Translate or early versions of ChatGPT. Fine in a pinch, but far from ideal.

Paperpal pricing

Pricing is another key element of my Paperpal review. The company offers a limited free plan that you can use daily, not enough for serious work, but decent for getting familiar with the platform. Still, to give you a clearer picture of what to expect after subscribing, let’s take a look at a breakdown table of the available plans and features.

You won’t get far with Paperpal’s basic version due to strict limits on word count and generation processes. The paid plan is somewhat better, but not when it comes to quality. It’s almost laughable to see a 10,000 words/month cap on plagiarism checking in a paid plan. Plus, the quality of text generation doesn’t improve even after you pay. Paperpal could have done a better job developing its language model, but realistically, it won’t compete with giants like OpenAI or Google anytime soon.

 Paper Quality

I’m always surprised when I see ultra-positive Paperpal reviews, which are far from reality. To put it simply, Paperpal feels like an AI model from the early 2021–2022 era. It writes weakly, skips instructions, and produces content that’s both trivial and heavily templated. I’d only recommend using Paperpal when you need to throw together the bare bones of an essay, with the clear intention of doing the rest manually yourself.

The real issue isn’t just that Paperpal is underdeveloped or struggles to produce solid content. It churns out generic text filled with cliché phrases that professors can spot from a mile away. You can’t submit it as your own work. Not only because of the lack of proper formatting or reliable sources, but also because it simply ignores most academic instructions. Don’t forget: Paperpal isn’t backed by the billions of industry giants. Its language model is trained on a very limited dataset. And that’s exactly why the results feel so average.

 Customer Support

Here’s another important point in this Paperpal AI review: there’s no phone support. You can only contact the company via email and hope for a timely response. It’s no surprise I’ve seen multiple user reviews criticizing this aspect. Paperpal hasn’t set up a chat or hotline for users to get immediate help.
So don’t be alarmed if it takes Paperpal a few days to reply. I personally waited three days just to ask about some details of the free version. Sure, I wasn’t a paying user, but I wasn’t about to become one either. Show me your interest in me as a customer, and I’ll give you my money. Until then, I’m not convinced it’s worth the step.

 Types of Services

Paperpal seems to shout about its importance, but it comes off more like bravado than substance. Sure, they offer a decent range of tools. But here’s one spoiler: when companies like Paperpal try to create the illusion of variety, there’s always one core feature they still can’t do well, and that’s text generation.

I’ve already said enough about the quality, so let’s look at the actual services offered. On the surface, everything looks fairly decent. But when monthly subscriptions for most top-tier AI models cost less (and even Google Gemini performs better), it’s hard to justify spending money on yet another platform like Paperpal.

 Guarantees and Safety

Paperpal feels reliable and transparent. I didn’t encounter any surprise fees or billing tricks during testing. The platform follows GDPR standards and offers strong uptime guarantees, which is reassuring. For business users, the enterprise plan even includes SOC-2 compliance, admin controls, and user access logs: all great for team-level security. That said, there’s no clear refund policy, so if you’re unhappy with the AI’s output, don’t expect money back. In short, Paperpal is stable and secure, but it's built more for predictability than flexibility, which is not ideal if you're just experimenting or need a risk-free academic tool.

 Is Paperpal detectable?

Yes, and very easily. I tested several paragraphs generated by Paperpal using ZeroGPT, and each one was flagged as 100% AI-written. If you plan to use it for academic submissions, don’t rely on it out of the box.

Think of Paperpal’s AI like a patchwork quilt. It reassembles familiar patterns using learned structures. While the result might read fluently, AI detectors will almost always spot it. If you're aiming for originality, you’ll need to rewrite the content yourself or use a tool that can humanize it effectively.

 ScamFighter’s Final Verdict

Paperpal AI isn’t a bad platform at all. But let’s be clear: this is an AI assistant for improving drafts, not a replacement for real writing. The free plan is helpful for editing, paraphrasing, or testing out a rough essay, but don’t expect a ready-to-submit paper. For students, it’s like going to a mechanic to borrow a pen. Just not the right tool for the job. If you’re looking for AI support in serious academic work, you’ll probably want something with more subtlety and flexibility than Paperpal.

Paperpal alternatives

If you're still exploring AI tools for academic work, here are a few other platforms that might be more useful depending on your needs:

• SpeedyPaper’s essay generator – a good tool to boost your writing.
• Jenni AI – helps generate academic-style content with inline citations and tone control.
• The Good AI – focuses on generating structured essays from scratch.