Write a book online
Write a book online, free
Plotiar is an online app where you can write a whole book for free. You write your chapters on real pages in the browser or the desktop app, with your notes, characters and plot outlines in the same project. The free plan has no time limit, needs no card and holds up to five projects. Plus ($5 a month or $50 a year) adds PDF and EPUB export, co-authors and unlimited projects.
How it works
From the first page to a finished draft
Everything in these four steps works on the free plan.
Start a project, or bring your draft
Start with a blank project or the Novel template. The template sets up folders for drafts, characters and setting, plus a plot grid and a revision checklist. Already writing somewhere else? Import Word, Scrivener, PDF, EPUB, Markdown or text files, and split one long manuscript into a document per chapter.
A project's contents: chapters, planning tools and Lore in one sidebar. Write on real pages
Your chapters are laid out as printed pages in A4, US Letter or A5, with margins and page numbers, so you always know what your book looks like. Focus mode dims everything except the paragraph you are writing. Your work saves as you type, and snapshots keep earlier versions.
The editor: the chapter on a real page, with character and place names highlighted. Keep your story bible beside the chapter
Add characters, places and objects to Lore, Plotiar's story bible. When a name or nickname appears in your chapter, Plotiar highlights it, without using AI. Open your outline or character notes next to the chapter in Split View, so you can check a detail without switching tabs.
Lore: each character and place, and how often its name appears. Plan as much or as little as you like
Planners can lay out scenes on a corkboard, plot lines on a plot grid and events on a story calendar. Writers who find the story as they go can skip all of that and just write. The planning tools stay in the same project if you want them later.
Scene cards on the corkboard, each with a synopsis, a status and a word target.
What's free
What the free plan includes
The free plan is not a trial: it has no time limit and needs no card. It holds up to five projects, each with unlimited documents, and includes Lore, plot grids, corkboards, maps, family trees and calendars. You can export DOCX, TXT and Fountain files. Plus adds PDF and EPUB export, co-authors and unlimited projects.
When to choose something else
When Plotiar is the wrong choice
Pick something else if:
- You need free PDF or EPUB files now. Reedsy Studio formats and exports both on its free plan (as of September 2026), and Plotiar needs Plus for them.
- You write offline most of the time. Plotiar is cloud-based, and only documents you have already opened keep working offline. Scrivener, a paid desktop app, works with no connection at all.
- You only need one document to share with a co-author. Google Docs and Word for the web are free, and most people already know them.
Questions
Questions about writing a book in Plotiar
Short answers, checked against the product in October 2026.
Yes. The free plan has no time limit and needs no card. It holds up to five projects, each with unlimited documents, plus Lore, plot grids, corkboards, flowcharts, maps, family trees and calendars. Plus costs $5 a month or $50 a year and adds unlimited projects, co-authors, and PDF and EPUB export.
Yes. Plotiar runs in a web browser on a computer, tablet or phone, and saves your work as you type. You can also install the desktop app on a Mac, Windows or Linux computer, or add Plotiar to the home screen on iPhone, iPad and Android.
Partly. Plotiar is cloud-based, but documents you have already opened keep working offline in the browser and in the desktop app, and your edits sync when you reconnect. If you mostly write without a connection, an app built for offline work, such as Scrivener, suits you better.
On the free plan, you can export a DOCX file for an editor or agent, or TXT and Fountain files. Plus adds PDF and EPUB, with print presets for KDP and IngramSpark and an automatic table of contents. Cover Studio, on every plan, lets you design a cover that your export can use.
Yes. Plotiar's Terms of Service say you keep all intellectual property rights in what you write. Plotiar gets only a limited license to use your work to run and improve the service, and that license does not transfer ownership. When you write with a co-author, each of you keeps the rights to what you contributed.
No. Plotiar does not use your writing to train, fine-tune or improve any AI model, its own or anyone else's. The AI tools are only on the Pro plan, and they process your text only to give you the result you asked for. If you connect your own AI key, that provider's terms apply.
Yes. Plotiar imports Word (DOCX), Scrivener, PDF, EPUB, Markdown and plain text files, up to 100 files at a time. It can split one long manuscript into a document per chapter, using its headings or words such as Chapter and Part.
Related
Read next
- The best free novel writing apps, comparedPlotiar, Reedsy Studio, LivingWriter, Novlr, Campfire, Google Docs and Word for the web: what each free plan includes.
- Plan a novel in PlotiarPlot grids, scene cards, maps and a story calendar, all on the free plan.
- Plotiar vs Reedsy StudioWhere each one is the better choice, feature by feature.
- Import and exportThe formats Plotiar imports and exports, and how split import works.
Start your book today
Write on real pages with your story bible and plans beside you. Free for up to five projects, no card needed.