Questions, answered

WriteForge is a professional desktop writing application for authors. It gives you the tools to plan, organize, and write a book — outlining, a story bible, a focused editor, research notes, formatting, cover design, and publishing — all in one place. AI is built in as an assistant: it's there to help you break through blocks and polish your work when you want it, not to write the book for you.

WriteForge is a native Windows desktop application today. It's built on a cross-platform foundation, so Mac, iOS, and Android versions can follow — but v1 is Windows-first.

No. WriteForge is first and foremost a writing application — the outline, story bible, editor, formatting, and publishing tools are the heart of it, and they work with or without AI. The AI features are there to assist: getting you unstuck, offering editorial feedback, and checking flow and consistency. You decide when to use them, and everything you write stays in your voice. (Could you use it to draft heavily with AI? Sure — but that's your choice, not the way it's designed to be used.)

No. If you want managed AI assistance, you just subscribe and start writing — we handle the model keys. Bringing your own API key is optional and only takes pasting a key into Settings.

Yes — the Pro plan includes a 14-day free trial with 3,000 credits so you can try managed AI, editing, formatting, and publishing before you pay.

Standalone is a one-time purchase — you own the current major version, use your own AI keys, and work fully offline. Indie, Pro, and Ultimate are subscriptions that add managed AI credits (no keys needed), cloud backup, more devices, and audiobook narration.

Yes. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time. If you cancel a subscription, you keep access through the end of your billing period. A Standalone license keeps working regardless.

Your projects live on your computer and are always yours. Cancelling a subscription only affects managed-AI credits and cloud features — you can keep writing with your own API key or a Standalone license, and all your exports remain on your machine.

Yes. Paying annually saves roughly 17% versus monthly — toggle "Annual" on the pricing page to see the rates.

If WriteForge isn't right for you, contact us within 14 days of purchase and we'll make it right. (Full policy details are provided at checkout.)

Credits are only spent on managed AI — where we hold the provider keys for you. As a rule of thumb, about 20 credits writes 1,000 words with a Standard model. Draft models cost less (~8) and Premium models more (~60) per 1,000 words. So Pro's 22,000 monthly credits is roughly a full-length novel's worth of Standard drafting each month.

On every plan you can paste in your own OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, or Grok API key. When you use your own key, generation is unlimited and uses zero WriteForge credits — there's no additional charge from us. You simply pay your AI provider (such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google) directly for their API usage, at their own rates. It's often the most cost-effective option for heavy users, and it's available even on Standalone.

Yes. WriteForge supports local models through Ollama and LM Studio, so you can draft privately and for free without sending anything to the cloud.

Monthly credits are designed to be used within the month. If you need more, top-ups start at 10,000 credits for $10, and upgrading your plan raises your monthly allotment.

Managed AI is organized into Draft, Standard, and Premium tiers backed by leading providers (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini). With your own key you can use any model those providers offer, plus local models via Ollama and LM Studio.

Absolutely. Your manuscripts, outlines, covers, and exports are 100% yours. WriteForge is a tool — you keep all rights to everything you create with it.

Any AI assistance you accept is yours to shape. You control the tone, a built-in humanizing pass makes suggestions read naturally, and developmental, line, and copy-edit feedback helps you keep the final prose in your voice. Because AI is an assistant here, the words that end up in your book are the ones you choose to keep.

WriteForge builds complete, store-ready packages for Amazon KDP and Draft2Digital — EPUB, print PDF, DOCX, metadata, and a guided checklist. You do the final upload on the store's site; WriteForge gets every file ready so that step is quick.

Yes. The story bible — characters, canon facts, timeline, and relationships — is built to keep continuity consistent across multiple books in a series.

Yes. Pro and Ultimate include audiobook narration hours (OpenAI TTS), and Ultimate adds premium ElevenLabs voices. Audiobook time is metered separately from writing credits.

Your projects are stored locally on your computer in a private database. Subscription plans add optional cloud backup so you can protect and sync your work across devices.

Yes. If you bring your own key, it's encrypted at rest on your machine (using Windows DPAPI) and never leaves your device. Managed-AI keys are held on our servers and are never shipped inside the app.