What Novella costs

Novella is free to download and write in, with no credit card. Premium is one payment of $60, and Novella Cloud is an optional subscription that works with either.

Download Novella for free, and if you want Premium or Cloud later, upgrade inside the app.

Download Novella

Windows 10 or later or macOS 13 or later

Pick a plan

Free

Always

$0 forever

No credit card, ever.

  • Unlimited projects, snippets, and plot grids
  • Chapters you reorder by dragging, and a task list for each project
  • Word counts by day, week, month, and year, and for each project
  • Daily, weekly, and monthly writing goals
  • Your choice of font, text size, and light or dark mode
  • Export to plain text and Markdown
  • Everything saved on your own computer

Novella Premium

Lifetime

$60 one time

Yours for life, with no subscription.

  • Everything in Free
  • Advanced analytics on your rhythm, momentum, output, and story
  • A goal for each manuscript, with a word target and a deadline
  • Export to Word, PDF, and EPUB
  • Plot grids started from story structure templates
  • New Premium tools included as they arrive
  • Runs entirely on your computer; Cloud is separate

Add to either plan

Novella Cloud

$4 a month

Or $36 a year, which is $3 a month.

$36 a year

That’s $3 a month, or $4 billed monthly.

  • Sync your projects between your computers
  • Backups in the cloud, so a lost or broken computer doesn’t take your book with it
  • End-to-end encrypted: only you can read your writing, not Novella and not its developer
  • Works with Free or Premium

What Premium shows you.

Premium adds analytics on your momentum, output, story, and rhythm, all worked out on your own computer. It also gives each manuscript its own goal, exports to Word, PDF, and EPUB, and starts plot grids from story structure templates. None of it writes a word for you.

  • Momentum

    Give a manuscript a deadline and see whether you’re ahead or behind, and how many words a day will get you there.

    The pace view for a manuscript goal: about 16 writing days ahead of pace, 26,475 of 28,500 words, and 37 words a day needed to finish on time.

  • Output

    Your writing streak and daily averages, with each week measured against the one before, and your best day, week, and month.

    Streaks and averages: a 58-day writing streak, words on 30 of the last 30 days, and daily averages for the last 7 and 30 days.

  • Story

    Which characters and subplots appear in each beat, so you notice when one drops out of the story for too long.

    A grid of characters and subplots across beats 1 to 6, with the White Rabbit missing after beat 2.

  • Rhythm

    The hours and days your words actually come, so you know which time to protect.

    A heatmap of words by hour, darkest in the evening, beside a golden hour of 8 to 9pm, Saturday as the best weekday, and evening as the time of day.

Questions about paying

Do I have to pay to write?

No. Writing and organizing your books is free, with no limit on projects, snippets, or plot grids, and no credit card. That will always be true. Premium and Cloud are extras, and you can write a whole novel without either.

What does Premium add?

A closer look at how you write, and more ways to plan, track, and export your book. Premium adds deeper analytics on your writing rhythm, momentum, output, and the shape of your story; a goal with a word target and a deadline for each manuscript; export to Word, PDF, and EPUB; and plot grids you can start from story structure templates. New Premium tools are included in the one-time price.

Is $60 really a one-time price?

Yes. You pay once and Premium is yours for life, including future updates. There is no subscription.

Why is Cloud a subscription?

Premium runs entirely on your computer, so once you have it, it costs nothing to keep running. Cloud stores and syncs your writing on servers, and those cost money every month. Cloud is $4 a month, or $36 a year if you would rather pay once a year.

Can anyone read what I sync?

No. Your writing is encrypted on your computer before it is uploaded, and only you hold the key. Nobody else can read it: not Novella, not its developer, and not anyone who gets into the servers. It is never used to train AI.

Do I need Premium to use Cloud?

No. Cloud works with the free version on its own, or alongside Premium. Choose either one, both, or neither.

How do I buy Premium or Cloud?

Download Novella

Inside the app. Download Novella, start writing, and upgrade from the app whenever you are ready.