Marlowe Pricing 2026: Free, $29.95 or $159 a Year? 💰

Marlowe pricing has four levels: Marlowe Basic is free and unlimited, a single Marlowe Pro report costs $29.95, and subscriptions run $19.95 a month or $159 a year, with 4 credits a month or 48 a year. A new Market Fit report costs $29.95 on its own, or 2 credits on a plan.

Every figure here comes from Authors A.I.’s pricing page and Marlowe FAQ, checked on 7 October 2026. Authors A.I. can change its fees with 10 days’ notice, so confirm before you buy.

In this breakdown, you’ll get:

• Every Marlowe plan and report price in one table
• How credits work, and why they don’t roll over
• The cheapest way to analyze one novel (it isn’t the single report)
• An honest look at where Marlowe beats Chapter, and where it doesn’t

Here are the numbers.

How Much Does Marlowe Cost?

Marlowe costs $0 for Basic, $29.95 for one Pro report, $19.95 a month, or $159 a year. Both subscriptions give you credits: one Pro report uses 1 credit, and one Market Fit report uses 2. A Pro and Market Fit bundle for one manuscript costs $39.90.

The annual plan works out to about $13.25 a month and saves $80 against twelve months of the monthly plan, per the FAQ.

What Do You Get Free With Marlowe Basic?

Marlowe Basic is free and unlimited. The FAQ describes it as “limited to about a half-dozen areas,” a subset of the Pro report.

Our Marlowe review found those areas cover readability, dialogue-to-narrative ratio, clichés, repeated phrases, adverb and adjective overuse, and misspellings. That’s a useful mechanical pass at $0.

What Basic doesn’t give you is the reason most authors pay: plot and narrative arc analysis, beat placement, character and conflict analysis, and the key recommendations list.

What Does a Marlowe Pro Report Include?

A Marlowe Pro report is a whole-manuscript developmental read. Per the pricing page, it includes:

• Overall assessment of your novel
• Author voice analysis
• Plot and narrative arc analysis
• Story elements and pacing analysis
• Character, conflict and theme analysis
• Setting and explicit content analysis
• Key recommendations and items to edit
• Story structure guide

Marlowe never rewrites your text. Authors A.I. states it does not use generative AI on your book and never trains on submissions. You get findings, and the fixing is still your job, or an editor’s. Our guide to developmental editing covers what that next step involves.

What Is the Marlowe Market Fit Report?

Market Fit is a newer, separate report focused on selling the book rather than revising it. It costs $29.95 on its own, or 2 credits on a subscription, so it eats half a month’s allowance.

The Market Fit page lists 20 comparable titles, 7 Amazon backend keyword strings plus 100 ad-targeting keywords, 3 retailer-ready book descriptions, 5 elevator pitches, and a market readiness score across 7 dimensions.

If you’re pitching agents, those comps are the hard part of a query. See our guide to comp titles for a book proposal for how to use them. Note the Market Fit page asks you to upload a fiction book.

How Do Marlowe Credits Work?

Marlowe credits are the currency on both subscriptions. One credit runs one Pro report on any manuscript length, so a 150,000-word fantasy costs the same as a 40,000-word novella.

Three rules matter for your budget:

• Credits do not roll over. You get a fresh 4 (monthly) or 48 (annual) each renewal, and unused credits disappear.
• Every rerun costs a credit, even on the same manuscript.
• Plans auto-renew until you cancel from My Account, then My Membership.

The no-rollover rule is why the annual plan is poor value for most authors. If you finish one or two novels a year, you pay for 48 reports and use a handful.

Does Marlowe Have a Free Trial or Refunds?

Marlowe has no free trial of Pro, but Basic is free forever, which serves the same purpose. Refunds are a firm no. The Authors A.I. terms say all payments are final and that it cannot offer refunds, including if you disagree with the report.

That makes the cancel date matter. Set a reminder the day you subscribe.

What Are Marlowe’s Manuscript Requirements?

Marlowe needs a Word or EPUB file of at least 10,000 words, per the FAQ. There’s no maximum, though books over 120,000 words can take longer. The Marlowe product page still says 20,000 words, so the two pages disagree. Plan for 20,000 if you’re close to the line.

Marlowe reads narrative nonfiction too. The FAQ says it analyzes memoirs, biographies and histories, though its “real expertise” is fiction and its genre benchmarks cover 22 fiction genres. A business book or how-to guide is outside what it was built for.

What Does It Really Cost to Analyze One Novel?

Here’s the math the pricing page doesn’t spell out. One month of the monthly plan ($19.95, 4 credits) costs less than one single report ($29.95).

This is based on the published credit rates. We have not tested whether the first month’s credits arrive immediately at checkout, so confirm that before relying on it. The single report and bundle still make sense if you don’t want any subscription to manage, since refunds aren’t available if you forget to cancel.

For context, a human developmental edit typically runs well into four figures. Our breakdown of how much a book editor costs has the ranges. Marlowe doesn’t replace that judgment, but it’s a cheap first pass before you pay for it.

How Does Marlowe Pricing Compare to AutoCrit?

Marlowe is cheaper for a one-off read. AutoCrit pricing runs $30 a month or $180 a year for ongoing editing tools, while Marlowe sells a single whole-book report from $19.95 to $29.95. AutoCrit suits ongoing line editing; Marlowe suits one structural snapshot. Our AutoCrit vs Marlowe comparison covers the feature split, and Marlowe alternatives lists other options.

Where Marlowe Beats Chapter

We build Chapter, so weigh this accordingly. The two tools do different jobs: Marlowe analyzes a manuscript that exists. Chapter writes the manuscript with you. On several counts, Marlowe is the better buy.

1. It reads books you already wrote. Chapter runs no reports on a manuscript drafted elsewhere. If your novel is finished, Marlowe has something to say about it and Chapter doesn’t.

2. It has a real free tier. We don’t. Chapter has no free plan and no free trial. Marlowe Basic is unlimited at $0.

3. It’s cheaper to start. One month of Marlowe is $19.95, about a fifth of Chapter’s $97.

4. It measures structure as numbers. Beat positions as a percentage of your wordcount, a narrative arc graph, and bestseller benchmarking. Chapter plans structure before drafting, but it doesn’t score the finished book that way.

5. It hands you marketing assets. Market Fit’s comps, keywords and blurbs are a commercial layer Chapter doesn’t produce.

6. Your book stays “AI-assisted.” Marlowe never writes your prose. Under Amazon KDP’s content guidelines, editing help needs no disclosure, while text Chapter generates is AI-generated and must be disclosed.

Why Chapter Is Still Our Pick for Most Authors

Our Pick — Chapter

Most authors searching for manuscript analysis don’t have a finished manuscript yet. Chapter gets you one. It builds your book’s structure first, then writes the complete draft, fiction or nonfiction, chapter by chapter. You pay $97 once, and that covers two books.

Best for: authors stuck before the revision stage who need a complete, structured first draft Pricing: $97 one time, 2 books included (fiction or nonfiction), 30-day money-back guarantee Why we built it: an analysis tool can only measure a book that exists, and most books never reach the end of the first draft.

• It solves the earlier problem. Marlowe needs 10,000 words before it will read anything. Chapter produces the full draft.
• A stated refund. Chapter has a 30-day money-back guarantee. Marlowe’s terms say no refunds.
• Proof at scale. More than 10,000 authors have created books with Chapter, and it’s been featured in USA Today and the New York Times.

Plenty of authors use both: draft in Chapter, then run a $19.95 Marlowe month on the revision. Our guide on how to edit an AI-written book covers that workflow, and Chapter vs Marlowe compares them head to head. Read the Chapter review for its limits, or Chapter pricing explained for the $97 in detail. Plans are on chapter.pub for nonfiction and fiction.

FAQ

How much does Marlowe cost?

Marlowe costs $0 for the unlimited Basic tier, $29.95 for a single Pro report, $19.95 a month for 4 credits, or $159 a year for 48 credits. A Market Fit report costs $29.95 alone or 2 credits, and a Pro plus Market Fit bundle costs $39.90.

Is Marlowe free?

Marlowe Basic is free and unlimited, covering about a half-dozen areas such as readability, clichés, repeated phrases and misspellings. The plot, pacing, character and narrative arc analysis that most authors want requires Marlowe Pro, starting at $19.95 for a month or $29.95 for one report.

Do Marlowe credits roll over?

Marlowe credits do not roll over. The monthly plan grants 4 credits each billing period and the annual plan grants 48 a year, and unused credits are lost at renewal. Every report uses a credit, including reruns of the same manuscript, so match the plan to how many books you actually finish.

Can I get a refund from Marlowe?

Marlowe does not offer refunds. The Authors A.I. terms state that all payments are final, including when you disagree with a report’s feedback. Subscriptions auto-renew until you cancel in My Account, so set a reminder before your renewal date if you only need one month.

Is Marlowe worth it?

Marlowe is worth it if you have a finished manuscript and want structural data on pacing, beats and character for under $30. It isn’t worth it if you need prose written or line edits, because Marlowe never rewrites your text and only reports what it finds.