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Paperpal vs Smodin: an AI checker and an AI bypass
Both tools have an AI detector. They point it in opposite directions. Paperpal runs AI-detection and plagiarism checks on your draft before your institution does. Smodin pairs its detector with a humanizer whose plans promise to “detect and bypass top AI detectors”.
For coursework, that's most of the decision. Paperpal helps you check and polish writing that's yours. Smodin writes the essay and then offers to hide that it did, which is an academic-integrity risk if you submit the result.
Prices and features checked on October 17, 2026.
At a glance
Writing assistants help you write; essay generators write the essay for you.
| Product | Type | Paid from | Free tier | Citations | Ghostwriting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paperpal | Writing assistant | See pricing page | Yes | Your sources, or papers it finds for you | Drafts text when asked |
| Smodin | Essay generator | $12.99/month | Yes | Not verified | Writes the essay |
How much each writes
Smodin's AI Writer drafts essays, articles and research papers from a topic, with your choice of style, tone and length, and expands the next section when you ask. Its plans say you can “write full essays with simple prompts”. The writer FAQ asks you to follow your institution's academic integrity policies, which sits oddly beside the humanizer.
Paperpal is mostly an editor of your text. It does draft, though: its homepage pitches drafting from your sources too, and the paraphraser restructures sentences. So it isn't editing-only, but drafting isn't its centre.
Sources you can name
Paperpal's sources are research articles, 250M+ of them, searched through Research and Cite, which also pulls insights from PDFs and formats citations in 10,000+ styles. It can cite your uploaded references and PDFs as well, so you know where a citation came from.
Smodin says it can find sources and add references in APA or MLA in one click, but it doesn't say where the sources come from. It claims its writer makes facts, data and statistics “100% accurate” without saying how. Users report that generated references and facts need checking by hand.
Feedback and checks
Paperpal learned its grammar and tone suggestions from scholarly edits and backs them with 30+ pre-submission checks against journals' language and formatting rules. Its plagiarism check compares your text against 99B+ sources. Its Trustpilot praise, from reviewers Paperpal mostly invited itself, centres on the AI-detection checks and help with editing.
Smodin bundles a rewriter, summarizer, translator, plagiarism checker and AI chat with the writer and detector. Its positive Trustpilot reviews mostly praise quick summaries and help tidying up wording rather than the essay writer. One paying reviewer reports inconsistent results for the same document.
Can you trust the reviews?
Both sets of reviews need a footnote. Paperpal's Trustpilot reviewers were mostly invited by Paperpal. Smodin's footnote is bigger: its site shows a 4.8/5 rating citing Trustpilot, while Trustpilot says that rating is unavailable due to a breach of its guidelines and that it has removed fake reviews for the company.
Prices and free use
Smodin publishes its prices. Starter is $12.99 a month billed monthly or $10 a month billed annually, with limited writing output. Premium is $19.99 monthly or $16 annually, adding unlimited output and advanced humanization. Its tools can be tried without signing up, but the pricing page lists only the two paid plans and no free limits.
Billing is Smodin's most common complaint: users describe being charged for a full year when they expected monthly billing, refunds they couldn't get, and access ending immediately on cancellation.
Paperpal's paid prices stay hidden until its pricing page fetches the ones for your region, so you'll have to look. Both paid tiers, Prime and Pro, can be billed monthly or annually, and Pro includes unlimited grammar edits and AI detection. The free plan is small: 200 grammar edits a month, five paraphrase or AI-review uses a day, and lite plagiarism and AI-detection reports.
The middle tier, Prime, gives 20k grammar edits a month, 10k words of plagiarism and reference checks, 25k words of AI detection and 500 uses a month of paraphrase, trim, translate and AI review. That's a lot of checking for one thesis.
Which should you choose?
Choose Paperpal if you've written the draft and want it checked for grammar, plagiarism and AI text inside Word, Google Docs or Overleaf, with real research search for citations. Try the free plan first.
Choose Smodin if you want an AI writer plus a summarizer, translator and rewriter under one subscription for work that isn't assessed, and you'll check every fact and source yourself. Leave the humanizer alone.
A third option is an assistant that won't ghostwrite. EthiWrite is ours: its citations come only from sources in your Library, and it won't write paragraphs from a prompt, so it's slower if you want a draft produced.
FAQ
- Does Paperpal detect AI writing?
- Yes. The free plan includes an AI-detection preview, Prime includes 25k words of AI detection, and Pro has unlimited AI detection.
- Will Smodin's humanizer get past Turnitin?
- Smodin's plans promise “Highest humanization possible to bypass Turnitin-level detection”. Whatever a detector shows, submitting humanized AI text as your own is an academic-integrity risk.
- Which is cheaper, Paperpal or Smodin?
- Smodin's Starter is $10 a month on annual billing or $12.99 monthly. Paperpal posts no price until you open its pricing page and it loads your region's.
- Can I try Smodin without signing up?
- Smodin says its detector, humanizer, plagiarism checker and writer can be tried with no sign-up, though it doesn't publish the free limits. Paperpal's free plan needs no credit card.
- Does either work outside English?
- Smodin generates text in more than twelve languages and bundles a translator. Paperpal's plans include a translate tool alongside paraphrase and trim.
- Where do Smodin's sources come from?
- Smodin doesn't say. It promises to find high-quality sources and cite them in APA or MLA, and a Reddit user says its references “need a second look”.