5 Best Paraphrasing Tools for Academic Writing (2023)

Are you tired of endless research, reading dictionaries, and spending countless hours just writing a simple academic research paper or thesis? 

If you are ready to save more time, write better academic papers and gain a better grade, then I prepared something you should take the time to read.

After thorough research, I pulled the 5 best paraphrasing tools for academic writing that will even trick Turnitin, our biggest enemy.

Okay, maybe that was harsh. 

However, Turnitin, a plagiarism detector that promotes academic integrity, can be tricked using these 5 tools.

Keep reading below if you are ready to finally find a solution for painful academic writing tasks.

Best Paraphrasing Tools for Academic Writing

  1. QuillBot
  2. SpinBot
  3. WordAi
  4. Spin Rewriter
  5. SpinnerChief

My Top Pick Up-Front

Without wasting your time, my top pick up-front is QuillBot.

QuillBot is my top pick since it is:

  • most affordable
  • most versatile
  • almost always passes Turnitin plagiarism checker
  • most accurate
  • straightforward to use

Who is this article for?

This article is for students who are not linguistic experts and seek to avoid common errors and stress and save time while writing thesis and research papers.

Keep reading below if you want to:

  • save time while researching
  • write better literature reviews
  • paraphrase thesis
  • write hour-long content within seconds
  • avoid paraphrasing manually
  • trick Turnitin and professors

The Best Paraphrasing Tools for Academic Writing (Review)

Without further ado, let’s learn the pros and cons of each paraphrasing tool.

1. QuillBot – Best Overall

QuillBot is a writing and paraphrasing tool that leverages modern A.I. technology. 

Nevertheless, the most important feature for you is the paraphrasing tool that uses complex rewording mechanisms to pass plagiarism checkers and save you time. 

Here is an example of QuillBot rewriting one of the sections from a random law research paper:

When you click on “Rephrase” in the right window where the text is being reworded, you can choose the style of rewriting. It is also called a rewriting mode, and you can see that below:

In this instance, I choose the formal rewriting mode since it suits our need to rewrite complex research papers and theses.

You can play around and also manually rewrite certain parts of the text. QuillBot will even give you suggestions and synonyms to include in your text. 

Furthermore, you can also see some other features like:

  • Grammar Checker
  • Co-Writer
  • Summarizer
  • Citation Generator

The second most crucial QuillBot feature for you is Summarizer. QuillBot Summarizer goes through stacks of reading material and identifies key findings and points. Imagine having a virtual research assistant who helps you do all the necessary work before starting to write. 

You can combine the two tools to create the best document on a particular topic. Use Summarizer to learn the whole document faster by only remembering key points and findings. In addition, use a rephrasing tool to avoid plagiarism detection and save time.

The only downside of Quillbot is its Chrome Extension doesn’t correct errors automatically. You must paste the sentences into the main site to do the paraphrasing.

QuillBot Pricing

Free QuillBot account can only process up to 700 characters at a time. That’s why you need a premium version to paraphrase up to 10000 characters. 

The Premium QuillBot version will save you more time.

Monthly Plan: $7.95 every month

Semi-Annual Plan: $29.50 every 6 months

Annual Plan: $39.95 every year

Pros:

  • affordable
  • versatile
  • passes Turnitin
  • easy to use

Cons:

  • limited free version
  • Chrome Extension limitations

2. Spinbot – Best Free Version

I believe Spinbot is the best alternative to QuillBot since it offers features like text rewriters, article spinning, and a content-creating tool. Spinbot provides the best free version since it lets you paraphrase 10000 characters. 

In this sense, Spinbot offers the best features for a free version of the software compared to the rest of the paraphrasing tools. It spins the words and paraphrases the whole text in seconds. You even have the option to ignore specific words or capitalized letters to further boost the authenticity of the text. 

In addition, Spinbot requires no registration. 

Here is an example of Spinbot’s free paraphrasing tool. I used the exact text as before:

Some of the downsides of the tool are the lack of extensions which can make your rewriting and research process a lot harder. Even though the free version lets you paraphrase up to 10000 characters, ads and CAPTCHA code can still be annoying from time to time. There is always an option to purchase a premium version. 

Let’s see what it has to offer:

Spinbot Pricing

The Premium Spinbot version gets rid of boring CAPTCHA and disturbing ads. In fact, that is the only advantage of a premium account, so make sure to check if that is going to make your life easier.

Monthly Plan: $10 every month

Semi-Annual Plan: $50 every 6 months

Annual Plan: $75 every year

Pros:

  • best QuillBot alternative
  • offers the best free version
  • paraphrasing up to 10000 characters for free
  • customizable options to suit your needs

Cons:

  • the free version has ads and a CAPTCHA code

3. WordAi – Best to Avoid Plagiarism Detection

WordAi is another paraphrasing tool that leverages artificial intelligence and works very fast. However, there are better features of this tool than those. 

WordAi is the only tool that passes any plagiarism detector, including our famous Turnitin, as 100% authentic. It instantly rewrites your thesis and research works. Also, you can upload 1000 articles and spin them all simultaneously. 

Another cool feature this tool has is the ability to intelligently spin text titles. It is almost impossible to spot the rewriting and spinning that take place. 

The only downside of this A.I. paraphrasing tool is that it’s only free for three days. Also, to use the tool for three days for free, you need to create an account. In the end, you must purchase the premium plan. 

WordAi also has the option to integrate with Anti Forge. Still, we won’t get deep into that since you, as a student, will probably provide some offline resources for paraphrasing. 

However, this integration can be helpful if you are sourcing content for your thesis from the internet.

WordAi Pricing

Here are two options WordAi offers for the premium version:

Monthly Plan: $49.95 per month

Yearly Plan: $347 per year

Pros:

  • 100% authentic text (passes every plagiarism detector)
  • upload up to 1000 works and spin them all at the same time
  • text titles spinning
  • integrates with other similar tools, such as Anti Forge

Cons:

  • only free for three days

4. Spin Rewriter – Best for All Devices

Spin Rewriter is another popular paraphrasing tool initially developed to aid SEO specialists. An SEO specialist is a person who performs search engine optimization. This is important because SEO has become much more about semantics and meaning today. 

So, how does this feature benefit you? 

Simply put, Spin Rewriter is one of the few tools close to understanding the meaning behind the text(semantics). Your paraphrased text will be more accurate, and the original text’s meaning will be much more visible and accessible to the reader, your professor. 

However, there are other benefits of using this tool. 

Spin Rewriter is cloud-based, meaning you can use it on devices such as:

  • laptops
  • desktops
  • tablets
  • mobile phones

Basically, on every device, you can think of. Okay, that was an exaggeration. Smartwatches are still to be included. 

Furthermore, you can get more than 1000 variations of a single text. This is known as mass export. However, you can also rewrite and paraphrase multiple articles multiple times. The meaning of the text is always going to stay.

Spin Rewriter Pricing

Here comes the only downside of this tool. 

There is no free version, and you can only have a free 5-day trial for the yearly Plan. Maybe not the best option budget-wise, but still something to think about. 

Monthly Plan: $47 per month

Yearly Plan: $77 per year

Lifetime Plan: $497 per year

Pros:

  • preserves meaning
  • compatible with all devices
  • up to 1000 variations of a single text

Cons:

  • no free version
  • only a 5-day free trial

5. SpinnerChief – Most Accurate Synonym Use

SpinnerChief is highly recommended for a thesis paraphrasing for team collaborations. It leverages artificial intelligence to generate the most unique content that aims to pass any plagiarism detector. 

Their newly-added technologies, such as statistical replacement and part-of-speech analysis, ensure the most appropriate use of synonyms. Also, the number of words continues to expand, and new synonyms are constantly added as people continue using their software. 

Furthermore, you can use SpinnerChief to:

  • spin thousands of works in a short period
  • manually paraphrase text or customize rules to suit your needs
  • paraphrase content in different languages such as French, Spanish, German, Indonesian, etc.(translation API like Bing API is required)

SpinnerChief is not only web-based and has both mobile and desktop versions. Moreover, it supports Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS. 

SpinnerChief Pricing

One of this tool’s downsides is the price of a premium version. However, you can still use a free version with some basic features.

Elite Version: $197 one-time fee

Ultimate Version: $107 per year ($307 one-time fee)

Team Version: $277 per year ($627 one-time fee)

Pros:

  • good for teams
  • accurate synonym use
  • customizable rewording rules
  • compatible with multiple languages
  • supports Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android

Cons:

  • costly
  • the free version only has basic features

More Paraphrasing Tools 

Here are two tools that didn’t make our top 5 list but are still worth mentioning.

Clever Spinner

Clever Spinner is an article rewriter tool that is a little outdated by today’s standards. It only offers a 3-day trial but has Copyscape and API integration. Also, it rewrites articles in about 10 seconds, but as we mentioned before, that is below today’s standards. 

Some tools on our list rewrite the whole article immediately and are much more accurate than Clever Spinner. The quality of content could be better, and too many unnecessary options don’t do anything to make the text more authentic. 

Also, the software lacks customer support, and if you are stuck with some of its features, you are left to fix the problem on your own.

Ref-n-write

I didn’t put this tool on the list because it needs to be updated. If you visit their site, you can see that it looks outdated. Strangely enough, it ranks on the first page when you type the query “best paraphrasing tool for academic writing.” 

Reviews are generally mixed, and some people are unsatisfied with their rewriting tool. The positive thing about this tool is it’s compatible with Mac and Windows computers. I am leaving this one to you to decide.

Paraphrasing Tools F.A.Q.

Now, let’s address some most common questions regarding paraphrasing tools.

Can Turnitin detect QuillBot?

Turnitin can’t detect QuillBot because it uses algorithms that don’t necessarily detect paraphrasing. Turnitin usually finds similar phrases, grammatical patterns, and sentence structures. Therefore, QuillBot’s paraphrased content is unique enough to pass Turnitin’s detection.

Is QuillBot allowed in University?

There are specific penalties if University detects the use of softwares like Quillbot and SpinBot. However, the point is most Universities rarely notice such paraphrased texts.

When paraphrasing what should you avoid?

You must always avoid just changing a few words in a single sentence and leaving it as it is. Seek to always use your own words to convey the same(author’s) meaning.

Can you paraphrase without citing?

In theory, paraphrasing always requires you to use a citation. This is because stealing ideas is forbidden since they belong to someone else. A wise psychologist once said: 
People don’t own ideas, but ideas own people. 

Why do we paraphrase in academic writing?

Paraphrasing is one of the most essential skills to learn since it demonstrates your ability to understand the source well enough to articulate it in your own words.

How do you summarize without plagiarizing?

Always follow these rules to avoid plagiarism when summarizing an article: 1. Write only in your own words. 2. Cite the source with an in-text citation

Conclusion

Let’s sum it up!

Finding the right paraphrasing tool for academic writing can take time and effort. 

Factors like budget, level of uniqueness, and quantity of work must be considered.

I hope that after reading this article, you clearly understand which tool for academic writing is the best for you.

Let me know in the comments below which tool you liked the most and why.