What is Writely used for?

Writely is a free, MIT-licensed Chrome extension powered by OpenAI's GPT models that adds an AI writing assistant to any editable webpage, positioned as going beyond Notion AI. It is a good fit for AI-assisted writing across any website.

Is Writely open source?

Yes. Writely is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at anc95/writely and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. Writely is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Writely?

Yes. Writely can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Writely an alternative to?

Writely is an open-source alternative to Wordtune, QuillBot and Notion. Other open-source alternatives to Wordtune include LanguageTool.

Is Writely actively maintained?

The most recent commit to Writely was on 23 February 2025, and the latest release is v0.0.31, published on 23 February 2025. The project has 1.3k stars on GitHub.

Writely: open-source alternative to Wordtune, QuillBot

About Writely

Writely is a browser extension that brings GPT-powered writing assistance to any text field on the web, rather than being limited to a single app like Notion. It is aimed at people who want AI help writing emails, articles or social media replies wherever they happen to be typing, without switching to a dedicated AI writing tool.

Built on OpenAI's GPT models, it offers a writing assistant usable on virtually any editor webpage, and it can also perform query translation and reading assistance to help users understand and respond to content faster. Example uses mentioned in the README include drafting emails, writing articles, replying to posts on platforms like Twitter and Weibo, and writing stories on Zhihu. After selecting text on a page, a small 'W' icon appears near the cursor that opens the assistant.

Writely is available for Chrome, Firefox and Edge, and requires the user to supply their own OpenAI API key, obtained from OpenAI's platform and entered into the extension's settings. It is written in TypeScript, currently in beta, and released under the MIT license, with a Discord community for users and contributors.

Key features

AI writing assistant on any editable webpage
Query translation and reading assistance
Works across Chrome, Firefox and Edge
Bring-your-own OpenAI API key
Quick-access icon on selected text

Good fit for

→AI-assisted writing across any website
→An alternative to Notion AI outside of Notion

Built with: TypeScript
Tags: chrome-extension; ai-writing; openai; notion-ai-alternative; chatgpt; typescript

Writely: questions and answers

What is Writely used for?: Writely is a free, MIT-licensed Chrome extension powered by OpenAI's GPT models that adds an AI writing assistant to any editable webpage, positioned as going beyond Notion AI. It is a good fit for AI-assisted writing across any website.
Is Writely open source?: Yes. Writely is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at anc95/writely and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Writely free?: Yes. Writely is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Writely?: Yes. Writely can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Writely an alternative to?: Writely is an open-source alternative to Wordtune, QuillBot and Notion. Other open-source alternatives to Wordtune include LanguageTool.
Is Writely actively maintained?: The most recent commit to Writely was on 23 February 2025, and the latest release is v0.0.31, published on 23 February 2025. The project has 1.3k stars on GitHub.