Prices checked on 13 October 2026 against koala.sh/pricing and our own pricing page. We make WP Content Writer Pro, so this is a vendor’s comparison, not a neutral review. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will correct it within a week.
Koala.sh and WP Content Writer Pro (WPCWP) will both put long-form AI articles into a WordPress site. They charge for it in completely different ways, and that difference matters more than the headline price.
Koala sells words. You buy a monthly allowance, every article draws it down, and choosing a better model draws it down faster. WPCWP sells a licence per site. We set no word cap. You connect your own API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA NIM or OpenRouter, and that provider bills you for the tokens you use at its published rate.
Neither model is wrong. Each is cheaper for a different kind of buyer. This article lays out both price lists, runs the numbers at four realistic volumes and is honest about where Koala is the better fit.
The two price lists, side by side
Here is Koala’s full ladder as it stands today. Every paid plan includes KoalaWriter, a monthly pool of “credits” for its SEO research tools and MCP server, and publishing to WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Ghost and webhooks.
| Koala plan | Monthly | KoalaWriter words / month* | Credits / month | Brand DNA brands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $25 | 45,000 | 500 | 1 |
| Professional | $49 | 100,000 | 1,000 | 1 |
| Boost | $99 | 250,000 | 2,500 | 1 |
| Growth | $179 | 500,000 | 5,000 | 3 |
| Elite | $350 | 1,000,000 | 10,000 | 7 |
| Advanced | $500 | 1,500,000 | 12,500 | 12 |
| Scale I | $750 | 2,500,000 | 15,000 | 20 |
| Scale II | $1,250 | 5,000,000 | 20,000 | 40 |
| Scale III | $2,000 | 10,000,000 | 25,000 | 75 |
*Koala’s footnote, quoted from its page: “The word count is based on using GPT-6 Luna. GPT-6 Sol and Claude Sonnet 5 count words at 2x, and Claude Opus 5.5 counts at 3x.” Annual billing takes 20% off.
And ours:
| WPCWP plan | Monthly | Annual | Domains | Words / month from us |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $9 | $90 | 1 | No cap |
| Pro | $19.99 | $199.90 | 5 | No cap |
| Developer / Agency | $49.99 | $499.99 | 15 | No cap |
Every WPCWP plan has the same features: bulk generation, AI featured images, scheduled drafts, SEO plugin sync, 30+ languages and the cross-model fact-check pass. The plans differ only in how many domains they cover and the support tier. If you need more than 15 domains, we quote it. Buyers in India can pay in rupees: ₹990, ₹1,990 and ₹4,990 a month, plus 18% GST, on the INR pricing page.
The catch you have to account for: the WPCWP figures above are licence fees only. Your AI provider bills you separately. That second bill is what the rest of this article is about.
The multiplier is the line most buyers miss
Koala’s word allowances are measured in GPT-6 Luna words. Switch to Claude Sonnet 5 or GPT-6 Sol and every word you generate counts as two. Switch to Claude Opus 5.5 and it counts as three.
In practice, Koala’s advertised allowance is a ceiling that only applies to its base model. Here is the effective capacity of the first four plans at 1,500 words per article:
| Koala plan | Articles on GPT-6 Luna (1x) | Articles on Sonnet 5 / GPT-6 Sol (2x) | Articles on Opus 5.5 (3x) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter, $25 | 30 | 15 | 10 |
| Professional, $49 | 66 | 33 | 22 |
| Boost, $99 | 166 | 83 | 55 |
| Growth, $179 | 333 | 166 | 111 |
That is not a criticism. Bigger models cost Koala more to run, and passing that on is fair. But if you plan to write on Sonnet 5, Koala’s Starter plan is a 15-article plan, not a 30-article plan. Size your purchase with that in mind.
With bring-your-own-key the same tradeoff exists, but you see it directly. A Sonnet-tier model costs more per token than a Haiku-tier or “mini” model, and your provider’s invoice shows exactly how much more. Nothing is converted into a proprietary unit along the way.
What 1,500 words costs you on your own API key
To compare the two fairly we need a per-article provider cost for WPCWP. We use the same method as our AI content cost calculator, and the same per-million-token rates the plugin uses to cost each call in its usage log:
- Words become output tokens at 1.33 tokens per word, the usual ratio for English prose.
- Input is counted at 1.5x output, because research, outline, body, metadata and the humanising pass each re-send context.
- Claude Sonnet 5 is priced at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output. Claude Haiku 4.5 is $1 / $5. GPT-5 mini is $0.25 / $2.
On those assumptions, one 1,500-word article costs roughly:
- Claude Sonnet 5: about $0.039
- Claude Haiku 4.5: about $0.013
- GPT-5 mini: about $0.005
These are estimates, not quotes. Providers change their prices, longer research steps use more input, and the optional fact-check pass and AI image generation add calls that these figures leave out. For bulk jobs WPCWP submits work through the Anthropic and OpenAI batch APIs, which cost about half per token, so the real figure can also come in lower. The authoritative number for your site is the plugin’s usage log, which records real tokens and an estimated cost for every call, grouped by the article that caused it.
Four scenarios, priced both ways
All four assume 1,500-word articles and monthly billing. For Koala we pick the cheapest plan whose allowance covers the volume. For WPCWP we add the licence fee and the estimated Sonnet 5 provider cost.
1. One blog, 10 articles a month
15,000 words. Even at Opus 5.5’s 3x rate that fits inside Koala Starter at $25. On WPCWP it is Starter at $9 plus about $0.39 of Sonnet 5 usage, so roughly $9.39.
2. One blog, 30 articles a month
45,000 words. On GPT-6 Luna that is exactly Koala Starter’s allowance, $25. On Sonnet 5 it needs 90,000 counted words, which means Professional at $49. WPCWP: $9 plus about $1.17, roughly $10.17.
3. A content-heavy site, 100 articles a month
150,000 words. Koala on Luna: Boost, $99. Koala on Sonnet 5 (300,000 counted words): Growth, $179. WPCWP: $9 plus about $3.89, roughly $12.89.
4. An agency, 15 client sites, 20 articles each
300 articles and 450,000 words a month. Koala on Luna: Growth, $179, though Growth includes only 3 Brand DNA brands, which matters if each client needs its own voice. On Sonnet 5 (900,000 counted words): Elite, $350. WPCWP: Developer / Agency at $49.99 plus about $11.67, roughly $61.66.
| Scenario | Koala, Luna | Koala, Sonnet 5 | WPCWP + Sonnet 5 (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 articles, 1 site | $25 | $25 | ~$9.39 |
| 30 articles, 1 site | $25 | $49 | ~$10.17 |
| 100 articles, 1 site | $99 | $179 | ~$12.89 |
| 300 articles, 15 sites | $179 | $350 | ~$61.66 |
Annual billing changes both columns. Koala’s 20% discount brings Starter to $20 a month and Boost to $79.20. Our annual plans work out at $7.50, $16.66 and $41.67 a month. The shape of the comparison does not change.
Where the per-site model wins
The pattern in that table is simple. Koala’s price rises with volume and with model quality. Ours rises with the number of sites. So WPCWP pulls ahead in three situations:
- You publish a lot on one site. Going from 10 to 100 articles a month moves Koala from $25 to $99 or $179. It moves us from about $9.39 to about $12.89.
- You want a top-tier model. On Koala, Sonnet 5 halves your allowance and Opus 5.5 cuts it to a third. On your own key you pay the provider’s rate difference and nothing on top of it.
- You refresh old posts as well as writing new ones. Rewriting a 2,000-word article consumes a word allowance just as a new one does. With no cap from us, refreshing your back catalogue costs only the provider tokens.
There are some non-price differences that matter to WordPress users. WPCWP runs inside WordPress, in Gutenberg or the Classic editor. Research, outline and generation run as separate background jobs with an approval step, and anything that fails structural, originality or factual review stays a draft. Generated articles are ordinary posts in your own database, so cancelling or asking for a refund removes nothing.
Where Koala is the better choice
A vendor’s comparison that never concedes anything is not worth reading. Here is where we would point you to Koala:
- You never want to see an API key. With WPCWP you need an account with an AI provider, a card on file there and a habit of glancing at its bill. It takes about ten minutes to set up, but it is a real step and a second invoice. Koala’s price is the whole price.
- You need a predictable, fixed monthly cost. Your provider bill on WPCWP varies with what you generate. We log the cost of every call so you can watch it, but it is still a variable you own.
- You are not on WordPress, or not only on WordPress. Koala publishes to Shopify, Webflow, Ghost and webhooks too. WPCWP is a WordPress plugin and nothing else.
- You want the research tooling in the same subscription. Koala’s credits cover keyword, competitor, backlink and SERP research through its tools and MCP server, along with live Amazon data for affiliate articles. These are not features we offer, and if you would otherwise pay for a separate SEO suite, they belong in your sums.
- You want to try it with zero setup. Koala gives every new account 5,000 free words and 25 credits with no card. Our 7-day trial also asks for no card, but you still need a provider key before you can generate anything.
Trials, refunds and what you keep
| Koala.sh | WP Content Writer Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Try before paying | 5,000 words + 25 credits, no card | 7-day full trial on Starter and Pro, no card |
| Refund window | 15 days, if usage is under 15,000 words and 100 credits | 7 days from first payment, full refund, no usage condition |
| Unused allowance | Monthly credits expire after a month. Annual credits arrive up front and last a year | Nothing to expire: there is no allowance |
| Price changes | Not stated on the pricing page | Launch price locked while your subscription stays active |
| Changing plans | Buying a new plan resets your subscription date | Upgrades immediate and prorated; downgrades at period end |
Koala’s refund window is longer, and ours has no usage condition. Which matters more depends on how quickly you know whether a tool suits you.
How to decide in five minutes
- Count your sites. That picks your WPCWP plan: 1, up to 5, or up to 15.
- Estimate words per month as articles × average length, and include refreshes of old posts.
- Pick the model you actually want to write on. For Koala, multiply your words by 1, 2 or 3 and find the plan that covers the result.
- Put your volume into the cost calculator to estimate the provider side of WPCWP.
- Add what is not in the box. Do you need Koala’s SEO research credits, or a separate tool for that? Will an API account be a problem for you or your client?
If you are on WordPress, publish more than a handful of posts a month, or run several sites, the per-site licence usually comes out several times cheaper, and the gap grows with volume and model quality. If you want one fixed bill, publish to non-WordPress platforms, or value the bundled research tools, Koala’s price buys you simplicity and is worth paying.
For the wider field, see our comparison of WordPress AI writers and the best AI content writers for WordPress in 2026. To run the numbers on your own site, start a 7-day trial. No card is required, and every draft you generate stays yours.
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