GhostWryter
GhostWryter is a Google Workspace add-on that brings OpenAI's GPT models into Google Docs to draft SEO texts, blog posts and marketing content. It charges $2.99 per month, while OpenAI bills your token usage separately.
What is GhostWryter?
GhostWryter is a Google Workspace Marketplace add-on for Google Docs, published by Roland Kuse from Sasbach, Germany. It is not an application you open somewhere else: it appears as a sidebar inside a document, reached from the Extensions menu, and every action starts from a piece of text you have selected on the page. The publisher describes it plainly as the link, the interface, between OpenAI and your Google Docs documents.
The sidebar is split into three sections. Find Ideas & Keywords covers ideation, with an ideas generator, an outline generator, a heading finder, root causes and worst case scenarios. Write Sentences & Paragraphs produces essays, introductions, paragraphs, paragraph and sentence expansions, and answers to questions. Refine Your Text rewrites, summarises and restructures what you already have. Around twenty buttons are documented, and the store listing claims more than 40 ready-made prompts. A settings tab holds the two things the tool needs from you: an OpenAI API key and an interface language, available in English, German, French and Spanish.
The pricing model is unusual and is really the point of the product. GhostWryter charges $2.99 per month and adds no markup on tokens: you supply your own OpenAI API key and OpenAI bills you directly for what you consume. The site's headline argument is $0.02 per 1,000 tokens on the Davinci model, roughly 750 words, which it translates into about 37,500 words for one dollar. The $2.99 rate is presented as a loyalty price: cancel and come back later, and you pay $7.99 per month instead.
Setup carries one condition repeated across the site: subscribe with exactly the same email address as your Google Docs account. The add-on requests four Google permissions, including the right to run while you are not present, and no document content passes through the publisher's servers because everything executes in Google Apps Script.
The marketplace listing, which shows 5,000+ installs and 4.5 out of 5 from 26 reviews but has not been updated since December 2024, comes from a solo publisher declared as a Non-trader. The publisher's own FAQ admits the language models used are about two years behind the news, and confirms that there is no free trial.
What it does
- Generate content ideas and keyword suggestions from a single selected keyword
- Build an article outline and turn it into question-style headings
- Write essays, introductions, paragraphs and sentence continuations
- Rewrite, expand or condense text that is already in the document
- Produce structured lists: top-10 questions, advantages, disadvantages, checklists and bullet summaries
- Send a free-form instruction to the model through the Magic Command button
- Trigger every action by selecting text in the document and clicking a sidebar button
When to use GhostWryter / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if GhostWryter is the right fit.
When to use GhostWryter
- SEO managers who want keyword ideas, outlines and question-based headings generated inside the draft they are already writing
- Bloggers and freelance writers whose whole workflow already sits in Google Docs and who do not want to switch editors
- Marketing professionals who need a steady supply of first drafts, introductions and expanded paragraphs rather than finished copy
- Students and occasional writers with irregular output, since OpenAI tokens are paid per use instead of through an unused flat fee
- Budget-conscious solo users, given the $2.99 monthly fee and the absence of any word or document quota
When not to use GhostWryter
- Anyone who writes outside Google Docs: there is no mobile app, no browser extension and no standalone web editor
- Teams that need shared seats or central administration, since the licence is tied to a single individual email address
- Developers who want to plug generation into an automated pipeline, as GhostWryter exposes no API of its own
- Writers unwilling to open and fund a paid OpenAI account, which is a hard prerequisite for every button in the sidebar
- Regulated organisations that require a data processing agreement, a subprocessor list or a stated GDPR compliance position, none of which the publisher provides
How to use GhostWryter
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Subscribe on the GhostWryter subscription page using exactly the email address of your Google Docs account
- Create an OpenAI account and generate an API key, which you will pay for separately
- Install the add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace: Extensions, then Add-ons, then Get add-ons, search for GhostWryter and click Install
- Accept the Google permissions the add-on requests for the document
- Open the GhostWryter sidebar from the Extensions menu
- Click the gear icon, paste your OpenAI API key, choose your language and save
- Type or select a keyword, a sentence or a paragraph in the document, then click the button you want
- Reuse the add-on in any Google Docs document: installing it once is enough, it is not limited to the document you installed it from
- If the Extensions menu shows only Help, reload the browser tab
- Avoid being signed in to several Google accounts at the same time in the same browser
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Very low fixed cost: $2.99 per month, with no quota on how much text you generate
- Tokens are bought straight from OpenAI with your own key, so no intermediary margin is added to your usage
- The $2.99 loyalty price is guaranteed for as long as the subscription is never interrupted
- No tool switching: everything happens in the Google Docs document you already have open
- Structural privacy: document content never reaches the publisher's servers, and the policy states that no cookies are placed on your device
- Month-to-month cancellation from the Stripe portal, with a refund window (three days per the FAQ, fourteen days per the terms)
- Button-by-button documentation with concrete keyword examples, support answers promised within one business day, and 5,000+ installs rated 4.5/5 on the Google store
Cons
- Two subscriptions are mandatory: the GhostWryter fee plus a paid OpenAI account billed separately
- Cancelling costs you the loyalty rate: coming back means $7.99 per month instead of $2.99
- No free plan and no free trial, and the publisher's sources disagree with each other, since the Google store listing advertises a free-of-charge trial that the site's FAQ denies
- The refund window contradicts itself: three days in the FAQ against fourteen days in the terms and conditions
- Visible signs of light maintenance: the /pricing/ link in the documentation returns a 404, the blog page is empty and the store listing has not moved since December 2024
- The site still references OpenAI's retired Davinci model, and the FAQ admits the models used are about two years behind
- No GDPR compliance statement, no data processing agreement, no subprocessor list and no declared hosting country
Pricing & Plans
There is no free plan and no free trial. The entry point is a paid subscription at USD 2.99 per month, billed by Stripe and renewed automatically until cancellation. That rate is a loyalty price: customers who cancel and subscribe again later pay USD 7.99 per month. OpenAI usage is charged separately by OpenAI against the user's own API key; the site quotes USD 0.02 per 1,000 tokens (about 750 words) on the Davinci model, which it presents as roughly 37,500 words for one dollar, and mentions a USD 18 sign-up credit granted by OpenAI that expires after three months. Refund conditions are stated inconsistently by the publisher: the FAQ offers a USD 2.99 refund within the first three days, while the terms and conditions announce a refund for any reason within 14 days.
- USD 2.99 per month
- a loyalty price held for as long as the subscription is never interrupted
- USD 7.99 per month for customers who cancelled and came back
- No annual
- team or enterprise tier is offered
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how GhostWryter handles your data.
GDPR overview
GhostWryter is published from Sasbach, Baden-Wurttemberg, so the processing falls under the GDPR by territory. The publisher never says so: across the twelve pages collected, the words GDPR and DSGVO do not appear once. The legal notice is built on German law, citing section 5 TMG and section 55 (2) RStV. No legal basis is stated, no data protection officer is named, and no Article 27 representative is designated, which is normal for a controller already established in the EU. Erasure is handled in practice rather than in legal language: a request to support@ghostwryter.net is executed within 30 days and confirmed. No data processing agreement is published or offered, and no subprocessor list exists. The imprint points to the European online dispute resolution platform while stating that the publisher is neither willing nor obliged to take part in consumer arbitration.
Who owns the data?
The publisher states that the add-on runs entirely inside Google Docs and that none of your document content is accessed, viewed or stored on its servers, so the text you write and generate stays with you and with Google. Requests, triggers, subscription data and usage limits are written to your own Google storage (Document Properties and User Properties). The only personal item GhostWryter collects is the email address shared by the Google sign-in at installation. The privacy policy adds that it does not store API authentication details, request headers, full request URLs or copies of any Docs content produced through the API request process.
Reuse rights
The privacy policy limits the use of collected data to debugging, improving and operating the service, and states plainly that GhostWryter does not sell or share your information with anyone else. Temporary logging runs through Google Cloud Platform and covers error messages from failed API requests, request host names, timestamps, trigger frequency and paid subscription status. Standard website server logs record IP addresses, browser type, internet provider, entry and exit pages, platform and timestamps, which the publisher describes as not linked to any identifying information. Card details are held by Stripe, the payment processor named in the terms and conditions. One area stays uncovered: your prompts travel to OpenAI under your own API key, so that leg of the processing falls under OpenAI's own terms, which no GhostWryter document addresses.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
No hosting country or region is declared anywhere on the site. What the documents name is infrastructure rather than geography: temporary logging runs through Google Cloud Platform, and the add-on's settings, requests, triggers and limits are stored in Google Apps Script storage (Document Properties and User Properties) attached to the user's own Google account. Payments are handled by Stripe. Because no document content ever reaches the publisher's servers, the hosting question does not arise for the text you write and generate: it stays in Google Docs. Independently of what the site states, the marketing website itself resolves to an IP address in Dresden, Germany (85.13.135.143, AS34788 Neue Medien Muennich GmbH), which is the brochure site's infrastructure and not the add-on's. In short: a German publisher, a German-hosted website, Google and Stripe as the visible processing platforms, and no stated jurisdiction for the operational data.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting GhostWryter.
- Subscribe with the exact email address of your Google Docs account: the publisher calls this mismatch the most common reason the add-on refuses to start
- Cancelling permanently forfeits the $2.99 rate, and resubscribing later costs $7.99 per month; separately, the $18 OpenAI sign-up credit mentioned by the site expires after three months
- The publisher's own sources conflict on money: a free trial advertised on the Google store but denied by the site FAQ, and a refund window of three days in the FAQ against fourteen days in the terms
- One of the four Google permissions allows the add-on to run API requests when you are not present
- Your prompts leave for OpenAI under your own API key, and that leg of the processing is covered by no GhostWryter document
- The site still points to OpenAI's retired Davinci model and the FAQ admits the models are about two years behind the news, so drafts can be confidently wrong on anything recent; leaning on them without checking is the real risk
- The troubleshooting page asserts that the add-on is completely bug-free and that any problem is yours alone to find, so expect little diagnostic help from the publisher
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low, but not zero. Nothing requires code, a server or system configuration; the only real friction is creating an OpenAI account, generating an API key and pasting it into the sidebar. Three things must line up: an active Stripe subscription, a valid and funded OpenAI key, and the same email address as your Google Docs account. Installation goes through the Google Workspace Marketplace and asks you to accept four permissions. The publisher devotes two full pages to troubleshooting, which suggests the start-up sequence trips people regularly. Realistically, a few minutes once the OpenAI account exists.
Deployment
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind GhostWryter
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free trial of GhostWryter?
How much does GhostWryter cost?
Why do I need my own OpenAI API key?
Where does GhostWryter run?
Which languages does the interface support?
Can the publisher read my documents?
How long is my data kept?
How do I cancel my subscription?
I clicked a button and nothing happened. What should I check?
Who publishes GhostWryter?
Should you pick GhostWryter?
GhostWryter's argument is the price, and the argument holds. By making you bring your own OpenAI key, the publisher removes the intermediary margin that most AI writing tools build into their plans: $2.99 a month for the add-on, then whatever you actually consume, billed by OpenAI. For an SEO or marketing writer who already drafts in Google Docs and writes in bursts rather than continuously, that arithmetic is hard to beat, and the twenty-odd sidebar buttons cover the real work: ideas, outlines, headings, paragraphs, rewrites, summaries.
The reservations are just as concrete. The service shows signs of light upkeep: a 404 on the pricing link from its own documentation page, an empty blog, a store listing untouched since December 2024, and copy still referencing the Davinci model that OpenAI has retired, alongside the publisher's own admission that the models are about two years behind. Commercially, the publisher contradicts itself twice: the Google store advertises a free trial that the site's FAQ denies, and the refund window is three days in the FAQ against fourteen in the terms. Legally, a German publisher is subject to the GDPR by establishment, yet the word appears nowhere on the site, there is no data processing agreement and no subprocessor list, which is enough to stop a purchase in a regulated organisation, even though the architecture that keeps document content off the publisher's servers is genuinely privacy-friendly.
The scope is narrow by design: no API, no mobile app, no team management, four interface languages, one email address per licence. Judged as what it is, a cheap single-purpose bridge between OpenAI and Google Docs run by one person, GhostWryter is a reasonable buy for an individual writer and a difficult one for anyone with procurement requirements.
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