Last updated: 2026-09-23
Wrtn is a South Korean AI superapp from Wrtn Technologies, reporting 5.4 million monthly active users in 2026. It bundles AI search, writing assistance, image generation and character chat (Crack) into one product, running on licensed OpenAI models, including o1 and GPT-5, through Azure rather than a model it trains itself.
About Wrtn
Wrtn is a Korean AI superapp built by Wrtn Technologies, a Seoul-based startup founded in April 2021 by Seyoung Lee, Youngjoon Yoo, Sungwon Jae and Dongjae Lee. The founders met running the Korea Scholars Conference for Youth, a student event that drew 3,000 attendees a year, and turned that community into one of Korea's earliest consumer generative AI products. The company has raised $166 million total, most recently a $72.2 million Series C in August 2026 that valued it above $722 million, after an $18.3 million round in 2023 led by BRV Capital Management and a $73.5 million Series B in March 2025 led by Goodwater Capital.
The product itself is not a single chatbot but a bundle: AI-powered search that pairs retrieval-augmented generation with a browsing agent, a general writing and ideation assistant, an image generator, and Crack, an open-ended character-chat platform that became Korea's top-grossing chat app. Rather than training its own foundation model, Wrtn licenses and integrates third-party models through Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service, switching between OpenAI's o1 for complex reasoning and coding tasks and GPT-5 for everyday chat depending on what the request needs. That puts it in a different lane from ChatGPT or Claude, which are the underlying models themselves; Wrtn is closer to a Korean-market front end that picks whichever model fits the job.
Most usage inside the app skews toward everyday writing, marketing copy, homework help and casual conversation with Crack's AI characters, closer to consumer chat use than the developer and coding workloads that make up more of ChatGPT's or Perplexity's traffic. Wrtn Technologies markets the whole stack, search, chat, image generation, character chat and the extras detailed below, as a single subscription-free front door to generative AI for Korean speakers who would otherwise juggle several separate apps.
The core product is free with no daily generation cap, a design choice that trades response speed and result count rather than access itself; the paid tier's exact figure is in the FAQ further down this page. Wrtn ships as a web app and as native iOS and Android apps, all Korean-language first; Gemini and ChatGPT remain the more English-first options for non-Korean speakers, and there is no public developer API for Wrtn itself.
Pricing
Free tier: unlimited generations across chat, search, writing and image generation, capped at one result per prompt and standard response speed. Premium Plus: 34,900 KRW/month (about $25) for faster responses, up to three results per generation, and early access to new features; this price was set in a February 2023 restructuring and HokAI could not confirm it is unchanged for 2026. Character chat's Super Chat add-on is billed separately and routes conversations to higher-performing models.
No public API or developer pricing exists.
| Tier | Monthly price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | |
| Premium Plus | $25.85/mo |
Key Features
- AI Search: Combines retrieval-augmented generation with an internet-browsing agent to answer Korean-language queries with sourced results, in the same job category as a Perplexity-style search assistant.
- Crack character chat: An open-ended character-chat mode that became Korea's top-grossing chat app, letting users hold ongoing conversations with AI personas for storytelling or language practice.
- Image generation: Generates images from text prompts inside the same app used for chat and writing, without switching to a separate tool.
- Wrtn Speaking: Places a 10-minute AI phone call in English each day so users can practice spoken English on a fixed schedule.
- Studio Pro: Lets non-developers describe an app in natural language and get working code back, built on Azure OpenAI's o1 reasoning model.
Pros
- Users don't hit a wall after a handful of free messages the way many competitors' free tiers do; Wrtn's free plan generates without a daily cap, trading off speed and single-result output instead.
- One of Korea's most-used consumer AI apps, with millions of monthly users and search and responses tuned to local sources and slang rather than an English-first product translated into Korean.
- Bundles chat, AI search, image generation, character chat and English-speaking practice in one app instead of five separate subscriptions.
Cons
- Runs on licensed third-party models (OpenAI's o1 and GPT-5 via Azure) rather than its own foundation model, so output quality shifts whenever Wrtn changes which model handles a task.
- No public developer API, so teams that want to build on top of Wrtn's search or chat capabilities directly cannot.
- Interface, support and search results are optimized for Korean; non-Korean speakers get a thinner experience than native ChatGPT or Gemini usage.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Wrtn cost in 2026?
Wrtn's core chat, search, writing and image tools are free with no cap on the number of generations. A paid Premium Plus tier runs 34,900 KRW (about $25) a month, removing the free tier's speed throttle and raising the results shown per generation from one to three; HokAI could not confirm this figure is unchanged for 2026. Character chat has a separate paid add-on, Super Chat, billed per use.
Can you use Wrtn without paying?
Yes. The free tier has no daily or monthly generation limit across chat, AI search, writing and image generation, which is unusual among AI apps that meter free usage by credits or tokens. The tradeoff is slower response speed and only one result per prompt; Premium Plus removes both limits for a fee.
What should you use instead of Wrtn?
ChatGPT and Gemini cover similar chat and writing ground but are English-first with public developer APIs, which Wrtn lacks. Perplexity is the closer match for the AI-search piece specifically, since both apps pair retrieval with a chat interface, though Perplexity does not bundle image generation or character chat the way Wrtn does.
How does Wrtn compare to ChatGPT in 2026?
Wrtn does not train its own model; it licenses OpenAI's models, including o1 and GPT-5, through Azure OpenAI Service and layers a Korean-first interface, unlimited free search and writing, and Crack's character chat on top. ChatGPT offers a public API, broader language support and its own frontier models directly, which Wrtn does not expose to developers.
How do you set up Wrtn?
Sign up at wrtn.ai or download the iOS or Android app with an email or social login; no payment method is required to start. New users land on the free tier by default, with chat, search, writing and image tools available immediately, and can add Premium Plus later from account settings for faster responses.
Top Alternatives
- ChatGPT: Choose ChatGPT for an English-first assistant with a public API; Wrtn is the better fit for a free, Korean-first bundle of search, writing and character chat.
- Perplexity: Go with Perplexity when cited-source search is the whole job; Wrtn adds image generation and character chat under the same login.
- Gemini: Gemini fits teams already on Google Workspace who need English support; Wrtn suits Korean-language work with an unmetered free tier.