AI Grant Writing Tools

Grant applications devour time. A comprehensive submission can demand 40 to 80 hours of work. Success rates for grant funding opportunities, such as Innovate UK funding, however, hover between 2 and 5%.

Traditional consultants charge £4,000 to £6,000 per application, plus hefty success fees - sometimes up to 10%.

For charities, research institutions, startups, and SMEs seeking funding, the grant application process has long been a necessary burden.

You need the funding, but the cost in time and expertise to secure it feels like a drag, and distracts attention from key business activities.

Enter artificial intelligence.

AI grant application tools are fundamentally changing how organisations approach funding applications.

From general-purpose language models to purpose-built grant platforms, these technologies promise to reduce writing time, improve application quality, and democratise access to professional-quality support.

But which AI tools actually work for grant writing? What are your options? And what are the trade-offs you need to understand before choosing an approach?

The Grant Application Challenge: Why AI Matters Now

Before exploring AI solutions, it's worth understanding why grant writing has become such a persistent challenge.

Time poverty hits organisations hardest. Whether you're running a charity, managing a research lab, or building a tech startup, your team cannot afford to spend weeks on a single funding application.

The opportunity cost becomes untenable when success rates remain stubbornly low.

Complexity compounds the problem. Modern grant applications require a deep understanding of funder priorities, assessment criteria, and the specific evidence types that score well with reviewers.

First-time applicants frequently misinterpret questions, provide insufficient justification, or fail to align responses with what assessors seek and make common mistakes.

Cost creates exclusion. Professional grant consultants offer expertise but at premium prices that put support beyond reach for many organisations, particularly at early stages when funding matters most.

This perfect storm of challenges explains why AI grant application tools have gained rapid traction.

But not all AI approaches deliver equal value…

Your AI Options: Understanding the Landscape

Generic Large Language Models: ChatGPT, Claude, and Similar Tools

The most accessible option involves general-purpose language models like ChatGPT, Claude AI, Google's Gemini, or Microsoft's Copilot. Applicants copy grant questions into the chat interface, provide project context, and ask the AI to generate draft responses.

The advantages:

Zero or minimal cost (£0-20/month)
Immediate availability with no setup
Flexibility to experiment with different approaches

The significant limitations:

No grant-specific knowledge or understanding of assessment criteria
Requires extensive prompt engineering and manual context management
Heavy editing needed - outputs often sound generic
No structured workflow or scoring feedback
Context limitations force you to work in fragments

Who should consider this: Experienced grant writers who need help with specific sections and are willing to invest time in prompt engineering and correct project setup. This is far less suitable for first-time applicants.

One charity director summarised: "With some investment in setup - ChatGPT gave me a decent output, but I had no idea if assessors would find it compelling. I was flying blind. The output also sounded generic”.

AI-Enhanced Writing Assistants

Platforms like Grammarly, Jasper, or Copy.ai offer more polished interfaces with grammar checking, tone adjustment, and some template support.

However, they still lack grant-specific knowledge, require manual information management, and cost £20-100 per month.

These suit organisations with strong existing capabilities who want writing enhancement rather than grant-specific guidance.

Purpose-Built AI Grant Writing Platforms

The newest category comprises platforms specifically designed for grant application automation. These tools combine AI capabilities with grant-specific knowledge, structured workflows, and assessment guidance.

How purpose-built platforms work differently:

Rather than starting with a blank chat window, these platforms guide you through structured processes designed for grant applications:

Grant-specific training. AI models trained on successful grant applications understand what makes compelling responses and can generate content aligned with funder expectations.
Structured workflows. Step-by-step guidance through application sections, with prompts designed to extract the information funders seek.
Intelligent scoring and feedback. Real-time assessment of draft responses against known criteria, identifying weak areas before submission.
Eligibility checking. Automated verification that you've addressed required elements and met technical requirements.
Expert review integration. Many platforms combine AI automation with human specialist review, creating a hybrid approach.

Examples of purpose-built platforms:

Grantify has established itself in the UK market, particularly for Innovate UK applications.

Their platform breaks down complex grant applications into manageable questions, provides model answers from winning applications, and includes touchpoints with expert proofreading and editing.

Grantify combines its AI-driven platform with dedicated human consultants who guide applicants throughout the process.

However, the major challenge with Grantify’s service is that their minimum package costs over £5,000 per application. And when success isn’t guaranteed, this outlay typically can be too much for startups & SMEs.

It’s therefore clear that whilst Grantify claims to leverage AI in its workflow, this cost efficiency is not fully passed on to the end user.

Grant Hero represents a different model by actually passing on the cost savings from AI to the end user.

Where other grant writing platforms (like Grantify) charge £6,000 to £15,000 and still require weeks of your time, GrantHero's AI generates optimised drafts in hours, then bid-writing experts refine them.

Grant Hero’s platform helps with the application process in a few key ways:

Utilising company profiles to find relevant matches for AI, then automatically generating proposals for competitions.
Asking only critical questions to create rapid drafts with a flexible way to ingest data (documents, typing, voice)
Providing a benchmark assessment of your content with AI that’s been trained on previous application data. Grant Hero knows what ‘good’ looks like.
Finally, we add key touchpoints with human experts to help boost your score and make your application submission ready.

Because we utilise AI to automate parts of our workflow, this pricing sits 70-95% below traditional consultancy fees whilst maintaining the same calibre of expertise.

Ultimately, GrantHero saves up to 40 hours per application compared to DIY approaches. It enables more rolls of the dice for grant applications - saving founders time, whilst still maintaining high-quality outputs.

The advantages of purpose-built platforms:

Grant-specific guidance. These tools understand what makes funding applications successful.
Dramatic time savings. Structured approaches reduce application time by 30-40 hours compared with purely manual methods.
Better quality outputs. Training on successful applications produces content more likely to resonate with assessors.
Centralised information management. Your project details live in one place rather than scattered across documents and chat histories.
Actionable feedback. Scoring systems highlight specific weaknesses you can address before submission.
Learning over time. These platforms get smarter about your organisation with each application.

The limitations:

Higher cost than generic AI. Purpose-built platforms can be more expensive than generic AI.
Limited to supported grant types. Most platforms focus on specific geographies or funding programmes (though this is often an advantage rather than a limitation).

Who should consider this approach:

Everyone! Providing the grant you want to apply for is supported by the platform.

With a range of pricing options for both experienced grant writers and newbies, grant writing platforms like Grant Hero really do provide the best of both worlds!

Making Your Choice

Consider generic AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude) if:

You're applying for niche grants not yet supported by purpose-built platforms like Grant Hero
Budget is your absolute priority, and you have ample time to invest
You're comfortable with extensive prompt engineering and manual workflow
You're willing to copy and paste application content repeatedly to maintain context to and from your AI tools.

Consider purpose-built AI platforms (like Grant Hero) if:

You're applying for supported funding programmes (e.g., Innovate UK, UKRI).
Time saving matters, and you want to reclaim 10 hours+ per application
You need quality outputs without sacrificing speed or affordability
You want AI-powered scoring feedback based on previously successful grants
You're pursuing multiple grant applications and need efficiency at scale
You need structured guidance tailored to specific funder requirements
You want flexibility; you get to choose between from AI-only (£150) to full expert reviews (£1,500+) with Grant Hero

Consider premium support with full expert involvement (£4,500-15,000+) if:

You're time-poor and need experts to build your first draft for you
You're applying for high-value grants (£250K+) where professional support is justified
You want complete draft creation, not just review and feedback
You're managing multiple applications simultaneously

Within premium support, consider:

AI-driven premium platforms (£4,500-5,000) like Grant Hero's Platinum for:

Human built first draft including all appendices and financial forecast
Former Innovate UK experts providing strategic refinement
Relative cost efficiency with the same expert quality at significantly lower investment
Streamlined process with discovery calls and follow-up support

Traditional consultants (£6,000-15,000+) for:

Applications that involve partnership/consortium sourcing (e.g. Horizon Europe)
Highly complex regulatory or compliance requirements
Preference for traditional consultancy relationships