Copy.ai

Content creation has become both a necessity and a challenge for businesses striving to capture consumer attention. One unverified source estimated in 2024 that content marketing cost 62% less than traditional marketing, while generating leads that are six times more likely to convert. Both B2B and B2C companies rely on content marketing, with adoption rates of 73% and 70%, respectively as of 2024.

Despite its advantages, content marketing remains expensive. As of 2024, businesses typically spend $5K to $10K per month on content, with individual blog posts costing between $250 and $500. Experienced writers can charge upwards of $1.5K per article, as of 2024. In 2022, global digital advertising spending reached $567.5 billion and was projected to grow to $835.8 billion by 2026, highlighting the increasing competition among businesses to capture consumer attention.

The demand for high-quality content often exceeds the capacity of human teams, leading to inefficiencies and rising costs. Many businesses have turned to generative AI to address this gap. In 2022, 52% of business leaders allocated more than 5% of their digital budgets to AI solutions, up from 40% in 2018. As of 2023, 73% of marketers used generative AI for content creation, with applications including email copy, social media content, SEO content, blog posts, and marketing collateral. As of 2023, 22% of marketers also used AI for idea generation, 21% for summarizing text, and 20% for writing copy and creating images.

Copy.ai uses large language models like GPT-3 and Claude to help businesses generate marketing and advertising copy using generative AI. Its tools enable users to create blog posts, product descriptions, and other content with minimal input, claiming to reduce the time spent on ideation by up to 80%, as of 2021. As of February 2024, Copy.ai had 16 million users and had raised $16.9 million in venture funding.

Paul Yacoubian (CEO) and Chris Lu (CTO) founded Copy.ai in 2020 after working together at the ESO fund.

Yacoubian graduated from Rhodes College with a bachelor's degree in economics in 2008. He began his career as a CPA at CBIZ, a public accounting firm, where he worked from 2008 to 2011. He then transitioned into the hedge fund industry as the CFO of a stealth long-short hedge fund, investing in the SaaS, semiconductor, and industrial sectors until 2014. In 2013, he began working with CirQuest Labs, a family-run tech startup, where he helped scale and eventually sell the company to a private equity firm. From 2016 to 2020, he was a general partner at Employee Stock Option (ESO) Fund.

Lu attended Sidwell Friends School and later earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis in 2015. He began his post-graduate career at ESO Fund, where he worked from 2014 to 2020 as a general partner and head of engineering. During his time there, he built and launched five generative AI applications in nine months between 2019 and 2020, using GPT-2 and GPT-3.

After years of experience in the technology and investment industries, Yacoubian and Lu met and worked together at ESO Fund for five years. As investors, they helped employees at private companies such as Stripe and Palantir secure financing to purchase their stock options. This experience provided them with insight into the business models and growth strategies of startups.

While working at the ESO fund, Lu and Yacoubian began angel-investing in their clients’ new ventures and started testing their own side hustles. They used Twitter to obtain a pipeline of users and received instant feedback for their first few ventures. One of their early ventures was Taglines.io, a tool to help startups create ad copy and brand stories using AI. Seeing the velocity of adoption of this tool compared to their other ventures, in October 2020, they bought the Copy.ai domain for $5K. Yacoubian said,

In 2020, Yacoubian announced Copy.ai to the world in a tweet that sparked public interest in Copy.ai. Within a year of posting, the tweet obtained 280K impressions and led to 7K website visits, 2K signups, and Copy.ai’s first set of paying customers. Even without advertising, the tweet was reaching around 200 people a day months later.

In terms of notable hires, in January 2024, Kyle Coleman joined Copy.ai as Chief Marketing Officer. Previously, he was the CMO at Clari, an AI-powered SaaS company focused on enterprise revenue workflows, where he worked from April 2019 to January 2024.

Chat

Source: Copy.ai

Copy.ai's Chat is a free AI writing assistant used to brainstorm new ideas, create marketing copy, and write articles. The Chat interface mimics ChatGPT and other familiar generative AI platforms. It allows users to switch between different large language models, including OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Claude’s Sonnet 3.5, to help users choose the best model for their tasks.

Copy.ai's Chat assistant includes various features to help teams generate high-quality content. The tool also allows users to attach files, which provide context for more accurate AI-generated outputs. Chat also offers pre-made prompts and an "Improve" button to help team members without experience generate quality content. The platform offers personalized brand voice storage, enabling consistent messaging tailored to different audiences and campaigns. Additionally, features like real-time web search for market research and LinkedIn profile scraping help teams use relevant, up-to-date information for targeted outreach.

Copy.ai’s Chat also integrates with Infobase, Copy.ai’s data management product, enabling users to retrieve company information when generating content.

Tables

Source: Copy.ai

Tables are data layers that can centralize data from multiple external sources. Tables integrate into automation workflows, update in real time, and create reports.

Tables centralize both structured data (like spreadsheets) and unstructured data (like notes) from various sources like CRM systems, call transcripts, and document management platforms. By synchronizing and updating data in real-time, GTM teams can access a cohesive view of customer interactions, sales progress, and marketing efforts, eliminating data silos and improving cross-functional collaboration. Centralizing data sources helps teams conduct advanced data analytics, allowing teams to combine diverse data types and gain additional insights into customer behavior and performance trends.

Additionally, Tables can automatically initiate follow-ups, adjust workflows, and generate reports, enabling teams to focus on higher-value activities. Use cases for these automations include content creation for a marketing campaign or personalizing outreach for Account-Based Marketing (ABM).

Infobase

Source: Copy.ai

Infobase is a tool that allows users to store and organize company information like brand guidelines, product details, or value propositions. Users can upload and tag this information, making it easy to retrieve by referencing specific hashtags in their Chat prompts. When creating content, teams can use information from Infobase by typing the relevant hashtag (e.g., #mission for a mission statement). This lets teams integrate company information into their AI-generated content.

Actions

Source: Copy.ai

Actions allow users to automate steps within their workflows using AI, making tasks such as sending emails, creating calendar events, and managing projects more efficient. Actions serve as building blocks for complex workflows, integrating data from multiple sources and triggering processes automatically. By bridging the AI application with the Copy.ai platform, AI Actions translate instructions from the application into a series of executable tasks. For example, users can automate repetitive tasks within their workflows, like generating content or scheduling meetings, by utilizing Copy.ai Actions.

This not only saves time but also improves consistency and accuracy. AI Actions are particularly useful for tasks that require interaction with different tools and platforms, allowing users to automate a variety of tasks ranging from content creation to project management.

There are three types of Actions: Basic Actions, Platinum Actions, and Agentic Actions. Basic Actions handle straightforward tasks like generating text. Platinum Actions execute more complex operations involving multiple data sources. Agentic Actions have decision-making capabilities, such as gathering information and making real-time adjustments about where to look next. The modular nature of Actions means they can be strung together to create more sophisticated, end-to-end workflows tailored to a team’s specific needs. These different actions work together to allow GTM teams to automate a wide range of tasks, from writing marketing emails to analyzing competitor websites.

While Copy.ai offers a range of predefined actions, the development of custom actions is underway as of February 2025, which will allow users to create personalized automation workflows tailored to their unique needs.

Source: Copy.ai

Actions can be used practically across various functions. For instance, sales teams can automate lead enrichment by pulling data from different sources, ensuring CRM profiles are always up to date. Marketing teams can use Actions to generate content for campaigns, automatically schedule posts, and even track engagement metrics, all within the same workflow. With Agentic Actions, workflows can dynamically adapt based on real-time data, allowing businesses to respond to changes in market conditions or customer behavior without manual intervention.

Brand Voice

The brand voice feature enables companies to maintain consistent, on-brand content creation across platforms.

The user begins by providing at least 300 words of text that represent the brand’s tone and style, such as blog posts, emails, or social media updates. Copy.ai analyzes these inputs and creates a custom brand voice, which can be refined further. Once finalized, the brand voice can be applied to all content generated on the platform. This feature allows Pro users to create unlimited brand voices while ensuring data security through SOC 2 Type II certification.

Brand Voice can also be integrated into workflows, allowing businesses to achieve greater consistency in their messaging and maintain the brand’s personality and style across various channels. Users can select the appropriate brand voice for automated content generation, ensuring that all outputs reflect the brand’s guidelines.

Source: Copy.ai

Workflows

Workflows allow users to move beyond single-task automation into complete process management. They are designed to handle complex, multi-step tasks across functions, enabling teams to operate more efficiently, focus on strategy, and achieve better alignment.

Source: Copy.ai

Workflows improve efficiency and cost savings by automating repetitive, data-intensive tasks, reducing manual labor, and minimizing errors. They analyze large datasets to tailor content for target audiences and support informed, data-driven decision-making with real-time insights. Designed to scale, workflows adapt to growing data loads and evolving processes, requiring minimal additional resources.

Copy.ai Workflows offer five core features. They enable end-to-end automation, handling entire processes like prospect research, data enrichment, and content creation. Users can choose from prebuilt and customizable workflows, modifying them as needed. Workflows are scalable over large datasets and can integrate with tools like Slack, CRM platforms, and Zapier. The testing and refinement feature lets users validate outputs without using credits. Forms for input collection enable direct data input through embeddable forms or landing pages.

Customer

Copy.ai's primary customers are marketers, entrepreneurs, and businesses aiming to streamline their content creation process using AI-powered tools. Copy.ai said in January 2025 that its customers often hear about its products through channels like Twitter, sign up for a free trial, and convert to paying customers after. The founder or owner of a company that uses Copy.AI is usually both the end-user and the decision-maker.

As of February 2025, notable customers included Thermo Fisher Scientific, Business Journal, and Siemens. Copy.ai appeals to businesses that want to speed up the creative process without replacing their teams. It promotes an 80% reduction in the ideation phase, allowing marketers to focus on execution and strategy.

Source: Copy.ai

Market Size

The global digital advertising market is projected to grow from $628.8 billion in 2022 to $1.2 trillion by 2027, representing a 14.7% CAGR from 2022 to 2027. This growth is being driven by increased smartphone adoption, high-speed internet, social media expansion, and the rise of e-commerce. Demand for location-based marketing and paid search ads also contributes to this trend.

The generative AI market, which includes AI-powered content creation tools like Copy.ai, is growing rapidly. Valued at $8.2 billion in 2021, it was expected to reach $126.5 billion by 2031 at a 32% CAGR. Though previously considered the least likely to be automated, creative work is being transformed by generative AI, which automates content creation and graphic design. By streamlining these processes, generative AI improves efficiency and reduces costs, driving further market growth.

ChatGPT: ChatGPT is OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot. OpenAI, initially founded as a non-profit organization in December 2015, received funding commitments from prominent figures such as Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk. In October 2024, OpenAI raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation and secured a $4 billion credit line, bringing its total funding to $21.9 billion across ten rounds as of February 2025. Copy.ai uses Open AI’s large language models (LLMs) to generate copywriting and prompt suggestions, but users could easily bypass Copy.ai and directly use OpenAI’s ChatGPT. However, Copy.ai’s Chat, unlike ChatGPT, offers integrations with proprietary tools and features like workflows that automate content creation and data retrieval.

Gemini: Gemini, originally known as Bard, was launched by Google in February 2023 and made accessible to the public in March 2023. Founded in 1998, Google is traded on the NASDAQ and has a market cap of $2.3 trillion as of February 2025. It has rapidly evolved with Google's vast data and resources behind it. Gemini benefits from integration across Google’s suite of products like Search, Docs, and Gmail, giving it a user base of more than 275 million active monthly participants, as of January 2025. As Gemini improves its contextual understanding and personalization for users, it becomes a stronger competitor by being embedded within everyday tools, making it easier for users to access AI capabilities without turning to third-party solutions like Copy.ai.

Claude Sonnet: Anthropic, founded in 2021, has attracted significant attention for its focus on alignment research, raising a series of investments totaling $9.7 billion across 10 rounds as of October 2024. As of February 2025, it was finalizing a $3.5 billion fundraising round at a valuation of $61.5 billion. Released by Anthropic, Claude Sonnet is an AI chatbot with a strong emphasis on safety and ethical decision-making in its responses. Unlike Claude Sonnet, Copy.ai is optimized for high-volume content creation without requiring additional model fine-tuning.

Perplexity: Perplexity launched in 2022, emphasizes combining AI-generated answers with citations, aiming for greater accuracy and transparency in the content produced. It has raised $665 million across five rounds as of February 2025. This AI chatbot appeals to users who seek trustworthy and verifiable information, differentiating Perplexity from Copy.ai, which focuses more on creative and marketing copy. While Perplexity can expand its toolset to include more interactive features, Copy.ai may consider offering options for verified and fact-checked content, as some users may prioritize accuracy over purely creative writing.

Jasper: Founded in 2021, Jasper is a generative AI copywriting platform designed for marketers and content creators. As of October 2022, it raised $125 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to $131 million across six rounds as of February 2025. Built on large language models, like Copy.ai, Jasper offers similar features, including pre-built templates for ad copy and workbenches for generating blog posts. A former CMO of Copy.ai asserted that the difference between Jasper and Copy.ai is the target audiences, rather than the products themselves. As this CMO put it:

Copyrytr: Founded in 2020, CopySmith uses AI to help marketers create copy. Copysmith raised $10 million in 2021 to grow its business which was then focused on templates for specific ad copy. Like Copy.ai, CopySmith uses external LLMs but also uses some in-house language models. Its templates were specific to popular platforms like Google ads, Facebook ads, or YouTube video descriptions. Since then, Copysmith has expanded through acquisitions of Rytr and Frase, launching a collective of AI content and SEO marketing solutions called Copyrytr. Frase is a platform that helps individual marketers research, write, and optimize AI-generated SEO content. Copysmith, the company’s original product, has transformed into an AI content-creator tool for teams at enterprise-scale companies. Like Copy.ai, Copyrytr offers AI-powered content and marketing tools for both individuals and enterprises.

Writesonic: Founded in 2021, Writesonic is an AI-powered content creation platform designed to help entrepreneurs, business professionals, and small business owners generate high-quality written content efficiently. The platform leverages large language models like GPT-4 or Claude 3 to create blog posts, articles, social media content, advertising materials, and more. One of Writesonic’s standout products is Botsonic, an AI chatbot builder that enables companies to use their internal knowledge base for more personalized and effective customer interactions, similar to Copy.ai’s Infobase. The popularity of Botsonic prompted its spin-off into a standalone company. In late 2021, Writesonic secured $2.5 million in seed round funding, with total funding of $2.5 million as of February 2025. Unlike Copy.ai, which primarily focuses on creative content generation, Writesonic offers additional tools such as an AI chatbot builder for customer interaction.

Source: Copy.ai

Copy.ai’s platform offers a freemium model, allowing users to access basic features before upgrading to paid plans for more functionality. For its paid offerings, Copy.ai operates under a subscription-based model either monthly or annually. The annual plan offers up to a 20% discount. Users pay a recurring fee to access and use the platform's AI-powered content generation tools and features. Subscribers are granted access to various levels of functionality, depending on their chosen subscription plan. The subscription model provides users with regular access to the platform's tools, updates, and improvements.

Free Tier: The Free Tier allows users to explore Copy.ai's basic features without any financial commitment. This plan includes one user seat and provides 2K words per month in Chat. Users have access to basic writing tools through Chat, including AI article generation and social media content creators. They can also use Infobase to store and organize company information.

Starter Tier: The Starter Tier, priced at $36/month, offers more advanced features than the Free Tier. It includes one user seat and allows for unlimited words for chat and content creation, along with unlimited content projects. Users gain access to the latest AI models and receive exclusive access to a private community for discussions and support.

Advanced Tier: Priced at $186/month, this plan provides up to five user seats and includes 2K workflow credits per month. Users have access to over 15 marketing and sales workflow templates and can use the workflow builder for custom automation needs.

Enterprise Tier: This price tier includes guided implementation and onboarding, API access for bulk operations and advanced workflow integration, and over 20 tech integrations. Users can create customizable workflows and benefit from enterprise-grade security measures and dedicated support. Pricing for the enterprise is customized to the business.

Launched in July 2020, Copy.ai attracted 40K users within its first three months, using the capabilities of OpenAI’s GPT-3. By the end of 2020, Copy.ai saw ~100% growth in its monthly recurring revenue. In 2021, around 380K people used CopyAI to create marketing copy for their businesses, allowing the company to reach $2.4M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) from over 5K paying customers in 50 countries.

This traction continued in the following year, with Copy.ai serving 1 million users by July 2022. By October 2022, Copy.ai’s annual recurring revenue had reached $10 million with a team of 31 full-time employees. By July 2023, Copy.ai had amassed 10 million users. As of December 2024, it had increased revenue by 480% in 2024, seeing four months of over 20% total annual recurring revenue growth. As of February 2025, Copy.ai had more than 16 million users.

Source: Growth Unhinged

Copy.ai has been able to reach and onboard enterprise customers across industries. As of February 2025, its large technology customers included Lenovo, Rubik, and Autodesk. In 2022, Copy.ai earned the Intelligent Application 40 Award for its work in building with generative AI. The company was awarded the Enterprise 30 Award in June 2023, which highlighted its contributions to enterprise technology. The company has also been featured in publications including Forbes, Fast Company, Inc Magazine, and The Economist.

As of February 2025, Copy.ai had raised $16.9 million in venture funding. In November 2023, it raised a convertible note of $3 million from K5 Global according to CB Insights. Before this, it raised an $11 million Series A led by Craft Ventures and Sequoia, with participation from Tiger Global and Elad Gil. The company’s valuation is estimated to be ~$100 million as of 2022.

Source: Sacra

Horizontal Expansion

Copy.ai develops tools for marketing products and services but has also expanded into areas like job description creation. Copy.ai can automate other business functions, such as generating onboarding documents for HR or organizing sales pipelines. Companies that initially targeted individual users, like Grammarly, have successfully expanded into business automation.

Studies show employees spend up to two hours daily searching for information. Since Copy.ai already integrates with companies’ internal data to improve content generation, it can extend its capabilities to streamline knowledge sharing. By surfacing relevant information when and where employees need it, Copy.ai may reduce inefficiencies and improve productivity. Since its inception, it has built over 90 tools across various use cases, making further horizontal expansion a natural progression.

Enterprise Sales

Many of Copy.ai’s small business and solo entrepreneur clients operate like larger companies but have fewer resources. The freemium model attracts users who start for free and stay for its efficiency. However, as usage grows, Copy.ai’s costs rise due to its reliance on OpenAI’s models. To remain sustainable, Copy.ai must target higher-revenue enterprise customers. While it has the tools to serve them, it can improve its sales infrastructure to reach them more effectively. As digital commerce expands, Copy.ai's generative AI tools can help businesses scale efficiently.

Low Switching Costs

Copy.ai faces competition both from startups with similar offerings and from established companies like GitHub, Microsoft, and Notion, which are rapidly rolling out AI automation tools to large user bases. Since Copy.ai and competitors like Jasper rely on similar underlying models, their core products are not fundamentally different. Their differentiation comes from user experience, interface design, and how they build their communities and customer bases. The widespread accessibility of generative AI tools and similar underlying technology also leads to lower switching costs for users. Copy.ai’s former CMO said:

Dependence on Third-Party AI Models

Copy.ai's reliance on third-party AI models, such as OpenAI's GPT models, poses an operational risk. This dependence means that any changes in access, pricing, or terms of service from these external providers could adversely affect Copy.ai's ability to deliver its services. Additionally, shifts in the policies of these third-party organizations—such as the introduction of stricter usage guidelines or a reduction in API availability—could disrupt service delivery. This makes Copy.ai vulnerable to policy changes beyond its control, which could impact its overall performance and customer satisfaction.

Copy.ai utilizes existing LLM models like GPT-3 and Claude to offer tools that help marketers, entrepreneurs, and businesses create marketing and advertising copy using generative AI. Copy.ai operates on a subscription-based model to serve both individual users and enterprises. Three years after its founding, the company had acquired 10 million users, and as of February 2025, the platform had a user base of more than 16 million and had secured $16.9 million in total venture funding.

The company faces competition from industry incumbents like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini and other startups like Jasper, Copyrytr, and Writesonic that offer similar AI-driven copy solutions. Key challenges for Copy.ai include low switching costs for users and a dependency on third-party AI providers like OpenAI. To sustain its growth and strengthen its market position, Copy.ai can pursue opportunities to expand its offerings horizontally and invest more in attracting enterprise customers.