TextCortex

What Is TextCortex?

Picture a marketing manager at a mid-sized Berlin agency. She writes proposals in Notion, sends client updates in Gmail, and drafts LinkedIn posts directly in the browser. She needs consistent brand voice across all three — without copying text into a separate AI tool, reformatting it, and pasting it back. TextCortex's ZenoChat is built for exactly this workflow. The browser extension activates across 30,000+ websites and apps, bringing the AI alongside wherever she is working rather than forcing her to come to it.

TextCortex launched in Berlin in 2021 as Text Cortex AI UG (haftungsbeschränkt), registered at Lohmühlenstraße 65, 12435 Berlin (HRB 233350 B, Amtsgericht Berlin Charlottenburg). The founding team includes Dominik Lambersy and Ceyhun Derinbogaz. The company raised a $1.2M pre-seed round backed by European investors including b2venture, Speedinvest, and Entrepreneur First, and has since grown to serve users across 25+ languages.

G2 ranked TextCortex among its Top 10 AI Software products in 2025 — a signal that user adoption has expanded well beyond the DACH market. The platform's permanent free tier, which offers 10 daily AI creations with no credit card required, drives significant organic growth that Jasper and Copy.ai's trial-only models cannot replicate.

Key Features

ZenoChat with Custom Personas

ZenoChat is the product's core differentiator. Unlike a generic AI chatbot, ZenoChat allows teams to create Custom Personas that define tone, vocabulary, and factual constraints. A persona for a legal tech firm might be instructed to avoid colloquial language and always include caveats. A persona for a DTC fashion brand might be set to casual, emoji-friendly, and product-benefit-forward.

These personas are persistent across sessions. Teams share them across accounts, so every member writes in the same voice regardless of their individual prompting style. This consistency is what most AI writing tools promise via manual prompt engineering; TextCortex bakes it into the product architecture.

Knowledge Bases

Knowledge Bases let teams upload internal documents (PDFs, DOCX, CSV) and query them through ZenoChat as if talking to a well-briefed colleague. A sales team might upload their product roadmap and competitive battle cards. Ask ZenoChat "What does our product do that Competitor X cannot?" and it answers from the uploaded source material rather than hallucinating general knowledge.

This is meaningful for compliance-sensitive environments. The AI answers from verified internal documents rather than generating plausible-sounding content from training data. The Knowledge Base feature is available from the Pro plan upwards.

Browser Extension Coverage

The TextCortex Toolbar runs as a browser extension on Chrome and integrates with over 30,000 websites and apps. Activate it in Gmail and it drafts email replies. Open it in Notion and it writes directly into the block. Switch to LinkedIn and it generates posts without context switching. The macOS desktop app extends this to native applications.

This integration breadth is TextCortex's answer to the "tool switching" problem. Most AI writing tools require the user to navigate to a separate interface. TextCortex stays at the cursor, wherever that cursor is.

Multi-Model Access

Pro and Business subscribers choose their AI model per session: GPT-4, Claude 3 Opus, and TextCortex's own Sophos-2 model. Different tasks favour different models — Claude 3 Opus for nuanced editorial, GPT-4 for structured outputs, Sophos-2 for speed at lower cost. Having this choice within one subscription avoids the fragmented approach of maintaining separate ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro accounts.

100+ Templates

The template library covers the most common content formats: product descriptions, cold email openers, blog introductions, social media captions, and ad copy variations. The Template Creator feature allows teams to build their own reusable prompt workflows with dynamic input fields — effectively creating custom automation without code.

Pricing

TextCortex's pricing structure is genuinely accessible. The free plan provides 10 creations per day permanently — not a trial, but an ongoing free tier. For individuals writing a handful of short-form pieces per week, this can cover actual usage. The 14-day free trial available at signup offers higher creation limits to evaluate the full product.

Pro at $19.99/month (or less on annual billing) unlocks unlimited creations, Custom Personas, Knowledge Bases, and multi-model access. For a solo professional, that is a defensible monthly spend given the breadth of what it replaces. Business at $49.99/month adds SSO, team management, admin controls, and centralised billing — the features that compliance and IT teams require before approving rollout across a department.

Team and Enterprise plans carry custom pricing with volume discounts, dedicated onboarding, and SLA guarantees. TextCortex's pricing sits below Jasper's business tiers and above neuroflash's Essential plan, positioning it as a strong mid-market option.

EU Compliance and Privacy

TextCortex processes data within the EU as a Berlin-registered entity under German commercial law. The company's imprint (HRB 233350 B, Amtsgericht Berlin Charlottenburg, VAT DE 347 048 706) satisfies the German Impressumspflicht requirements that European users rightly expect from any software company operating in this market. Customer content is not used for AI model training.

The platform's GDPR compliance is structural rather than a tick-box claim. Berlin headquarters means German data protection authority oversight. EU data hosting removes the cross-border transfer complexity that makes US AI tools difficult to deploy in healthcare, finance, and public sector contexts. For teams that need to pass a data processing agreement before procurement, TextCortex has the documentation.

The compliance score is lower than neuroflash's (which holds ISO 27001 certification) because TextCortex has not published equivalent third-party certifications. That gap matters for the most regulated sectors.

Who It's Best For

If you switch between Notion, Gmail, Google Docs, and LinkedIn throughout the day, the browser extension's 30,000+ app coverage makes TextCortex the AI writing tool that fits your actual workflow rather than requiring you to adapt to its interface.

If your team needs consistent brand voice without investing in prompt engineering infrastructure, Custom Personas with Knowledge Bases deliver this on the Pro plan for $19.99/month.

If you need a free tier to build the case internally before a purchasing decision, TextCortex's permanent free plan gives more time to evaluate than any 7-day trial.

If you need ISO 27001 certification or on-premise deployment for a highly regulated sector, neuroflash or Speechmatics are better suited.

The Verdict

TextCortex solves a genuine friction point: AI writing tools that require constant context switching between the AI interface and the tool you are actually working in. ZenoChat's browser coverage, combined with Custom Personas and Knowledge Bases, makes it one of the more practically useful AI writing platforms for European teams. The free tier is real, not a timed demo. Compliance is solid for a German UG. The main limitations are the free plan's tight daily cap and the absence of ISO 27001 certification for the most security-conscious buyers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is TextCortex GDPR compliant?

Yes. TextCortex is incorporated as Text Cortex AI UG in Berlin and processes data within the EU. Customer content is not used for AI model training. The company operates under German commercial law and is subject to German data protection authority oversight.

What is ZenoChat and how is it different from ChatGPT?

ZenoChat is TextCortex's AI assistant enhanced with Custom Personas (brand voice rules) and Knowledge Bases (your own uploaded documents). Unlike ChatGPT, it integrates directly into 30,000+ apps via browser extension, so you write in Gmail or Notion without leaving those tools. Custom Personas ensure consistent tone across every team member.

Does TextCortex have a free plan?

Yes. The free plan provides 10 AI creations per day with no credit card required and no expiry date. A 14-day free trial with higher limits is available at signup. Unlimited creations start at $19.99/month on the Pro plan.

Which AI models does TextCortex support?

Pro and Business subscribers access GPT-4, Claude 3 Opus, and TextCortex's own Sophos-2 model. You choose the model per session based on the task — whether that is maximum quality, fastest output, or lowest cost per creation.

Where is TextCortex data hosted and who has access?

TextCortex processes data within the EU as a Berlin-registered company. The data is not used for AI model training. For enterprise deployments, TextCortex provides data processing agreements and can discuss specific hosting arrangements with security teams.