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“I created this from scratch.” – said no marketer ever.
With 85% of marketers now using AI tools for content creation, the real question isn’t whether to use AI. It’s which tools are actually worth your time.
But have no fear: We’ve rounded up the best AI tools for social media content creation in 2026, plus expert tips to find the right fit for your team.
Key takeaways
- Best tools at a glance: Jasper and Anyword for writing captions, Canva and Adobe Express for designing visuals, OpusClip and Riverside for repurposing videos, and Perch and Buffer for scheduling and publishing.
- Choose the right tool for the job. Start with the bottleneck you’re trying to fix, whether that’s writing faster, creating better visuals, or getting more mileage out of every video.
- Don’t trade one bottleneck for another. A clever AI feature won’t save much time if it creates five extra steps.
Here’s a quick look at the best AI tools for social media content creation, including their standout AI feature:
| Tool | Best for | Standout AI feature | Starting price (2026) |
| Jasper | Enterprise marketing teams creating content across brands, regions, or languages | Marketing agents: 100+ AI agents that handle tasks across the marketing content pipeline | $69/month per seat, billed annually |
| Anyword | Social and performance marketing teams that want data-backed copy | A/B testing: Scores copy variations based on expected engagement and conversion performance | $39/month, billed annually |
| Claude | Solo marketers and teams that want a flexible, multipurpose AI assistant | Projects: A workspace that stores your brand guidelines, tone rules, and reference materials, which Claude uses to create on-brand content | Free. Paid plans from $17/month, billed annually |
| Canva (Magic Studio) | Solo marketers and lean teams creating social visuals without a designer | Magic Layers: Turns AI-generated images into editable layers so you can move elements and fix text | Free. Paid plans from $12/month, billed annually |
| Adobe Express (with Firefly) | Marketing teams that need commercially safe AI-made visuals | Text-to-image: Generate commercially-safe images directly inside your design with Firefly. | Free. Paid plans from $9.99/month |
| Ideogram | Marketers creating text-heavy graphics | Text rendering: Generates visuals with accurate text built directly into the image | Free. Paid plans from $15/month, billed annually |
| OpusClip | Creators and teams repurposing long-form video | ClipAnything: Finds and cuts specific moments from long videos based on your prompt | Free. Paid plans from $15/month, billed annually |
| Riverside | Video and podcast teams that want to record and repurpose content in one tool | Co-Creator: An AI editing agent that turns recordings into clips, thumbnails, and promotional assets | Free. Paid plans from $24/month, billed annually |
| Perch by Hootsuite | Social teams that want AI creation, scheduling, and publishing in one tool | Wisdom: A social-first AI agent that uses your brand guidelines to brainstorm ideas, draft social copy, and drop posts directly into your content calendar. It also surfaces content trends from your industry and niche. | $99/month per user |
| Buffer | Solo marketers and small businesses managing a few social channels | AI Assistant: Generates ideas and adapts copy for different platforms and tones | Free. Paid plans from $5/month per channel, billed annually |
| SocialBee | Solopreneurs, small teams, and agencies that want to recycle evergreen content | Copilot: Builds a social strategy with content pillars and a posting plan. | $24/month, billed annually |
Do it better with Hootsuite, the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.
What AI tools are best for writing captions and copy?
The best AI tools for writing social media captions and copy are Jasper, Anyword, and Claude. Let’s take a closer look at each tool:
1. Jasper
Source: Jasper
Jasper is an AI writing tool that helps marketing teams create on-brand content at scale. It stores your voice and tone rules in one place, then applies them across campaigns, channels, and markets.
Best for: Enterprise marketing teams creating content across several brands, regions, or languages
Key AI features:
- Marketing agents: Jasper offers a library of 100+ marketing agents, each designed to handle a different part of the content pipeline. For example, the Social Media Campaign Agent turns a campaign brief into channel-specific posts.
- BrandIQ: This is essentially your brand hub. It stores your brand voice, writing rules, and visual guidelines, then draws on them to keep content consistent across chats.
- Localization: With Jasper, you can translate marketing copy in 25+ languages, then let its AI agents adapt the tone and cultural references for different regions.
Pricing: No free plan. Paid plans from $69/month per seat, billed annually.
Keep in mind: Jasper doesn’t publish content, so you’ll need to pair it with a scheduling and publishing tool.
2. Anyword
Source: Anyword
Anyword is an AI copywriting tool that tells you how your content will perform before you hit “publish.” Everything it generates comes with a predictive performance score, so you’re choosing copy based on hard data, not gut instinct.
Best for: Social and performance marketing teams at midsize companies and enterprises
Key AI features:
- A/B testing: Generate a few variations of a social media post, and Anyword scores each one based on real engagement and conversion data for your industry and channel. Then, pick the winner before your audience ever sees the duds.
- Buyer personas: Build audience personas around specific roles, demographics, and pain points, then have Anyword adjust the message and talking points for each group.
Pricing: No free plan. Paid plans from $39/month, billed annually.
Keep in mind: You can generate unlimited content with Anyword, but performance predictions are capped on lower tiers.
3. Claude
Source: Claude
Claude is a general-purpose AI assistant that marketers can use to talk through content ideas and generate first drafts. It’s known for natural-sounding writing, and its Projects feature makes it easy to keep your content on brand.
Best for: Solo marketers and teams of any size that want one flexible assistant for writing and research.
Key AI features:
- Projects: Create a Project for your brand or campaign, then upload your style guide, tone rules, and a few top-performing posts. Claude uses those files as background for every draft, so you don’t have to explain your brand from scratch each time.
- Research: Claude searches the web for current information and returns sources you can double-check, making it useful for research and fact-checking.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from $17/month, billed annually.
Keep in mind: Claude works best when you give it strong source material. Vague prompts = vague copy.
The best AI tools for designing social media visuals are Canva, Adobe Express, and Ideogram. Here’s why they landed on our list:
4. Canva (Magic Studio)
Source: Canva
Canva is a design platform most social teams already know, and Magic Studio builds AI into nearly every step of it.
You can generate images from a text prompt, resize designs for every platform (like converting Instagram carousels into Facebook Reels), and edit photos without ever opening professional design software.
Best for: Solo marketers and lean social teams without a dedicated graphic designer
Key AI features:
- Magic Design: Describe the visual you need or upload your own media, and Canva creates a set of editable layouts to get you started.
- Magic Layers: Take an AI-generated image and split it into editable layers so you can move objects, fix text, and change colors.
- Magic Resize: Turn one design into correctly sized versions for Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and everywhere else, so you’re not rebuilding the same post five times.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from $12/month, billed annually.
Keep in mind: The number of AI images you can generate is capped monthly, and the gap between free and paid plans is pretty big.
5. Adobe Express (with Firefly)
Source: Adobe Express
Adobe Express is Adobe’s quick-design tool, powered by Firefly, its generative AI. Because Firefly is trained on licensed content such as Adobe Stock, it’s the safest pick for brands that worry about where AI images come from.
Best for: Marketing teams that run on Adobe, or that need commercially safe AI images
Key AI features:
- Text-to-image generation: Generate commercially-safe images directly inside your design.
- Generative expand: Extend the edges of an image to fit a new shape, making it easier to turn one visual into an Instagram post, Story, or Reel cover.
- Brand kits: Lock in your fonts, colors, and logo, then apply them across everything you make.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from $9.99/month, billed monthly.
Keep in mind: Adobe Express is just as beginner-friendly as Canva, but Firefly’s most powerful features live in Photoshop and Illustrator, which come with a steep learning curve.
6. Ideogram
Source: Ideogram
Ideogram is an AI image generator built for visuals where words matter. It excels at putting readable text inside images, which makes it a strong pick for event promos, memes, and other social graphics with text baked in.
Best for: Solo marketers and social teams making text-heavy graphics
Key AI features:
- Text rendering: Add the exact headline, quote, or CTA to your prompt, and Ideogram works it into the image (instead of serving up the usual AI alphabet soup).
- Editable text layers: Turn the text in a generated graphic into a separate layer, then rewrite the copy, switch the font, or move it around, no additional prompting required.
- Character consistency: Have a company mascot? Create or upload your character, then place them in new poses, outfits, and scenes without their face changing from post to post.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from $15/month, billed annually.
Keep in mind: On the free plan, everything you generate is sent to Ideogram’s public gallery. Private generation requires a paid tier, which matters if you’re testing unannounced campaigns.
The best AI tools for repurposing video into social content are OpusClip and Riverside. OpusClip is best for quickly turning existing long-form videos into short clips, while Riverside is a great fit for teams that want to record and repurpose content in one tool.
Let’s take a closer look at each content repurposing tool.
7. OpusClip
Source: OpusClip
OpusClip is an AI video repurposing tool that turns long videos into short clips for Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. Instead of scrubbing through an hour-long webinar or podcast yourself, it finds the strongest moments, trims them into clips, and adds captions automatically.
Best for: Creators, solo marketers, and teams sitting on long-form video who want a steady pipeline of short-form videos.
Key AI features:
- ClipAnything: Type a prompt like “give me the moment most likely to go viral,” and OpusClip cuts it from any video. It can even stitch together moments from different parts of a recording to highlight one theme, like every time you mentioned pricing.
- AI B-Roll: Automatically adds relevant AI-generated or stock footage to your clips, so your video content feels more dynamic.
Pricing: Free plan available (P.S.: exports will be watermarked). Paid plans from $15/month, billed annually.
Keep in mind: OpusClip runs on credits (roughly one credit per minute of video), and long videos can eat through them fast. You may hit the ceiling sooner than expected.
8. Riverside
Source: Riverside
Riverside is a recording studio first, and repurposing tool second — and that’s exactly why it earns a spot on our list. Record your podcast, webinar, or interview in up to 4K, then use AI to pull out short clips for TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
Best for: Video and podcast teams that want one tool to record and repurpose video content
Key AI features:
- Co-Creator: Chat with Riverside’s AI video editing agent to clean up your recording and turn it into clips, thumbnails, and other promo assets. It can also flag redundant takes and behind-the-scenes chatter that you probably want to cut.
- AI Show Notes: Turn your video transcript into summaries, chapter timestamps, key takeaways, and promotional copy.
- AI Translations: Translate your recording into 30+ languages. Riverside generates a realistic AI voice for each speaker and syncs their lips to match the new audio.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $24/month, billed annually.
Keep in mind: Riverside makes the most sense if you record there, too. If you already have a folder full of finished videos and just need to chop them into clips, a dedicated repurposing tool may be simpler.
What AI tools combine content creation with scheduling and publishing?
The best AI tools that combine social content creation with scheduling and publishing are Perch by Hootsuite, Buffer, and SocialBee. Here’s what makes them stand out:
9. Perch by Hootsuite
Perch is Hootsuite’s content creation, planning, and publishing platform. It connects to Wisdom, a social-first AI agent. It’s the only tool in this roundup that takes a post from AI draft to scheduled, published content in one workflow.
Perch integrates with the design tools your team already loves, like Canva and Adobe Express. You can create compelling, on-brand visuals in just a few clicks, with ready-to-use templates and free stock images.
Best for: Social teams of any size that want creation, scheduling, and performance data in a single workflow
Key AI features:
- Wisdom: Upload your brand guidelines, then ask Wisdom to brainstorm ideas and draft captions, hashtags, and campaign concepts in your voice. Once you’re happy, ask it to drop the drafts into your content calendar.
- Trend-to-post creation: Ask Wisdom what’s trending in your industry (or what types of content are getting the most action in your niche), then turn those insights into content while the topic is still hot.
- Best time to post: Get recommended times to post based on your unique audience, not generic advice.
Pricing: No free plan. Paid plans from $99/month per user. Grab a free trial here!
Keep in mind: Video clipping happens outside Perch, so pair it with a repurposing tool (see our recommendations above!)
10. Buffer
Source: Buffer
Buffer is an AI-assisted social media scheduling tool that keeps content creation and publishing simple. You can brainstorm posts and tailor the copy for different platforms with its AI Assistant.
Best for: Solo marketers and small businesses managing one or two social channels
Key AI features:
- AI Assistant: Generate post ideas, draft captions, or rephrase what you’ve written for a different tone.
- Ideas board: Save your half-formed ideas to the Ideas board, then use Buffer’s AI Assistant to turn them into publishable posts.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from $5/month per channel, billed annually.
Keep in mind: Buffer charges by the channel, so the price can climb as you add more social accounts.
11. SocialBee
Source: SocialBee
SocialBee is a social media management tool built around a simple idea: Your best content should keep working, even after you hit “publish.” It organizes and recycles your evergreen content on a schedule, so your queue is always full.
Best for: Solopreneurs, small teams, and agencies that want a consistent posting rhythm
Key AI features:
- Copilot: Tell it what your business does and who you’re talking to, and it builds a full social strategy, including content pillars and ideal posting times.
- AI caption generator: Draft captions from a single prompt, then adjust the tone, length, hashtags, and emojis before adding the post to your schedule.
Pricing: No free plan. Paid plans from $24/month, billed annually.
Keep in mind: SocialBee is built around categories and recurring queues, so it takes a little more setup than a simple “write it, schedule it, forget it” tool.
How do you choose the right AI tool for your team? [Expert tips]
We asked social media pros what they check before committing to AI tools, and their answers make a pretty reliable checklist:
- Start with the problem, not the tool
- Make sure it actually understands social
- Look for built-in brand controls
- Weigh accuracy against cleanup time
- Check if it fits your tech stack
Let’s dive into their top tips:
1. Start with the problem, not the tool
Before comparing tools, get specific about what’s slowing your team down.
“The first question I ask is always, ‘What problem are we trying to solve?’” says Kayla Bautista, Senior Manager, Social Media at NP Digital.
If a tool can streamline a repetitive task, improve collaboration, or help the team produce stronger work without the unnecessary complexity, I think it’s worth exploring.
Her advice: Test the tool against the work your team already does, whether that’s drafting social copy or pulling insights from a report. Does it actually remove friction from your workflow, or is it just another tool you need to manage?
2. Make sure it actually understands social
A tool can be great at writing and still be mediocre at social.
“The first thing I check is whether it actually understands social, not just content in general,” says Christina Botte, Director of Social Media at EGC Group.
Does it know platform features, what’s trending, does it understand that TikTok and LinkedIn aren’t the same animal? If it’s giving me generic captions with zero context, I’m out.
Look for tools that understand the differences between platforms, formats, and audiences (not ones that rewrite the same caption with a different character count).
3. Look for built-in brand controls
As you scale, keeping everyone on-brand becomes a job of its own. That’s where features like brand kits and style guidelines really matter.
“One thing we cannot compromise on is AI having the ability to have a design system in which your brand kit is already embedded company-wide,” says Lindsey Wallace, Director of Marketing at IntraTEM.
An entire team having access to the same design system with our fonts already uploaded, colors, brand guidelines, and everything in between is invaluable.
For larger teams in particular, look for tools that let you set those rules once and apply them everywhere.
4. Weigh accuracy against cleanup time
AI doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does need to save you more time than it takes to clean up.
“It needs to be mostly accurate (we all know AI makes mistakes) and make our workflow move faster and more seamlessly,” says Sarah Bell, Founder and Head of Marketing at Personalized Creative. “If it’s going to be more work than it’s worth to fix, we’re not using it.”
Pro tip 💡: During a free trial, put the tool through a real assignment. See how much editing it takes to polish something you’d actually feel good hitting “publish” on.
5. Check if it fits your tech stack
An AI tool might save you five minutes on content creation. But that win is basically moot if you spend the next ten uploading it into a separate publishing tool.
“I focus on the seamless integration into our tech stack — our CRM, scheduling tools, etc.,” says Alexandra Novikava, B2B Marketer at Truck1. “That way, my team members won’t spend extra time constantly switching between tabs or manually entering information into different apps.”
Prioritize tools that connect with the platforms your team already uses, like your design tools, scheduler, and other parts of your content workflow.
What are the best AI tools for social media content creation?
For teams that want AI content creation and publishing in one place, Perch is the best option. Perch connects to Wisdom, Hootsuite’s social-first AI agent, so you can brainstorm post ideas, draft captions, suggest hashtags, create campaign concepts, and move approved content into your publishing workflow without jumping between tools.
Are free AI tools good enough for social media content?
How does Hootsuite compare to standalone AI content tools?
Hootsuite goes further by connecting AI content creation with planning, approvals, scheduling, publishing, and performance data. With Perch, teams can create content, build a social calendar, set approvals, publish across channels, and measure results from one workflow.
And because Perch connects to Wisdom, Hootsuite’s social-first AI agent, teams can move from idea to AI draft to scheduled post much faster than they could with a standalone writing tool.
How do AI social media tools work?
Can AI tools help with social listening and sentiment analysis?
For social teams, this can make social listening much more actionable. Instead of manually reading through hundreds of posts, comments, and mentions, AI can help summarize common themes, flag big shifts in sentiment, and surface the conversations that matter most.
Create better social content faster with Perch by Hootsuite. Use Wisdom, Hootsuite’s social-first AI, to brainstorm ideas, draft on-brand copy, and surface the hottest trends in your industry (so you can act on them faster). Then schedule posts, find your optimal posting times, and track performance with Perch.
