Pencil Review 2026: Pricing, Strengths and Limitations
Short answer: Pencil is an AI creative platform owned by The Brandtech Group. It generates ad text, images and video, scores new creatives with a model trained on your own ad data, and exports finished ads to your ad accounts, from $14 a month for 50 generations. Whether it launches campaigns isn't clear from its own pages, and we found no recommendations, rules or audience building for the ads you already run. If you run your own Meta ads, Madgicx makes image ads and runs them too, with unlimited seats and generations from $45 a month.
Best for
Larger marketing teams and agencies that need text, image and video ads at volume
Not for
Teams that want recommendations and rules for the ads they already run
Price
From $14/mo for 50 generations, no free plan
G2
4.7/5 from 16 reviews
What is Pencil and how much does it cost?
Pencil (trypencil.com) is an AI creative platform owned by The Brandtech Group. Its homepage calls it an AI operating system for marketing. Here is what it does:
| Job | What Pencil offers |
|---|---|
| Create | Ad text, images and video made from briefs and your assets, using AI agents and third-party models |
| Edit | A design editor and canvas to generate, edit and finish ads in multiple formats |
| Automate | Scribble, an agent launched in September 2026 that reads a brief and runs the creative work in the background, and workflows that can run daily, weekly, monthly or on a custom schedule |
| Predict | A model trained on your ad account's last 90 days and ongoing data that scores new creatives and shows which of yours perform best and why |
| Export | Sends finished ads to the Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and Google Ads accounts you connect. Its pricing and integrations pages also say it launches or publishes ads |
| Plan | Monthly cost | What's included | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core | $14 ($11 billed annually) | 50 generations a month, 1 workspace and chat support | Trying it out |
| Growth | $55 ($44 billed annually) | 250 generations a month, unlimited workspaces and direct access to the product team and roadmap | Teams making more ads |
| Pro | Quote | Unlimited generations, users, brands and markets, bulk generation from feeds, role-based access controls, enterprise terms and dedicated customer success | Larger brands and agencies |
Price follows the number of generations, not your ad spend. There's no free plan, and we found no trial of the full platform: a guided sign-up lets a new user create six ads at no cost. Pro add-ons for managed integrations, fine-tuning and training are quoted too. Its pricing table marks AI video as coming soon on every plan, so we couldn't confirm which plans include video.
Who decides what changes in your account?
Pencil's documented actions stay on the creative side. Here's how each part behaves:
- Connecting and exporting: an admin of your ad account authorises the connection and chooses what Pencil can see. Exporting is something a user does, and a setting can make the connection read-only.
- Scores and insights: they predict how new creatives are likely to perform and show which of yours do best. Nothing we read says Pencil acts on a score.
- Scribble and workflows: they run creative work in the background or on a schedule. You can review Scribble's plan before it starts and edit the work after. We found no changes to ad accounts described.
- Campaigns, budgets and targeting: its help centre doesn't describe Pencil setting these. Its pricing and integrations pages say it launches ads, so confirm with Pencil what it does in your account.
What are Pencil's strengths and limitations?
Strengths
- Ad text, images and video from one tool, with a design editor for finishing ads.
- A model trained on your own ad data that scores how new creatives are likely to perform.
- Fast ad creation, resizing and feeds, praised in 5 of its 10 most recent G2 reviews.
- Help from the Pencil team, praised in 3 of 10.
Limitations
- We found no recommendations, rules, audience building or account audit for live ads.
- Whether it launches campaigns is unclear: its help centre describes exporting finished ads.
- Generations are capped on Core and Growth, and unlimited only on the quoted Pro plan.
- Recent G2 reviews mention off-brand output or manual editing (3 of 10), instability or export problems (3 of 10) and limited editing (2 of 10).
Who should use Pencil?
Pencil fits if you want
- Ad text, images and video made from a brief.
- Creatives scored by a model trained on your own ad data.
- An editor and workflows for adapting ads across formats.
- Enterprise terms, role-based access and unlimited users on a quoted plan.
Choose Madgicx instead if you want
- Campaigns, ad sets and ads built from a chat, paused until you approve.
- To see which creatives and lines of copy bring results on your live ads.
- A list of next steps you approve or dismiss, plus rules, ready-made audiences and a full Meta account audit.
- Unlimited seats and image ad generations from $45 a month. Madgicx makes images only, never video.
Pencil vs Madgicx in brief
| Pencil | Madgicx | |
|---|---|---|
| Campaigns built from chat |
No chat that builds campaigns found
|
Campaigns, ad sets and ads, on your approval
|
| Copy analysis on live ads |
Shows which creatives perform best. Copy lines not described
|
Which creatives and lines of copy bring results
|
| AI recommendations for live ads |
None found
|
A list of next steps you approve or dismiss
|
| Automation rules |
Scheduled creative workflows, no rules for live ads found
|
Ready-made and custom rules
|
| Audiences |
No audience builder found
|
Ready-made and AI audiences
|
| Seats and generations |
Generations capped, unlimited on a quoted plan
|
Unlimited in every plan
|
Our verdict: for Meta advertisers, choose Madgicx
Pencil is a capable creative platform for teams that want video as well as images and text, scored against their own ad data. If you run your own Meta ads, Madgicx does more with them: image ads from a prompt, your winners or real ads, then campaigns built from a chat, creative and copy analysis, recommendations and rules, with unlimited seats and generations from $45 a month.
How we review: methodology
- What the tool does for a Meta advertiser, from creative to launching and analysis.
- Who makes changes to your ads, and when you're asked first.
- Total cost for a team, including generations and what each plan leaves out.
- What users say on G2.
Published by Madgicx, a competitor of Pencil. We read Pencil's website, pricing, help centre, blog and feature hub, and its 10 most recent G2 reviews, with review dates listed below. Capabilities marked as missing weren't found in Pencil's public documentation and should be confirmed with Pencil.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Pencil cost?
Core is $14 a month for 50 generations ($11 billed annually). Growth is $55 for 250 generations ($44 billed annually). Pro, with unlimited generations, users and brands, is quoted through a demo. There's no free plan.
Does Pencil have a free trial?
We found no trial of the full platform. A guided sign-up lets a new user create six ads at no cost.
Can Pencil launch ads?
Its help centre describes exporting finished ads to the ad accounts you connect. Its pricing and integrations pages say it launches or publishes ads. We found no description of it creating campaigns, setting budgets or targeting, or switching ads on, so confirm with Pencil.
Does Pencil make video ads?
Its homepage and blog show video generation, but its pricing table marks AI video as coming soon on every plan. We couldn't confirm which plans include video, so ask Pencil.
Pencil vs Madgicx: which should you pick?
If you run your own Meta ads, pick Madgicx: image ads, campaigns built from a chat, creative and copy analysis and AI recommendations, with unlimited seats and generations from $45 a month.
Sources
- Pencil pricing, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Pencil homepage, reviewed 15 October 2026
- Pencil integrations, reviewed 15 October 2026
- Pencil help centre: connecting Meta, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Pencil help centre: why connect ad accounts, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Pencil help centre: data from media accounts, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Pencil launches Scribble, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Pencil feature hub, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Pencil blog, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Pencil news, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Marketing Dive: Brandtech acquires Pencil, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Pencil on G2, reviewed 22 October 2026
- Madgicx pricing, reviewed 16 October 2026
