Research reviewed November 2026. This is a research-based review — we analyzed published specs, pricing, and user feedback.

Quick verdict

✓ Best for:Publishers who update old posts and already have an API key — summaries flag themselves stale instead of drifting.

✕ Skip it if:Skip if you won't touch an API key — there is no hosted option, and with 50+ installs the public record is thin.

SummarAIze Review 2026: Editable AI Key Takeaways That Flag Themselves Stale

SummarAIze is a free WordPress plugin that generates the top five key takeaways for a post or page using your own OpenAI, Google Gemini or OpenRouter API key — then tracks every summary as missing, current, stale or manually edited, so an article you updated last month does not quietly keep last month’s summary. The plugin is on WordPress.org (version 1.5.0, updated September 2026, 50+ active installs, rated 5.0/5 from 1 rating). There is no paid tier and no subscription: the plugin is free, and you pay your chosen AI provider directly for usage.

Bottom line: SummarAIze is the control-freak end of WordPress AI summaries: no hosted service, no summary quota, no vendor markup — you pick the provider, the model and the spend, edit and reorder every takeaway before it publishes, and get a stale flag when a post changes. The costs are real but indirect: you need your own API key, the test-a-model step can itself bill you, and with 50+ installs you are an early adopter.

What it is

SummarAIze is listed on WordPress.org simply as “SummarAIze,” from developer James Wilson, with its code on GitHub. It is built as a publishing workflow rather than a hosted summary subscription: the plugin bundles no AI credits and routes nothing through a SummarAIze server — you connect your own provider account, choose the model, and review the output before anything reaches readers.

That workflow focus shows in details other summary plugins skip. Each summary has a status — missing, current, stale or manually edited — so editors can see which articles need a fresh pass after an update. You can generate missing summaries in bulk and optionally auto-generate on first publish.

Key features

Three providers, one workflow. Bring your own OpenAI, Google Gemini or OpenRouter key. Supported OpenAI models run from GPT-5 mini and nano up to GPT-5.5 and the listed GPT-6 Astra; OpenRouter lets you load, filter and pick models, or type an exact provider/model ID by hand.
Top-five takeaways, fully editable. Generate a post’s five key takeaways, then edit and reorder the points before publishing — nothing AI-written is locked in.
Stale-summary tracking. Summaries are tracked as missing, current, stale or manually edited, which is the feature that matters six months in, when updated posts would otherwise keep outdated summaries.
Flexible display. Show takeaways above or below the content or in a popup, or place the [summaraize] shortcode manually with attributes for view, mode, title and list type.
Provider switching without losing keys. Switching providers preserves the inactive providers’ saved credentials, so you can compare OpenAI against Gemini without re-entering keys.

Pricing

The plugin itself is $0 — free and open source from WordPress.org, with no usage quota and no subscription, per the vendor’s own listing. The real cost is your provider’s API bill: you pay OpenAI, Google or OpenRouter directly at their rates for the model you choose, and the listing notes both OpenAI and Gemini offer free tiers, though high usage may require a paid account. A mini or Flash-Lite class model keeps a five-bullet summary to a fraction of a cent at typical rates; a flagship model costs more for the same bullets.

What the pricing page doesn’t make obvious: even testing a model can cost money. The OpenRouter “Test model” button generates five sample takeaways using the same response validation as real summaries, and the listing warns it may incur a small API charge. The resulting Untested, Test passed or Test failed badge applies only to that exact key-and-model pair and lasts seven days — change either and you test, and pay, again. Two smaller gotchas from the 1.5.0 release notes: searching or testing alone does not save your settings (you must click Save Changes), and Gemini now runs on Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite because the previously hard-coded model became unavailable to new users.

Who it’s for

Publishers updating older articles — the stale flag is the differentiator: when a post changes, its summary is marked stale instead of silently drifting out of date.
Site owners who already have an API key — if you already pay OpenAI or use Gemini, summaries add no new subscription, no new account and no vendor in the middle.

What to watch out for

A very small install base. 50+ active installs and a single 5-star rating is a thin public record, even with active, detailed release notes. Keep the edit-before-publish step switched on in practice, not just in principle.
Your content goes to your provider. Each generation sends the post content to the OpenAI, Gemini or OpenRouter endpoint you configured. Nothing passes through a SummarAIze service, but sites with sensitive drafts should weigh the provider’s own terms.
Costs are yours to watch. There is no quota and no dashboard bill from the plugin — a bulk generation run across a large archive on a flagship model is your provider invoice, not a capped plan.
Research-based review. Based on the vendor’s WordPress.org listing and its GitHub project page; not run on a live site ourselves.

Head-to-head: SummarAIze vs AltoSum and WPSummarize

Against the other summary plugins in this section, the models split cleanly. AltoSum, reviewed here on November 2, is hosted and key-free: 10 summaries a month free, Pro at £46.80/year for one site. WPSummarize, reviewed October 30, is bring-your-own-key like SummarAIze, with 50 free summaries a month and Pro at $49/year. SummarAIze charges nothing and caps nothing — but it is the only one of the three that tracks stale summaries and lets you reorder takeaways point by point. Choose it for editorial control; choose AltoSum if you refuse to touch an API key.

Pros

Completely free plugin with no summary quota, no subscription and no vendor markup on AI usage.
Stale tracking solves the long-term summary problem the rivals ignore.
Takeaways are editable and reorderable before publishing — editorial control stays with you.
Three providers supported, with saved keys preserved when you switch between them.

Cons

Only 50+ installs and 1 rating — a minimal evidence base so far.
Requires your own API key; there is no key-free hosted option.
The model-test step can itself incur a small provider charge, and its pass badge expires after seven days.

Frequently asked questions

Is SummarAIze really free?

Yes. The plugin is free with no usage quota and no subscription. What you pay is your own AI provider’s API charges for the model you select — mini and Flash-Lite class models keep that to a fraction of a cent per summary at typical rates.

Which AI providers does it support?

OpenAI, Google Gemini and OpenRouter, all bring-your-own-key. OpenAI options include GPT-5 mini and nano, GPT-5, GPT-5.5 and GPT-6 Astra; the default for new OpenAI setups is GPT-5 mini, and Gemini now uses Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.

What happens to a summary when I update the post?

It is flagged stale. SummarAIze tracks every summary as missing, current, stale or manually edited, and you can regenerate missing or stale summaries in bulk — the 1.5.0 upgrade itself does not regenerate existing summaries automatically.