Grammarly

An AI writing assistant that lives inside the apps you already type in, correcting and rewriting as you go rather than waiting for you to paste something into a chat box.

Writing & editing Apps

Checked 15 Sep 2026

Open grammarly.com

What you'd use it for

Catching typos, grammar slips and tone problems in the emails, docs and messages you're already writing, without leaving the app you're writing them in.

Underline spelling, grammar and punctuation errors as you type, with one-click fixes
Flag when a sentence's tone reads as harsh, hedging or overly formal before you send it
Rewrite a sentence in a plainer or more concise version on request
Check a document for close paraphrasing against its plagiarism database
Score and explain readability so you can see why a passage feels dense

The verdict

Grammarly does one job well - it catches errors and softens tone in text you're already writing, right where you write it. The free tier covers mechanical corrections; Pro earns its price once writing to customers, staff or suppliers is a daily task, though the 2,000 monthly AI prompts run out faster than expected once you start using rewrites. It has no reach past the text box - it can't see your files, your customer history or your inbox, and it never becomes a tool that acts for you rather than just correcting what you typed.

What it costs

Tier	Price	For	Includes
Free	$0 USD / month	One person who wants the spelling and grammar layer and nothing else.	Grammar and spelling correction, tone visibility, 100 AI prompts a month.
Pro	$12 USD / month	Anyone whose day involves writing to customers, staff or suppliers.	Sentence rewrites, tone adjustment, plagiarism and AI-text detection, 2,000 AI prompts a month.
Enterprise	Contact Sales	Organisations that need the writing layer governed centrally.	Custom roles and permissions, data loss prevention, BYOK encryption, dedicated support.

Read from Grammarly's own pricing page on 15 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.

What you need to start

A free account (email, or continue with Google, Facebook or Apple)
A supported browser - Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge, not Opera or Brave
No credit card needed for the free tier

A few minutes to a working account and browser extension; no waiting period before it starts correcting.

Your first run Sign up, add the browser extension, and start typing anywhere in the browser - Grammarly underlines its first suggestions on the same page within a couple of minutes, no separate app or upload required.

Where it breaks

It suggests constantly, and the suggestion is not always right. Accepting every prompt flattens your writing into the same neutral corporate register as everyone else who accepts every prompt. The free tier's 100 AI prompts a month sounds generous until you discover a rewrite costs one.

Works as a browser extension, a desktop app on macOS and Windows, and a mobile keyboard. The extension is the version most people actually use, which is precisely the point — it works inside the window you were already typing in.

First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.

When not to use it

Not for anyone hoping AI will draft the email or handle the reply rather than just correct it - Grammarly only touches text already on the page. And it's a weak fit if most of your week goes into copying context into a box before you can write anything, since that's exactly the bottleneck it can't reach.

Grammarly is the clearest example of AI that improves something you were already doing, without changing where you do it. Nothing moves off the browser. Nothing runs when you are not looking. You type, it corrects, you carry on.

That is a real gain and it is worth the twelve dollars if you write for a living. It is also the ceiling of what a tool like this can do. Grammarly cannot read the invoice you are replying about, cannot look up what the customer ordered last time, and cannot send anything. It sees the text in the box and nothing else.

Where it stops

The test for any of these tools is simple: can it reach your files and your systems? Grammarly cannot, by design. It is a layer over the keyboard.

So the first useful question is not “which writing assistant is best”, it is “how much of my week is spent copying context into a box so that an AI can see it?” If the answer is most of it, the tool that fixes that is one that can reach your files and systems itself, not a better version of this one.

What to do with it

Turn it on, accept the mechanical corrections, and ignore most of the rewrite suggestions. Then go and read what the copy-paste loop is actually costing you.