What it is
Grammarly is a writing assistant that checks spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity and tone as you type, across almost every application and website you use.
It installs as a browser extension, a desktop app and a keyboard on mobile, which is the actual product. The checking is competent; the ubiquity is why people keep it.
It has added generative features over the years, and those are the part I use least, because a general assistant does that job better.
What it does
The core job is catching mistakes in real time in email, documents, forms and content management systems. After a few hours writing, you stop seeing your own errors, and this catches them.
Clarity suggestions are the most valuable part: flagging sentences that are longer or more tangled than they need to be. Accept about half of them and your writing improves.
Tone detection tells you how a message is likely to read, which is more useful in client email than in marketing copy.
The style suggestions need resisting. Accept every one and your writing becomes correct, smooth and completely anonymous, which is the opposite of what marketing writing needs.
Who it's for
Features
Pros and cons
Pricing
| PLAN | WHAT YOU GET | WORTH IT FOR |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Spelling, grammar, punctuation and basic clarity. | Most people. This tier does the important part. |
| Pro | Full clarity and style suggestions, tone rewrites, plagiarism check. | People who write for several hours a day. |
| Business | Style guides, brand tones, analytics, admin controls. | Teams wanting consistency across everybody's writing. |
| Education | Discounted plans for students and institutions. | Academic writing. |
The gap between free and paid is smaller than the marketing suggests. Try the free tier for a month before upgrading.
Free, unless writing is most of your job. If it is, Pro monthly rather than annually, so you can stop when the project ends.
Alternatives
My verdict
Grammarly earns its place through ubiquity rather than intelligence. It sits in every box you type into and catches the errors that make otherwise good work look careless, and for most people the free tier does that adequately.
The paid tier is worth it if you write for hours daily and want the clarity suggestions, which genuinely tighten prose. It is not worth it for the generative features, because you almost certainly already pay for a better tool for that.
One warning: use it to catch mistakes, not to make decisions about your voice. The suggestions optimise for correctness, and distinctive writing is often deliberately incorrect.
Try Grammarly →Who should use it
Who should avoid it
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Affiliate disclosure
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it never changes the price you pay. It also does not decide what appears on this page: I recommend tools with no affiliate programme just as readily, and leave off tools with generous ones when they do not deserve the space.