Real-time grammar, spelling, and clarity suggestions across Gmail, Docs, Notion, and every other writing surface. Free and Premium tiers.
Editor's Verdict
Grammarly is the most widely used writing assistant extension, and for good reason. The free tier catches the vast majority of grammar and spelling errors across every website. Premium adds style suggestions, tone analysis, and plagiarism checking. For most writers and marketers, the free version is sufficient for day-to-day work.
Overall
4.6 / 5
Pricing
Freemium
Install Grammarly
Official extension, always install from the verified source
Grammarly is a writing assistant that runs in the background while you type. The browser extension highlights grammar errors, spelling mistakes, punctuation issues, and (on Premium) clarity and tone problems across Gmail, Google Docs, LinkedIn, X, Slack, Notion, WordPress, and any other text input on the web. Suggestions appear inline with a coloured underline; click to accept, dismiss, or learn why it flagged the issue.
Free tier vs paid features
The free version is genuinely useful, not a crippled trial. It catches the majority of objective errors. Premium adds three things worth knowing about: clarity suggestions (which tell you when a sentence is too long or passive), tone detection (formal, friendly, confident, etc.), and a plagiarism checker. The generative AI features added in 2024 sit on top of Premium and are useful for short-form rewriting but probably not worth Premium pricing if you already use ChatGPT or Claude for that.
Free
Free tier, grammar, spelling, basic punctuation across every site
Paid
Premium $12/month, clarity, tone, style, plagiarism checker, generative AI rewriting
Who actually uses Grammarly
For email-heavy roles (sales, support, recruiting), Grammarly catches the half-typo or wrong-tense slip that makes a message look unprofessional. For content writers, the Premium clarity score helps tighten sentences that are technically correct but bloated. For non-native English speakers, the contextual suggestions catch the subtle preposition and article errors that spellcheckers miss. For people who post on LinkedIn, the tone detector is a small but real safeguard against publishing something that reads angrier than intended.
Pros and cons
Pros
Catches errors across virtually every website
Free tier is genuinely useful, not just a trial
Active development with monthly updates
Cross-browser, including Safari
Cons
Premium price has crept up over the years
Sometimes flags stylistic choices as errors
AI rewriting overlaps with general-purpose AI tools
Some users find the constant suggestions intrusive
Should you install Grammarly?
Install the free version. If you write more than an hour a day for work, Premium pays for itself in time saved on edits. Otherwise the free tier covers what you need.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The free Grammarly extension checks grammar, spelling, and basic punctuation across all websites with no usage limits and no account expiry. Premium ($12/month) adds clarity, tone, and style suggestions plus a plagiarism checker. Most users get significant value from the free version.
Yes. Grammarly has a dedicated Google Docs integration that works similarly to the rest of the web. Open any Doc, and Grammarly underlines issues inline. Suggestions appear in a sidebar. The integration is available on both the free and Premium tiers.
Yes, when installed from the official Chrome Web Store or Mozilla Add-ons directory. Grammarly is published by Grammarly Inc., a verified publisher with over 30 million users. The extension does request broad access to read text on every site (necessary for its function), so it is not suitable for handling top-secret content.
No. The browser extension requires an active internet connection because grammar checking happens server-side on Grammarly's infrastructure. The desktop app for Windows and macOS has limited offline functionality, but the browser extension does not.
For most users, Grammarly is the better choice because the suggestions feel more natural and the UI is faster. ProWritingAid is better for long-form fiction writing because its reports go deeper into style issues, repetition, and pacing. For business and email writing, Grammarly wins.
Three common causes. First, the Gmail tab was opened before Grammarly was enabled; refresh the page. Second, Gmail's newer "rich text" features can conflict with the extension; switch to plain text mode and back. Third, an ad blocker is sometimes interfering; whitelist app.grammarly.com.