ChatGPT vs Grammarly: What’s The Difference?

ChatGPT vs Grammarly: Which AI software is a better option for writers? Let’s find out!

AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been getting a lot of hype recently. In fact, the industry is estimated to grow by 13 times over the next seven years.

Arguably, the two most popular AI tools for writers are ChatGPT and Grammarly. ChatGPT helps you overcome creative ruts by producing content while Grammarly scans your work for writing errors.

So which one is a more practical choice? I’ve used ChatGPT 3 since it launched in November 2022  and Grammarly for the last few years. They’re both useful tools. In this comparison, I’ll review ChatGPT and Grammarly while running them through a few tests to see which is better.

Product Name	Availability	Use For	Features	Pricing
ChatGPT	Any web browser.	Writers and businesses looking to generate copy and edit their work at the same time.	Text creation, copy editing, and research and comparison.	Free/$20 per month
Grammarly	Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and the Grammarly desktop and mobile app.	Those who need a writing assistant and plagiarism checker in one.	Plagiarism checking, readability analysis, and countless integrations.	Free//$30 per month

What are ChatGPT and Grammarly?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool developed by OpenAI and released to the public in 2022. It’s free to use, although you can access a faster version for $20 per month

Grammarly is a popular AI-powered grammar checker, and writing assistant that’s been around since 2009. It’s free to use. The premium version costs $30 per month per user. Both tools can help, in different ways. 

Although ChatGPT supports basic grammar checking, its main power lies in content creation. It works almost like a chatbot messenger. You can enter a prompt and ask the AI to do something. This could be checking your work for mistakes, producing copy from scratch, or researching a topic.

On the flip side, Grammarly uses AI to check your writing for grammar, spelling, readability, and plagiarism errors. Paste your work into the interface, and on the right hand side, you’ll see all your mistakes. It can also propose full-sentence rewrites.

What ChatGPT and Grammarly Have In Common

ChatGPT and Grammarly allow you to spot writing issues within seconds, providing a solid platform to start proofreading.

With Grammarly, all you have to do is head to Grammarly.com, paste your text into the interface, and your errors will appear on the right. Read our Grammarly tutorial to learn more 

If you want to use ChatGPT, go to OpenAI.com, sign up for a free account, paste your work, and enter a prompt like “Please check this article for grammar mistakes.” The AI will take around 90 to 180 seconds to scan 800 words.

ChatGPT Vs. Grammarly: The Differences

Grammarly and ChatGPT can both fix grammar issues and rewrite sentences but they are not meant to compete against each other. Here are some key differences between ChatGPT and Grammarly:

• ChatGPT produces AI content and can answer questions.
• Grammarly checks for grammar issues and plagiarism.   

ChatGPT Produces AI Content

ChatGPT started out as an AI writing tool, which is where its true power still is. ChatGPT writes accurate content that can help you overcome writer’s block.

In the screenshot below, I pasted a prompt into ChatGPT asking the AI to generate an introduction for a Canva review, and this is its output:

Sure, it might not be perfect, but after rewriting a few sentences, it’ll be ready to publish. On the other hand, Grammarly is built for editing and grammar checking. It won’t help you create headlines, introductions, and ads from scratch. That said, Grammarly uses AI to power its suggestions.

Grammarly Checks For Plagiarism

Another big difference between these two AI tools is Grammarly scans for plagiarism while ChatGPT doesn’t.

This is significant because if you’re a student or freelance writer, you always want to paste your work into a plagiarism scanner. It helps avoid penalties dished out by colleges, high schools, and search engines. So if one of the main features you’re looking for is a plagiarism checker, Grammarly is a more practical option.

What’s Better About ChatGPT? 

Here are some areas where I tested ChatGPT and noticed it did a better job than Grammarly:

• ChatGPT helps defeat writer’s block
• ChatGPT can streamline the research process

ChatGPT Helps Defeat Writer’s Block

ChatGPT scans through endless amounts of data on the internet, including blog posts, Wikipedia posts, books, and news articles. With this knowledge, it generates content for you. Here’s an example of me asking ChatGPT to create a short social media ad for an online writing course.

ChatGPT can also answer any questions you may have. When I pasted the question, “What is a Turing machine” into ChatGPT, it produced this explanation.

ChatGPT Can Streamline The Research Process

ChatGPT can help research complex topics. If I’m writing an article about how to create an image recognition app with Python, I can ask ChatGPT for assistance and it’ll give me an output like this:

This is almost like the entire first page of Google compressed into a few paragraphs. It even gave me some sample code to get started.

So when you’re doing research for an article, I’d highly suggest using ChatGPT alongside search engine analysis.

What’s Better About Grammarly?

However, there are a few use cases where I’d recommend choosing Grammarly over ChatGPT:

• Grammarly is a more accurate writing assistant
• Grammarly integrates with other writing tools
• Grammarly is much faster for editing articles 

Grammarly Is A More Accurate Writing Assistant

When it comes to grammar checking and editing your work, so it sounds conversational, Grammarly is more reliable.

I pasted my Joplin review into ChatGPT and Grammarly to run a test and prove this point. With ChatGPT, it spotted many mistakes but didn’t show where the changes were. 

This was confusing. The only way I could find the changes was to open two windows and put my Grammarly and ChatGPT text next to each other.

What I like about Grammarly is that it provides more in-depth checks and will show you where all the suggestions are:

Also, Grammarly allows you to accept and reject changes, while ChatGPT doesn’t have this option. You’ll just have to accept all the edits ChatGPT makes, and if you feel one of the changes is wrong, you’ll have to correct it in Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

Grammarly Integrates With Other Writing Tools

Grammarly integrates with countless writing tools, so implementing it into your workflow is seamless. Here’s a short list of the platforms that Grammarly integrates with:

• Gmail and other email apps. Learn how to add Grammarly to email
• Slack 
• WhatsApp
• Trello 
• Chrome. Learn how to add Grammarly to Chrome
• Word

This is another area where ChatGPT falls short. You must copy and paste your work into the AI tool to check your writing. There’s no way to have ChatGPT automatically review your work in Gmail or WhatsApp.

Who Should Get ChatGPT (And Why)?

Although ChatGPT is constantly evolving and can benefit almost anyone, here are some use cases that’ll benefit the most:

• Writers Marketers and copywriters
• Markters and Busines Owners
• Programmers 
• Writers

Writers And Copywriters

When I’m writing ads or email newsletters and my creative juices run dry, I like using ChatGPT to generate a starting point. The AI always provides me with out of the box ideas and from here, I can expand upon these ideas.

So if you often struggle to come up with creative copy from scratch, type a prompt into ChatGPT, and the AI will help.

Marketers and Business Owners 

ChatGPT is a good option for businesses. Let’s say you launched a mobile application and want to scale operations. The only problem is that you don’t have the capital to hire employees. Enter ChatGPT. It can help you fill out your team and stretch your marketing budget.

For example, you can enter a prompt into ChatGPT asking the software to generate sales emails. It’ll create a sales email for you while providing tips on what angle to use when pitching your product to businesses.

Programmers

ChatGPT isn’t just for generating new content ideas. If you’re a programmer, feel free to use it to streamline your technical process.

For instance, if you’re building a mobile app, you can do all the fun stuff like laying out the workflow, identifying key features, and actually writing code. But when it’s time to proofread your code and find bugs, you can leave this frustrating process to ChatGPT.

Who Should Get Grammarly (And Why)?

If you fall into any of these professions, then using Grammarly to scan your writing is a must:

• Freelance writers
• Authors
• Students 
• Professionals

Freelance Writers

I’ve been using Grammarly since I started writing professionally, and it really streamlined my editing process. Editing has never been one of my strong points. I always seem to miss obvious spelling, grammar, and readability errors. But with Grammarly, I can paste my work into the platform, knowing it’ll spot most of my mistakes.

Authors

I also believe that Grammarly is a must when writing a book because the editing process can easily take several months, and it’s never guaranteed that you’ll spot every mistake.

Luckily, if you paste your first draft into Grammarly, the AI will flag hundreds of issues within a few minutes. From here, you can polish up your first draft by proofreading it and sending it to your editors.

Students

94% of students say that pasting their assignments into Grammarly improved their grades. So I highly suggest using Grammarly, even if it’s just the free plan. It’ll spot writing errors and give you the best chance of scoring good marks.

But what stands out is Grammarly’s plagiarism checker. This is necessary for all students because plagiarism penalties are severe. Schools can automatically fail or suspend you if your assignment contains duplicate content.

Fortunately, Grammarly’s plagiarism checker is as accurate as Copyscape, so you won’t have to worry about plagiarism penalties.

Professionals

Grammarly is an ideal tool for anyone who works with the written word as part of their job or business. That’s because it works well with so many apps that professionals use every day. It also enables professionals to quickly check their work for embarrassing grammar mistakes before pressing send, submit or publish. 

My Testing Criteria

When testing ChatGPT and Grammarly to see which option you should choose as a writer, I reviewed these criteria:

Ease of use: I paid close attention to how clean the interface was and if there were any unnecessary learning curves. Nobody wants to use something that’ll take weeks to get the hang of.

Accuracy: Another deciding factor was the accuracy of ChatGPT’s outputs and Grammarly’s edits.

Affordability: Since ChatGPT and Grammarly are marketed toward new writers and students, I considered if the pricing plans were affordable. You should be able to use both platforms without breaking the bank.

Additional features: The last factor I looked at was additional features. ChatGPT and Grammarly are stacked with functions that’ll benefit every part of the creative process.

Why Trust Me?

I’ve been creating various types of content and copy for over five years. During this time, I’ve written endless reviews and relied on Grammarly and AI writing software to streamline my writing process. 

This experience with Grammarly and ChatGPT gave me a deep knowledge base to write this article from. On top of this experience, I also ran countless tests to see how each product faired up against the other in different categories. 

Final Word: ChatGPT vs Grammarly

ChatGPT and Grammarly are valuable tools that utilize AI to empower the lives of writers. But I know what you’re thinking, “Which is better?”

Why not use both? Although ChatGPT won’t write your entire blog post for you, it’ll help you generate ideas for outlines and introductions. From here, you can use your writing skills to create valuable content for your audience. And after completing your first draft, paste it into Grammarly to find errors.