Grammarly Review: Is Grammarly Premium Worth It?

Our Grammarly review explains if this grammar checker is worth your money. We evaluate how accurate it is and test the Grammarly AI writing assistant.

Grammarly is a powerful spelling and grammar checker. It’ll help you find and fix more errors than any competitor. Thanks to its best-in-class AI writing assistant, it can also save you time writing and generating content.

I worked as an editor for a national newspaper, where it was my job to find and fix grammar errors in news stories before they went to print. I know first-hand how painful and embarrassing these mistakes can be… but it’s best not to let your fears hold you back from pressing publish. I’ve also spent years trying various grammar checkers and writing tools to find the best one.

Several years ago, I tried the free version of Grammarly, a grammar and spelling checker for proofreading articles, book chapters, and blog posts. Since then, the product has evolved into a powerful writing assistant. It offers AI tools for anyone working with the written word.Today, I use Grammarly Premium regularly to proofread my work. I also rely on it to check articles by other freelancers I work with. It’s a vital tool for my business.In this Grammarly review, I’ll provide a background to the product before getting into its key features. I’ll also explain how to get the most value from Grammarly and if you should pay for the Premium version.

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Grammarly
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We tested dozens of grammar checkers, and Grammarly is the best tool on the market today. It'll help you write and edit your work much faster. Grammarly provides a powerful AI writing assistant and plagiarism checker.


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Grammarly Video Review 2024

YouTube video

What Is Grammarly?

Grammarly is a popular grammar checker that was released in 2009. Over the years, it has evolved from a basic grammar checker into a plagiarism checker and advanced writing assistant powered by AI, unlike anything else on the market. It also enables writers to improve the readability of their works and rewrite sentences with a click. The Grammarly product is available via a suite of desktop and web apps and software plugins.

The company was co-founded by Ukrainian entrepreneurs Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, and Dmytro Lider. Today, Grammarly’s headquarters are in San Francisco. To learn more, read about Grammarly’s history.

What Does Grammarly Do?

Grammarly scans a piece of writing and identifies writing mistakes, errors, and other issues using artificial intelligence. It’s ideal for anyone who uses the written word as part of their job thanks to its various writing and editing tools, including:

Grammar Checker

Grammarly desktop app
The Grammarly desktop app is powerful and fast

Grammarly’s core feature is its grammar checker. It fixes grammar mistakes and punctuation errors of all types. The app or browser plugin provides real-time suggestions and guidelines on how to correct these mistakes. Common examples include errant commas, misplaced apostrophes and other common punctuation mistakes. Learn more about the differences between grammar and punctuation.

The premium version of Grammarly provides context to the flagged grammatical errors, including an explanation of the rule in question and additional examples. These are useful for improving your writing skills.

Spell Checker

Grammarly includes a robust spell-check tool. You can add words to a custom dictionary using the business version and even create a dedicated style guide. The spell checker covers variations including American English, British English, Canadian English , and Australian English.

Readability Reports

Grammarly writing insights
Grammarly writing insights are useful for self-editing

Grammarly scans clunky sentences, paragraphs and passages. It determines the ideal age group for a writing sample. It flags readability issues based on the following:

  • Word-count
  • Character count
  • Reading time
  • Speaking time

Then, using AI technology, Grammarly proposes more concise and clearer rewrites for the reader. To learn more, read our guide to the Grammarly Readability score.

Writing Style Improvements

Grammarly provides word choice suggestions and rewrites based on a piece’s ideal audience and intent. For example, Grammarly flags complicated words and clunky sentence structure if the intended audience is set to general and informal.

Grammarly AI Writing Assistant

Grammarly includes a powerful writing assistant (previously known as GrammarlyGO). It works as a type of conversational chatbot. Click on the Grammarly icon and then ask it to make your writing more persuasive, confident, shorter, longer, and so on. It also provides information, rewrites parts of your writing, provides editing suggestions, and sources additional information.

It’s similar to ChatGPT but more suitable for writers and editors. You get a set amount of conversational credits per month. I found it exceptionally useful. The team recently announced an upgrade to its generative AI for office use. You can also use this assistant inside of Gmail to write email responses quickly and easily. I found this a real-time saver.

GrammarlyGo
Grammarly’s AI writing assistant works in any writing app

Editing Reports

Grammarly offers downloadable reports you can send to another writer or editor. It provides word count, character count, and other readability metrics that writers and editors can use to improve a piece of writing. Editors and writers can customize these reports based on their preferred writing style.

Plagiarism Checker

Grammarly plagiarism checker
Grammarly plagiarism checker in action

Grammarly detects plagiarism by comparing a piece of writing to billions of web pages. It provides articles with plagiarism scores and links that an editor can check. This report helps verify other writers’ work, check your work, and find missing citations. It compares a scanned article against content that is freely available online. However, it does not compare it to gated content or content behind a paywall. To learn more, read our guide about the best plagiarism checkers.

Style Guide

Grammarly Business Style Guide
A style guide is a key Grammarly Business feature

Grammarly offers a helpful style guide if you collaborate with other writers. You can add custom words and terms to this style guide and ensure everyone writes out company terms consistently. This style guide is also helpful if you want to set rules around spellings and names.

Tone Rewrites

Grammarly Tone Rewrites
The Grammarly tone detector

Grammarly offers a tone detector that helps adjust an article or writing style. Essentially, a writer can decide if they want to sound. The tone detector helps tailor the style of business proposals, emails and even Slack messages. The Grammarly team offers this example:

The sentence “We are unsure of the potential impact of this project” sounds indecisive. The tone detector proposes to change this to “We need to find out the potential impact of this project,” which sounds more confident. You can pick a preferred tone for your writing, and Grammarly will then tailor its suggestions. This feature is useful for editing emails on the fly. 

Citation Manager

Grammarly’s citation manager
Grammarly’s citation manager

A newer Grammarly feature is its citation manager. A writer can automatically create citations for their work at a click using the web browser plugin. It generates citations for APA, Chicago Manual of Style and MLA. This citation manager works on sites like Wikipedia and research sites like Pubmed, SAGE Journals, and Frontiers. The feature is in beta though, but the team is rolling out support for more publications and journals. Read our guide to the Grammarly citation manager.

Who Is This Grammar Checker Good For?

Grammarly is useful for native English speakers and those who don’t write in the English language that often. It also acts as another line of defense for professional writers. Its ideal audience includes:

  • Bloggers
  • Freelance writers
  • Content marketers
  • Copywriters
  • Authors
  • Journalists
  • Students
  • Academics, researchers, and essayists
  • Content publishers
  • Small business owners
  • Anyone who writes in English often.
  • Those who want access to AI writing tools

Grammarly provides English grammar-checking tools only. However, it includes settings specific to Canadian English, American English, British English, Australian English , and more. You might also find our explainer on how to use Grammarly helpful.

How Much Is Grammarly?

The basic version of Grammarly is free to use. The premium version of Grammarly costs $30 per month. You can $12 per month if you pay an annual fee of $144, but Grammarly coupons are available.

The premium version includes more advanced tools like a good plagiarism checker

  • Grammarly Premium monthly subscription costs $30 per month.
  • Grammarly Premium quarterly subscription costs $60
  • Grammarly Premium annual subscription costs $144.

A single subscription covers all of Grammarly tools and reports. You could always try the free version of Grammarly before upgrading. The free version of Grammarly includes a limited number of prompts for GrammarlyGO. Premium version users get 500 monthly prompts, which is more than enough. In our tests, we used about 50-60 per week. Read here to get a Grammarly student discount.

Grammarly pricing
Grammarly’s 2024 pricing

How To Install Grammarly

First, you can create an account using your Google or Facebook account or your best email address. It’s OK to start with the free version. Now, you can use Grammarly in several different ways.

Grammarly Web App

You access the Grammarly web app via app.grammarly.com. Then, paste a piece of writing directly into the web app. It’ll scan your writing and propose fixes. Alternatively, you can upload a rich text document into the web app and check it. You can download or copy and paste the results into your writing app.

Grammarly Desktop App

You can download a desktop app for Windows or Mac. These apps require internet access to use. The app works in the background and checks any piece of writing for issues and mistakes. The Grammarly icon appears when you’re editing and writing. Click on it to scan a document in Microsoft Word for errors and other mistakes.

Grammarly Browser Extensions

Grammarly for Chrome
Grammarly is available for most browsers

Grammarly excels thanks to its popular Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge browser plugins. After you install the plugin, please log in to your account. Now, Grammarly automatically scans pieces of writing in your web browser.

You can use it like a pop-up to check emails in Gmail, your latest social media posts, and more on the fly. Grammarly Chrome and other extensions help check emails, social media posts, and anywhere you write online. Learn more about how to add Grammarly to email.

Grammarly Microsoft Office Plugin

Grammarly offers an officially supported plugin for Microsoft Office. Once installed, you can check and fix an article, report or email directly inside Microsoft Word or Outlook.

Grammarly Keyboard

Grammarly keyboard
Grammarly keyboard

Grammarly includes an official smartphone keyboard app for iOS and Android devices. Once activated, the keyboard app checks your writing as you compose a text message or email. It helps fix mistakes while working on the go. It also includes intelligent predictions to speed up typing.

The keyboard is customizable too. It’s possible to set up your iOS keyboard layout with your preferred English language keyboard, including AZERTY, QWERTZ, COLEMAK, or DVORAK. You can also use Grammarly indirectly with other apps, assuming you are comfortable with the desktop app. Our resources below explain more:

Grammarly and Slack

Grammarly and Vscode

Is Grammarly Easy To Use?

Thanks to its proliferation of apps and plugins, Grammarly is easy to use wherever you write. It scans up to 100,000 characters in real-time and proposes fixes and suggestions. It offers possible solutions and explanations for potential mistakes. You can filter through suggestions based on their importance or score. Then, you can accept or reject requests with a click. Grammarly helped me identify the following:

  • Typos
  • Confused prepositions
  • Overuse of the passive voice
  • Wordy sentences
  • Incorrect comma usage
  • Repetitive words
  • Punctuation errors
  • Common writing and grammar mistakes like misplaced apostrophes
  • Spelling errors
  • Lengthy sentences
  • Broken grammar rules

As Grammarly provides context to each fix (based on its Handbook), it’ll help you improve your writing skills rather than simply offering fixes.

Is Grammarly Accurate?

Grammarly Accuracy Test
We tested Grammarly against traditional grammar checkers

Grammarly is accurate for most types of writers. I tested Grammarly extensively against a series of other grammar checkers. I checked blog posts, web copy, emails, and even book chapters for issues. In my tests, it caught more mistakes than a traditional spelling or grammar checker bundled with an operating system or writing app.

Although some competitors were comparable in terms of accuracy, Grammarly is the fastest and easiest to use. It’s particularly good for editing non-fiction and professional writing, for example, articles, emails, blog posts, web pages, presentations, etc.

Writers with more specific needs, such as genre fiction authors, should tailor Grammarly’s rules and settings and add custom words (e.g., character names) to improve accuracy. It’s also a good idea to set the correct goals inside of Grammarly as these affect its suggestions regarding delivery and engagement.

The caveat is that no tool or grammar checker is 100% accurate. It’s up to you, the writer, to decide whether to break a grammar rule or ignore a suggestion because of the audience, writing style, and subject matter.

If you’re on a budget, install the free browser extension and test it yourself. It’s ideal for writers with a minimal budget for writing tools. The free version contains a basic grammar checker. It lacks an advanced grammar checker, a plagiarism detector, and some vocabulary enhancement suggestions.

That said, it’s still worth using.  It underlines potential grammar mistakes in red and proposes fundamental rewrites and fixes. You can also switch between US, British, Canadian, and Australian English. It should catch more errors than a basic grammar or spellchecker; you can try it without spending money.

Grammarly Premium Review

When you’re ready to upgrade to the paid version, Grammarly Premium contains several additional checks and tools for those who regularly write and publish content online. It also provides additional writing insights and an ability to set writing goals. It also finds and fixes more mistakes than the free version. The best Grammarly premium tools include:

  • The plagiarism report
  • Overused words
  • Inappropriate tone
  • Readability scores and reports
  • An advanced writing assistant
  • GrammarlyGO: its proprietary AI tool 

You can upgrade to Grammarly Premium for a month and cancel when you’re done. Or you could upgrade for the entire year if you use it regularly. Check out our Grammarly tips and tricks guide to get more value from your subscription.

Using Grammarly Premium

Grammarly writing goals
Setting writing goals in Grammarly

Before using Grammarly to edit a longer work, it’s a good idea to set a writing goal. You can set these goals based on your:

  • Intent, e.g., inform, tell a story or describe
  • The audience, e.g., general or expert
  • Style, e.g., formal or informal
  • Emotion, e.g., mild or strong
  • Domain, e.g., academic, business , or technical

The premium version of Grammarly delivers additional insights based on these goals. I found this feature helpful in editing technical documentation, whereby I assumed the audience was knowledgeable about the topic. Next, Grammarly surfaces issues to fix via five key grammar checker reports alongside its plagiarism detector.

1. Correctness

Grammarly underlines grammar and spelling mistakes in red and proposes fixes. Expect to use this report the most. After using this grammar checker on several articles and book chapters, I discovered I have a bad habit of ending sentences with prepositions. I’m also guilty of using the occasional squinting modifier. These are finer grammar points, but knowing my bad habits helped me improve my writing.

The built-in grammar checkers in Microsoft Word and Google Docs didn’t provide me with these insights. I also particularly like the “Accept all suggestions” feature. This enables me to review several writing suggestions in a document and accept or reject them all at once. If you use this time-saving feature, don’t forget to review the suggestions and changes. 

2. Clarity

See the proposed rewrite to the side; I can apply them with a click. Grammarly reviews a piece of writing for clumsy and awkward sentence structure. It then underlines issues in blue. It also scans for instances of the passive voice.

Using AI technology, Grammarly proposes rewrites and other fixes. Judge these recommendations based on your audience and style guide; not all are relevant. That said, I was impressed by many of these recommendations. Use this report after you’ve fixed grammar mistakes.

3. Engagement

Grammarly reviews a piece of writing for challenging or hard-to-understand terms and overused words. It highlights them in green. It also looks for clumsy sentences. Use this report to polish your writing by finding better synonyms.

4. Delivery

Grammarly reviews a piece of writing based on your preferred tone and audience. It underlines issues in purple. I didn’t get as much value from this report for emails and other short-form works. However, it’s a nice addition if you want to spend some extra time copyediting a piece before submission or publication.

5. Style

Grammarly reviews a piece of writing based on your company style guide. It highlights issues in grey. Use this report if you work with freelancers and have a house-style guide. Learn more about style guides.

6. Grammarly Plagiarism Detector

The plagiarism report is one of my favorite Grammarly tools. It’s premium only. Grammarly scans a piece of writing, scans the web, and highlights potentially plagiarised content with links. This tool appeals to college students and essayists concerned about citing too heavily from their sources without proper attribution. It’s ideal for those writing academic content regularly. It helps review a peer’s work and check an essay for accidental plagiarism.

The Grammarly plagiarism detector is also helpful if you’ve written an article and can’t remember your sources. Writers can check if they’ve inadvertently copied text from research sources without citing or linking correctly.

You can also check if a freelancer is providing you with original content. I also sometimes use this detector to check if someone has plagiarised popular articles from this site so that I can issue DMCA takedown requests.

7. App Actions

Grammarly now works with multiple apps. You can create Asana tasks, browse Unsplash and GIPHY for images, search for Confluence pages and access Google Drive inside of Grammarly. It also works with Microsoft Office 365. This makes Grammarly much more useful for content creators and anyone using it for work.

Areas for Improvement

Grammarly isn’t perfect. It could be improved in several different ways. The current price of $30 per month is expensive for writers on a budget, although you can avail of a Grammarly discount. I’d also like to see the following:

  • Support for other languages beyond English
  • A free trial for the plagiarism checker so users can see how valuable it is

Grammarly Premium vs Grammarly Business

Grammarly Business Collaboration
Grammarly Business supports adding team members

Recently, Grammarly introduced a business version of its software. In addition to the features provided on the premium model, the business edition of the Grammarly software includes:

  • Admin and user management controls for the privacy and security of your team’s work.
  • Priority 24/7 email support
  • Centralized billing
  • Monitoring tools for checking engagement trends
  • A style guide
  • Collaboration features

Grammarly for Business is a viable option if you run a bigger content publishing team or often work with freelance writers. Read our review of Grammarly Business.

Grammarly Competitors

Grammarly has been around since 2009 and is a well-known grammar-checking tool. However, several key players are popular with writers and small business owners. The most popular include Word and Google Docs, ProWritingAid, Microsoft Editor, Ginger and Linguix.

Grammarly Vs. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is your best option if you don’t want to use Grammarly. It’s more affordable and almost as powerful. The free version of Grammarly can check 10,000 words at a time. The free version of ProWritingAid can check 500 words at a time. To learn more, read my ProWritingAid review.

Grammarly Vs. Microsoft Word and Google Docs

The free and premium versions of Grammarly caught more errors in our test than the inbuilt grammar checker with Google Docs and Microsoft Office. Considering you can easily use Grammarly for free with this app, it’s a no-brainer. Learn how to add Grammarly to Google Docs.

Grammarly Vs. Whitesmoke

Grammarly is more powerful and user-friendly than Whitesmoke. Although Whitesmoke is cheaper, Grammarly contains more advanced grammar-checking features and tools. However, unlike Grammarly, Whitesmoke lacks a free version or trial. To learn more, read our comparison: Whitesmoke vs Grammarly.

Grammarly Vs. Turnitin

Grammarly is a better proofreader and grammar checker than Turnitin for one reason: availability. Unless you’re in academia, buying or acquiring Turnitin isn’t easy. Any student or writer can try and use Grammarly without issue to check their essays, papers and more. Read our guide to Grammarly alternatives.

Grammarly Vs. A Human Proofreader

Grammarly excels at checking short blocks of text and articles quickly and easily. It’ll help you edit and publish your work faster. But you still need to take a look at its suggestions. The Grammarly handbook and the context it provides for tips and fixes help. Grammarly sometimes overlooked mistakes, particularly in creative writing and fiction. So, I recommend paying a professional proofreader for longer work, like a book chapter, as they can assess fixes.

Using Grammarly as a Non-English Writer

British English is one of my native languages (alongside Irish). I sometimes write articles in British English. I also write in American English, depending on the website or blog audience. There are subtle differences between both types of English. I’ve sprouted a few grey hairs reading, scanning early drafts looking for instances of “realise” and “realize” or “centre” and “center”…

So, I value Grammarly‘s ability to proofread and grammar-check a document for different types of English, and I use this feature often. If English is your first language, Grammarly is a helpful tool because it teaches the finer points of grammar. Grammarly is still a good tool if English isn’t your first language or if you don’t write articles, blog posts or emails that often, but it’s an aid for learning English grammar rather than a teacher of English.

Can Grammarly Be Trusted?

Is Grammarly HIPAA Compliant
Grammarly Business includes enterprise-grade encryption

If you’re a freelance writer, small business owner or professional, there’s little reason not to trust Grammarly. Grammarly Business includes enterprise-grade encryption. It has also achieved several regarded security and compliance certifications, including:

  • ISO 27001:2013
  • GDRP compliance
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance
  • PCI-DSS compliance

If you’re still concerned or work with sensitive materials, you can request a personal data report from Grammarly and see what information it holds about you before proceeding.

Is Grammarly Premium Worth It?

Grammarly Premium catches more errors and grammar mistakes than a free or basic grammar checker. It’s also easier and quicker to use and works in almost any writing application.

You can also access a best-in-class plagiarism checker and an AI-powered writing assistant. And Grammarly Premium now includes GrammarlyGO. In short, it’s worth it for anyone who works with the written word. If you’re still unsure, claim our Grammarly coupon.

Our Grammarly Review Process

We regularly update this Grammarly review as the product evolves. We test new features by checking articles, book chapters, and blog posts for grammatical mistakes and other issues. Typically, we test using the Grammarly Chrome and desktop Grammarly editor apps. These articles and other writing samples range from several hundred to several thousand words. We also compare Grammarly to other popular and new grammar checkers.

Why You Can Trust Us

I’ve written and published dozens of articles for newspapers, magazines and online publications, including Forbes and Lifehacker. I’m also a best-selling non-fiction author, a trained journalist and a copywriter.

Software like Grammarly forms a vital part of my writing workflow for non-fiction. I regularly use these types of software to improve my work and check work by freelance writers who publish content on this site.

FAQs About Grammarly Review

Does Grammarly work?

Grammarly finds and fixes more writing errors than a traditional proofreading and grammar checker. It provides insights into the reasons behind a mistake and suggests fixes. The free and premium versions are accurate, fast and easy to use. It’s a top tool for successful writers.

Does Grammarly cost money?

The basic version of Grammarly is free to use. You can use it to grammar-check your writing. The premium version has additional tools for writers. It costs approximately $30 monthly, but you can save money with a monthly subscription or discount.

Does Grammarly work on Mac?

Grammarly works on a Mac via the desktop Grammarly editor app. You can also use the Grammarly Chrome extension for Safari and the Grammarly keyboard for texts on iOS or Android.

What is the Grammarly cancellation refund policy?

If you try Grammarly Premium and don’t like it, you can visit Grammarly.com, contact Grammarly support and get your money back without issue within ten days.

How can I get Grammarly premium for free?

The base model of Grammarly is free and helpful, so use that. When you’re ready or can afford to upgrade, claim a Grammarly coupon and save 20%.

Author

  • Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

Grammarly Review: Is Grammarly Premium Worth It?
  • Ease of use
  • Accuracy
  • Affordability
4.83

Is Grammarly Premium Worth It?

Grammarly is a powerful and effective writing assistant. If you communicate with the written word, it’s worth the subscription. It finds and fixes grammar errors faster than any other tool. We also loved its ability to write multiple sentences at a click. It’ll help most users improve their writing skills relatively quickly.

Pros

  • Finds and fixes more errors than free grammar checkers
  • Fast and easy to use
  • Powerful AI-writing assistant
  • Support for US, British English. American and Canadian English
  • Faster and more accurate than competitors
  • Widely available
  • Free version is relatively useful

Cons

  • Some writers dislike paying $30 a month for a grammar checker
  • English only
  • Requires internet access to work