Grammarly

Grammarly is the writing assistant that became infrastructure. Spelling, grammar, tone and clarity, everywhere you type, for so long that most people forget it is a product.

What it does well

Ubiquity and restraint. It works in the browser, in Word, in Docs, in Slack and in your email client without being asked twice, and it corrects quietly rather than interrupting. Tone detection is genuinely useful for anyone writing in a second language or writing anything sensitive at speed.

The free tier is unusually generous and catches the errors that actually embarrass people.

What it costs

Free covers spelling, grammar and basic clarity. Premium runs roughly $12 to $30 a month depending on billing period and adds rewriting, tone control, plagiarism checking and the generative features. Business pricing adds style guides and team analytics.

Where it falls short

It is conservative to a fault. Accept every suggestion and your writing loses whatever made it yours, flattening into something correct and forgettable. Professional editors switch it off for that reason. The generative additions are competent but nothing you cannot get elsewhere, and they are much of what Premium now charges for.

It also struggles with technical and creative writing, flagging deliberate choices as errors.

Who it's for

Non-native English writers, students, job seekers and anyone writing professionally at volume without an editor. If you write for a living and trust your own ear, the free tier is all you need.