Grammarly Review

Grammarly has been the dominant AI writing assistant for over a decade, and its 2026 iteration is the most capable yet. While newer AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can generate entire documents, Grammarly occupies a different — and arguably more practical — niche: it makes the writing you already do better.

The key differentiator is ubiquity. Grammarly works everywhere: Gmail, Google Docs, Slack, Microsoft Word, LinkedIn, your browser, your phone. It catches errors and improves clarity in real-time, across every platform you write on. No copy-pasting required.

At $12/month for the Pro plan (billed annually), Grammarly is also one of the most affordable AI writing tools available. The free tier handles basic grammar and spelling, while Pro adds tone detection, full-sentence rewrites, vocabulary suggestions, and plagiarism detection.

Beyond basic grammar and spelling (which every word processor already handles), Grammarly's value is in the subtler improvements:

Clarity improvements identify convoluted sentences, passive voice overuse, and unnecessary qualifiers. These suggestions consistently make professional writing more direct and readable.

Tone detection analyzes your text and tells you how it will likely be perceived: confident, friendly, formal, concerned, etc. This is genuinely useful for email communication, where tone misreadings cause real problems.

Full-sentence rewrites suggest alternative phrasings that are clearer or more engaging. These are not always better than the original, but they often spark ideas for improvement.

Brand tone profiles (on Business plans) let teams define their writing voice and get suggestions aligned with brand guidelines. This is valuable for marketing teams and organizations with strict communication standards.

The AI text generation feature lets you prompt Grammarly to draft content, but this is clearly secondary to its editing capabilities. For generation, ChatGPT or Claude are significantly more capable.

The question many people ask: "Do I still need Grammarly if I have ChatGPT?" The answer, for most professionals, is yes.

ChatGPT and Claude are generators — they create content from scratch. Grammarly is an editor — it improves content you have already written. These are complementary, not competing, functions.

In practice, many professionals use both: they draft content with AI assistance (or write it themselves), then rely on Grammarly to catch errors, improve clarity, and ensure appropriate tone. The always-on nature of Grammarly means it catches issues in quick emails and Slack messages that you would never bother running through ChatGPT.

For non-native English speakers, Grammarly remains especially valuable. Its suggestions help develop writing skills over time, not just fix immediate errors.

Grammarly Pro is worth the investment for anyone who writes professionally in English — which in 2026 includes most knowledge workers. The $12/month cost is justified by catching even one embarrassing error per month in a client email or public document.

It is particularly essential for: business professionals who write dozens of emails daily, non-native English speakers working in English-language environments, content marketers and copywriters who need consistent quality, and students writing academic papers.

You might skip Grammarly if: you write very little, you primarily write in languages other than English (Grammarly's non-English support is limited), or you work exclusively in specialized technical writing where Grammarly's suggestions are more noise than signal.