Complete Guide to Grammarly 2026: Features, Settings, and Alternatives

What Is Grammarly?

Grammarly is the leading AI writing assistant, helping over 30 million people write more clearly, confidently, and effectively. Beyond simple grammar and spelling correction, Grammarly in 2026 offers AI-powered writing suggestions, tone detection, style improvements, plagiarism checking, and full content generation capabilities.

Available as a browser extension, desktop app, mobile keyboard, and integrations with major platforms, Grammarly works wherever you write: emails, documents, social media, messaging apps, and code editors. Its real-time suggestions help you communicate more effectively without switching between applications.

Grammarly Key Features

Real-Time Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly’s core feature catches grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, punctuation issues, and word choice problems as you type. Suggestions appear inline with explanations of why a change is recommended, helping you learn from corrections rather than just accepting them. The engine handles complex grammar rules including subject-verb agreement, modifier placement, comma usage, and tense consistency.

Clarity and Conciseness

Premium users get suggestions for clearer, more concise writing. Grammarly identifies wordy phrases, passive voice overuse, unclear sentences, and redundant words. It suggests specific rewrites that maintain your meaning while improving readability. These suggestions are particularly valuable for professional communication where clarity directly impacts outcomes.

Tone Detection

Grammarly analyzes your text and indicates how it is likely to come across to readers. It detects tones like confident, friendly, formal, diplomatic, constructive, or concerned. Adjust your writing based on these indicators to ensure your message lands as intended. Tone detection is especially useful for sensitive communications like feedback, negotiations, and customer interactions.

GrammarlyGO (AI Writing)

GrammarlyGO is Grammarly’s generative AI feature that creates, rewrites, and transforms text. Use it to draft emails, rewrite paragraphs in a different tone, generate outlines, summarize long texts, or brainstorm ideas. GrammarlyGO understands your context (what you are replying to, who the recipient is) and generates contextually appropriate content.

Plagiarism Detection

Grammarly checks your text against billions of web pages and academic databases to detect potential plagiarism. It highlights matching passages with source links, helping you properly attribute content and avoid unintentional plagiarism. Essential for academic writing, content creation, and any published material.

Brand Tones and Style Guides

Grammarly Business lets organizations define custom style guides and brand tones. Set rules for terminology, formatting, tone, and writing conventions that apply to all team members. Grammarly enforces these guidelines in real-time, ensuring consistent brand voice across all external and internal communications.

Setting Up Grammarly

Step 1: Install Grammarly

Install the Grammarly browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. For broader coverage, download the Grammarly desktop app (Windows/Mac) which works across all applications including desktop email clients, word processors, and messaging apps. On mobile, install the Grammarly Keyboard for iOS or Android.

Step 2: Configure Your Profile

Set your language variant (American, British, Canadian, Australian English), proficiency level, and default writing goals. Writing goals include audience (general, knowledgeable, expert), formality (informal, neutral, formal), domain (academic, business, general, email, casual), tone (neutral, confident, joyful, optimistic, respectful, urgent), and intent (inform, describe, convince, tell a story).

Step 3: Set Up Integrations

Connect Grammarly with your frequently used tools. The Google Docs integration adds Grammarly suggestions directly in your document sidebar. The Microsoft Office add-in works in Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint. The Slack integration checks messages before you send them. Each integration brings Grammarly’s suggestions to where you naturally write.

Grammarly Tips for Better Writing

Review Before Accepting

Read each suggestion’s explanation before accepting. Understanding why a change is recommended builds your writing skills over time. Not every suggestion is correct for your context: Grammarly sometimes flags intentional style choices or domain-specific terminology. Use your judgment to accept relevant suggestions and skip others.

Use the Performance Tab

Grammarly’s weekly performance report shows your writing stats: word count, accuracy, vocabulary, readability, and tone. Track your improvement over time and identify recurring issues to focus your learning efforts. The report also benchmarks your writing against other Grammarly users.

Customize Your Personal Dictionary

Add industry terms, brand names, and proper nouns to your personal dictionary to prevent Grammarly from flagging them as errors. A well-maintained personal dictionary reduces false positives and keeps your attention focused on genuine improvements.

Grammarly Pricing

Plan	Price	Features
Free	$0	Basic grammar, spelling, punctuation
Premium	$12/month (annual)	Clarity, tone, plagiarism, GrammarlyGO, full-sentence rewrites
Business	$15/member/month	Everything in Premium + brand tones, style guides, analytics, admin
Enterprise	Custom	Everything in Business + SSO, SCIM, priority support

Grammarly vs Alternatives

Grammarly offers the broadest integration ecosystem and most polished user experience. Hemingway Editor focuses on readability with a simpler, free approach. Claude provides more powerful AI writing but lacks Grammarly’s always-on integration. ProWritingAid offers deeper style analysis for fiction writers. For everyday writing assistance across all applications, Grammarly remains the most comprehensive choice.