Best Grammarly Alternatives in 2026: Cheaper and Better Options

Grammarly is the most well-known grammar checker on the planet, but let’s be honest: at $12–$30 per month for a Pro plan, it is not exactly easy on the wallet. And if you only need a solid grammar checker without the AI rewriting bells and whistles, you are probably overpaying.

I have spent the past three months testing every major writing tool on the market so you don’t have to. Whether you are a student on a tight budget, a freelance writer who needs deep style analysis, or a non-native English speaker looking for multilingual support, there is a Grammarly alternative here that fits your needs—and your bank account.

Below, you will find seven of the best AI grammar checkers that can replace Grammarly in 2026, complete with real pricing, honest pros and cons, and a comparison table to help you decide fast. For a deeper look, see our roundup of AI grammar checkers.

TL;DR — Quick Summary

• Best overall alternative: ProWritingAid — deeper writing analysis than Grammarly, lifetime plan available at $399
• Best free option: LanguageTool — generous free tier with 10,000 characters per check, supports 30+ languages
• Best for paraphrasing: QuillBot — seven paraphrasing modes plus grammar checking from $8.33/month
• Best for readability: Hemingway Editor — clean, focused readability analysis with a one-time $19.99 desktop app
• Best for sentence rewriting: Wordtune — AI-powered rewrites with a usable free plan, premium from $6.99/month
• Best for non-native speakers: Ginger Software — built-in translation and text reader from $6.66/month
• Best AI-powered writing assistant: ChatGPT — goes far beyond grammar checking at $20/month for Plus

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Why Look for a Grammarly Alternative?

Grammarly is a great product. Nobody is disputing that. But there are some very real reasons why thousands of writers are looking elsewhere in 2026:

• Price: Grammarly Pro costs $144/year on the annual plan. That is more than double what several competitors charge for similar or better features.
• Feature bloat: Not everyone needs AI paragraph rewriting, tone detection, and brand voice guides. If you just want accurate grammar and spelling checks, you are paying for features you will never touch.
• Limited language support: Grammarly only works in English. If you write in multiple languages, it simply cannot help you.
• No lifetime plan: Grammarly dropped its lifetime deal years ago. Some alternatives still offer one-time purchase options.
• Privacy concerns: Some writers are uncomfortable sending every word they type to Grammarly’s servers.

Whatever your reason, the good news is that the competition has caught up—and in some areas, surpassed—what Grammarly offers. Let’s walk through each alternative.

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1. ProWritingAid — Best Overall Grammarly Alternative

Price: $30/month | $120/year | $399 lifetime
Free plan: Yes (500 words per check, limited reports)
Best for: Fiction writers, long-form content creators, serious editors

ProWritingAid is the tool I recommend most often when someone asks me what to use instead of Grammarly. It does everything Grammarly does—grammar checks, style suggestions, spelling corrections—but it goes significantly deeper with over 20 writing reports covering things like sentence structure, pacing, dialogue tags, readability, and overused words.

What really sets ProWritingAid apart is its lifetime plan at $399. If you plan to write for more than three years (and most of us do), this single purchase pays for itself compared to Grammarly’s recurring subscription. The Premium Pro tier at $144/year adds higher AI usage limits and manuscript critiques for book authors.

Pros

• Over 20 in-depth writing reports that Grammarly simply does not offer
• Lifetime license option saves money long-term
• Excellent integration with Scrivener, Google Docs, and Word
• Detailed explanations help you actually improve your writing, not just fix it

Cons

• Interface can feel overwhelming for beginners
• Real-time suggestions are slightly slower than Grammarly
• English only (like Grammarly)
• Free plan is quite limited at 500 words per check

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2. LanguageTool — Best Free Grammarly Alternative

Price: $4.99/month (annual) | $19.90/month (monthly)
Free plan: Yes (10,000 characters per check)
Best for: Multilingual writers, privacy-conscious users, budget-minded professionals

If you write in any language other than English, LanguageTool should be at the top of your list. It supports over 30 languages including German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, and Portuguese, with thousands of language-specific rules for each one. Grammarly cannot match this.

The free plan is genuinely useful, giving you 10,000 characters per check with solid grammar and style corrections. The Premium plan at just $4.99/month billed annually is less than half the price of Grammarly Pro, and it bumps the limit to 100,000 characters while adding advanced style and tone suggestions.

LanguageTool is also open source at its core, which means you can self-host it if data privacy is a major concern. For writers and businesses that handle sensitive documents, this is a massive advantage that no other tool on this list can claim.

Pros

• Supports 30+ languages natively
• Generous free tier (10,000 characters)
• Open-source core for self-hosting
• Very affordable premium plan at $4.99/month
• Clean browser extension that works everywhere

Cons

• English-specific checks are not quite as thorough as Grammarly’s
• No plagiarism checker
• AI-powered suggestions are limited compared to newer tools
• Desktop app could use a design refresh

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3. QuillBot — Best for Paraphrasing and Rewriting

Price: $8.33/month (annual) | $19.95/month (monthly)
Free plan: Yes (125-word paraphrasing limit)
Best for: Students, academic writers, content marketers who paraphrase frequently

QuillBot made its name as a paraphrasing tool, but it has grown into a full-featured writing assistant with grammar checking, summarizing, citation generation, and plagiarism detection all bundled in. If your workflow involves a lot of rewriting—whether you are paraphrasing research, repurposing content, or adjusting tone—QuillBot is built for that.

The Premium plan gives you unlimited paraphrasing across seven modes (Standard, Fluency, Formal, Simple, Creative, Expand, and Shorten) plus 20 pages of plagiarism checking per month. At $99.95/year, it costs about $44 less than Grammarly Pro’s annual plan.

Students get an even better deal at $74.95/year with a verified academic email. If you are part of our audience looking for free AI writing tools, QuillBot’s free tier is a solid starting point, though the 125-word limit on paraphrasing will feel restrictive quickly.

Pros

• Best-in-class paraphrasing with seven distinct modes
• Built-in plagiarism checker (Premium)
• Solid grammar checker included
• 25% student discount
• Citation generator saves time on academic papers

Cons

• Grammar checking alone is not as thorough as Grammarly
• Free plan paraphrasing limit (125 words) is frustrating
• Plagiarism checks capped at 20 pages/month on Premium
• No desktop app—browser-based only

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4. Hemingway Editor — Best for Readability and Clarity

Price: $19.99 one-time (desktop) | $8.33/month for Editor Plus (annual)
Free plan: Yes (full web editor, no AI features)
Best for: Bloggers, journalists, anyone who wants concise and readable writing

Hemingway Editor takes a completely different approach from Grammarly. Instead of checking every comma and semicolon, it focuses on making your writing clear, bold, and direct. It highlights overly complex sentences, passive voice, adverb overuse, and hard-to-read passages using a simple color-coded system.

The free web version gives you the full readability analysis with no word limits and no sign-up required. The one-time $19.99 desktop app lets you work offline. And the newer Hemingway Editor Plus subscription at $100/year adds AI-powered sentence fixing, grammar checking, and tone adjustments.

I find Hemingway most valuable as a second-pass editor. Run your draft through a grammar checker first, then paste it into Hemingway to tighten everything up. The combination of Hemingway plus LanguageTool’s free plan gives you 90% of what Grammarly offers for $0.

Pros

• Free web version with no restrictions on length
• One-time purchase desktop app (no subscription needed)
• Best readability scoring on the market
• Distraction-free, minimal interface
• AI-powered editing in Editor Plus

Cons

• Not a full grammar checker (use alongside another tool)
• No browser extension for real-time checking
• No plagiarism detection
• English only

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5. Wordtune — Best for AI Sentence Rewriting

Price: $6.99/month (annual) | $13.99/month (monthly)
Free plan: Yes (10 daily rewrites, unlimited grammar checks)
Best for: Professionals who need to polish emails, articles, and documents quickly

Wordtune is all about making your existing writing sound better. Instead of just flagging errors, it suggests entire sentence rewrites that can make your writing more formal, more casual, shorter, or longer—depending on what you need. Think of it as an AI writing partner that speaks up when your sentences could hit harder.

The free plan is surprisingly useful: you get 10 rewrites per day plus unlimited spelling and grammar checks. That is more than enough for someone who writes a few emails and short documents daily. The Unlimited plan at $9.99/month (annual) removes all caps and adds unlimited AI summaries for reading long documents.

Wordtune also offers a Teams plan at $7.99/seat/month (annual) that includes admin features and centralized billing, making it a legitimate option for small businesses looking at alternatives to Grammarly Business.

Pros

• AI rewrites are genuinely impressive and save real time
• Free plan includes unlimited grammar checking
• Clean, non-intrusive interface
• Good value at $6.99/month (annual)
• 30% student and educator discount

Cons

• Rewrite suggestions can sometimes change your intended meaning
• Free plan daily limits feel restrictive for heavy users
• No plagiarism checker
• Fewer integrations than Grammarly

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6. Ginger Software — Best for Non-Native English Speakers

Price: $6.66/month (2-year plan) | $7.49/month (annual) | $20.97/month (monthly)
Free plan: Yes (basic grammar and spelling checks)
Best for: ESL writers, non-native speakers, anyone who needs built-in translation

Ginger Software has been around almost as long as Grammarly, and it has carved out a niche that Grammarly has largely ignored: non-native English speakers. Ginger includes a built-in translator that supports over 60 languages, a text-to-speech reader that helps you hear how your writing sounds, and a personal trainer feature that creates practice sessions based on your most common mistakes. For a deeper look, see our roundup of best AI writing tools.

The grammar checking itself is solid, if not quite at Grammarly’s level for advanced style suggestions. Where Ginger shines is the sentence rephraser, which suggests alternative ways to express your ideas—extremely helpful when you know what you want to say but cannot find the right English phrasing.

At $6.66/month on the two-year plan, Ginger Premium costs roughly half of what Grammarly charges. The seven-day money-back guarantee gives you enough time to test it properly.

Pros

• Built-in translator supporting 60+ languages
• Text-to-speech reader for proofreading by ear
• Personal trainer learns from your mistakes
• Very affordable on the two-year plan
• Good sentence rephrasing feature

Cons

• Interface feels dated compared to newer competitors
• Free version is quite limited
• Plagiarism checker is not as accurate as dedicated tools
• Fewer third-party integrations than Grammarly
• Smaller user community means fewer online resources

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7. ChatGPT — Best AI-Powered Writing Assistant

Price: Free | $8/month (Go) | $20/month (Plus) | $200/month (Pro)
Free plan: Yes (basic access with limited usage)
Best for: Writers who need grammar checking, rewriting, brainstorming, and content creation in one tool

ChatGPT is not a traditional grammar checker, but it has become one of the most powerful Grammarly alternatives for a simple reason: it can do everything Grammarly does and far more. Paste your text into ChatGPT, ask it to proofread for grammar and style, and you will get corrections with detailed explanations of every change. Ask it to rewrite a paragraph in a different tone, and it handles that too. For a deeper look, see our roundup of Grammarly vs ChatGPT.

The free tier gives you basic access, but the Plus plan at $20/month unlocks GPT-5 with advanced reasoning, which is significantly better at understanding context, nuance, and writing style. For grammar checking specifically, even the free version outperforms many dedicated tools.

The obvious downside is that ChatGPT does not integrate into your browser or word processor the way Grammarly does. There is no red underline as you type. You need to manually paste text in and out, which breaks your writing flow. But if you are already using ChatGPT for research, brainstorming, or drafting, adding proofreading to that workflow is seamless. Check out our list of best AI writing assistants for more tools in this category.

Pros

• Understands context better than any grammar checker
• Can explain why a correction is needed in plain English
• Handles rewriting, tone adjustment, and content generation
• Free tier is genuinely useful for basic proofreading
• Works in virtually any language

Cons

• No browser extension or real-time checking
• Requires manual copy-paste workflow
• Can occasionally “improve” your text in ways you did not ask for
• Not purpose-built for grammar—requires prompting knowledge
• Plus plan at $20/month is pricier than most grammar-focused alternatives

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Grammarly Alternatives Comparison Table (2026)

Tool	Best For	Price/Month	Free Plan	Plagiarism Check	Rating
ProWritingAid	Deep writing analysis	From $10/mo (annual)	Yes (500 words)	Yes (Premium Pro)	4.6/5
LanguageTool	Multilingual writers	From $4.99/mo (annual)	Yes (10K chars)	No	4.5/5
QuillBot	Paraphrasing & rewriting	From $8.33/mo (annual)	Yes (125 words)	Yes (20 pages/mo)	4.4/5
Hemingway Editor	Readability & clarity	$19.99 one-time / $8.33/mo Plus	Yes (full web editor)	No	4.5/5
Wordtune	Sentence rewriting	From $6.99/mo (annual)	Yes (10 rewrites/day)	No	4.3/5
Ginger Software	Non-native speakers	From $6.66/mo (2-year)	Yes (basic)	Yes (limited)	4.0/5
ChatGPT	All-in-one AI writing	Free / $20/mo Plus	Yes	No	4.7/5
Grammarly (reference)	General grammar & style	From $12/mo (annual)	Yes (basic)	Yes (Pro)	4.6/5

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How to Choose the Right Grammarly Alternative

With seven strong options on the table, picking the right one comes down to your specific situation. Here is a quick decision framework:

• If you want the closest Grammarly experience for less money: Go with ProWritingAid. It matches or exceeds Grammarly’s feature set, especially for long-form writing, and the lifetime plan eliminates recurring costs entirely.
• If you are on a tight budget or want something free: LanguageTool’s free plan is the most generous in the industry. Pair it with Hemingway’s free web editor and you have a powerful combo at zero cost.
• If you write academic papers or paraphrase frequently: QuillBot is purpose-built for this. The student discount makes it even more attractive.
• If you write in multiple languages: LanguageTool is the only serious option here, with deep support for 30+ languages.
• If you are a non-native English speaker: Ginger’s translation, text-to-speech, and personal trainer features are specifically designed for your needs.
• If you already pay for ChatGPT: You already have a powerful proofreading tool. Just learn the right prompts and you may not need a dedicated grammar checker at all.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free alternative to Grammarly?

LanguageTool is the best free alternative to Grammarly in 2026. Its free plan checks up to 10,000 characters per text field, supports over 30 languages, and provides grammar, punctuation, and style suggestions without requiring a sign-up. For readability specifically, Hemingway Editor’s free web version is also excellent and can be used alongside LanguageTool at no cost.

Is ProWritingAid better than Grammarly?

ProWritingAid is better than Grammarly for writers who want in-depth analysis of their writing style, pacing, and structure. It offers over 20 writing reports that Grammarly does not have, and its lifetime plan at $399 saves significant money over time. However, Grammarly has a slight edge in real-time suggestion speed and browser integration polish. The best choice depends on whether you prioritize depth of analysis (ProWritingAid) or seamless real-time checking (Grammarly).

Can ChatGPT replace Grammarly?

ChatGPT can handle grammar checking, style improvement, and rewriting, often with better contextual understanding than Grammarly. However, it cannot replace Grammarly’s real-time browser integration. You will not get underlined errors as you type in Gmail, Google Docs, or social media. If you are comfortable pasting text into ChatGPT for review, it works well as a replacement. If you need always-on checking across every text field, a dedicated grammar tool is still necessary.

Which Grammarly alternative is cheapest for students?

QuillBot offers the best student pricing at $74.95/year (about $6.25/month) with a verified academic email, and it includes grammar checking, paraphrasing, summarizing, and plagiarism detection. Wordtune also offers a 30% student discount, bringing its Advanced plan to roughly $4.89/month annually. For students who need zero cost, LanguageTool’s free plan and Hemingway’s free web editor together cover most grammar and readability needs. We also cover this topic in our guide to AI paraphrasing tools.

Do any Grammarly alternatives offer a lifetime plan?

Yes. ProWritingAid offers a lifetime Premium plan for $399 (one-time payment) and a lifetime Premium Pro plan for $699. Hemingway Editor’s desktop app is also a one-time purchase at $19.99, though it lacks the AI features of the subscription-based Editor Plus. These are the only two major Grammarly alternatives that offer pay-once options in 2026. Grammarly itself does not offer a lifetime plan.

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Final Verdict

Grammarly is still a good tool, but it is no longer the only game in town. In 2026, you can get comparable or better writing assistance for less money—sometimes for free.

If I had to pick just one tool to recommend, it would be ProWritingAid for serious writers who want depth and long-term value, or LanguageTool for everyone else who wants a reliable, affordable, multilingual grammar checker that just works.

But honestly, the smartest move is to combine tools. LanguageTool (free) for everyday grammar checking, Hemingway (free) for readability passes, and ChatGPT for the occasional deep rewrite gives you a writing toolkit that outperforms Grammarly Pro—at a fraction of the price, or even for free.

Whatever you choose, stop overpaying for features you do not use. Your writing deserves great tools, and your budget deserves respect.

Last updated: February 2026. Prices verified against official sources. All prices shown in USD.