Is Grammarly actually free?
How free60/100
Value6/10
How these scores work
Free Score (0–100) follows a fixed rubric: cards up front, auto-billing, hard time cutoffs, withheld core features, and paying with your data or attention all deduct points. 90–100 truly free · 70–89 free forever · 45–69 squeezed · 15–44 trial mechanics · under 15 fake or gone. Value (0–10) is editorial: real-world worth of the free offering measured against its paid equivalent. Full rubric on the methodology page.
Sort of. Basic spelling and grammar checking is genuinely free with no card — but the app constantly shows you grayed-out 'advanced' fixes it won't reveal.
What it’s worth
Premium runs about $144/year; the free layer catches the embarrassing mistakes.
What you get free
- Core spelling, grammar, and punctuation checking
- Works across your browser, email, and docs
- Tone detection basics
In practice: it catches the typos and grammar slips that embarrass you — the safety-net layer is genuinely free.
Drawbacks
- Constant Premium nagging with grayed-out fixes
- Your text is processed on their servers
- Free suggestions stay surface-level
Also paywalled
- Full-sentence rewrites and clarity suggestions
- Advanced tone and word-choice fixes
- Plagiarism detection
Free facts
| Verdict | Free-ish |
| Card required | No |
| Auto-bills | — |
| Account | Required |
| Limits | Advanced suggestions locked |
| The real cost | An account, your text on their servers, and constant Premium nudges. |
The catch
Showing you the number of Premium suggestions it's withholding is the business model. Also worth knowing: your writing is processed on their servers.
The smart play
- Never paste confidential text — your writing is processed on their servers
- The free browser extension already covers email and docs; you don't need more
- For rewrites, a free AI chat assistant does what Premium charges $144/year for
More info — tap to expand
Where your text actually goes
Suggestions are computed on Grammarly's servers, which means your prose transits their cloud. For personal writing that's a normal trade; for confidential client or legal material, it's a reason to pause the extension on those tabs.
The withheld-suggestions meter
Free shows you a count of 'advanced suggestions' it found but won't reveal — clarity rewrites, tone shifts, word choice. That number is the sales pitch. A free AI assistant will happily do full rewrites if you paste the text, which quietly deflates the Premium case.
Last checked: July 2026 · Verdict: Free-ish — a free tier exists, but it's shaped to squeeze you toward paying.
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