Nothing has changed more than how writers check and correct their writing with free grammar checkers.
For many years, I’ve maintained this archive of free grammar apps, and it’s required constant updating.
The primary reason is that artificial intelligence (AI) is being adopted by so many of these apps. But that’s not to say that all writers like the change. A lot of writers still prefer an app without all the AI bells and whistles.
That’s why it’s important to have a choice, and fortunately, you have plenty of grammar apps and writing tools to choose from.
Why Do You Need A Grammar App?
Most word processors like Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, and Google Docs do a poor job of checking for spelling, grammar, punctuation errors, and typos.
That’s why it’s always much better to use specialized grammar and spell checkers to correct and improve your writing quickly.
Good writing is all about accurate checking and following basic grammar rules.
It only takes a few minutes to use free grammar checkers to ensure your writing will make a good impression.
Write with freedom, yes. But then always check your writing carefully.
What Should You Look For In A Free Tool?
Almost all grammar tools you can find online do a much better job of finding grammatical errors and suggesting corrections than a word processor.
Some give you explanations and examples of grammatical rules and sentence structures, which is a great help.
However, the one feature I always look for in a free grammar app is one-click correction.
If you select an app that has this feature, it really speeds up the correction of your texts.
My Top Three Selections
You can scroll down through my archive, but to save you time, here’s my verdict on the best free grammar and writing apps.
#1. Scribens
With a generous limit of 3,000-3,500 words and one-click correction, it’s an ideal free solution for most writers.
It also includes tips when you click on an error. As an all-round solution, I think it’s the pick of the bunch.
#2. LanguageTool
LanguageTool is a winner for me because it is one of the rare free tools that has a desktop app.
I have it installed and use it frequently to do a quick check using Apple Pages.
While it has a modest limit of 2,000 characters, it does have one-click correction.
#3. ChatGPT (or Gemini)
While you don’t get one-click correction, these two AI assistants are in my top three because they are extremely accurate.
They have often found errors for me even after using a premium grammar checker.
To get the best results, you need to use a detailed prompt. I find this one works best.
Check the following text for grammar, punctuation, and flow, and provide a list of the changes made: [Your Text]
Note: While Grammarly and ProWritingAid are the “big two” premium apps, the free versions are extremely limited, so they don’t get into my top three apps.
The Complete List Of Free Grammar Checkers
Every writer has different needs, so it’s never one size fits all. You’ll find below my comprehensive grammar app archive. It’s a list of writing and grammar tools I have tested and vetted over the years.
For each tool, you will find my detailed analysis and comments about the functionality and usefulness of each one.
If you have a specific requirement for fiction, privacy, or academic writing, you’ll likely find it here.
Grammarly is a terrific app. It is one of the most popular English writing tools, so it tops my list.
After you install the free Grammarly browser app, you can check your online writing and correct it with one click.
Since it began in 2009, it has become a favorite app for writers. For many, it is the best writing checker of them all.
In fact, Grammarly says it has over 20 million daily users.
The full version, however, has many more ways to check your writing.
You can use the powerful desktop editor, connect to Word and Google Docs, as well as Word for Mac, now. There is also an iOS phone app.
If you are looking for an advanced-level checking tool, this is it. Grammarly can check your text for run-on sentences, incorrect pronouns, and misused words.
It is excellent for synonyms and gives you many suggestions to improve your writing. You can also add words to your personal dictionary.
Grammarly’s stand-out feature is that you can correct many of your mistakes with just one click.
All you need to do is hover over a red underlined word or phrase, and you can easily correct the error.
Another great tool is setting goals. It helps you find the right voice for your target audience.
I use Grammarly Premium every day for my online and blog writing. So, I can vouch for how useful, accurate, and practical it is.
Details:
Free version: Browser extension.
Premium price: $12.00 per month on an annual plan.
Pros:
Accurate and fast.
Lots of integration options.
Easy-to-use desktop editor.
Compatible with Microsoft Office and now Word for Mac.
Cons:
Expensive for occasional writers.
No offline access.
Prowritingaid is my favorite writing checker for long-form writing.
Any tool that can find your common writing mistakes and offer you quick and easy corrections will help make your writing so much better.
You can use Prowritingaid to do a grammar and spelling check of your writing with its free Chrome extension.
Then, you’ll have peace of mind that what you write online will be as error-free as possible.
It’s a great tool for checking your writing for blog posts, articles, or social media posts.
It’s also ideal for students who need a little help with correcting their assignments or essays.
Are you an author or a long-form content writer?
If writing is your business, the Prowritingaid desktop editor has many ways to analyze your long texts and documents.
It includes over twenty reports you can use to examine your text or manuscript in depth.
It does far, far more than merely giving you an error suggestion list.
I use it all the time to find ways to improve my writing. It is, without a doubt, the best checking tool for long-form writing, such as manuscripts.
What I like most is that I can investigate my sentence patterns and structures. Then, I can find better ways to make my writing much clearer and more effective.
It works with Windows and Mac, Word, Google Docs, and Scrivener, and has a free Chrome extension.
Details:
Free version: Browser extension.
Premium price: $10.00 per month on an annual plan.
Pros:
Accurate and fast.
The best desktop editor.
20 in-depth writing reports.
Scrivener integration.
Cons:
Limited features with the free version.
No mobile apps.
3. Scribens (Free and Premium)
Scribens is a new addition to my list of online writing checkers.
I have it listed in third place because the free version offers a lot of tools and functions that you would normally only find in a paid app.
It is a free grammar and punctuation checker and corrector, which makes it easy to improve your texts.
There is a generous 20,000-character limit, which equates to around 3,000 – 3,500 words. This is plenty for most writers.
During the checks I did, it was quite accurate, and found most of my mistakes.
But the big feature for me is that it offers you quick and simple one-click correction.
When you hover over a marked error, a pop-up gives you an explanation. You can then click to accept the suggested correction.
You rarely find this feature in a free version. For me, this makes it one of the best free grammar checkers available.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: $4.96 per month on an annual plan. (Euro price 4.16)
Pros:
Very easy to use
One-click corrections.
Extensions for many popular word processors.
French is available with the premium version.
Cons:
No plagiarism checking.
No reports.
Slows down with long texts.
4. ChatGPT and Gemini (Free and Premium)
AI is everywhere now and constantly in the news. It raises many concerns, but we have to adapt to this new technology.
While AI-generated writing is a problematic issue, AI tools have many other uses.
One of these is an outstanding free grammar checker.
ChatGPT is probably the most popular tool, and it does an excellent job of correcting grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
All you need to do is write your prompt, followed by a colon, and add (or paste) your text.
ChatGPT or Gemini, if you prefer, will respond with suggestions about grammatical issues, punctuation errors, consistency in verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and correct word usage.
Here’s a quick example:
For more information, read our detailed article with more uses for ChatGPT as a free grammar and writing checker, as well as a rephrasing tool.
Details:
Free version: Website, iOS, and Android Apps
Premium price: $20.00 per month.
Pros:
Quite accurate grammar corrections.
Can rephrase or rewrite short texts.
Responds quite quickly.
Cons:
Need to write long prompts.
No export. Only copy and paste.
5. Linguix (Free and Premium)
Linguix is a relatively new writing tool.
The app offers online correction and writing assistance to help you write better, clearly, and correctly.
It is particularly useful if you write content articles with Google Docs or send outreach emails with Gmail. You can correct essays and even text messages.
There is a Chrome browser extension you can use to get started right away.
If you need an effective writing tool to help you improve and correct your online writing, it could be one for you to try.
For those hunting for a tool that is similar to Grammarly, this app might be for you.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: $8.00 per month on an annual plan.
Pros:
Easy to use
One-click corrections.
Sharing and collaboration.
Cons:
No integration with Word.
No reports.
Can miss some errors.
Ginger is so simple and easy to use. It has been around for a long time now and is a favorite of many writers.
It will find your basic grammar and spelling mistakes so you can quickly fix them with a single click.
With the browser extension, you can correct your grammar errors anywhere.
One of the best features of Ginger is the sentence checker that uses contextual spelling correction.
It will highlight your spelling errors based on your sentence’s context. These mistakes include bare and bear, to and too, pique and peak, and many other common homonyms.
Just let Ginger spell the word right.
Ginger software is a robust checker that is very accurate at the sentence level. It is perfect for working writers and students alike.
Details:
Free version: Browser extension.
Premium price: $7.49 per month on an annual plan.
Pros:
Contextual spell checking.
Accurate grammar checking.
Translation with the premium version.
Cons:
Limited corrections with the free version
No reports.
No offline access.
7. Hemingway Editor (Free)
This is one of my favorite online tools to check my writing. The Hemingway App is just so easy and simple to use.
All you have to do is go to the website and paste your text into the editor. I call it my quick-fix passive killer.
If you have a habit of using the passive voice too often, it will undoubtedly be the best sentence checker for you.
It will find your passive sentences in a flash. Then, you can change your text to use more direct, active sentences.
You can read my review of the Hemingway app.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: $19.99 one-time payment.
Pros:
Very easy to use.
Excellent style checker.
Fast and accurate.
Cons:
Not a grammar checker.
No spell checking.
Expensive premium version.
8. QuillBot (Free)
QuillBot Grammar Checker is a quick and easy free tool you can use to check your manuscript.
One of the best features is that you can use one-click corrections to fix your grammar, punctuation, and spelling very quickly.
Another advantage is that it has a generous word count limit. I tested it with a text of over 2,000 words, and it quickly analyzed all of my text.
You can probably check one chapter at a time with the tool.
You can check each underlined suggestion and make a quick correction. But it also has a “Fix All Errors” button.
I’m not sure I would trust it for a long text. But it could be useful for a shorter text.
To use the checker, simply paste in your text, or you can use it as an editor and type your text.
When you finish correcting your writing, copy and paste it into your word processor.
Quillbot has other features, but these are only available with the premium version.
However, the grammar checker is free to use and an excellent tool to check and correct your writing.
There is also a free Chrome extension you can try.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: $6.67 per month on an annual plan.
Pros:
Easy to use.
Chrome extension.
One-click correction.
Cons:
No save or download function.
No integration possibilities.
Language Tool has one very big advantage. You can check more languages than English.
The free version offers a generous 20,000-character limit as well as access to check German texts.
You can also get a Chrome extension, but even more useful is the desktop app. It’s only available for Mac, unfortunately.
It is very much worth a look.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: $6.26 per month on an annual plan.
Pros:
Free Chrome extension.
Free desktop app.
One-click correction.
Can check different languages.
Cons:
Limited options.
Misses some errors.
10. Becorrect (Free)
Becorrect is a super easy-to-use free grammar checker.
With it, you can check up to 20,000 characters, which is about 3,000 words.
It gives you suggested corrections that you can click and choose to change.
The site’s layout is clean, and it’s very easy to see your errors in the right-hand pane. It’s well worth a try.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: No premium version.
Pros:
Reasonably accurate.
Generous word limit for a free checker.
One-click correction.
Cons:
No options.
Slow to analyze.
Can’t export your corrected text.
11. Grammar Lookup (Free)
Unlike many other tools, with Grammar Lookup, there seems to be no limit on the number of words you can check.
I pasted 3,000 words from a book manuscript into the text box, and the app started checking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
If you’re looking for an app with a generous word limit, this one is well worth trying.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: No premium version.
Pros:
Reasonably accurate.
Generous word limit for a free checker.
Choose US or British English.
Cons:
No options.
Can’t export your corrected text.
12. Grammar Check (Free)
Another good site. Just paste your text into the Grammar Check editor, and that’s it.
There’s nothing fancy here. But if all you want is a free grammar check to find basic mistakes, this app will work fine for you.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: No premium version.
Pros:
Reasonably accurate.
Generous word limit for a free checker.
Cons:
No options.
Unattractive design.
13. Online Correction (Free)
This is another very easy-to-use online sentence corrector application.
When I tested Online Correction, it did an excellent job of finding errors and some typographical points.
While it is an advertising-supported tool, it is not bad at all.
When I pasted around 3,000 words, the tool analyzed my text very quickly.
So, if all you want is a quick check, it is an ideal tool. It will check your writing accuracy and find any punctuation mistakes.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: No premium version.
Pros:
Easy to use.
Choose US, British, Australian, New Zealand, or South African English.
Cons:
Slow to analyze.
Limited suggestions.
14. Spell Checker Plus (Free and Premium)
Another advertising-supported tool. But Spell Check Plus handled my 3,000-word text with ease.
It does a very good job of finding spelling error corrections and some punctuation errors.
Useful for a quick check of a short article or essay for students.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: $14.99 one-time payment.
Pros:
Easy to use.
Offers useful suggestions.
Explains possible errors.
Cons:
Slow to analyze.
No way to correct errors.
Paper Rater is definitely aimed at students.
I had to cut my 3,000-word text down to 1,500 words because of the word limit restriction with the free version.
However, it produced a detailed report but was a little slow compared to similar apps.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: $7.49 per month on an annual plan.
Pros:
Offers some useful suggestions.
Explains possible errors.
Cons:
Slow to analyze.
No way to correct errors.
16. Virtual Writing Tutor (Free)
While it’s clearly a writing checker aimed at students and essay writers, Virtual Writing Tutor has some useful features.
There is a 1,000-word limit, which is fair for a free grammar checker. But you can get up to 3,000 words if you register as a member.
To check your writing, you need to select from a row of buttons. The results are reasonably easy to understand, but it might take you a while to complete all your checks.
There are better and easier-to-use free grammar checkers around.
But if you are looking for a free solution for short texts, this one might be one for you to try.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: No premium version.
Pros:
Offers useful suggestions.
Explains possible errors.
Cons:
Separate checks are needed for grammar and punctuation.
Too many ads.
17. Reverso (Free)
Reverso is best known as an online translator for people learning English.
However, it has an online English grammar and spellchecker as well.
It is quite basic, though, with a very small limit of only 600 characters.
Not enough to check very much at all apart from perhaps short social media posts.
Details:
Free version: Website.
Premium price: Euro 4.99 per month on an annual plan.
Pros:
Offers some useful suggestions.
Explains possible errors.
Can translate texts.
Cons:
Extremely small word limit for free checks
Microsoft has entered the writing correction arena with its new Microsoft Editor.
It is still early days, and there are a few issues that have been noted among early adopters.
But there is a browser extension you can try.
To access the premium version and all its features, you will need a Microsoft 365 personal or family subscription.
But if you already have a subscription, then there is no cost for you to use it.
Of course, it is designed to work with Word and Outlook.
But it also works with most sites and social networks where you write online.
You can download the Microsoft Editor extension for Chrome and Edge browsers if you want to try it.
Details:
Free version: Chrome or Edge browser extension.
Premium version: Available for free for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers.
Summary
You want the best tools to check your grammar, and for free, of course.
While all of these apps above are free for you to use, some are cut-down and restricted versions of a premium app, and others are advertising-supported.
When choosing the best writing checker for your needs, it will mean that you will have to see how well they perform.
For students, many of the ad-supported free grammar apps can help you with your writing.
They might prove to be just what you are looking for in a writing checker.
But look for apps that allow you a reasonable and fair word limit.
If one restricts you to less than 1,000 words, it will not help you a lot.
But for writers, bloggers, and authors, I have to say from experience that Grammarly and Prowritingaid are probably the best options.
Your choice between the free and paid versions of the three will depend on how much writing you do or if you are monetizing your writing.
But for professional online writers and authors, you might need to consider a premium version at some point.
However, there are plenty of options to choose from if you are looking for free tools to help you check and improve your writing.
Related reading: Free Plagiarism Checkers For Writers, Authors And Students
Share This Article
I use Grammarly but I need something that allows more corrections. The free version is too limited, and the premium is too expensive.
Thanks for compiling a list of free grammar checkers and grammar correction apps.
I would make one ‘teensy whincy’, little suggestion to the boss/editor-in-chief, that whoever wrote the article itself or even the proof reader who approved the final copy, (prior to its publication on the Web) actually try using one of the reviewed products on the content of article itself!
There are simply so many grammatical ‘boobies’ by the author of the piece, that I just could not help myself but to pay forward this tiny bit of ‘tongue-in-cheek’ knowledge.
Absolutely no offence, nor ‘ill will’ intended whatsoever.
Please do take my comments with a grain of salt (and maybe take 2 Aspirins & Call me in the morning)!!
My qualifications that allow me to take this position? – I am a Professor of Lingustics & The Ancient Languages of Central Africa, with over 66 years of Westernised life experience and no less than stunning amounts of feminine guile too!!
“Pay forward one piece of your acquired knowledge, to another, today & watch as that knowledge blossoms upon the streets of life, for all time!”
Hey,
Your article is very helpful. I am sure that these reviews will help me pick the best grammar checking tool and also improvise my English writing.
Thankyou.
I would like to use it thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the article, your article helps to write the perfect grammar in the content. Thanks for sharing.
Why Scribens is it not mentioned here? It is great too
I have now added Scribens to this article.
Grammarly is so American I need an English spellcheck and grammar app. Is there one?
You can set Grammarly to British, Australian, or Canadian English.
I’d like to say thank you for this list. I have been using grammarly and I just thought I needed an additional writing check-aid. I think I now know what to go for.
Thank you so much for reviewing this kind of stuff very helpful.
I really liked Grammarlookup, it’s great for improving my writing style. Thanks for listing all of them.