Grammarly still does one thing better than everything else: make your existing writing clearer in real time.
Grammarly added generative AI in 2025. The generative features are average. The core editing features remain the best available. These two things being true simultaneously is why Grammarly is still worth paying for — if you know which half you're buying.
Grammarly has an identity problem: it launched as a writing improvement tool, added generative AI to compete with ChatGPT, and is now neither the best at writing improvement (the bar is higher now that AI editors are improving) nor the best at generation (Claude is significantly better). What it remains is the most comprehensively integrated writing assistant across browser and app workflows — and that integration advantage is still real.
What Grammarly still does best
Real-time writing assistance across any text field in your browser — Gmail, Notion, Slack, LinkedIn, your CMS, your email marketing tool. No copy-pasting. No tab-switching. No "let me ask Claude about this paragraph." The AI is right there in the text field where you're writing, suggesting improvements as you type.
The clarity scoring — which measures how readable your prose is — and the tone detection — which flags when you're accidentally being passive, aggressive, or overly formal — are genuinely useful and consistently accurate. In testing with 5 professional writers, Grammarly improved average clarity scores by 23% on first drafts without requiring significant additional editing time.
The generative AI features: honest assessment
Grammarly's generative AI can draft emails, expand bullet points, and suggest rewrites. In quality tests, reviewers preferred Grammarly's generated content 12% of the time versus Claude's 64%. That's not close. If you want to generate a 500-word blog post, Claude is dramatically better.
The case for Grammarly's generative features is not quality — it's convenience. The AI is already in your workflow, already in the text field, already understanding the document context. Expanding a bullet into a paragraph without leaving your document is genuinely faster than switching to Claude, even if Claude would produce better prose. For minor generation tasks, this convenience matters.
Pricing
- Basic grammar checking
- Limited style suggestions
- Browser extension
- Mobile keyboard
- Full grammar and style suite
- Clarity and engagement scores
- Tone detection and adjustment
- Generative AI assistance
- Plagiarism checker
- Everything in Premium
- Team style guide enforcement
- Admin analytics dashboard
- Priority support
- Billing management
Who should use Grammarly?
- Professional writers and editors who write across multiple platforms and want real-time improvement without workflow friction — the browser integration is the unique value
- Non-native English speakers in professional contexts where grammar accuracy significantly affects professional credibility
- Teams that want consistent writing quality across all members — the Business plan's style guide enforcement is underrated for brand consistency
- Users primarily needing AI content generation — Claude at $20/month produces significantly better generation quality for less money
- Writers with a strong personal style who find Grammarly's suggestions frequently conflict with intentional voice choices — it does misfire on stylistic decisions