Best Grammarly Alternatives of 2026
Six tools that beat Grammarly at something specific, from cheaper plagiarism checks to manuscript editing, with prices as listed in October 2026.
By , research by the BestBots team ยท Updated Oct 18, 2026
Fact checked against each company's published pricing, documentation and verified user ratings. How we score
QuillBot is the best Grammarly alternative for most people: $8.33 per month on annual billing, with a paraphraser, summarizer, AI detector and 25,000 plagiarism words a month. ProWritingAid is better for novelists, Wordtune is the cheapest rewriter, and Claude or ChatGPT are better for rewriting whole drafts.
Our top picks
Why people leave Grammarly
Grammarly is a strong product, but four complaints come up again and again:
- Price on monthly billing. Pro is $30 per month unless you pay $144 for a year.
- A limited free plan. Free has no plagiarism check, no AI detection and 100 AI prompts a month.
- Billing and upsells. Its Trustpilot score is 3.1 from 10,479 reviews, with recurring reports of charges after trials and intrusive pop ups.
- The wrong tool for the job. Novelists want manuscript reports, students want paraphrasing and summaries, and marketers want drafts generated, not corrected.
Each alternative below fixes one of those.
Our picks, in detail
- Starting price
- $19.95 per month
- Free plan
- Yes
- Plagiarism checker
- Premium, 25,000 words per month in 100+ languages; more words can be bought
- Languages
- Paraphrase in 23 languages, grammar in 6, translation into 40+
QuillBot Premium is $8.33 per month on annual billing against Grammarly Pro's $12, and it bundles a 9 mode paraphraser, 6,000 word summarizer, AI detector, humanizer and 25,000 plagiarism words a month. Its 4.8 Trustpilot score from 14,537 reviews is far ahead of Grammarly's 3.1.
Pros
- $8.33 per month on annual billing, the cheapest full toolkit here
- 25,000 plagiarism words per month included
- 9 paraphrase modes plus unlimited custom modes
- 4.8 on Trustpilot from 14,537 reviews
- Pause your subscription instead of cancelling
Cons
- Free plan caps paraphrasing and humanizing at 100 words
- Monthly billing costs 2.4x the annual rate
- Grammar checks cover only 6 languages
- Security certifications not published on pages we could open
Skip it if you write in languages beyond the 6 its grammar checker covers, or need an always on checker inside every app.
- Starting price
- $30 per month
- Free plan
- Yes
- Plagiarism checker
- Extra cost on every plan
- Languages
- English only (US, UK, Canadian, Australian)
ProWritingAid's paid plans check documents of any length, add chapter critiques and creative feedback, and cost $10 per month billed yearly. It is the only tool here with a lifetime option, $399 for Premium, so you can stop paying a subscription.
Pros
- Paid plans check documents of any length
- $10 per month on yearly billing, $399 lifetime option
- Chapter critiques and creative feedback on Premium Pro
Cons
- English only
- Plagiarism checks cost extra
- No refunds on monthly plans
- Trustpilot reviewers complain about credit based extras
Skip it if you write in any language other than English, or need plagiarism checks included in the price.
- Starting price
- $6.99 per month
- Free plan
- Yes
- Plagiarism checker
- Not listed
- Languages
- Not published
Wordtune's free plan gives unlimited grammar and spelling checks plus 10 rewrites a day, and Unlimited is $9.99 per month or $6.99 annually. For someone leaving Grammarly mainly to rephrase sentences, it costs less than half of Grammarly Pro monthly.
Pros
- Unlimited rewrites for $9.99, or $6.99 annually
- Free grammar and spelling checks with no cap
- 30% off for students and educators
Cons
- No plagiarism checker or brand voice
- Not a long form generator
- Trustpilot reports of iOS feature outages
Skip it if you need a plagiarism checker, AI detector or brand style guide.
- Starting price
- $20 per month
- Free plan
- Yes
- Plagiarism checker
- Not published
- Languages
- Not published
Claude Pro at $20 per month ($17 annually) handles a full document at once with a context window up to 1M tokens, so you can ask for a structural edit, not just sentence fixes. The free plan already includes Sonnet and Haiku for editing.
Pros
- Claude Code included on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise with one shared usage pool
- Context window up to 1M tokens depending on model
- Max plans add $100 to $200 per month in API credits
- Enterprise list price is published ($20 per seat plus usage), unlike most rivals
Cons
- No fixed message counts: limits reset on 5 hour windows with weekly caps on paid plans
- Top Fable model is only partly included, even on Max
- No image or video generator listed on the pricing page
Skip it if you want inline underlines while you type in Gmail or Word.
- Starting price
- $8 per month
- Free plan
- Yes
- Plagiarism checker
- Not published
- Languages
- Not published
ChatGPT Free offers unlimited everyday text chats, enough to proofread and rewrite most emails at no cost, and Go at $8 per month adds more tools. It also drafts from scratch, which Grammarly's 100 free prompts cannot match.
Pros
- Widest feature set in one app: chat, images, voice, Work agent, Codex and connectors
- Five consumer price points from $0 to $500 per month, so you can pay for exactly the usage you need
- Business seats at $20 per month annually undercut most rivals' team plans
- Largest review base in the category: 4.8 on the App Store from over 11 million ratings
Cons
- Go plan at $8 carries ads and stays on the smaller GPT-5.6 Luna model
- GPT-6 Pro is capped by weekly allowances even on Pro, per OpenAI's help center
- Plan and model naming (Sol, Luna, Terra, Astra) is hard to follow
Skip it if you need a plagiarism check, a citation trail or real time suggestions in other apps.
- Starting price
- $9 per month
- Free plan
- Yes
- Plagiarism checker
- Not listed on the pricing page
- Languages
- 30+
Rytr's Lite plan gives unlimited characters for $9 per month ($86.40 a year) across 40+ use cases and 30+ languages, with a 10,000 character free plan. It suits people leaving Grammarly because they want drafts generated, not corrected.
Pros
- Unlimited characters from $9 per month
- Free plan with 10,000 characters a month
- 30+ languages and 40+ use cases
Cons
- No plagiarism checker or browser extension listed
- Higher tiers sell relationship tools, not more writing
- Few recent Trustpilot reviews, some refund complaints
Skip it if grammar checking is your main need; Rytr lists no grammar checker, plagiarism tool or browser extension on its pricing page.
How the alternatives compare on price
| Tool | Free plan | Paid monthly | Paid annual (per month) | Plagiarism |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grammarly Pro | 100 AI prompts | $30 | $12 | Included |
| QuillBot Premium | 100 word limits | $19.95 | $8.33 | 25,000 words per month |
| ProWritingAid Premium | 500 words per report | $30 | $10 | Extra cost |
| Wordtune Unlimited | 10 rewrites per day | $9.99 | $6.99 | No |
| Claude Pro | Sonnet and Haiku | $20 | $17 | No |
| ChatGPT Plus | Unlimited everyday chats | $20 (Go $8) | Not listed | No |
| Rytr Lite | 10,000 characters | $9 | $7.20 | Not listed |
All prices as listed by each vendor in October 2026. See the full Price Index.
How to choose
If you want what Grammarly does, cheaper: QuillBot. You lose some language coverage and the security paperwork, and gain a paraphraser and summarizer.
If you write books or long reports: ProWritingAid. Reports run on documents of any length, and the lifetime plan ends the subscription.
If you mostly rephrase sentences: Wordtune. Unlimited rewrites for $9.99, and grammar checks are free.
If you want edits on a whole draft, not line by line: Claude or ChatGPT. Paste the document and ask for a structural edit, a tighter version or a change of tone.
If you want drafts generated: Rytr for budget short form, or see our best AI writing tools for marketing platforms.
Combinations that cost less than Grammarly Pro monthly
You do not have to replace Grammarly with one tool. Two common setups:
- Grammarly Free plus QuillBot Premium annual. Free underlines errors everywhere in 23 languages; QuillBot handles paraphrasing, summaries and 25,000 plagiarism words a month. Total: $99.95 a year, against $360 for Grammarly Pro on monthly billing.
- Grammarly Free plus Claude Free. Inline checks while you type, and a whole document edit when a piece matters. Total: $0.
When to stay with Grammarly
Stay if you need suggestions inside every app you type in, spelling and grammar in 23 languages, a team style guide, or certifications like SOC 2, HIPAA and FedRAMP. Also check the Superhuman bundle: Superhuman Pro, which includes Grammarly, lists at $15 per member monthly or $12 annually, which is cheaper than Grammarly Pro on monthly billing. Our Grammarly pricing page has the details.
How we picked
We started from the most searched Grammarly competitors and kept the tools that beat it on a specific, verifiable point: price, free plan, document length, rewriting depth or drafting. Every price, limit and rating comes from the vendor's own pricing page or a public listing opened in October 2026. Ranking reflects the best fit for a typical Grammarly user who is thinking of leaving, not affiliate status.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Grammarly?
QuillBot for most people: cheaper at $8.33 per month on annual billing, with a paraphraser, summarizer, AI detector and 25,000 plagiarism words a month, and the best Trustpilot score in the category. ProWritingAid is better for long manuscripts.
What is the best free Grammarly alternative?
Wordtune Basic gives unlimited grammar and spelling checks plus 10 rewrites a day. ChatGPT Free offers unlimited everyday text chats for proofreading. QuillBot Free paraphrases up to 100 words at a time.
Is there anything better than Grammarly for fiction?
ProWritingAid, which checks documents of any length on paid plans and adds chapter critiques. For drafting fiction rather than editing it, Sudowrite is built for novelists from $10 per month.
Is QuillBot as good as Grammarly?
For paraphrasing and price, QuillBot is better. For an always on checker across apps, 23 languages and security certifications, Grammarly is better. See our Grammarly vs QuillBot comparison.
Can ChatGPT replace Grammarly?
For occasional proofreading, yes, and the free plan is enough. It does not underline errors as you type in other apps, keep a style guide for a team or check plagiarism, which is what Grammarly Pro is for.
Which Grammarly alternative works in other languages?
QuillBot paraphrases in 23 languages and translates into 40+, though its grammar checker covers 6. Rytr writes in 30+ languages. ProWritingAid is English only. Grammarly itself checks spelling and grammar in 23 languages.