Grammar checker software scans text for spelling, punctuation, grammar and style problems, and some tools also rewrite sentences or flag plagiarism.
Vendors range from free browser correctors to editors built around readability and enterprise suites. This guide ranks eleven options on setup effort, real price, exit, independence and who each is for.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What grammar checker software does
Grammar checker software reads written text, finds spelling, grammar, punctuation and style errors, and suggests corrections inside a browser, document editor or standalone app.
Each grammar checker tool was put through the same five questions, in sequence: how hard is setup, what does it really cost, how does data come back out, can you leave, and who is it for. The ranking then gives places 1 to 3 to challengers outside the best-known brands, if the category has such vendors, and the incumbents follow. Reasons for the choice of tests, and for skipping a score out of ten, can be read on the how we work page.
Montpellier grammar corrector in 40 languages, free up to a daily cap
Ranked #1 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Scribens corrects grammar and spelling in more than 40 languages and explains each rule in plain terms. The free edition is limited to 8,000 characters daily and shows ads.
Premium raises checking to 5 million characters monthly, with up to 100,000 per check, unlimited paraphrasing in 20 tones, backups of recent texts and no advertising. Its legal notice names a Montpellier company and OVHcloud hosting in France.
What stands out
Free tier
40+ languages
French company
Where it costs you
The free edition stops at 8,000 characters a day, and ads run on the site.
The home page gives no Premium price, so cost cannot be compared before sign-up.
Right for
Writers of French, English or Spanish who need occasional free proofreading without installing anything
Wrong for
Companies needing admin controls, single sign-on or a contract
FranceFree tier with ads and a daily cap; Premium subscription, price not shown on the home page
Open-source proofreading engine with browser, Office and API access
Ranked #2 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingNorth America
The public repository describes LanguageTool as open-source proofreading software for English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch and more than 20 other languages, with the core under LGPL 2.1 or later.
Premium adds over 20,000 checks in seven languages, text fields up to 150,000 characters, a style guide and unlimited paraphrasing. The terms name Learneo, Inc. of Delaware as owner and operator.
What stands out
Open source core
Free tier
Proofreading API
Where it costs you
Corrections are rule-based and AI-assisted, so it will not rewrite a section on request.
Ownership by Learneo, Inc. may surprise buyers expecting a purely European company.
Right for
Teams that want an open core they could host themselves, and multilingual correction
Wrong for
People wanting an assistant that drafts first versions of documents
United StatesFree tier; Premium sold by billing interval; team and business plans
Editing-first checker with detailed reports and a lifetime purchase option
Ranked #3 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Free, Premium and Premium Pro sit on a monthly, yearly or lifetime toggle. Free offers 10 rephrases a day and 3 Creative Nudges. Premium costs a published monthly fee on the monthly toggle and unlocks unlimited line-editing reports, a custom style guide and over 25 analysis reports.
The copyright line names Orpheus Technology. Because novel tools sit beside the grammar tools, the interface carries more menus than a basic corrector.
What stands out
Free tier
Lifetime option
Writing reports
Where it costs you
The Free plan allows only two runs of each report a day, on 500 words.
Plagiarism checks cost extra, even on paid plans.
Right for
Authors who revise full manuscripts and want repeated analysis reports
Wrong for
Office workers wanting a quick check inside every app
United KingdomFree plan; Premium and Premium Pro by month, year or lifetime; plagiarism checks cost extra
Readability-focused editor that highlights wordy and passive sentences, with paid AI rewrites
Ranked #4 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Plus includes unlimited grammar fixes, document review, highlights for wordiness and weak language, and AI synonym suggestions. The AI tools cover creative rephrase, polish and clarify, shorten or add detail, tone adjustment, restructuring with headings and bullets, and custom rewrite instructions.
Individual 5K gives 5,000 AI sentences a month, Individual 10K gives 10,000, and Team 10K covers up to 50 users with role-based admin controls. Enterprise is quoted.
What stands out
Readability
Free tier
AI sentence quota
Where it costs you
Every AI rewrite spends one credit per sentence, so a plan with 5,000 sentences a month can run out on long documents.
The help pages describe tools for rewriting selected text and do not describe generating a draft from a prompt.
Right for
Individual writers and small teams polishing existing drafts for clarity and readability
Wrong for
Writers wanting full drafts generated from a prompt
United StatesFree version; Editor Plus billed monthly or annually after a 2-week trial; Enterprise quoted
Sydney-made checker in English, French and Spanish with euro-priced plans
Ranked #5 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingAsia-Pacific
Outwrite lists three plans: Free Essential for spelling and grammar with a thesaurus, Pro for style, structure and rewriting, and Teams with group discounts and consolidated billing.
Prices are shown in euros per month or per user. Pro includes 50 plagiarism checks monthly. It runs in Google Docs, Word, browsers and a web app. The vendor describes itself as made in Sydney, Australia.
What stands out
Free tier
Three languages
Sydney-made
Where it costs you
Only English, French and Spanish are listed.
The site footer shows 2022, which suggests slow updates to the pages.
Right for
Individuals in Australia or Europe who want a low-cost checker billed in euros
Wrong for
Buyers who need enterprise security documents or many languages
AustraliaFree Essential plan; Pro monthly and Teams per user, prices published
Browser-first checker with typing shortcuts and a cheap annual Pro plan
Ranked #6 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Linguix puts a free tier beside Pro, with the annual option shown as a monthly equivalent. Pro adds advanced grammar and style, clarity and tone suggestions, and unlimited typing shortcuts, which expand short codes into longer text.
A Chrome extension is the main entry point, and business and white-label offers exist. Textly, Inc. is named in the terms with an address in Charlotte, North Carolina.
What stands out
Free tier
Text shortcuts
Money-back window
Where it costs you
Renewals are not refundable, and refunds apply only within 10 days of a new purchase.
The company lists a postal address in North Carolina but no named parent, so ownership is thin.
Right for
Freelancers and support agents who type repeated replies and want shortcuts alongside corrections
Wrong for
Organisations wanting data processing details beyond a short terms page
United StatesFree plan; Pro monthly or annual, published; 10-day money-back window
Writing assistant sold to teams, with a developer API and self-hosting
Ranked #7 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingElsewhere
Sapling offers a free plan with basic suggestions, a Pro plan with advanced suggestions, rephrasing and unlimited snippets, and an Enterprise plan starting at ten seats.
Enterprise is the only tier listing self-hosting, single sign-on, SCIM and team analytics. Individuals get a one-month Pro trial. A separate metered API requires a one-time minimum payment. The company describes research roots in Berkeley and Stanford labs.
What stands out
Free tier
Developer API
Self-hosted option
Where it costs you
The free plan works only on free domains and caps AI-detector checks at 2,000 characters.
Support by email and ticket is included only from Pro upwards.
Right for
Support and sales teams that want snippets and autocomplete beside corrections
Wrong for
Individual writers who only want a stand-alone proofreader
Not stated by the vendorFree plan; Pro monthly or annual with 1-month trial; usage-based API; Enterprise from 10 seats
English-focused corrector with sentence rephraser, translation and lifetime deals
Ranked #8 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingElsewhere
Ginger Premium fixes full sentences in context, rephrases text, adjusts tone and translates into more than 40 languages. It runs on Windows, Mac, mobile, browsers and Google Docs, with Microsoft Office support on Windows only.
Plans run for a month, a quarter, a year or two years, with a promotion on lifetime access. Ginger Business supports up to 100,000 team members and on-premise installation for large teams.
What stands out
Free tier
English only
Lifetime promo
Where it costs you
The vendor says it offers no free trial, only a limited free version.
The pages shown list promotional prices, so the normal rate is harder to judge.
Right for
Non-native English writers who want rephrasing and translation in one app
Wrong for
Writers needing checks in several languages or a published company address
Not stated by the vendorFree version; Premium by quarter, year or two years with promotional lifetime offers; no trial
Older desktop and add-on checker with templates and a translator
Ranked #9 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
WhiteSmoke sells a Premium desktop product, a mobile version and a free Chrome add-on. Premium integrates with Word and Outlook, includes over 100 templates, a translator covering more than 50 languages, error explanations and a plagiarism check.
Resellers and affiliates are invited to contact sales by email. The footer gives a Wilmington, Delaware address, and the site shows no price list, so cost must be asked for.
What stands out
Desktop software
Document templates
Price not found
Where it costs you
No price could be found: the pricing and store pages returned errors.
The home page carries marketing claims but no dated release notes.
Right for
Long-time users of desktop writing software who want Word and Outlook integration
Wrong for
Buyers who need published prices, trials or recent release notes
United StatesFree Chrome add-on; paid Premium price not shown on the pages found
Sentence rewriter with a grammar checker, limited by daily rewrites
Ranked #10 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingMiddle East
Plans are Basic, Advanced and Unlimited, differing in daily rewrite allowances of 10, 30 and no limit. Advanced and Unlimited start with a 3-day trial, and annual billing is shown at a lower monthly figure.
Spelling and grammar checks are unlimited on all three plans. The business option mentions SAML SSO and centralised billing. The company also lists a Humanize AI feature in its navigation.
What stands out
Free tier
Rewrite quotas
SAML SSO
Where it costs you
The free Basic plan allows 10 rewrites a day and 3 summaries a month.
Advanced still limits daily rewrites to 30, so heavy editing needs Unlimited.
Right for
Employees polishing emails who rewrite one sentence at a time
Wrong for
Anyone who wants a whole-document report on repeated words or readability
IsraelFree Basic plan; Advanced and Unlimited by month or year with 3-day trial; business tier
Browser-wide assistant with a free plan, owned by Superhuman
Ranked #11 of 11 in Best Grammar Checker Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
The plans page lists Free, Pro and Enterprise. Pro starts with a trial that pays nothing up front, and adds tone adjustment, full-sentence rewrites, fluent English, plagiarism and AI-text detection.
Enterprise is offered through Superhuman Go and adds proactive AI, BYOK encryption, custom roles, audit logs and data loss prevention. Its reach across browser, desktop and mobile is the main draw; the vendor group is now much larger than the checker.
What stands out
Free tier
Works in every app
Superhuman suite
Where it costs you
The free plan holds 100 AI prompts a month, against 2,000 on Pro.
Enterprise features such as SAML sign-on sit behind a sales contact.
Right for
People who write in many apps and want one checker across all of them
Wrong for
Buyers who need a self-hosted deployment or open-source code
United StatesFree plan; Pro with trial, published; Enterprise quoted
Grammar checker software reads written text, finds spelling, grammar, punctuation and style errors, and suggests corrections inside a browser, document editor or standalone app. Products in this area look alike on a feature list, so we would decide these questions first.
01
Start with pricing transparency
Every grammar checker tool here states what it costs on its own site, so the whole list can be compared without a call: Scribens, LanguageTool, ProWritingAid, Hemingway Editor, Outwrite, Linguix, Sapling AI, Ginger, WhiteSmoke, Wordtune, Grammarly.
02
Weigh the vendor's home jurisdiction
Headquarters range over 6 countries and 5 regions: North America 5, Europe 2, Elsewhere 2, Asia-Pacific 1, Middle East 1. Legal exposure follows the vendor, not only the data centre, so read the contracting entity before you sign.
03
Consider whether you want the source
Open source here means LanguageTool. The price of self-hosting is the time your team spends maintaining it.
What a grammar checker software review should weigh first: Scribens, Ginger and Linguix
Grammar checker software spans three kinds of product. Scribens and LanguageTool correct text and stop there. Ginger and Linguix add rephrasing, shortcuts and translation. Grammarly and Sapling AI sit inside larger suites. A free corrector fits a student who checks one essay a week; a support team typing hundreds of replies needs shortcuts and admin controls.
Decide which job you have before reading feature lists, because most differences between vendors show up in limits, not in the number of rules. Count how many characters you check per day and in how many languages, then compare against each daily cap on the vendor pages.
Write down your languages and average characters per day.
Check whether the free plan stops at a daily character cap.
Test the checker on three of your own paragraphs.
Pricing models: monthly, annual, lifetime and quota
Pricing here is more varied than the category suggests. ProWritingAid sells monthly, yearly and lifetime access, Ginger offers quarterly and two-year plans with lifetime promotions, Outwrite and Linguix publish monthly and annual prices, and Hemingway limits paid AI by a monthly sentence count.
WhiteSmoke shows no price on the pages we could open. Scribens gives a free edition with a daily cap and a Premium step with a much larger monthly quota. Compare the annual total, the renewal terms and the refund window, since Linguix refunds new purchases within 10 days but not renewals.
Ask for the annual total, not the headline monthly figure.
Find the refund window and whether renewals are covered.
Check which AI features carry a quota.
Where your text goes: ownership, hosting and exit
A grammar checker reads everything you write, so ownership matters. LanguageTool is operated by Learneo, Inc., a Delaware corporation, yet its core is LGPL licensed and can run on your own server. Sapling's Enterprise tier lists self-hosting and Ginger lists on-premise installation for large teams.
Scribens names a French SARL and OVHcloud hosting in France, and Hemingway names a North Carolina company. Grammarly now sits inside Superhuman. Ask where text is processed, whether it trains models, and how to delete an account. Self-hosting only removes vendor dependence if your team can maintain the server.
Read the privacy policy for training and retention terms.
Ask whether a self-hosted option exists and who maintains it.
Editing style versus correctness: Hemingway Editor, Wordtune and ProWritingAid
Correctness tools fix errors; style tools change how sentences read. Hemingway Editor flags wordy and passive sentences, Wordtune offers rewrites under daily quotas, and ProWritingAid produces long reports on repetition, readability and structure. A style tool applied to legal, scientific or marketing text can flatten wording that was deliberate.
If your writing has house rules, look for a style guide feature: LanguageTool Premium and Grammarly Pro both list one. For fiction, ProWritingAid adds story critique. Run each candidate on the same text and compare which suggestions you would actually accept.
Run the same sample through two tools and compare accepted edits.
Check for a custom style guide or dictionary.
Decide whether rewrites need approval before they apply.
What goes wrong most often when buying grammar checker software
Paying for a style tool when the real need is basic correction in a second language.
Comparing a monthly price on one site with an annual total on another.
Pasting confidential documents into a free checker without reading how text is stored.
Trusting a vendor claim about rankings or user counts when the pricing page is missing.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What is the best grammar checker software in 2026?
First of 11 on this page is Scribens. Scribens is published by a French SARL registered in Montpellier and hosted at OVHcloud in France. The free edition is paid for by advertising and stops at 8,000 characters a day.
Premium raises capacity to 5 million characters a month, allows 100,000 per check, adds paraphrasing in 20 tones and removes ads. The site says no text is saved on its servers. Premium pricing is not visible without opening the offer page.
Which grammar checker tools publish their pricing?
11 of the 11, with the pricing model each one publishes:
Scribens: Free tier with ads and a daily cap; Premium subscription, price not shown on the home page.
LanguageTool: Free tier; Premium sold by billing interval; team and business plans.
ProWritingAid: Free plan; Premium and Premium Pro by month, year or lifetime; plagiarism checks cost extra.
Hemingway Editor: Free version; Editor Plus billed monthly or annually after a 2-week trial; Enterprise quoted.
Outwrite: Free Essential plan; Pro monthly and Teams per user, prices published.
Linguix: Free plan; Pro monthly or annual, published; 10-day money-back window.
Sapling AI: Free plan; Pro monthly or annual with 1-month trial; usage-based API; Enterprise from 10 seats.
Ginger: Free version; Premium by quarter, year or two years with promotional lifetime offers; no trial.
WhiteSmoke: Free Chrome add-on; paid Premium price not shown on the pages found.
Wordtune: Free Basic plan; Advanced and Unlimited by month or year with 3-day trial; business tier.
Grammarly: Free plan; Pro with trial, published; Enterprise quoted.
The remaining 0 sell by quote.
Is there a free grammar checker tool?
Scribens, LanguageTool, ProWritingAid, Hemingway Editor, Outwrite, Linguix, Sapling AI, Ginger, WhiteSmoke, Wordtune, Grammarly come with a no-cost entry point, a free plan or a self-hosted edition.
Where are these grammar checker software vendors established?
In 6 countries across 5 regions: North America 5, Europe 2, Elsewhere 2, Asia-Pacific 1, Middle East 1.
Scribens: France.
LanguageTool: United States.
ProWritingAid: United Kingdom.
Hemingway Editor: United States.
Outwrite: Australia.
Linguix: United States.
Sapling AI: Not stated by the vendor.
Ginger: Not stated by the vendor.
WhiteSmoke: United States.
Wordtune: Israel.
Grammarly: United States.
Which grammar checker tools are open source?
LanguageTool.
Which grammar checker tools can you host yourself?
Sapling AI, Ginger. The other 9 are hosted by the vendor only.
What should you use instead of Scribens?
LanguageTool and ProWritingAid are the next two on this page. LanguageTool is for teams that want an open core they could host themselves, and multilingual correction; ProWritingAid is for Authors who revise full manuscripts and want repeated analysis reports.
Who should not buy Scribens?
Companies needing admin controls, single sign-on or a contract. The free edition stops at 8,000 characters a day, and ads run on the site..
Do you make a grammar checker software product that is not listed here? Describe what it does and who buys it. We decide on inclusion, a listing cannot be bought, and the details are under software advice.
