Expert Guide

The Best Free Grammar Checkers in 2026

Seven free checkers compared on character caps, daily AI quotas and what the first paid tier costs.

Louis CorneloupFounder, Dupple · 930,000+ readers · Updated Oct 2026

Product links may be affiliate links. How we rate 7 tools compared

TL;DR

Short answer: For one writer in English, Grammarly's free plan is the default: spelling, grammar and tone detection, 100 AI prompts a month, and no per-check word cap on its pricing page. Google Docs and Microsoft Editor are free if you already draft there, and LanguageTool's free plan is the pick for text in several languages.

The catch is the cap. LanguageTool checks 2,000 characters per text field, ProWritingAid gives suggestions for 500 words at a time, and Scribens allows 8,000 characters a day. The lowest published paid price is ProWritingAid Premium at $10 a month billed yearly, below Grammarly Pro and Sapling Pro.

Key facts7 tools compared: Grammarly, LanguageTool, ProWritingAid, Sapling, Microsoft Editor, Google…

Updated: October 13, 2026
Top pick: Grammarly (best for: One writer who wants the same checker in the browser and in Docs, and may pay for rewrites)
Top pick price as of October 13, 2026: Grammarly: Free: spelling, grammar and tone detection, 100 AI prompts a month. Pro: $12 a month, 7-day free trial.

7 tools compared: Grammarly, LanguageTool, ProWritingAid, Sapling, Microsoft Editor, Google Docs spelling and grammar, Scribens
LanguageTool (best for: Writers in several languages, and anyone who wants one checker inside Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Word or Google Docs): Free: 2,000 characters per text field, 3 AI rephrases a day. Premium: 150,000 characters per text field.
ProWritingAid (best for: Novelists, essayists and long-form writers who want style and pacing feedback as well as corrections): Free: 500 words at a time. Premium: $10/mo billed yearly ($120/yr). Premium Pro: $144/yr billed yearly.
Sapling (best for: People who write customer replies, email and support tickets all day in Chrome, Outlook, Word or Google Docs): Free: basic assistance, AI detector up to 2,000 characters per check. Pro: $25/mo, or $12/mo billed annually.

Free grammar checkers mostly differ in how much text they will read before the paywall. Grammarly keeps its free plan to spelling, grammar and tone detection. LanguageTool caps each text field on its free plan.

ProWritingAid gives suggestions for part of a long draft at a time. The limit in the fine print decides whether a free checker fits your work, not the word free on the homepage.

The same test applies to free PDF editors.

Toolradar data: we evaluated 15 grammar and style tools on Toolradar's grammar and style ranking as of 10 October 2026, and 6 of the 10 tools it lists have a free plan.

Free is the common entry point. The cap is where the choice happens. Learners of English should also read our language learning apps guide.

Top Picks

Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.

Best Free Grammar Checkers in 2026: Limits Compared: 7 tools compared, updated Oct 2026
Tool	Pricing	Best for
Grammarly	Free: spelling, grammar and tone detection, 100 AI prompts a month. Pro: $12 a month, 7-day free trial.	One writer who wants the same checker in the browser and in Docs, and may pay for rewrites.
LanguageTool	Free: 2,000 characters per text field, 3 AI rephrases a day. Premium: 150,000 characters per text field.	Writers in several languages, and anyone who wants one checker inside Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Word or Google Docs.
ProWritingAid	Free: 500 words at a time. Premium: $10/mo billed yearly ($120/yr). Premium Pro: $144/yr billed yearly.	Novelists, essayists and long-form writers who want style and pacing feedback as well as corrections.
Sapling	Free: basic assistance, AI detector up to 2,000 characters per check. Pro: $25/mo, or $12/mo billed annually.	People who write customer replies, email and support tickets all day in Chrome, Outlook, Word or Google Docs.
Microsoft Editor	Free with a free Microsoft account: basic spelling and grammar. Microsoft 365 adds style refinements.	Anyone who writes in Word for the web or the Edge and Chrome extensions and has a free Microsoft account.
Google Docs spelling and grammar	Built into Google Docs. The help page describes spelling and grammar suggestions with no paid tier.	Anyone who drafts in Google Docs and wants underlined suggestions without installing a tool.
Scribens	Free edition: 8,000 characters a day. Premium: up to 5 million characters a month, 100,000 per check.	Learners and writers in 40 languages who want each correction explained.

Pricing read from each vendor's own published pricing page, checked Oct 2026. Every vendor here publishes a price.

Grammarly

Top Pick

Best for: One writer who wants the same checker in the browser and in Docs, and may pay for rewrites.

PricingFree: spelling, grammar and tone detection, 100 AI prompts a month. Pro: $12 a month, 7-day free trial.

+The pricing page lists no per-check word cap for the free plan, unlike LanguageTool and ProWritingAid.

+The free plan includes 100 AI text prompts a month, so an occasional draft costs nothing extra.

+Pro starts with a 7-day trial and no payment on day one, so you can test the rewrites before any charge.

−Rewrites, tone adjustment, plagiarism and AI-text detection are listed under Pro, not Free.

−Enterprise is quote-only through sales, so a team buying beyond Pro cannot see the price on the public page.

Visit Grammarly →

LanguageTool

Best for: Writers in several languages, and anyone who wants one checker inside Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Word or Google Docs.

PricingFree: 2,000 characters per text field, 3 AI rephrases a day. Premium: 150,000 characters per text field.

+The feature table lists support for 30+ languages, so a French or German draft is checked as well as English.

+Browser add-ons for Chrome, Edge and Firefox, plus Word and Google Docs add-ins, put one checker across your writing apps.

+Premium raises the cap to 150,000 characters per text field, enough for a long article in a single check.

−2,000 characters per text field is a few hundred words, so a long document needs several separate checks.

−Free AI rephrasing is limited to 3 a day, which suits a trial rather than daily use.

Visit LanguageTool →

ProWritingAid

Best for: Novelists, essayists and long-form writers who want style and pacing feedback as well as corrections.

PricingFree: 500 words at a time. Premium: $10/mo billed yearly ($120/yr). Premium Pro: $144/yr billed yearly.

+Free includes 10 rephrases, 3 sparks and 3 creative nudges a day, so you can test the AI features before paying.

+Lifetime licenses exist: Premium at $399 once and Premium Pro at $699 once, for writers who dislike subscriptions.

+Paid licenses remove the word limit, which the page describes as unlimited word count.

−Free suggestions cover 500 words at a time, so a full manuscript has to be pasted in sections.

−Billed monthly, Premium costs $30 a month, three times the yearly rate, so pay yearly if you keep it.

Visit ProWritingAid →

Sapling

Best for: People who write customer replies, email and support tickets all day in Chrome, Outlook, Word or Google Docs.

PricingFree: basic assistance, AI detector up to 2,000 characters per check. Pro: $25/mo, or $12/mo billed annually.

+Free works in Chrome, Google Docs, Outlook and Word, which covers most business writing.

+Billed yearly, Pro costs less than half its monthly rate, which makes annual the sensible choice for steady use.

+Free snippets are capped at 20, while Pro gives unlimited snippets, which matters for support teams.

−The free AI detector stops at 2,000 characters per check, against 100,000 characters per check on Pro.

−Advanced writing suggestions are Pro-only; the free plan gives basic assistance.

Visit Sapling →

Microsoft Editor

Best for: Anyone who writes in Word for the web or the Edge and Chrome extensions and has a free Microsoft account.

PricingFree with a free Microsoft account: basic spelling and grammar. Microsoft 365 adds style refinements.

+The browser extension also checks Gmail messages and social posts, so the free tier covers more than documents.

+Word for the web includes Editor, so a free Microsoft account gets the basic spelling and grammar checks there.

+Clarity, conciseness, formality and readability statistics are the paid layer, and they arrive inside the same tools.

−Outlook on the web needs a Microsoft 365 account for Editor, so a free account does not cover email there.

−This guide does not quote a Microsoft 365 price, so check the current plan before you count on the refinements.

Visit Microsoft Editor →

Google Docs spelling and grammar

Best for: Anyone who drafts in Google Docs and wants underlined suggestions without installing a tool.

PricingBuilt into Google Docs. The help page describes spelling and grammar suggestions with no paid tier.

+Suggestions cover English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian, so writers in those six languages get suggestions.

+Accept all or ignore all sits under the More menu, which speeds up a long draft.

+The personal dictionary stops repeat flags on brand and product names.

−The spelling and grammar help page describes no tone or rewrite features.

−Text in any language outside those six gets no suggestions from this feature.

Visit Google Docs spelling and grammar →

Scribens

Best for: Learners and writers in 40 languages who want each correction explained.

PricingFree edition: 8,000 characters a day. Premium: up to 5 million characters a month, 100,000 per check.

+The free edition explains each correction with the grammar rule behind it, which suits anyone learning English.

+The free edition covers 40 languages, not only English.

+Its stated policy is that no text is saved on its servers or shared with third parties.

−8,000 characters a day is roughly 1,300 words, so a 3,000-word report would take more than two days at the free cap.

−The free edition carries ads, and Premium removes them across the site.

Visit Scribens →

What it is

A grammar checker reads your text and flags spelling, punctuation, agreement and phrasing errors, with a suggested fix for each. Most now add AI rewrites, tone checks or plagiarism scans, and those extras are where the free plans get cut.

Spelling and grammar are the free core in every plan on this list. Rewrites, tone adjustment and originality checks are the paid layer.

Free plans limit three things. The first is text size per check, such as a character cap or a word limit at a time.

The second is a daily or monthly AI quota, such as a daily rephrase limit or a monthly prompt limit. The third is the feature the paid tier includes, which is usually the one you were after.

For the wider category, read our best AI writing tools guide, and for the email side, best AI email assistants.

Why it matters

Pick by the document, not the logo. A 500-word blog post fits in one check on ProWritingAid's free plan, but it overflows LanguageTool's per-field cap, which holds a few hundred words. Choose the cap that matches your longest normal document.

If the draft starts as a PDF, convert it to Word first, then check it.

Privacy is the second filter. Scribens says no text is saved on its servers or shared with third parties, which is a plain claim you can hold it to.

Read the storage policy of any checker before you paste contracts, client files or unpublished work into it. Scribens also says its revenue comes from advertising and Premium, so expect ads on the free edition.

Key features to look for

Free cap per check

The characters or words each check accepts on the free plan. It decides whether a long draft fits in one pass, so compare it first.

AI quota

Rephrases, prompts or sparks a day or a month. Grammar checks and AI rewrites are often metered separately, so read both lines.

Where it runs

A browser extension, a Word or Docs add-in, or a desktop app. The best free checker is usually the one that already sits in the app you draft in.

Storage policy

Whether your text is stored, shared or used for training. Read the vendor's own statement before pasting confidential material.

Cheapest paid upgrade

The first paid tier and its billing basis. Yearly billing is often the cheaper route, and ProWritingAid also sells lifetime licenses.

Pricing

Methodology: we read each vendor's own pricing or help page on 10 October 2026 and kept only the limits those pages state. Tools whose free plan the vendor's own page does not state are left out.

Prices on this page were checked on vendor pages on 10 October 2026: Grammarly pricing, LanguageTool pricing, ProWritingAid pricing, Sapling pricing, Microsoft Editor support, Google Docs help and Scribens.

The annual arithmetic is short.

Grammarly Pro for a full year at its monthly price comes to $144, and Sapling Pro billed annually also comes to $144.

ProWritingAid Premium billed yearly is $120 a year, the lowest published paid price on this list, while the same Premium billed monthly at $30 a month costs $360 a year.

Tool profiles on Toolradar: Grammarly, LanguageTool, ProWritingAid and Sapling.

Adjacent free-plan guides: best free CRM software and best free cloud storage.

Plan	Price	Best for
Grammarly Free	Free	Spelling, grammar and tone detection; 100 AI prompts a month
Grammarly Pro	$12/mo	Rewrites, tone adjustment, plagiarism and AI-text detection; 7-day trial
LanguageTool Basic	Free	2,000 characters per text field; 3 AI rephrases a day
LanguageTool Premium	Check current price	150,000 characters per text field; unlimited AI paraphrasing
ProWritingAid Free	Free	Suggestions for 500 words at a time; 10 rephrases a day
ProWritingAid Premium	$10/mo billed yearly	Unlimited word count and rephrases on paid licenses
Sapling Free	Free	Basic writing assistance; AI detector up to 2,000 characters per check
Sapling Pro	$25/mo, or $12/mo billed annually	Advanced suggestions; AI detector up to 100,000 characters per check
Microsoft Editor	Free with a Microsoft account	Basic spelling and grammar in Word for the web and browser extensions
Microsoft 365 (Editor refinements)	Check current price	Clarity, conciseness, formality and readability statistics
Google Docs	Included in Docs	Spelling and grammar suggestions in six languages
Scribens Free edition	Free	8,000 characters a day, with an explanation for each correction
Scribens Premium	Check current price	Up to 5 million characters a month; 100,000 per check

Mistakes to avoid

×Pasting a 3,000-word report into a capped free checker and reading the result as a full edit. You will have checked a fraction of the text and missed the rest.

×Choosing a checker by the word free on its homepage. The cap and the daily quota decide whether it fits your week, and both sit in the pricing table, not the headline.

×Sending a client contract through any checker before reading its storage policy. Start with the vendor's own privacy statement, and keep anything with a name or a salary off the free tier until you have read it.

Expert tips

→Run the first pass in Google Docs, whose help page lists no per-check cap, then send only the rewritten paragraphs to a capped checker.

→Writing in several languages? Use LanguageTool's free plan for short texts, and keep Premium for long work once you have confirmed its current price.

→Pay yearly where it is offered. ProWritingAid's yearly rate is a third of its monthly rate, and Sapling Pro billed annually costs less than half its monthly price.

The bottom line

For one writer working in English, Grammarly Free is the default: spelling, grammar and tone detection, no per-check word cap on its pricing page, and a monthly AI prompt allowance.

Draft in Google Docs or Microsoft Editor if that is where your text already lives, and choose LanguageTool when the work runs across several languages.

Pay only for the feature you use.

ProWritingAid at $120 a year suits novelists and essayists, Sapling billed annually suits people who live in email and support tools, and Grammarly Pro is the rewrite-and-tone upgrade most people will compare against.

If your work is mostly PDF forms and contracts, see our best PDF editors guide for the editing side.

Cite this: Techpresso, 'Best Free Grammar Checkers in 2026', October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free grammar checker in 2026?

For one writer working in English, Grammarly's free plan is the default: spelling, grammar and tone detection, 100 AI prompts a month, and no per-check word cap on its pricing page. Google Docs and Microsoft Editor are the free choice if you already draft there, and LanguageTool is the pick for several languages.

Is there a free grammar checker with no word limit?

Grammarly and Google Docs list no per-check word cap for their free checks, and this guide quotes none for Microsoft Editor. Sapling's free plan quotes a cap only for its AI detector, at 2,000 characters per check. LanguageTool caps each text field at 2,000 characters, Scribens at 8,000 characters a day, and ProWritingAid at 500 words at a time.

How much does ProWritingAid cost?

Premium costs $10 a month billed yearly, or $30 billed monthly. Premium Pro is $144 a year billed yearly. Lifetime licenses are $399 for Premium and $699 for Premium Pro, checked on its pricing page on 10 October 2026.

Does LanguageTool have a free plan?

Yes. The free plan caps each text field and allows 3 AI rephrases a day. Premium raises the text field to 150,000 characters and includes unlimited AI paraphrasing.

Are free grammar checkers safe for confidential text?

Read the vendor's privacy statement before you paste client or unpublished work. Scribens states that no text is saved on its servers or shared with third parties. Grammarly points to a SOC 2 Type 2 report, which attests to its controls, and a report of that kind is not the same as a promise about your text.

Sources

Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.