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Grammarly alternatives

Grammar, spelling and clarity suggestions as you write.

4 of its 7 core features can be rebuilt with AI. Here is one, working, below.

You pay
$140 a year
AI can rebuild
4 of 7 core features

Try it

Visual demo only. Copy the prompt below to get the app.

Build it yourself

Real files on your machine, a real database, and it is yours. This one carries the interface as well — the layout, the colours and the shape of the real app, read off its own screens.

Each opens with the prompt loaded and waiting — nothing is sent until you press enter. It is copied at the same time, in case the app is not installed.

Build me a local writing assistant I own, to replace Grammarly.

- A web app I run on my own machine: a single Node process serving an editor, documents in a SQLite file next to it.
- Two layers of checking. First, deterministic rules that cost nothing and run on every keystroke: spelling against a local dictionary, doubled words, capitalisation, spacing, passive voice, sentence length, repeated words within a window. Second, an LLM pass (key from .env) that I trigger, for clarity and rewrites.
- Cache the LLM results by paragraph hash so re-checking an unchanged paragraph is free.
- Inline underlines with a click-to-fix popover, and an undo stack.
- A rewrite panel that offers clearer, shorter and more formal versions of a selected paragraph.
- Readability metrics computed locally: word count, average sentence length, Flesch score, longest sentences listed.
- A command-line mode so I can run the same checks over a Markdown file in a repo.
- Runs on localhost only. No accounts, no telemetry. The only thing leaving the machine is the rewrite call, and only when I ask for it.
- Skip: a browser extension, plagiarism checking, and any team features.
- Include a README with setup, where to put the API key, and roughly what a check costs.

## Look and feel

Grammarly's own — clean white, a deep green-teal accent, the text the focus, coloured underlines per problem type, a calm sidebar of cards. Generous spacing, clear hierarchy, big tap targets, phone-readable type, system font. Keep the text dark enough to read at a glance: the softness of a palette belongs to the shapes and the fills, never to the words. Nothing I need to read — dates, numbers, labels — in pale grey on white.

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Feature by feature

Every feature, whether AI can rebuild it, and what you would be signing up to keep running if you did. The paid app does that last column for you, and that is most of what the money buys.

FeatureCoreAI can rebuildYou'd maintain
Grammar and spelling correctionAn AI does this better than Grammarly does, and the one you already pay nothing for will do it on request.YesYesYou paste the text in
Clarity and concision rewritesThe rewrite is the thing chatbots are best at. Ask for it in the same message as the spelling check.YesYesYou paste the text in
Tone detectionYesYesNothing
Works in every text box on your computerThis is the actual product. Not the corrections, the fact that they appear in Gmail, in Docs, in Slack, without you asking. A browser extension that does this well is a real piece of engineering.YesNoYou would paste text in
Document editor with inline suggestionsYesYesNothing
Plagiarism checkChecking against the web means paying for an index of the web.NoNoNeeds a paid corpus
Style guide and brand toneNoYesNothing
Writing score and weekly statsNoYesNothing
Corrections inside every app on the phone, as the keyboardA keyboard is an OS extension. A page cannot be one, and this is the thing reviewers actually describe paying for.YesNoNothing
The same account and corrections on every deviceNeeds a server and a login. This page has neither.YesNoNothing

What you give up

  • corrections that appear everywhere you type, without pasting
  • plagiarism checking against the whole web
  • the mobile keyboard
  • instant results, because a model call takes a second

Why people still pay

The corrections are not the product. Being everywhere is the product. Grammarly is paid to sit quietly inside every text box on your computer, and no prompt puts it there.

Or use one somebody already built

Free and open source. No prompt, no building, no subscription.

LanguageTool
Open source, self-hostable, with browser and editor extensions. The closest thing to Grammarly's everywhere-ness that you can run yourself. (web, windows, macos, linux)
Harper
A fast grammar checker that runs entirely on your machine with no network calls at all. Built for editors and IDEs. (windows, macos, linux)

Other apps people are freeing

Questions

Can AI really replace Grammarly?
4 of its 7 core features, yes. The demo above is what one prompt produced. What it cannot do is on this page too.
What does Grammarly cost?
About $140 a year on the Premium plan. Spelling, grammar and basic punctuation are free. Rewrites, tone and plagiarism are Pro.
Is there a free alternative to Grammarly?
Yes: LanguageTool, Harper. They are listed below, and they are somebody else's finished work rather than yours.

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