Grammarly offers a free Chrome extension that vets grammar as you type on Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Tumblr.

It’s a dream come true for writers of all kinds!

How to use the Grammarly Chrome Extension

How do you use the Grammarly Chrome Extension? What are its features? Here’s what you need to know.

1. Download Grammarly for Chrome

Download the free Grammarly for Chrome extension in the web store. 

2. Sign up for Grammarly 

If you don’t have a Grammarly account yet,  check out our Grammarly review and sign up.

The extension can check misspelled words and common grammatical errors. Still, we recommend you create a free Grammarly account to enjoy more features by pressing the red “Sign Up” button.  

3. Click the Grammarly logo

To get started with editing, press the green Grammarly logo on the lower right side of the text box where you’ll type. 

Here’s an example of typing within Facebook.

4. Set goals  

After you’ve clicked the logo, a

massive pop-up will appear where you can place the text to check for grammar.

Before editing, you can select “Goals” on the right section of the pop-up. 

This activates another pop-up where you can choose objectives based on the text’s intent, audience, style, emotion and domain. Grammarly believes that the more its AI understands the purpose of a text, the better its suggestions. 

5. Check grammar and plagiarism 

The text can be viewed in the massive text box located on the left side.

The tool is free but it has some limitations for non-premium users. Unlike Grammarly’s premium features, this version only checks for clarity and correctness. 

A blue underline indicates suggestions based on clarity like edits for hard-to-read sentences. On the other hand, a red underline indicates misspelled words and minor grammatical errors such as punctuation. 

Checking grammar in Google Docs

If you’re using using Grammarly in Google Docs, a pop-up will not appear while you’re editing. 

Instead, Grammarly’s editor appears similar to Microsoft Word’s spell checker and grammar checker where misspelled words and suggestions are underlined in red. 

Checking grammar (Premium features)

A premium version of Grammarly gives users access to advanced grammar suggestions.

Once you’ve made a mistake on subject-verb agreement, punctuation or vocabulary — the text is underlined in red, blue, green and violet. The color of the underline is associated with suggestions with clarity (blue), correctness (red), engagement (green), and delivery (violet). 

What makes the tool stand out from the many grammar checkers available, is the detailed rationale behind its suggestions. In our detailed Grammarly review, we’ve discussed this feature in-depth.

Checking plagiarism (Premium feature)

Selecting “Plagiarism” at the bottom right of the pop-up will activate the Plagiarism tool. This lets you identify plagiarized text and identify their original sources.

It’s a great feature for editors who constantly need to vet submissions from various contributors to their website.

6. Performance check

The “Overall Score” option provides you with an overall performance score for the text that you’ve written. 

The score is based on readability, word count and performance.

Give the Grammarly Chrome Extension a try

The free version of Grammarly’s Chrome extension only checks spelling, correctness and clarity. We recommend the premium version to get more relevant and accurate suggestions. 

The features we discussed are only a few out of the many perks to purchasing a premium account. At $29.95 per month, the platform is packed with features that are useful for every grammar aficionado, and you can learn more about them from our Grammarly review.  

Ready to get started? Simply download Grammarly for free from the Chrome store.

Have you used the Grammarly Chrome extension? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

Photo via Undrey / Shutterstock 

No matter how long you’ve bonded with your keyboard, it’s almost impossible to avoid errors, typos and grammatical mistakes. 

While working with an editor is usually the best option, it’s not always in the budget. And even if you have an editor to review your work, it’s a good idea to ensure your copy is clean before you submit it to that person.

So what about using an editing tool like Grammarly? Whether you’re a blogger, content marketer, author or student, using a grammar checker can help you avoid embarrassing typos and improve your work. 

What is Grammarly?

Grammarly is an AI-powered product that checks online grammar, spelling and plagiarism. 

While our writers have tried a number of the best grammar checker tools, Grammarly is different because of its ability to check subject-verb agreement, article and modifier placement, punctuation and irregular verb conjugations. As an added bonus, it helps you improve your writing by offering synonym suggestions. 

Creating a Grammarly account is free. A free account includes basic grammar and spelling checks. When you upgrade to Premium, you get access to advanced grammar checks, vocabulary suggestions, a plagiarism detector and style checks ⁠— which we’ll discuss in-depth in this review. 

Here’s an overview of what’s included in the free version vs. Grammarly premium:

A premium plan costs $29.95 per month, but the price per month can go as low as $11.66 if you opt for an annual plan of $139.95. 

Although the company used to offer a free trial, that’s no longer an option. If that’s something you’re interested in, we recommend downloading the free version of Grammarly.

Is Grammarly Premium worth it?

There are lots of free online proofreaders and spell checkers. Microsoft Word and Apple’s Pages can even detect grammatical errors, so is Grammarly worth the bang for your buck? 

We tried out a premium membership, and here’s where we found the tool to be most helpful.

Polish your writing and eliminate grammar and spelling errors

There are a lot of ways to edit text based on context, tone or purpose ⁠— and Grammarly delivers on all fronts. Once a document is scanned by the AI assistant, suggestions are organized based on spelling, grammar, punctuation and clarity. 

Spell check

Like most word processors, Grammarly identifies spelling mistakes in your document. If the word it spots isn’t an error, just add it to your personal dictionary. 

Grammar

View mistakes on your articles by clicking on text with a yellow or red underline. You’ll see errors on subject-verb agreement, suggested corrections and the rationale behind those suggestions. Incomplete sentences and rewrites are highlighted in yellow. Here’s what that looks like:

How does the tool help you rewrite a sentence? Grammarly’s suggestion includes examples and sample rewrites: 

I personally think their grammar suggestions are useful, especially for students and professionals who want to improve their writing. It’s often hard to pinpoint grammatical errors and why they’re a mistake in the first place, so I appreciate that once you download Grammarly, it provides detailed explanations.  

Punctuation

We know most sentences end with a period, so when do you add commas, em dashes or colons? Not only can Grammarly suggest punctuation, it also detects inconsistencies like different styles of apostrophes or quotation marks. And it comes with an “update all” option so the entire document uses a consistent style.

Here’s an example:

Vocabulary 

Have a tendency to use certain words again and again? Grammarly underlines those commonly used words and suggests specific synonyms to improve your work.

Grammarly makes suggestions based on variety, clarity, conciseness, consistency and so much more. Most online editing tools don’t go so far as to explain the rationale behind the mistake, so that’s a Grammarly feature I really appreciate. If you’re an aspiring grammar aficionado, this tool will help you learn! 

Plagiarism checker

Ever received a guest post for your blog? How do you make sure some parts weren’t plagiarized? 

Grammarly’s plagiarism checker scans the article and determines whether the text has a match with any page on the web. It also underlines the plagiarized text and determines its original source, so you can make sure you’re in the clear.

Here’s what the plagiarism checker looks like: 

Grammarly Chrome Extension

Marketers who often send email or create social media posts will be happy to know that Grammarly has a Chrome extension. Grammarly for Chrome is pretty brilliant — it lets you use the tool while writing emails and crafting social media posts. 

You can download it for free from the Chrome web store. 

When you click the icon, a pop-up window comes to life on the screen. Here, you can view the performance, set goals and check grammar on the popup — without heading back to the Grammarly website.

I love that it also works on WordPress and Google Docs. To view the grammar suggestions when you’re within either of those programs, click the Grammarly icon and view the post from the pop-up window. 

Set goals for writing 

Here’s a feature that sets Grammarly apart from other grammar checkers: it suggests edits based on your content’s goals and audience. 

Before you start writing an article, you can specify whether you’ll target general or expert readers. Choose the level of formality, and the editor can accommodate slang for informal pieces. You can even select multiple options to describe the post’s tone, domain and intent. 

Here’s what it looks like in Grammarly Premium:

Your chosen goals will have a direct impact on your post’s perceived performance. 

For example, if I target a general audience and opt for an informal tone, I’ll get a high-performance rating when the text is readable for younger audiences: 

You can see I got a readability score. It prompts me to choose a tone, audience, formality and domain.

But the writing suggestions you get based on these goals are minimal at best. For instance, academic writers could choose an analytical writing style for their thesis. However, Grammarly won’t offer feedback on how you’ve explained your research results. It can’t beat the touch of a human editor. 

Grammarly Review: What I like about Grammarly

I’ve tried several online editors — and I have to say that Grammarly is the best I’ve used so far. 

I love the detailed explanations for grammatical mistakes because it helps me improve my writing in the long run. If I’m not a master of subject-verb agreement? Not sure where I should add commas? Grammarly’s got my back.

I frequently write lifestyle articles for news sites, and it’s a hassle to switch to an online thesaurus to find synonyms of commonly used words. With Grammarly’s suggested synonyms, there’s no need to find a thesaurus, which saves me time and effort.

The plagiarism checker is also useful, especially for online editors. It can be hard to spot bits and pieces of copied text, and this is the perfect solution, without needing to purchase a separate tool for this function.

What could be better about Grammarly?

No tool is perfect. One disadvantage is you can’t paste an image within the text editor. This could be a letdown for writers who create articles that rely on visuals.

You also can’t add hyperlinks to text within the editor. And when you copy and paste text with a hyperlink, the link is removed — which is a downside for bloggers who like to place links within the text.

On the bright side, if you’re writing in WordPress, you can view images and make edits.

The goals and performance metrics could also use some improvement. And as I mentioned above, the app doesn’t (yet) make significant changes or suggestions based on the goals you set. 

Also note, Grammarly requires an internet connection to work, so you can’t use it offline. That’s a downside if you’re completing work on a plane or camping in the great outdoors. 

How to use Grammarly: The bottom line

The free version of Grammarly is ideal for checking spelling and basic grammar. 

If you want to get in-depth and detailed suggestions, I recommend downloading the Premium version. The grammatical suggestions it offers can beat most word processors. And it’ll make you feel like your writing was vetted by a professional. 

The bottom line: Grammarly doesn’t replace a human editor. But it does provide useful tips for grammar, punctuation and spelling, and will help you discover bad writing habits, revise faster, and produce better work.

If you want to give it a try, here’s where to download Grammarly. 

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

Photo via crazystocker/ Shutterstock