Grammarly Review 2026: The Same Proofreader, a New Parent Called Superhuman, a $12 Pro Plan, and an Expert Review Lawsuit
Grammarly is still the best-known AI writing checker, but the company behind it renamed itself Superhuman on Oct 29, 2025 and has been buying products since. This review checks what is true today against Grammarly and Superhuman's own pages: Free is $0 with 100 AI prompts, Pro is $12 a month billed annually with 2,000, and the monthly price is shown two different ways. Then it adds what real users say, the Expert Review feature that was switched off in March, and the class action that followed.
| Ownership | Superhuman Platform (renamed company) |
| Free tier | Real -- 100 AI prompts / month |
| Cheapest paid plan | $12/mo (Pro, annual) |
| Users (vendor-stated) | 40 million daily users |
| Trustpilot record | 3.1/5 shown, 10,469 reviews |
Still the default writing checker, now a product inside a company called Superhuman. A solid free tier, a fair $12 Pro price, and a trust record that has had a rough year.
"Grammarly is two things now. It is the same red-underline proofreader that 40 million people know, and it is the writing brand inside a bigger AI productivity suite that renamed itself Superhuman last October. The proofreader is mature and the free plan is honest. The suite around it is where things get messy: more agents, more plans, more acquisitions, an 'Expert Review' feature that borrowed real writers' names and had to be switched off, and a steady stream of renewal and cancellation complaints."
My honest read: if you write in English for work or school and you want fewer typos and a more confident tone, Grammarly Free is an easy yes and Pro at $12 a month (billed annually) is a fair upgrade if you use the rewrites and tone tools daily. If you are shopping for an AI that drafts long content from scratch, Grammarly is the editor, not the author. Whatever you pick, put the renewal date in your calendar. This is a VERIFIED EDITORIAL REVIEW: Grammarly's and Superhuman's own pricing, security, product and blog pages were checked on Oct 3, 2026, alongside press coverage, court reporting and published user sentiment. I did not run a controlled hands-on test.
One writing layer that follows you everywhere, plus a growing bench of AI agents.
Strip away the branding and Grammarly does three jobs. It corrects: spelling, grammar and punctuation as you type, in the browser, desktop apps, Word, Google Docs and a mobile keyboard. It improves: tone suggestions, full-sentence and paragraph rewrites, and clarity edits. And since 2025 it acts: named agents such as Proofreader, Paraphraser, AI Detector, Plagiarism Checker, Humanizer, Citation Finder, Reader Reactions and AI Grader, plus Superhuman Go, an assistant that works across tabs and apps and connects to tools like Gmail, Jira and Google Drive. Grammarly says its suggestions follow you across "1 million-plus" sites and apps.
Ownership, plainly: Grammarly the product is owned by Superhuman Platform, the company formerly named Grammarly, Inc. TechCrunch described the rename as unusual: after buying the email client Superhuman in July 2025, the company took its name, while "Grammarly, the product, will continue to be known as it has". The footer of grammarly.com now reads "2026 Superhuman Platform". A neighbouring fact worth knowing: Superhuman also bought the Fathom meeting notetaker on Sept 14, 2026.
A category-defining name with a very large user base, now using that base to build an AI platform.
Superhuman/Grammarly rebrand post, updated Nov 5, 2025: "more than 40 million daily users". Its plans page says "over 40 million people and 50,000 organizations", a different definition.
Read from the store page: 43.1K ratings. The score is shown to one decimal and ratings update daily. A single browser extension, not the whole user base.
225,244 ratings, "Grammarly: AI Keyboard & Voice", version 15.0.0 (Sept 30, 2026). Computed from the API's raw average (4.663), not a star display.
Plans page. A vendor count of organisations and teams; it is not paying seats.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-07-01 | Grammarly announces it is acquiring the Superhuman email client | Reuters, BusinessWire (via headlines) |
| 2025-08 | Grammarly launches an "Expert Review" agent drawing on third-party LLMs to give suggestions "inspired by" named writers | Superhuman statement quoted by The Verge |
| 2025-10-29 | Company renames itself Superhuman; Grammarly stays a product; Superhuman Go launches; Pro $12 and Business $33 annual | TechCrunch; Grammarly blog (Nov 5, 2025) |
| 2026-03-11 | Expert Review disabled after criticism; same day a federal class action is filed in the Southern District of New York by journalist Julia Angwin | The Verge; Wired |
| 2026-06-23 | AI-detection company GPTZero announces it is joining Superhuman | GPTZero blog |
| 2026-09-14 | Superhuman acquires the Fathom notetaker | TechCrunch |
| 2026-09-23 | A sysadmin's account of cancellation emails to all users reaches the top of Hacker News (395 points) | Hacker News; Reddit r/sysadmin |
The signal I weigh most is the acquisition pattern. Since July 2025 Superhuman has bought an email client, a spreadsheet startup (Rows, Feb 2026), an AI-detection company (GPTZero, Jun 2026) and a notetaker (Fathom, Sept 2026), on top of the Coda docs tool it bought in 2024. Grammarly the checker is the distribution engine; the plan is to attach agents and workspace tools to a very large installed base. That is good for feature velocity and bad for plan simplicity, which you can already see on the pricing pages.
People trust the proofreader. The complaints are renewals, cancellations, over-eager AI and a cluttered experience.
Displayed TrustScore 3.1/5 with a star split of 68/17/4/2/9 percent. These two do not reconcile (that split averages about 4.3), and Trustpilot's TrustScore is a weighted score, not a plain average, so I report both and lean on neither. Recent praise: the free version "catching spelling and grammar", and a support rep "WOWed by the kindness" (Sept 16). Complaints: renewal at "£120... was £60 last year" (Sept 24), "charged $144.00 for an account I canceled last year" (Sept 12), Go removing a "tap to fix" feature (Sept 26), over-corrections on passive voice, unreliable AI detection, and intrusive pop-ups.
A sysadmin reported that after their organisation decided not to renew licences, Grammarly sent in-app notices and emails to every user warning access would end, with a template to send to procurement. Commenters called it aggressive ("outrageous", "incredibly disrespectful"). I found no Grammarly statement confirming or denying it.
Writers including Verge staff and the plaintiff Julia Angwin objected that "Expert Review" presented suggestions as if they came from named authors who had not agreed. Superhuman said "we clearly missed the mark" and disabled it; its CEO called the lawsuit "without merit". This is trust evidence about the company, not about spell-check accuracy.
Free, Pro, Business, Enterprise. The headline price is clear; the monthly price and the renewal are the traps.
Free
Spelling, grammar, tone detection and 100 AI prompts a month.
- Write without mistakes; see your writing tone
- 100 AI prompts / month
- Limited chat and Go access
- Help center support
Pro
$15 billed monthly per superhuman.com; see the pricing note below.
- Full-sentence rewrites, tone adjustment, fluency in English
- AI-text and plagiarism detection
- 2,000 AI prompts / member / month
- Style guide, brand tones, snippets, Knowledge Share
Business
$40 billed monthly. Listed on superhuman.com/plans, includes Superhuman Mail.
- Everything in Pro
- Superhuman Mail with AI drafting
- Docs automations and version history
- HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive read-only in Mail
Enterprise
Sales-quoted; available through Superhuman Go.
- Unlimited AI prompts per member
- SAML SSO, SCIM, DLP, audit logs API
- BYOK encryption, custom roles
- Dedicated support
| Plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing | AI prompts / month | Key difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 100 | Correctness and tone detection; limited chat |
| Pro | $12 / mo ($144 a year) | $15 per superhuman.com; $30 in grammarly.com embedded data | 2,000 per member | Rewrites, tone adjustment, detection, team features that used to be Business-only |
| Business (suite) | $33 / member / mo | $40 / member / mo | More prompts | Adds Superhuman Mail; per superhuman.com |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Unlimited per member | SSO, SCIM, DLP, BYOK, audit logs |
Arithmetic you can check: a 10-person team on Pro annual is 10 x $12 = $120 a month, or $1,440 a year. On monthly billing at $15 it is $150 a month; at $30 it would be $300. The Free plan's 100 prompts is about three a day; Pro's 2,000 is about 66 a day (JAVIS arithmetic).
Pick by how much you write and what you need beyond typo-catching.
Start with Grammarly Free. It covers spelling, grammar and tone detection, with 100 AI prompts a month.
Pro at $12 a month annual. Full-sentence rewrites and tone adjustment are the paid core.
Grammarly is an editor first. Look at a general assistant (ChatGPT or Claude) or a marketing platform such as Jasper.
The Business tier on superhuman.com ($33 annual) adds Superhuman Mail. Compare it with what you already pay for email.
Enterprise. Ask for the SOC 2 Type 2 report and check model-training defaults.
Stay on Free, or use a card that lets you cancel and set a calendar reminder for the renewal date.
The proofreader is the product. The agents are the upsell.
The part everyone knows: as you type, Grammarly underlines mistakes and offers a fix. The paid layer adds rewriting of full sentences and paragraphs, tone adjustment, fluency suggestions for English, inclusive-language checks and consistent citations. On Pro, Grammarly also lists AI-generated-text detection and plagiarism checking. The plan matrix gives paragraph translation in 17 languages and paragraph rewrites in 24 (the plan card text says "15+"), so confirm the language you need before paying.
| Capability | Free | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spelling, grammar, punctuation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tone detection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tone adjustment, full-sentence rewrites | No | Yes | Yes |
| Write fluently in English; inclusive language; citations | No | Yes | Yes |
| AI-generated text detection; plagiarism check | No | Yes | Yes |
| Generate text with AI prompts | 100 / month | 2,000 / member / month | Unlimited |
| Style guide / brand tones | No | 1 each | Unlimited |
| SAML SSO, SCIM, DLP, BYOK | No | No | Yes |
- A real free tier with a hard-to-beat system-wide footprint: browser, desktop, Word, Docs and mobile.
- Pro bundles team features such as style guide, snippets and Knowledge Share that used to require the Business plan.
- Model training is opt-out on every plan and off by default on Enterprise.
- Over-correction: Trustpilot reviewers say it does not understand when passive voice is intentional.
- AI-text detectors give probabilities, not proof; do not use a score to accuse anyone.
- Quality on long, creative drafting is a different question from proofreading.
Write anywhere, accept or reject each suggestion, and keep the final say.
The human-review step is the one that matters most with a tool this good at sounding confident. A suggestion can be grammatical and still change your meaning, or quietly smooth out a regional or personal voice you wanted to keep. Treat rewrites as drafts you approve, not edits you accept in bulk.
Grammarly's own demo of Go, the assistant that works across apps. It is the primary-source demonstration for the workflow section above.
Published by the official "Grammarly" YouTube channel (youtube.com/@Grammarly). Vendor demo, so it shows the best case.
Grammarly now has a bench of named agents. Treat them as editing tools, not autonomous workers.
Grammarly describes agents as "digital helpers that can perform tasks for you" that are "aware of your context". You open a doc in app.grammarly.com and pick an agent from the side panel, or switch on the Superhuman Go toggle in the browser extension to use them on other sites. Most are available to try on the free plan; some are paid only. This is not the same kind of autonomy as Notion's scheduled agents: these respond to you while you write.
| Agent | What Grammarly says it does | Plan note |
|---|---|---|
| Proofreader | Refines grammar, clarity and structure as you write | Limited on Free, unlimited on Pro (superhuman.com matrix) |
| Paraphraser | Adapts text for audience, tone and style | Listed on the agents page; plan mapping not stated |
| AI Detector | Checks writing for AI-generated content and shows where to edit | Pro and above; unlimited |
| Plagiarism Checker | Scans for similarities and suggests citations | Pro and above |
| Humanizer | Makes AI-assisted writing sound more natural without changing meaning | Listed on the agents page |
| Citation Finder, Reader Reactions, AI Grader | Find sources, predict how readers respond, estimate a grade against a rubric | Try on Free; some paid-only |
| Expert Review | Suggestions "inspired by" named experts | Disabled in March 2026 while "reimagined" |
- Students and professionals who want a second pass on structure, citations and tone.
- Teams that standardise on one style guide and brand tone across many writers.
- An "AI Detector" score on someone else's work is a probability. Several Trustpilot reviewers call it unreliable.
- A "Humanizer" exists to make AI text read as human; check your school or employer's policy before using it.
Grammarly's own walkthrough of the Proofreader agent, the closest thing to the product's core job in its new agent form.
Published by the official "Grammarly" YouTube channel (youtube.com/@Grammarly).
Grammarly's reach is where you write. Go adds connections to where your data lives.
Grammarly works in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge, in Windows and Mac apps, in Microsoft Word and Google Docs, and on iPhone, iPad and Android. Superhuman Go connects, per TechCrunch at launch, to apps such as Jira, Gmail, Google Drive and Google Calendar, and Superhuman says it works with "100+ apps". The superhuman.com plan matrix lists Connectors, MCP and partner agents as features of Go; it shows Docs MCP and Mail MCP in the product menu. Several sub-features, such as data sync frequency and usage tracking, are marked "Coming soon".
| Surface | What it does | Plan / status |
|---|---|---|
| Browser extensions and desktop apps | Suggestions across sites and apps | Free and up |
| Microsoft Word and Google Docs | In-document suggestions | Free and up |
| Mobile keyboard (iOS, Android) | Writing help in any mobile app | iOS app rated 4.66 (225,244 ratings) |
| Superhuman Go | Assistant across tabs; connects to Gmail, Jira, Drive, Calendar and 100+ apps | Limited free trial of full chat on Free and Pro; full on higher tiers |
| Connectors, MCP, partner agents | Listed on the superhuman.com matrix; several sub-features "coming soon" | Check current availability for your plan |
| Knowledge Share, Snippets, Style guide | Team knowledge and brand consistency | Pro and above (Knowledge Share and Snippets) |
If MCP is new to you, the Claude MCP and Connectors guide explains the idea, and the Zapier review covers the automation layer teams often add next.
Think in prompts, seats and the renewal date.
| What you are doing | What you pay / hit |
|---|---|
| Trying it on everyday writing | $0 on Free: 100 AI prompts a month, correctness and tone detection |
| One heavy writer on Pro | $12 a month billed annually ($144 a year); 2,000 prompts a month is about 66 a day (JAVIS arithmetic) |
| Pro paid monthly | $15 per superhuman.com; grammarly.com's embedded data also lists $30. Confirm at checkout |
| A 10-person team on Pro annual | 10 x $12 = $120 a month, $1,440 a year (JAVIS arithmetic) |
| Wanting the Mail client too | Business at $33 per member a month billed annually, $40 monthly (superhuman.com) |
| Need SSO, SCIM, DLP or BYOK | Enterprise, quoted |
| Renewal risk | Trustpilot reviewers report renewals at higher prices (e.g. "£120... was £60 last year") and charges after cancelling; verify your cancel-by date |
Strong audited controls, opt-out training, and a trust record that now includes a likeness lawsuit.
| Control | What Grammarly says |
|---|---|
| Audits and certifications | SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 3; ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 27017, 27018, 27701 and 42001:2023 (grammarly.com/security) |
| Encryption and hosting | TLS 1.2 in transit, AES-256 at rest on AWS US East; enterprise customers can bring their own key |
| Content ownership | "We do not sell or monetize your or your team's content" |
| Model training | Opt-out on Free, Pro and Business; off by default on Enterprise (superhuman.com matrix). To opt out turn off "Product Improvement and Training" in account settings |
| Retention | A document saved in the Grammarly Editor is stored until you delete it or your account |
| Admin | SSO, SCIM, DLP, audit logs API, custom roles and domain controls on Enterprise; HackerOne bug bounty |
| Date | What was reported | Status as I could verify |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 to Mar 2026 | "Expert Review" showed edit suggestions "inspired by" named writers, including journalists and academics who had not agreed. Superhuman set up an opt-out inbox, then disabled the feature | Disabled Mar 11, 2026 while it "reimagines" the feature; apology from the CEO (The Verge) |
| Mar 11, 2026 | Julia Angwin filed a federal class action in the Southern District of New York alleging misappropriation of names and identities; damages across the class claimed above $5 million | Allegations only. Superhuman says the claims are "without merit and will strongly defend against them" (Wired). I did not read the docket or find a later ruling |
| Sept 23, 2026 | A sysadmin reported cancellation-time emails and notices to all users of an organisation | Unconfirmed forum account; no vendor statement found |
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal or security advice. The practical read: Grammarly's security paperwork is among the strongest in this category, and training is opt-out. The new risks are about product judgement and renewal behaviour, not encryption.
Grammarly's own short demo of tone suggestions, one of the paid features the Core Feature section above describes.
Published by the official "Grammarly" YouTube channel (youtube.com/@Grammarly).
Best for people who write English every day and want a safety net that follows them everywhere.
| Situation | Why Grammarly fits | Likely plan |
|---|---|---|
| Students and casual writers | Free covers correctness and tone detection; Reader Reactions and AI Grader are agents to try | Free |
| Professionals writing emails and reports daily | Rewrites and tone adjustment in every app | Pro |
| Teams standardising voice and style | Style guide, brand tones, Knowledge Share, analytics | Pro, then Enterprise |
| Non-native English writers | Fluency suggestions and inclusive language on Pro | Pro |
| People who want long-form drafts written for them | It edits better than it authors; use a general assistant or a marketing platform | Compare ChatGPT, Claude, Jasper |
| Regulated or confidential writing | Needs DLP, SSO, BYOK and training off by default | Enterprise |
Five real gaps, not manufactured ones.
Trustpilot has a recurring pattern of higher renewal prices and charges after cancelling. A September 2026 sysadmin thread alleges cancellation-time emails to every user. The second is unconfirmed, the first is consistent across reviews.
Suggestions attributed to real writers who had not agreed, a disabled feature, an apology and a pending class action. It is not a security flaw, but it shows how fast AI features were shipped.
The company is Superhuman, the product is Grammarly, the plans page and the Superhuman page disagree on tiers, and the monthly Pro price appears as $15 in one place and $30 in the embedded data of another.
Reviewers say it misjudges intentional passive voice, pops up when they want to type, and that Go changed or removed familiar features. AI detection is probabilistic and several users call it unreliable.
Fifth gap, smaller: the free plan's AI is capped at 100 prompts a month and several agents are limited trials, so the "AI" in the pitch is mostly a Pro experience.
Grammarly is the broad, familiar editor. Others win on price, languages or drafting power.
| If you mostly need... | Compare Grammarly with... |
|---|---|
| A cheaper or lifetime-priced editor, especially for fiction | ProWritingAid (Premium $10 a month yearly, $30 monthly; Premium Pro $12 yearly, $36 monthly; lifetime $399 and $699, on its pricing page Oct 3, 2026) |
| An open-leaning checker in 30+ languages | LanguageTool (free tier 2,000 characters per field; premium up to 150,000; prices did not show when I checked the page) |
| A general assistant that drafts, rewrites and reasons | ChatGPT review, Claude review, Google Gemini review |
| Marketing content at scale with brand governance | Jasper (Pro $59 a seat billed yearly, $69 monthly on its pricing page) |
| Notes and AI inside a workspace | Notion AI (Business $20 a member billed annually) |
| Meeting capture from the same parent company | Otter.ai review, Fireflies.ai review (Superhuman bought Fathom on Sept 14, 2026) |
| Entry point (verified Oct 3, 2026) | Grammarly | ProWritingAid | Jasper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: 100 AI prompts a month | Yes: 500 words per document check, daily caps | No: 7-day free trial |
| Cheapest paid, annual billing | Pro $12 / mo | Premium $10 / mo | Pro $59 / seat / mo |
| Cheapest paid, monthly billing | Pro $15 per superhuman.com ($30 in grammarly.com embedded data) | Premium $30 / mo | Pro $69 / seat / mo |
| Lifetime option | Not listed on the plans page | Yes: $399 Premium, $699 Premium Pro | Not listed |
| Unit that runs out | AI prompts (100 / 2,000) | Rephrases, Sparks, nudges per day on Free | Brand Voices, knowledge assets, audiences |
No affiliate relationship shapes this review.
JAVIS has not established a publisher affiliate program with Grammarly (Superhuman). Every CTA in this article points to the official product. Grammarly's own site mentions an affiliates program; JAVIS is not enrolled in it. If that changes, the review's facts, limitations and alternatives will not.
Go to the official page.
Open GrammarlyRead the alternative that matches your real question.
Choose the next articleGrammarly is the editor. These are the drafters, notetakers and connectors around it.
Every card below links to a published JAVIS review.
Card images are official assets from each product's own site.
Questions people are actually searching right now
How much does Grammarly cost in October 2026?
Free is $0 with 100 AI prompts a month. Pro is $12 a month billed annually, with 2,000 prompts per member a month. superhuman.com lists $15 billed monthly, while grammarly.com's embedded data also lists a $30 monthly plan, so confirm at checkout. Business ($33 annual) and Enterprise (custom) are on superhuman.com. Verified Oct 3, 2026.
Is Grammarly free?
Yes. The free plan covers spelling, grammar and tone detection with 100 AI prompts a month. Rewrites, tone adjustment and AI-text detection need Pro.
Is Grammarly now called Superhuman?
The company is: Grammarly, Inc. renamed itself Superhuman on Oct 29, 2025. The Grammarly product keeps its name, and grammarly.com is now operated by Superhuman Platform.
What happened with Grammarly Expert Review?
It showed suggestions "inspired by" named writers who had not agreed. After criticism Superhuman disabled it in March 2026, apologised, and was sued in a federal class action it calls without merit.
Does Grammarly use my writing to train AI?
Per Superhuman's plan matrix, training is opt-out on Free, Pro and Business and off by default on Enterprise. You can switch off "Product Improvement and Training" in account settings.
Is Grammarly safe for company data?
It states SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 3, ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, 27701 and 42001, TLS 1.2 and AES-256, and Enterprise BYOK, SSO, SCIM and DLP. Suitability depends on your retention and consent rules; read the Security section.
Why do people complain about Grammarly renewals?
Trustpilot reviewers describe renewals at higher prices and charges after cancelling. These are individual accounts, not proven typical outcomes, so set a calendar reminder for your renewal date.
What are the best Grammarly alternatives?
ProWritingAid and LanguageTool for editing, ChatGPT or Claude for drafting, and Jasper for governed marketing content. See Alternatives above.
Where this came from, and when it was checked.
Pricing and plans: grammarly.com/plans and superhuman.com/plans, checked Oct 3, 2026, including price records embedded in grammarly.com (annual $144, monthly $30, quarterly $60 plan IDs) and superhuman.com ($12 annual, $15 monthly Pro; $33 and $40 Business).
Product and company: grammarly.com/ai-agents, grammarly.com/security, grammarly.com/trust; Grammarly blog "Grammarly Rebrands Company as Superhuman" (updated Nov 5, 2025); TechCrunch (Oct 29, 2025 rebrand; Sept 14, 2026 Fathom); GPTZero blog (Jun 23, 2026); Rows blog post "Rows is joining Superhuman" (Feb 23, 2026, known only from its Hacker News title); Coda acquisition in 2024 per TechCrunch.
Controversy: The Verge and Wired page text (Mar 2026) for Expert Review and the Angwin class action; Hacker News and Reddit r/sysadmin (Sept 23, 2026) for the cancellation-email thread (unconfirmed). I did not read the court docket.
Real users: Trustpilot grammarly.com 3.1/5 displayed, 10,469 reviews, star split 68/17/4/2/9 as shown (the displayed score and split do not reconcile arithmetically); Chrome Web Store 4.5 (43.1K ratings) and 40,000,000 users as listed; iOS App Store 4.66305 over 225,244 ratings from the App Store listing (keyboard app). G2 and Capterra could not be read and are not cited. Reddit could not be read directly.
Alternatives: prowritingaid.com/pricing, languagetool.org/premium, jasper.ai/pricing, notion.com/pricing, Oct 3, 2026.
Official videos: youtube.com/watch?v=PUAzU57wt88, dvAh0pp7tBk and 3F64eQOcbLk; author "Grammarly" on YouTube.
JAVIS Fit Score (78/100): editorial composite of checker quality and reach (strong), free tier and pricing transparency (good, minus the monthly price conflict), agent breadth (good), security and certifications (strong), renewal and support sentiment (weak), trust events (Expert Review, lawsuit) and brand churn (weak). Weighted by judgement; no automated test was run.
