Is Grammarly Premium Worth It? Here’s My Honest Long-Term Review

English is not my native language. Since moving to Canada in 2012, I religiously looked for ways to improve my writing skills while studying in high school and later at college. Grammarly was one of those tools I relied on to catch typos and offer me better word choices.   

As an online writing assistant, Grammarly, at the moment, is an incomparable tool that checks for grammatical and spelling errors within a few seconds. While the free version of Grammarly can catch the most common mistakes, the Premium version outstands those simple features to plagiarism check, sentence restructuring, and more.  

The basic version was more than enough for my school homework. However, when I started pursuing writing as a career, quick scanning through the text no longer offered the same results. That is when I signed up for Grammarly Premium, hoping its innovative tools would push me up the career ladder and even educate me on advanced grammar rules.   

Before I discuss in depth every aspect of the Premium version and whether it is worth the price, keep in mind that Grammarly is an AI-powered tool. Just like any other machine-driven assistant, it cannot make you a better writer simply by correcting your mistakes. I learned that clicking on suggested corrections did not enhance my writing on a large scale. Instead, my articles and short stories improved through continuous learning, practicing, reading, and taking into consideration all suggestions that such tool as Grammarly suggested.    

For this particular guide, I started with my own experience with Grammarly. However, that was not the only factor I relied on. In order to be unbiased and provide you with a complete review, I also analyzed what other content writers and other business professionals who upgraded to the Premium version had to say.

Moreover, I compared reviews of users who signed up for Grammarly Premium and since then improved their writing skills. Those reviewers only proved that upgraded features are useful, and worthy of giving them a try.

The main feature Grammarly offers is spelling and punctuation checks. It comes with both free and Premium versions, catches misspelled words, and allows you to create your own dictionary. At the same time, a standard word processor such as Microsoft Word can do the spell-check job just as well. Additionally, (unlike Microsoft Word), free version of Grammarly polishes your articles by looking after consistency in spelling (Canadian vs. American), capitalization and hyphenation. 

This tool becomes the utmost useful when it comes to everyday correspondence and easy writing tasks such as social media posts, emails, and other short texts. However, if you, just like I, look for more advanced features and a better quality of your essays then upgrading to Premium version is the crucial step.  

So, what exactly can the Premium version do?  

First, catching punctuation and structural mistakes.  

Some grammatical mistakes are challenging to catch. (It is typically not an identification of how much you know, but an honest error.) Such mistakes as sentence structure and punctuation rules can be easily caught as soon as you purchase the Premium version. The assistant goes as far as providing an explanation for each correction. Returning to one of my main reasons to sign up for the paid version, not only to improve my writing, but also to learn, this feature replaces a tutor. Yet, just like with any teacher, whether a person or an AI-powered, you would have to go through every suggestion and learn from your mistakes.   

Another factor to keep in mind here is you cannot just automatically click on every suggestion hoping that the paper you are working on will receive 100%. Every suggestion has to be evaluated. It was created by an algorithm that does not always work perfectly.   

Second, Grammarly Premium performs plagiarism checks of your texts. Grammarly scans your article, compares it with pages on the web and then lets you know if it has been plagiarized. That tool does not only work for freelance, content, copy- and other writers, but also for students who are working on their school papers.     

Third, if you are using Grammarly Premium not only to correct but also to learn, it is a useful tool to gain confidence and effectiveness in your writing voice. This online assistant points out wordy and overcomplicated sentences, and sentences that end with a preposition. The same applies to the overuse of passive voice and repetitive words.     

Fourth, the Premium version allows for a specific writing style preset. Depending on the audience you are addressing, you can choose from intent voice (do you want to describe or convince?), tone, (confident or joyful), formality type and domain, (academic paper, business email or creative short story).   

I found this particular feature sensitive and well-responsive. The software does not only make writing for a specific audience easier, but also suggests proper word choice to match whether formal or informal tone.     

Fifth, Grammarly Premium offers a readability score. The system scans your text and evaluates it based on word count, sentence length, vocabulary and whether it matches a chosen tone. At the same time, I decided not to rely on the score entirely, and also trust my own judgement. The reason is that an AI-powered algorithm does not always catch the context right and might suggest inappropriate corrections. I found that the best combination is to run my work through Grammarly first, and then complete it by thorough editing.   

 To summon now, Grammarly Premium’s major pros are:  

• In-depth analysis of grammar and spelling.   
• Style and tone context-specific suggestions.   
• Can be integrated with a browser and desktop apps.  
• Plagiarism check.     

At the same time, there are several disadvantages you want to be aware of, such as:  

• It only supports English.   
• Can not replace an editor.  
• Not an educational source.   
• Not 100% accurate.   
• Expensive.   

Besides the free version, Grammarly also offers Premium and Business plans. The Premium plan comes at three individual payments:  

• Annual at $12 USD/month  
• Quarterly at $20 USD/month   
• Monthly at $30 USD/month   

Paying annually is more cost-effective than a monthly subscription, however, you must be ready for $144 USD to be taken off your credit card once a year.    

(Business plan starts at $15 UDS/month, and the price keeps growing depending on the number of employees that will be using the tool. For example, for five members you will be paying $75 USD/month, for ten—$145 USD/month.)   

So, is Grammarly Premium worth it?

The short answer is yes. Grammarly Premium is worth it if writing on a daily basis whether for business or school is part of your life, and you want to avoid errors and improve your work. However, if all you need is to check your emails or homework assignments for spelling mistakes, then the free version should be more than enough.      

Would professional writers benefit from Grammarly Premium?

As long as you do not rely on the Premium version to do complete editing work for your blog posts, articles, short stories, and novels, yes, any writer can find it useful to upgrade their free Grammarly account. However, keep in mind that the algorithm does not always deliver the most accurate results, and there are certain limitations of what it can do.   

What about copywriters?

Surely, copywriters do benefit from using Grammarly Premium due to readability scores, vocabulary suggestions, and tone and style features. However, the main difference between copywriting and other types of business and professional writing is that conventional grammar rules are often replaced with the style of speaking to a specific audience. That is why Grammarly Premium, although powerful, cannot be fully trusted. If you intentionally use slang or make your writing related to a specific audience, watch that you carefully select suggested corrections.      

Can I become a better writer with Grammarly Premium?

The side effect of Grammarly Premium is that if you take the algorithm’s suggestions, memorize and remember to use them next time in your writing, it will improve. As you use Grammarly, you will also learn to catch passive voice misuse, and word repetition in every new article you work on.   

Can I use Grammarly Premium with desktop apps?

Yes, Grammarly Premium is available not only for the web but also as a desktop app. Moreover, Grammarly is available as a browser extension for Safari, Chrome, and Microsoft which makes it convenient to catch writing errors in real-time.   

Grammarly could also be installed on your Android and iOS phones and used to run checks on your emails and social media posts.    

Can I trust Grammarly?

 Yes, Grammarly is a reliable and easy-to-use tool to run grammar and spell checks, as well as overall proofreading. However, as with any other AI-driven assistant, it does not always promise perfect results. That is why after the software’s scan, you should also complete your own editing.     

Who should invest in Grammarly Premium?

If your work involves a lot of writing whether creative or technical, you will benefit from using Grammarly Premium. Overall, anyone who falls under the category of business professionals, content creators, freelance writers and authors or bloggers will enjoy Grammarly Premium’s features. (Additionally, it is worth to upgrade your account if you are in the process of learning English.)