Typing directly into email, social media or a form field offers no built-in spell check beyond the browser's basic dictionary. A grammar checker extension adds real-time suggestions wherever you type, catching mistakes a simple spell checker misses, such as subject-verb agreement, tone and commonly confused words.
What Grammarly's free plan covers
Grammarly's free plan checks spelling, basic grammar and punctuation as you type across most websites, underlining issues and suggesting fixes. Its paid plans add tone detection, clarity and style suggestions, and full-document rewrites. It works in Gmail, Google Docs, social media and most text fields in Chrome.
LanguageTool as a Grammarly alternative
LanguageTool is a freemium grammar checker that supports many languages beyond English, which makes it a common alternative for multilingual writers. Its free tier covers spelling and grammar, while paid plans add style suggestions. It works similarly to Grammarly, underlining issues directly in text fields as you type.
Is a grammar checker extension safe for sensitive text?
Grammar checker extensions need to read the text you type to check it, including in email and messaging fields, which is inherent to how they work. Review each extension's privacy policy on how it handles your text, and consider disabling it on sites where you type passwords or highly sensitive information.