The question arrives in every budget review: if ChatGPT can rewrite anything, why pay Grammarly? It is the right question with a more interesting answer than “cancel one”. The two tools sit at different points in the writing moment, and that placement, not intelligence, is what you are paying for.
At a glance
| Grammarly | ChatGPT | |
|---|---|---|
| Works | Inside everything you type, as you type | In its own chat, on demand |
| Job | Catch errors, tighten tone, before send | Draft, rewrite, think, on request |
| Entry price | Free; Pro from about $12/month annual | Free; Plus about $20/month |
| Weakness | Full rewriting trails a top assistant | Only helps when you go ask it |
The placement argument
Grammarly’s value is that it is always in the room: browser, Office, email, invisible until a mistake appears. No context switch, no prompt, no decision to seek help. That placement is precisely what a chat assistant cannot offer: ChatGPT improves the text you bring to it, and bringing the text is a step humans skip when busy. The embarrassing typo ships at 17:58 on a Friday; Grammarly is the tool that is present at that moment.
The depth argument
The moment the job is bigger than correctness (restructure this proposal, make this email land softer, turn these notes into a memo), the assistant wins and it is not close. Grammarly’s rewrites are serviceable; ChatGPT’s are the product. If your writing problem is “my drafts need to become better documents”, the $20 does more than the $12.
So, both?
For two profiles, honestly yes:
- Non-native English professionals shipping client-facing text daily: Grammarly Pro as the always-on net, an assistant for the heavy drafting. The combined cost is about $30/month against a reputation.
- Everyone else: usually one suffices, and which one depends on whether your pain is errors slipping through (Grammarly, and the free tier may be enough) or drafts taking too long (the assistant).
The cancel test
Run Grammarly free alongside your assistant for a month. If the free tier catches things weekly that you had missed, the Pro question is live. If it stays quiet because the assistant already polished everything you send, you have your answer and your $12 back.
Our recommendation
- Drafting is the bottleneck: ChatGPT (or a rival assistant), and Grammarly free as the silent net.
- Errors are the bottleneck, English is your second language: Grammarly Pro first; it is in the room when it counts.
- High-stakes client writing in volume: both, and the combined subscription is cheaper than one lost client.