Grammarly vs QuillBot

Updated October 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Grammarly

The best-known grammar and tone checker, with AI drafting built into a browser extension and desktop apps.

Free plan + paid

Visit Grammarly Grammarly profile

QuillBot

A paraphrasing tool that grew into a suite of grammar, summarising and citation helpers.

Free plan + paid

Visit QuillBot QuillBot profile

The short answer

Pick Grammarly if you want spelling, grammar and tone corrections as you type in almost any app, on desktop and phone. Pick QuillBot if your main job is rewording and summarising text, especially for coursework. The biggest difference is focus: Grammarly is a checker that also drafts, while QuillBot is a paraphraser that also checks grammar, and its grammar checking is less thorough.

Grammarly or QuillBot: our take

Grammarly is built to sit in the background wherever you write. It has a browser extension for Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox, desktop apps for Windows and Mac that work inside other programs, and keyboards for iPhone and Android. It flags errors, suggests clearer phrasing and adjusts tone, and its generative AI drafts and rewrites on request. QuillBot works mostly as a destination: you paste text into its web app, or use its Chrome extension or add-ins for Word and Google Docs, and pick a paraphrasing mode such as formal, simple or shorter. Around the paraphraser sit a summariser, citation generator, translator, AI-text detector and plagiarism checker.

Both have free plans. Grammarly's free tier covers basic corrections and 100 AI prompts a month; Pro starts at $12 per member per month billed annually and adds full-sentence rewrites, tone changes, plagiarism and AI-text detection. QuillBot's free tier limits how much text you can paraphrase at once and how many modes you get, and Premium lifts most of those limits. Grammarly also sells team plans with shared style guides and brand tones, which QuillBot does not focus on. Both process your text in the cloud, and Grammarly is English-first.

For everyday work email, documents and messages, Grammarly is the more useful tool because it catches mistakes without you changing windows. For students and non-native writers who need to rephrase a passage, condense a source or format a citation, QuillBot covers more of that in one place. Some people use both: QuillBot to get unstuck on a sentence and Grammarly to proofread the result. Heavy paraphrasing can flatten your voice, and academic users should check their institution's rules before relying on it.

Choose Grammarly if…

English writers who want corrections and AI help everywhere they type, without changing apps
You need Windows and macOS, which QuillBot doesn't list
Works across browsers, desktop apps and phone keyboards
Free plan is genuinely useful for spelling and grammar

Choose QuillBot if…

Students and non-native writers who mainly want to rephrase and summarise text
Many paraphrasing modes with adjustable strength
Summariser, citations and grammar checks in one place

What is Grammarly?

Grammarly checks spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity and tone as you type, and adds generative AI for drafting and rewriting. It works in most places people write: a browser extension for Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox, desktop apps for Windows and Mac that hook into other programs, and keyboards for iPhone and Android. The free plan covers basic corrections and a small monthly allowance of AI prompts; the paid Pro plan adds full-sentence rewrites, tone adjustments, plagiarism and AI-text detection, and a much larger prompt allowance. Teams and enterprises get style guides, brand tones and admin controls. The company behind it renamed itself Superhuman in 2025 after buying the Superhuman email client, and enterprise features are increasingly sold as part of that wider suite, though Grammarly remains the product name. It is English-first; other languages are limited. The main concern people raise is privacy, since text is processed in Grammarly's cloud.

What is QuillBot?

QuillBot is best known for its paraphraser, which rewrites a sentence or paragraph in several modes such as fluent, formal, simple or shorter. Around it sit a grammar checker, a summariser, a citation generator, an AI-text detector, a translator and a plagiarism checker, all in one web app with a Chrome extension and add-ins for Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Students are its core audience, and the free tier is generous enough for occasional use, with limits on how much text you can paraphrase at once and fewer rewriting modes. Premium removes most limits and unlocks the extra modes and plagiarism checks. QuillBot is owned by Learneo, the company formerly known as Course Hero. Its rewrites are quick and useful for getting unstuck, but heavy use can flatten your voice, and academic users should check their institution's rules on paraphrasing tools.

Side by side

Attribute	Grammarly	QuillBot
Pricing	Free plan + paid	Free plan + paid
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
Platforms	Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Browser extension	Web, Browser extension, iOS, Android
Best for	English writers who want corrections and AI help everywhere they type, without changing apps	Students and non-native writers who mainly want to rephrase and summarise text
Status	Active	Active