Grammarly vs QuillBot: Price, Free Plans and Best Use
Pick Grammarly if your main need is catching grammar and spelling mistakes as you type in your browser, Microsoft Office or Google Docs, with plagiarism and AI-text detection on the paid plan. Pick QuillBot if you mostly rewrite or paraphrase text, want more tools free, or want a cheaper yearly plan.
The two overlap more every year: both now check grammar, rewrite sentences and include an AI assistant. They still start from different places. Grammarly is a checker that grew rewriting features, and QuillBot is a paraphraser that grew a grammar checker.
Grammarly vs QuillBot at a glance
| Grammarly | QuillBot | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Pro: $30 a month, $60 a quarter, or $144 a year ($12 a month) | Premium: $19.95 a month or $99.95 a year ($8.33 a month) on its website |
| Free plan | Yes: spelling and grammar correction, tone visibility, 100 AI prompts a month | Yes: paraphrase 125 words at a time in 2 modes, summarize 600 words, AI Chat 50 prompts a day |
| Platforms | Windows, Mac, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Microsoft Office, Google Docs, iPhone, iPad, Android | Web, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Microsoft Word, Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android |
| Open source | No | No |
| Plagiarism checker | Pro only | Premium only |
| Paraphrasing | Sentence rewrites on Pro | Core feature, free in 2 modes, unlimited words on Premium |
| Best for | Error-free writing in email, documents and the browser | Rewording, summarizing and students on a budget |
Which is cheaper, Grammarly or QuillBot?
QuillBot. On its own website, QuillBot lists Premium at $19.95 a month, or $99.95 billed once a year, which it describes as $8.33 a month. Bought through the iPhone app, the US App Store lists $19.99 a month, $79.99 for six months and $99.99 a year.
Grammarly Pro is advertised at $12 a month, but that is the yearly price split into months. A year costs $144, a quarter costs $60, and paying month to month costs $30.
So on yearly billing, QuillBot is about $44 cheaper. On monthly billing, the gap is about $10 a month. QuillBot's App Store prices are a few cents higher than its website prices ($19.99 against $19.95 a month), so buying on the web saves a little.
What did we check ourselves?
On 6 November 2026, we read the plan data behind Grammarly's plans page. The headline showed "$12" for Pro, and the underlying plans were Monthly at $30, Quarterly at $60 and Annual at $144, all in USD. Only the annual plan matches the $12 headline. If you sign up expecting to pay $12 and choose monthly billing, you will pay $30.
The same page offered Pro as a free trial with "$0 due today" and a reminder email two days before the trial ends.
Which free plan is better?
It depends on the job. Grammarly's free plan is built for catching mistakes: its plans page lists basic spelling and grammar correction, tone visibility and 100 AI prompts a month. Sentence rewrites, tone adjustment, English fluency help and plagiarism and AI-text detection all need Pro.
QuillBot gives away more tools, each with a limit. Its own comparison article lists the free limits as 125 words at a time in the Paraphraser (Standard and Fluency modes), 600 words in the Summarizer, 5,000 words in the Translator and 50 AI Chat prompts a day. The plagiarism checker is the main tool not included for free.
If you write a lot of short emails and messages and just want the typos caught, Grammarly Free is enough. If you want to reword paragraphs without paying, QuillBot Free does more. Students checking essays for plagiarism will need to pay on either side, since neither free plan includes a plagiarism check.
Which is better for grammar checking?
Grammarly started as a grammar checker, and it adds Google Docs and iPad support that QuillBot does not list. Its plans page lists apps for Windows and Mac, extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge, add-ins for Microsoft Office and Google Docs, and mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. The Pro plan adds 2,000 AI prompts a member each month and unlimited personalized suggestions.
QuillBot now has a grammar checker too, plus a Chrome extension (version 4.123.0, updated 23 October 2026, with 6,000,000 users), extensions for Firefox, Edge and Safari, a Microsoft Word integration, Windows and Mac apps and a keyboard app for iPhone and Android. Its Chrome listing also covers writing, editing and translation in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Dutch.
Both are closed source. Looking further? See our list of Grammarly alternatives.
Which should you choose?
- You want typos and grammar caught in every app you use: Grammarly.
- You mainly paraphrase or summarize: QuillBot.
- You want the cheapest paid plan: QuillBot Premium at $99.95 a year.
- You need a plagiarism check: either, on a paid plan. Grammarly Pro also adds AI-text detection.
- You only pay month to month: QuillBot at $19.95 costs less than Grammarly at $30.
FAQ
Is Grammarly Pro $12 a month?
Only on the annual plan, which is billed as $144 a year. Monthly billing is $30 and quarterly is $60.
How many words can I paraphrase free on QuillBot?
125 words at a time, in the Standard and Fluency modes, according to QuillBot. Premium removes the word limit.
Does Grammarly have a plagiarism checker?
Yes, on Pro. Plagiarism and AI-text detection are not part of the free plan.
Can I use QuillBot on my phone?
Yes. QuillBot has an iPhone app with an AI keyboard and an Android app on Google Play.