I have been working on this ChatGPT vs Grammarly comparison for a while now. I read readers writing to us and asking if ChatGPT is reliable for grammar and if they can use it to check grammar.
To paint a clear picture and to fairly compare these effective tools, I compared both Grammarly and ChatGPT in terms of their user interface, ability to generate content, check grammar, check for plagiarism, and the accuracy of content improvement suggestions.
This was a close fight, but there was one clear winner in the end. Can you take a guess?
Read on to find which tool can be your best writing assistant!
ChatGPT vs Grammarly – A Quick Comparison
Comparing these two popular software that actually have very different reasons for existence might sound a bit strange, but they do have some common grounds on which they can be tested.
Both have major differences in the key features, price, best use cases, and the types of users that use the tools. Let’s quickly brush up on how different ChatGPT and Grammarly are:
| ChatGPT | Grammarly | |
|---|---|---|
| Key features | AI content generation, Free access to GPT 3.5, trained on over 175 billion parameters. | Can be used as an extension, Built-in plagiarism checker, Set custom brand tones and styles, AI content generation |
| Price | Free and paid plans from 20/month | Free and paid plans from $12/mo |
| Best For | Research, creative writing, quick content generation | Grammatically sound writing with better clarity and readability |
| Types of users | Can be used by anyone with the right prompts. | Writers, students, teachers, and professionals seeking writing and grammatical assistance. |
| Works on | Any browser, desktop, and mobile app | Any browser, desktop and mobile app |
| Grammar checker | ✅ (With the correct prompt) | ✅ |
| Real-time error correction | ❌ | ✅ |
| Plagiarism checker | ✅ (With the correct prompt) | ✅ |
| Readability Score checker | ✅ (With the correct prompt) | ✅ |
With a basic overview of both tools, let me quickly address other things that matter, too! The ups and downs of both.
Pros and Cons of ChatGPT vs Grammarly
ChatGPT and Grammarly both have features that help them beat their direct competition. But that’s not without zero flaws. They have some drawbacks attached to them, too!
Stay put to know more!
ChatGPT Pros
- Knows pretty much everything – trained on over 175 billion parameters.
- Can translate, complete, and summarize complex texts.
- Works in a conversational style.
- Custom GPT creation (with GPT 4).
- AI image generation (with GPT 4).
- Cuts downtime required for content research.
- Available for free with GPT 3.5.
- Frequent updates and improvements.
- Supports over 50 languages.
ChatGPT Cons
- It can glitch and stop midway while generating content.
- Content generation and editing are prompt-dependent.
- GPT 3.5 data is limited to January 2022.
- It can hamper learning for a writer.
- Gives incorrect output at times.
Grammarly Pros
- Offers suggestions and explains the errors in the content.
- Works everywhere with a browser extension.
- Real-time grammar checking.
- AI writing assistance (Grammarly GO).
- Clean and crisp user interface.
- Custom brand tone and voice.
- In-built plagiarism detection
Grammarly Cons
- Only supports English.
- Inaccurate plagiarism checker.
- Writing suggestions do not always make sense.
- Flags technical terms outside its knowledge as incorrect.
A Quick Overview of ChatGPT
As you might have witnessed the meteoric rise in popularity of this AI chatbot since November 2021, ChatGPT needs no introduction. This AI chatbot is available for free (GPT 3.5) and also as a paid subscription with access to the internet (GPT 4) at $20/month.
Our statistical analysis of ChatGPT shows that ChatGPT gets over 1.7 billion page visits every month on average. Let’s understand ChatGPT and see how it’s completely different from Grammarly.
Some of the things that ChatGPT can do:
- Write content from scratch.
- Image-to-text generation.
- Translating and summarizing texts
- Write code.
- Data visualization.
- Proofreading
- Create a meal plan for you, etc.
Imagine a search engine with the ability to hold real-time conversations that cater to every modern human need. These are only a few examples of the popular ChatGPT use cases.
The free GPT3.5 can chuck down the time taken to write, edit, proofread, and summarize, just as Grammarly can. But ChatGPT requires an additional prompt in order to initiate these abilities.
We have also covered ChatGPT separately in another post and went deep to understand the language it works on and the common errors a user can face. We also tested its potential with different tests.
Read out this expert review on the ChatGPT chatbot and get a comprehensive understanding of it!
Demandsage Bonus: GPT 4 offers a GPT-model “Creative Writing Coach” that can help you get better at writing!
A Quick Overview of Grammarly
Grammarly has been my favorite tool to use for writing ever since I started writing content professionally. It has helped me grow as a writer with its intuitive suggestions along the way that have improved the way I read, write, and edit content now.
Originally a writing assistant aimed to help users be grammatically sound in English, Grammarly has made its way to millions of users using it daily. It is available for free but also as a paid subscription with more features starting at $12/month.
Some of the common Grammarly uses:
- Write tone-aligned sentences
- Rewrite entire sentences
- Bias-free and neutral writing
- Plagiarism checking
- AI content generation
Recently, Grammarly announced its generative AI feature. It is an effective AI tool that can help you write blogs, captions, stories, and more! It also helps you send quick replies to emails using prompts, just as you would in ChatGPT.
Check out my detailed review of GrammarlyGO (Grammarly’s generative AI) that I have done earlier!
User Interface: Which One Is Easy to Use?
I like working with both as both are ad-free, clutter, and offer a purpose-focused user interface. As there is a difference in their way of working, their interfaces are also pretty different from each other.
Let’s see which one’s easier to use out of both.
ChatGPT User Interface
Here are some snippets of the ChatGPT interface:
On the left, you can find the history of all the conversations you’ve had with ChatGPT, the GPTs you are using, and the settings.
To the right, in the main window, is where you can share dialogues with ChatGPT and get responses. Here’s a short conversation I had with the “Creative Writing Coach” GPT from OpenAI.
For any prompt entered, you can – stop it from generating, edit the prompt, and also share feedback on the response for ChatGPT to learn.
But, in order to get these results, you need frequent back-and-forth conversations, which may not be ideal for every user. To check grammar, for example, you need to ask ChatGPT to do it while also sending the text.
Grammarly is more direct and offers live suggestions and improvements without any additional prompting.
Grammarly User Interface
Available separately and as a browser extension, Grammarly offers more than one way to use it. Let’s have a look at Grammarly’s website interface now:
Grammarly instantly gets to work as soon as you paste your text, highlight the errors in red, and suggest ways to rectify them.
On the bottom, there is a quick toolbar to “bold, italicize, underline, add headings” and other text formatting tools.
Towards the right, you get an assistant who grades the text based on – your goals, correctness, clarity, engagement, delivery, style guide, and plagiarism.
- Grammarly interface as an extension:
You can see how Grammarly operates as a browser extension in this snippet of me using Grammarly on my Google Doc.
While working live, Grammarly pops instant suggestions wherever you are using it. To the right, you can see the number of alerts that need correction and a compilation of all the Grammarly suggestions to improve the content.
Verdict: I really like the flexibility that Grammarly offers and love how it paints my texts bright red, which helps me see my errors clearly and rectify them.
ChatGPT vs Grammarly –Testing Them Out
To compare the two in this section, I thought of using them side-by-side and asking both of them to do the exact same tasks and see who prevails.
Here is the overall ChatGPT vs Grammarly test score.
| Test parameters | ChatGPT | Grammarly |
|---|---|---|
| Content Generation | ❌ | 👍 |
| Plagiarism Checking | ❌ | 👍 |
| Grammar Checking | 👍 | 👍 |
| Suggestions Accuracy | 👍 | ❌ |
| Final Score | 👍👍 | 👍👍👍 |
Grammarly wins the test by a thread and wins in content generation, plagiarism, and grammar-checking areas as expected.
In these tests below, I will test ChatGPT and Grammarly for their abilities to:
Generate Content
Here, I test them using their AI assistance to generate content. I will be giving the same prompt to both of them and check whose content is better.
Prompt entered: “Generate a list of 5 ways to get better at content writing.”
ChatGPT
ChatGPT got going as soon as I hit enter on my keyboard and accurately understood what I was looking for.
- ChatGPT’s response:
Certainly! Here are five ways to get better at content writing:
1. Practice Regularly: Writing is a skill that improves with practice. Set aside dedicated time each day or week to write, whether it’s blog posts, articles, or other forms of content. The more you write, the better you’ll become.
2. Read Widely: To become a better content writer, you should be an avid reader. Reading a variety of genres, styles, and topics exposes you to different writing techniques, vocabulary, and ideas. It helps you understand what works and what doesn’t in writing.
3. Study Grammar and Style: Good writing relies on proper grammar and style. Invest time in learning and understanding grammar rules and various writing styles (e.g., AP Style, Chicago Manual of Style) to ensure your content is clear, coherent, and error-free.
4. Research Thoroughly: High-quality content often requires in-depth research. Take the time to gather information from reliable sources, cite your references, and provide accurate data and statistics in your writing. Research adds credibility and depth to your content.
5. Edit and Revise: Writing is a process, and your first draft is rarely perfect. After you’ve written your content, take the time to edit and revise it. Look for clarity, conciseness, and flow. Consider feedback from others to improve your writing further.
Remember that becoming a better content writer is an ongoing journey, so keep seeking opportunities to learn and refine your skills.
Grammarly
Grammarly needed some TLC and didn’t work the way ChatGPT did. I kept getting the messages below when I entered my prompt.
I had to modify my prompt a bit and was then able to get a response. After much trial and error, I finally got a response when I modified my prompt to “Write 5 ways to get better at content writing.”
- Grammarly AI’s response:
“ 1. Read widely and frequently: Reading regularly is a key way to improve your content writing skills. This will help you to become familiar with different writing styles, tones, and techniques. Make a habit of reading blogs, books, and articles in your niche to learn from other writers.
2. Understand your audience: Knowing your audience is essential to creating effective content. You need to understand who you are writing for, their interests, and what type of content they are searching for. This will help you to create content that resonates with them and keeps them engaged.
3. Practice writing regularly: Practice is key to improving your writing skills. Set aside time each day to write something, even if it’s just a few paragraphs. This will help you to develop your writing style and improve your ability to communicate your ideas effectively.
4. Use storytelling techniques: Storytelling is a powerful tool in content writing. Using anecdotes, metaphors, and examples can help to illustrate your points and make your content more engaging and relatable to your audience.
5. Get feedback from others: Getting feedback from other writers or peers can be invaluable in improving your content writing skills. Join online writing groups or forums where you can share your work and receive constructive criticism. This can help you to identify areas for improvement and refine your writing style.”
Verdict: Though Grammarly took a while to generate a response, I found Grammarly’s response to have more value and relevance to my requirement than ChatGPTs.
Further, Grammarly also offers instant editing options to – shorten it, simplify it, make it more descriptive, and adjust the tone of the generated content.
Hence, Grammarly wins the content generation test for me.
Plagiarism Checking
One of the key parameters to grade between the two is that none of the two could check for plagiarism for free. While ChatGPT instantly displayed this message:
Grammarly asks for a premium subscription to check for plagiarism:
- ChatGPT’s response:
Even a ChatGPT Plus subscription is unable to detect plagiarism, which is pretty disappointing.
- Grammarly’s response:
Even with a Grammarly Premium subscription, I found Grammarly’s plagiarism detection to be unreliable. In my review of Grammarly, I conducted a plagiarism check for a piece of content that Grammarly assured to be 100% original.
Upon checking on Copyscape, plagiarism was detected for the same content. Read the attached link above to check out the results.
Verdict: While Grammarly was unreliable once, it was not incorrect all the time. Compared to the inability of ChatGPT to offer plagiarism detection, at least Grammarly offers that. For this, Grammarly wins this test not for proficiency but only for offering plagiarism detection.
Grammar Checking
I asked ChatGPT to generate a paragraph that is full of grammatical errors. Let’s check how both of them approach checking grammar for a piece of text.
Grammatically incorrect paragraph:
“Yesterday, me and my friends goes to the big park in our city. It was a very sunny day, and we was excited to play soccer. But, when we gets there, we finds out that we forgets the soccer ball at home. So we decided to just walk around and see the ducks in the pond. There was many ducks, and they was swimming and quacking loud. One of my friend say, ‘Look at those ducks, they looks so happy!’ But then it starts to rain suddenly and we didn’t had no umbrellas, so we gets really wet and decides to go back home early.”
- ChatGPT’s response
“Yesterday, my friends and I went to the big park in our city. It was a very sunny day, and we were excited to play soccer. However, when we got there, we found out that we had forgotten the soccer ball at home. So we decided to just walk around and see the ducks in the pond. There were many ducks, and they were swimming and quacking loudly. One of my friends said, ‘Look at those ducks, they look so happy!’ But then it started to rain suddenly, and we didn’t have any umbrellas, so we got really wet and decided to go back home early.”
- Grammarly’s response
“Yesterday, my friends and I went to the big park in our city. It was a very sunny day, and we were excited to play soccer. But, when we got there, we found out that we had forgotten the soccer ball at home. So we decided to just walk around and see the ducks in the pond. There were many ducks, and they were swimming and quacking loudly. One of my friends says, ‘Look at those ducks, they look so happy!’ But then it started to rain suddenly, and we didn’t have any umbrellas, so we got really wet and decided to go back home early.”
Verdict: ChatGPT sent me back the corrected paragraphs within seconds, but there was no way for me to know the mistakes that I had made while writing.
Grammarly, on the other hand, highlighted my mistakes and suggested ways to make the content sound more confident and readable. Though I was required to manually accept each alert and make changes to the text, at least I knew the errors and what was fixed.
But owing to the correct Grammar checking, it is a tie between the two.
Suggestions Accuracy
To test the accuracy of ChatGPT and Grammarly, I specifically wanted to check the appropriateness of the suggestions that these tools give. For example, I took the above-corrected paragraphs and checked for further grammatical improvements.
- ChatGPT’s response:
- Grammarly’s response:
Verdict: ChatGPT was pretty confident about the corrections that it had made and was willing to explain the reasons for it.
Grammarly, too, corrected the paragraphs well but made some suggestions that do not actually make sense and hamper the readability of the text. This is also not the first time that I have experienced this.
Often, Grammarly asks me to make suggestions to improve the readability or clarity and messes up the sentence’s structure. Hence, ChatGPT wins when the accuracy of suggestions between ChatGPT and Grammarly is concerned.
ChatGPT vs. Grammarly: Pricing Comparision
Both ChatGPT and Grammarly offer free access and are quite capable of easing a writer’s life, even with free plans. But how different are the priced subscriptions of both?
Let’s delve into the pricing:
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus (GPT 4) | $20/month |
| Grammarly Premium | $12/month if billed annually |
| Grammarly Business | $15/month if billed annually. |
There are further plans for large scaler requirements that both ChatGPT and Gramarly offer. You can reach out to the respective support teams to know more details about it. You can get an in-depth breakdown of Grammarly pricing here.
Who Should Use ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a superb tool that has run riots into the tech world and has brought about a tech revolution. Within a span of a year, ChatGPT has changed the way other content marketers and I research topics.
ChatGPT as a writing assistant is best for:
- Users seeking fast content generation for complex topics.
- Marketers and editors who wish to save time in checking grammar.
- Content writers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs when they need a spark of creativity in their writing.
Who Should Use Grammarly?
On the other hand, Grammarly is a more thorough and grammar-aiding tool that improves you every step of the way.
Grammarly as a writing assistant is best for:
- Students and educators who need help in writing professional documents.
- Authors, bloggers, and content writers want to improve their writing and provide grammatically sound content.
- Users seeking a professional grammar tool that can work with flexibility across places.
Related Grammarly reads:
- Grammarly Alternatives
- Grammarly vs Quillbot
- ProWritingAid vs Grammarly
- Grammarly vs Turnitin
- WhiteSmoke vs Grammarly
- Grammarly vs Ginger
Final Verdict: Grammarly is Our Winner!
Grammarly is a clear winner when it comes to grammar checker and writing assistant. ChatGPT and Grammarly, both the tools are very different, and while ChatGPT is not exactly a grammar checker, it certainly comes close to offering the same level of writing assistance, yet not quite as good as Grammarly.
Grammarly has intuitive on-page grammar checking, ability to generate AI-assisted content, check content for plagiarism, and also provide a report on the content’s readability, clarity, correctness, engagement, delivery, and more, I would choose Grammarly over ChatGPT.
But, if you’re an avid ChatGPT user who does not have time to go through each grammar alert, wants quick resolutions, and is willing to give prompts for each response required, you can consider ChatGPT.
Let me know in the comments below, whom you would choose!
