Is Grammarly Pro Worth It Compared to ChatGPT? We Put Both to the Test

We’ve all spent far too long rewriting a report, questioning every single sentence. Or we’ve hit send on an email or Slack message and instantly wished we could take it back.

As writers, we’ve used Grammarly for years to check spelling and grammar. When AI assistants came along, we quickly realized that they could also help with the writing process itself.

That’s why we weren’t sure Grammarly Pro would be worth trying at first. But while AI assistants accelerate your writing, there are drawbacks and risks that Grammarly Pro is designed to fix.

To find out which tool is best for writing, we tested both in actual professional situations.

Here’s what we found:

Key Similarities

• Both use AI to help create, edit, or improve text.
• With the right guidance, both can rapidly produce high-quality content.
• They both can suggest ways to improve grammar, clarity, tone, and style.
• Both can help with researching or ideating content.

Key Differences

• Authenticity: Grammarly Pro keeps our writing sounding like us, while ChatGPT can sound generic or obviously AI-generated.
  
• Workflow integration: Grammarly Pro works directly in email, messages, and documents in real time. With ChatGPT, you usually have to copy and paste between apps.
  
• Professional credibility: Grammarly Pro helps us avoid AI-generated mistakes and offers fact-checking, citation support, and feedback, so our writing stays polished and credible. ChatGPT requires manual oversight and fact-checking.
  
• Agentic features: Grammarly Pro includes AI agents like Humanizer, Paraphraser, Reader Reactions, AI Grader, and plagiarism and fact checkers. ChatGPT doesn’t have these features built in.
  
• Cost: Grammarly Pro is $30/month on a month-to-month plan but just $12/month with an annual subscription. ChatGPT Plus costs $20/month.

Grammarly Pro Overview

After close review, we realize that Grammarly Pro is much more than a spell-checker or text generator.

It’s a full writing system that helps us improve our writing directly where we write (Google Docs, Word, Slack, email) while maintaining our own voice. Alternatively, Grammarly’s writing surface, docs, serves as a central workspace, with Grammarly’s AI tools embedded directly within the editor as on-demand agents.

Grammarly Pro’s features can spot parts of our text that sound AI-generated and help us rewrite them. The Humanizer tool allows us to change the tone and use our own voice. Or Paraphraser can switch up the style to human, academic, professional, creative, or simple.

The Reader Reactions tool shows what readers are likely to remember and highlights any gaps that may be missing.

For accuracy and credibility, Citation Finder helps us locate sources, Fact Checker reviews factual claims, AI Grader checks overall quality, and Plagiarism Checker flags copied text.

ChatGPT Overview

ChatGPT is a popular AI assistant that can generate text on just about any topic. We’ve found it’s great for brainstorming, sparking ideas, and immediately drafting documents from scratch.

With the right prompts, it can adjust tone and style and even provide feedback, but you need to anticipate and correctly prompt what feedback you want.

Still, ChatGPT isn’t ideal for professional writing by itself. Text often has to be manually pasted and carefully edited to keep it authentic. Constantly switching between platforms to copy and paste content can be time-consuming, disrupt your workflow, and lead to inaccuracies. ChatGPT often fabricates information, so we’re forced to fact-check everything.

Our Verdict

While ChatGPT is a helpful tool, it’s not a full replacement for high-stakes writing.

Professional communication goes far beyond good grammar. It’s how we build trust, influence decisions, and connect with people. From first draft to final polish, Grammarly Pro’s cutting-edge AI helps you tackle the blank page and write at the speed of your thoughts.

At $12/month with the annual plan (less than ChatGPT Plus at $20/month), it offers full-sentence rewrites, tone suggestions, plagiarism detection, expert guidance, and workflow integration.For professionals who want every word to matter, Grammarly Pro is a must.