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Some college students wonder if the popular software Grammarly is worth it. As a proofreader who has used both versions (Grammarly Free and Pro) and put them to the test, I can help you understand why Grammarly Free is worth the download and why Grammarly Pro may be worth the investment for university students.
Grammarly is worth it for many college students because it can help them avoid common errors and improve the quality of their writing. Grammarly Free helps eliminate grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors, while Grammarly Pro helps make writing clear, concise, consistent, and compelling.
If you’re a student who’s on a shoestring budget, don’t worry! I’ll show you how much you can benefit from using Grammarly Free. Grammarly Pro is more robust, but it’s not a must!
Bottom Line for Which Version to Choose: Grammarly Free will suffice if you need assistance with correcting basic mistakes. But if you’d like access to a plagiarism checker and want to make your writing less wordy and more engaging, Grammarly Pro is your best bet.
In this article, we’ll explore the advantages and drawbacks of both Grammarly versions.
However, before we explore what you’d gain from using Grammarly as a gatekeeper for good grammar, let’s answer a crucial question.
Is Using Grammarly Cheating?
The consensus is that using Grammarly in college is not considered cheating.
Numerous universities provide students with a free Grammarly Pro subscription to help them improve their writing skills. However, every university is different.
Cheating is a serious offense, so when in doubt, ask!
If you’re taking a class where your writing skills will be evaluated (e.g., English composition courses, ESL courses), it’s imperative to inquire about using Grammarly.
According to this 2014 article, more than 250 educational institutions have licensed Grammarly @edu to help their students become stronger writers. Institutions that purchase licenses can give their students a Grammarly Pro subscription at no cost.
Since 2014, many other universities have provided students with Grammarly Pro, free of charge.
Here are a few such universities you can verify by clicking on the links provided:
Now, if you’re in the clear to use Grammarly, let’s see why it’s worth it!
Is Grammarly Worth It for College Students? (11 Reasons Why It Is)
If you’re in college, taking advantage of Grammarly Free will behoove you. Grammarly Pro provides additional helpful features but comes with a price tag.
Let’s explore eleven reasons why Grammarly can be a valuable tool for university students.
The first six reasons focus on Grammarly Free; the last five discuss features available only with Grammarly Pro.
1) Grammarly has a free version.
Luckily, Grammarly has a version that’s 100% free.
Quick Summary of Grammarly Free vs. Grammarly Pro
| Version | What You Get |
|---|---|
| Grammarly Free | basic error corrections / tone detection / limited AI prompts |
| Grammarly Pro | everything above / full-sentence rewrites / tone suggestions / plagiarism detection / AI-generated text detection / many more AI prompts |
If you don’t want to get Grammarly Free, you can use Grammarly’s free grammar-checking site.
However, the disadvantage of using this site is that you must always copy and paste your text into the checker. Using Grammarly directly in word-processing software like Microsoft Word is easier.
And if you’d rather have Grammarly Pro, here are the prices.
Grammarly Pro Pricing
| Annually | Quarterly | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
$12.00 / month (save 60%) – billed as a single payment of $144.00 per year | $20.00 / month (save 33%) -billed as a single payment of $60.00 every 3 months | $30.00 / month |
2) Grammarly is much better than spell-check.
Even the free version outperformed Microsoft Word Editor in the testing I did.
For the test, I wrote almost a full page of text and included a wide variety of errors:
- 6 grammar goofs
- 6 punctuation pitfalls
- 6 spelling slipups
- 2 capitalization catastrophes
I also included mistakes involving consistency and the omission or repetition of words.
A total of 24 errors were in the test document. Here are the number of flubs each software found:
- MS Word Editor: 6
- Free Grammarly: 18
- Grammarly Premium: 18
You can read more about the Grammarly test and the results if you’re curious.
Also, keep in mind that although Grammarly is a helpful tool, it’s not foolproof.
Grammarly occasionally overlooks errors and makes erroneous suggestions. If you accept all of Grammarly’s recommendations, several blunders will likely remain in your document.
However, if you’re willing to research recommendations you’re unsure about, you’ll be good to go.
Plus, any research you do will further boost your grammar game.
If you don’t speak English fluently, I’d advise you to be especially careful when using Grammarly.
You’ll need to put in extra effort to research any suggestions you’re unsure of. Here’s a list of sites where you can research recommendations and practice grammar.
3) Grammarly improves your spelling, punctuation, and grammar skills.
Grammarly suggests corrections when you make a mistake and provides a “Learn more” card that tells you why the correction is needed so you can learn from it.
I’ve found some of these cards to be simple and some to be more helpful.
Below, Grammarly gives me information about punctuation after I omitted a comma.
4) Grammarly can boost your academic achievement.
Learning Technology Solutions surveyed 292 students, instructors, and staff members at the University of Illinois Chicago.
The survey found that 80% of respondents felt that Grammarly positively influenced their academic or professional performance (source).
Furthermore, 83% of those surveyed reported that Grammarly improved their assignments or projects, with many noting that it found errors they would have otherwise overlooked.
As we know, a grammar gaffe or misplaced comma can change the meaning of your sentence.
“If you don’t think punctuation is important, try forgetting the comma when you tell someone ‘I’m sorry, I love you.'”
– Jamie Capria
5) Grammarly saves you time.
Although it’s been a while since I attended college, I remember always having a lot on my to-do list. The typical college student has a ton on their plate!
Fortunately, Grammarly reduces the time you need to spend on proofreading, allowing you to spend the time saved improving your document’s content or kicking your keg-stand skills up a notch. 😉
I remember reading my college papers several times and finding mistakes each time I reread them.
Using Grammarly back then would have saved me a lot of time!
I would have run Grammarly before proofreading my papers to reduce the remaining mistakes I needed to find.
As a proofreader, I employ Grammarly a bit differently. I use it as a final check for documents I work on for clients. If I miss something, Grammarly sometimes brings it to my attention.
6) Grammarly helps you strike the right tone for academic writing.
Tone refers to the author’s attitude toward their subject matter and audience. Most academic writing needs to strike a formal tone so it comes off as objective and credible.
Grammarly Free’s tone detector clues you in to how readers perceive your writing.
Grammarly Pro goes a step further by offering writing suggestions based on the tone you want to strike.
If you’d like an article for learning more about tone, including tips to help you avoid unintentional tone shifts, check out this article on Grammarly.
7) Grammarly Pro assists you with formatting citations properly.
Grammarly Pro offers quick fixes for common formatting issues in APA, MLA, and Chicago style citations.
Alternatively, you can use Grammarly’s free citation generator to ensure properly formatted citations.
8) Grammarly Pro makes your writing more concise.
Grammarly Pro often suggests cutting out unnecessary words and shortening phrases to fewer words to tighten up your writing.
For example, it made the sentence above less wordy.
Suggested revision: Grammarly Pro often suggests cutting unnecessary words and shortening phrases to tighten your writing.
Grammarly Pro knocked five words out of that sentence while retaining the original meaning. Concise is nice. 😊
Here’s one of my favorite quotes about good writing.
“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
– William Strunk Jr
9) Grammarly Pro teaches you to become a better writer.
As you observe Grammarly Pro’s recommendations, you realize where your weaknesses are as a writer.
With my writing, it made me aware that I sometimes use more words than I need.
This software also enhances your prose by offering more specific word choices and rewriting clunky or unclear sentences.
Furthermore, it verifies that your writing sounds like that of a native English speaker. Enhancing English fluency is especially helpful for ensuring the proper use of prepositions, which can be challenging for non-native speakers.
10) Grammarly Pro helps decrease the chances of plagiarism.
I’m assuming you’d never plagiarize intentionally.
Plagiarism is not just a form of cheating—it’s stealing.
And you can be held accountable for plagiarism even if you do it unintentionally.
Although it’s unlikely you would plagiarize without meaning to, it’s possible. For example, you could copy and paste a portion of someone else’s text into your paper with the intention of paraphrasing it later. But what if you got interrupted and forgot to put it in your own words? Oops!
Grammarly Pro can help prevent this unintended plagiarism by checking your writing against billions of web pages and ProQuest’s academic databases (source).
Ah, peace of mind!
However, it’s important to note that while Grammarly Pro has a substantial database it checks writing against, it isn’t all-encompassing.
I’ve tested the accuracy of Grammarly Pro’s plagiarism detector and found that it seems to have more robust coverage of scholarly articles and other frequently cited content.
11) Grammarly Pro helps ensure you use up-to-date language.
Language evolves so quickly that it’s hard to stay up to date. It took me years to realize that the word gonna had made it into the dictionary. I mistakenly assumed it was an error whenever I saw that word—even in informal writing.
The editors at Merriam-Webster usually add hundreds of new words to the dictionary monthly (source)!
Being unaware of recently added words isn’t a big deal: you won’t be using these words if you don’t know they exist.
But what about words that are considered outdated or disrespectful? These are the ones we want to avoid.
For example, elderly is now a word that’s better left in the past. The terms older adults and older people are better choices (source).
Since Grammarly Pro is updated periodically, it will help you save face by alerting you to offensive words.
I hope this article has allowed you to see why Grammarly is worth it for college students. Getting Grammarly Free will likely be to your advantage, while paying for Grammarly Pro depends on your budget and needs.
If you’d like to up your proofreading game, you may be interested in this article on Om Proofreading: “What to Check When Proofreading Your Work (15 Basic Items).” You can use this article as a checklist when proofreading your prose.
I hope your future writing endeavors are fulfilling and enjoyable!
Best wishes to you in your college days and beyond!
“One love, one heart, one destiny.”
– Bob Marley
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