What is Grammarly Premium?
Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that checks your writing in real time. It catches grammar mistakes, suggests style improvements, checks for plagiarism, and can rewrite entire sentences for clarity. The free version handles basic grammar; the Premium plan unlocks advanced suggestions, a plagiarism checker, and full-sentence rewrites.
For students, Grammarly is most useful for essay writing, college applications, emails to professors, and any long-form academic work. It works inside Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Gmail, and virtually every text input in your browser through a browser extension.
How we tested it
We tested Grammarly Premium across six weeks using real student assignments — a 10-page research paper, three college application essays, weekly discussion posts, and a lab report. We measured how many useful suggestions it made versus distracting ones, whether the plagiarism checker caught real issues, and how the rewrite suggestions affected the final quality of the writing.
Writing suggestions — what actually works
Grammarly's core strength is its real-time underlining of issues. It separates suggestions into grammar, clarity, engagement, and delivery — so you can quickly understand why something is flagged. In our testing, about 85% of its suggestions were genuinely useful, which is significantly better than we've seen from competitors like ProWritingAid.
The full-sentence rewrite feature — exclusive to Premium — is where it really shines for students. When you write a clunky sentence, Grammarly doesn't just fix the grammar; it offers a completely restructured version that says the same thing more clearly. For non-native English speakers, this is invaluable.
The plagiarism checker
Grammarly's plagiarism checker scans your text against over 16 billion web pages and academic databases. In our tests, it caught every instance of copied text we planted, including paraphrased content from academic papers. It's not as thorough as Turnitin (which your school likely uses), but it's a great pre-submission check so there are no surprises.
Is Grammarly Premium worth it for students?
At $12 per month (or around $7/month billed annually), Grammarly Premium is priced fairly for the value it delivers. If you write essays frequently — even two or three a month — the time saved on editing alone justifies the cost. For college application season specifically, it's one of the best investments you can make.
That said, the free plan is genuinely solid and may be enough for casual use. We'd recommend the free plan for middle and early high school students, and upgrading to Premium for anyone writing college application essays, AP papers, or college-level work.
Bottom line
Grammarly Premium earns our top writing tool recommendation. It's polished, reliable, works everywhere you write, and consistently improves the quality of student work. The plagiarism checker alone is worth the price for college-level students. The one caveat: don't let it flatten your voice — always read suggestions critically before accepting them.