dyslexiaLanguageTool's browser extension stopped working for free users on 27 March 2026 (Let's Data Science, 27 March 2026). The company cited two reasons: rising AI server costs, and low free-to-paid conversion.
Six million free users lost the tool that flagged typos as they typed. That covered Gmail, Slack, and job application forms.
Grammarly's free plan never lost that. The two tools now sit in very different places for a dyslexic employee choosing what to run for free.
What LanguageTool's free plan lost in 2026
LanguageTool's browser extension for Chrome and Firefox now requires a Premium subscription (Let's Data Science, 27 March 2026). Free users can still use the web checker at languagetool.org.
But it now caps each check at 10,000 characters, roughly 1,500 to 1,800 words (BeLikeNative, updated 3 July 2026). Style suggestions, punctuation refinements, and the tool's stricter "picky mode" also moved behind the paywall.
Free accounts now catch basic spelling and grammar only. Copying text into a separate tab before sending breaks a habit many dyslexic employees rely on. That habit is catching the error while it's still on screen.
So what for you: that free, real-time workflow ended in March 2026. LanguageTool now needs Premium for live checking as you type.
What Grammarly's free plan actually covers
Grammarly Free still runs live in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge (Grammarly pricing page, checked August 2026). It checks spelling, basic grammar, punctuation, and conciseness as you type. It now also flags basic tone, a feature it used to reserve for paid accounts.
You get 100 AI prompts a month for rewrites and quick fixes (DemandSage, updated 22 May 2026). That's shared across every rewrite request and reply suggestion.
That allowance drains fast. Editing two or three long emails a day can use it up before the week ends.
Re-reading an email five times and still not trusting the tone is a common problem. A spelling checker alone won't fix it. The email tone checker flags exactly that in under a minute, free, before you send anything.
So what for you: Grammarly's free plan, not LanguageTool's, is now the stronger zero-cost option for real-time English proofreading. Budget your 100 monthly AI prompts for the writing that matters most.
Is Grammarly Pro duplicate spend if you already have an AI assistant?
Grammarly Pro costs $144 a year when billed annually (Grammarly pricing page, checked August 2026). That's about £107. Paying monthly costs $30 a month instead, about £127 a year.
In 2026 Grammarly folded its Business plan into Pro, at the same price (DemandSage, updated 22 May 2026). One subscription now includes light team features too.
That means up to two user groups, one shared style guide, and one shared brand tone.
Pro's core upgrade is full-sentence rewrites and a larger AI prompt allowance than the free plan's 100 a month. It also adds a dedicated plagiarism and AI-content detector.
Many employers already pay for Microsoft 365 Copilot at £16.10 a month per user (Microsoft, July 2026). Others personally pay for ChatGPT Plus, at around $20 a month. Either tool can already rewrite a stiff paragraph or soften a blunt line.
Asking it to "make this sound warmer" does most of what Grammarly Pro's rewrite feature does.
Neither Copilot nor ChatGPT checks your writing for plagiarism by default. Neither flags whether a document reads as AI-written. That is Grammarly Pro's real point of difference, not the rewriting.
So what for you: Grammarly Pro's rewriting is mostly duplicate spend if you already pay for an AI assistant. Only pay separately if you specifically need the plagiarism or AI-content check.
| Tool | Free tier | Paid tier adds | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| LanguageTool | Basic spelling and grammar, 10,000-character web checker | Browser extension, style rules, "picky mode", API, up to 100,000 characters | $59.88 (~£45) |
| Grammarly | Spelling, grammar, basic tone, live in browser | Full-sentence rewrites, plagiarism/AI-content check, larger AI prompt allowance, light team features | $144 (~£107) |
| Microsoft Editor (if licensed) | Spelling, basic grammar | Tone, clarity, word picks | £0 to you |
The free stack that works when IT won't approve anything
Most workplaces will approve a free browser extension faster than a subscription request. Grammarly Free covers that gap now: spelling, grammar, and basic tone, live, in whatever browser your employer allows.
If your employer already licenses Microsoft 365, turn on Microsoft Editor's premium tier too. It's often already included, and adds the same tone and clarity layer Grammarly charges for. See our review of Grammarly vs Microsoft Editor.
Keep LanguageTool's web checker for one job: proofing text in another language, or a final check on a long document. Paste it in under the 10,000-character cap.
That's still where it beats Grammarly outright, since Grammarly's grammar rules are built for English only.
None of this needs a purchase order. All three run on a free account.
So what for you: run Grammarly Free daily, add Microsoft Editor if licensed, and save LanguageTool for multilingual checks. That costs nothing and needs no approval.
Three settings worth turning on
In Grammarly's free plan, check the tone detector inside your account settings. It runs by default now, but some legacy free accounts still have it muted.
In LanguageTool's web checker, set your dialect explicitly, UK English or US English, before you paste anything in. A mismatched dialect setting creates false spelling flags that waste your 10,000-character allowance.
If your employer licenses Microsoft 365, turn on Editor's "refinements" inside Word and Outlook's proofing options. Clarity and conciseness checks stay off by default, even on a paid licence.
So what for you: none of these settings turn on by themselves. Check all three before deciding a free tool "doesn't catch enough."
What neither free tool catches
Neither Grammarly Free nor LanguageTool's web checker reads for you. Both flag mistakes in your own writing, but neither summarises a long document or reads it aloud.
If your bigger daily barrier is getting through incoming emails and reports, not writing your own, that's a different problem. Different text-to-speech tools are built for that.
Grammarly also defaults to US English, so it can flag correct British spellings as errors until you change the setting. LanguageTool's dialect setting fixes the same problem, but only if you set it before you paste anything in.
Both tools miss sarcasm, inside jokes, and anything specific to your workplace's own shorthand. Treat either one as a first pass on anything that matters, like a client email or job application.
So what for you: run either tool as a first pass. Read the result aloud before you send anything high-stakes. Neither tool replaces a second read.
When it's worth asking Access to Work to pay
Checking your own writing costs real time every day, unpaid. That's worth a number before you decide whether to pay for anything. The masking cost calculator turns your workarounds into an annual figure.
Take that number into a conversation about adjustments.
Access to Work can fund Grammarly Pro or LanguageTool Premium, the same way it funds Dragon or Read&Write. That's confirmed in the gov.uk Access to Work factsheet, checked July 2026. Neither is a named pre-approved product, so ask your assessor to include it by name in your award.
The Access to Work calculator estimates what your award could be worth before you apply.
So what for you: before you pay for either tool yourself, check whether Access to Work will cover it. Ask your assessor by name, since neither tool is on the standard pre-approved list.
The call: what to run this week
If you write mostly in English, install Grammarly Free today. It costs nothing and covers spelling, grammar, and basic tone in whatever browser your employer allows.
If your employer already licenses Microsoft 365, switch on Editor's premium tier at the same time. It stacks with Grammarly rather than replacing it. Editor lives inside Word and Outlook; Grammarly covers everything else you type.
Only add LanguageTool's web checker for two jobs. First, writing regularly in a language other than English. Second, a final check on a document too long for the other tools to see in one pass.
Only pay for Grammarly Pro in two cases. You don't already have an AI assistant for other tasks. Or you specifically need the plagiarism and AI-content check for client work.
A real example
Picture a bid writer who drafts proposals in Word, then pastes sections into a client's Spanish-language portal. Grammarly Free covers the English drafting in Word for nothing. LanguageTool's web checker is the better free option for the Spanish sections, since Grammarly's grammar rules only work in English.
An account manager who writes only in Gmail and Slack, in English, is different. Grammarly Free alone covers her daily writing.
Grammarly Pro only earns its $144 a year if she drafts client proposals often. She'd need full-sentence rewrites and a plagiarism check regularly to justify it.
So what for you: match the tool to the language and the task, not the brand. Free now covers most dyslexic employees' daily writing; paying only earns its cost for a specific extra job.