Claude, ChatGPT or Grammarly: $144 to $240 a year for writing

Grammarly Pro costs $144 a year if you pay annually, or $30 a month if you don't (Grammarly Support, checked September 2026). ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro both cost $20 a month, which is $240 a year (AI Pricing Guru, updated 29 September 2026). All three have free tiers.

So price won't settle this. What settles it is how each tool behaves when your first draft is a mess. That's where dyslexic writers spend most of their energy.

Two kinds of tool, two different jobs

Grammarly checks writing you've already done. It underlines problems, scores the text, and suggests fixes in a sidebar. It works best on a draft that's close to finished.

ChatGPT and Claude are conversational. You talk to them, paste in rough text, and ask for a cleaner version or a different tone. They work at the stage before Grammarly, when the words aren't on the page yet.

So what for you: decide whether your problem is getting words down or cleaning them up, because that picks the tool.

What one dyslexic writer found in April 2026

Jackki Ashgrove, a dyslexic writer, tested the major AI writing assistants and published the results on Medium on 27 April 2026. It's a single writer's experience with no control group. It's still useful because it describes the thing most reviews skip: how the interface feels when you're anxious about your spelling.

She ranked Claude first, ChatGPT second, and Grammarly last. Her reason for Claude was the conversational layout, with no sidebar scoring the writing out of 100. Her reason against Grammarly was the coloured underlines and issue lists, which she said recreated the red-pen classroom experience.

Your reaction might differ. Some dyslexic people like a checklist of fixes because it tells them exactly what to change. Others find the same list paralysing.

So what for you: how a tool makes you feel matters as much as what it catches, so test it on a real draft before you pay.

Grammarly: cheapest by year, worst if the sidebar stresses you

Grammarly's free plan covers basic spelling and grammar. Pro adds tone and clarity suggestions, and it costs $12 a month on annual billing or $30 month to month. The monthly rate is two and a half times the annual one, so a one-month trial is expensive.

The real strength is coverage. It runs inside Outlook, Gmail, Word and your browser, so it catches errors in the places you actually type. A conversational AI only sees what you paste into it.

The weakness is the noise. If every paragraph fills up with underlines, you may spend more time reading suggestions than writing. You can switch off categories in the settings, and turning off everything except spelling is a fair first move.

So what for you: use the annual price as your real comparison, and cut the suggestion categories down before you judge it.

ChatGPT: the one for people who talk better than they write

ChatGPT's free tier and its $20 Plus tier both include voice mode, according to the Medium review. You can say what you mean out loud, then ask for it as a tidy email or paragraph. The review found this most useful for professionals whose spoken communication is stronger than their written work.

ChatGPT also remembers your patterns across chats on paid plans. Tell it once that you swap certain letters, or that you want short sentences, and it can apply that later. Check what it stores about you before you rely on that.

The risk is that it writes too much. A spoken rambling can come back as three polished paragraphs that don't sound like you. Ask it to keep your wording and only fix spelling and order.

So what for you: if speaking is your strong channel, try voice mode on the free tier for two weeks before paying $240.

Claude: calm layout, same $20 price

Claude Pro also costs $20 a month, and there's a free tier (AI Pricing Guru, September 2026). Claude's yearly billing option exists, though the review page doesn't give the discounted figure, so check Anthropic's pricing page before you assume $240. The Medium reviewer picked it because the chat layout has no scoring or underlining.

You paste in a draft and say what you want: fix spelling only, shorten this, make it sound less blunt. It answers in plain text you can copy back. Because you control each request, you decide how much help you get.

Both chat tools share one weakness. They can change your meaning while fixing your grammar, and they don't always tell you. Read the result against your original before you send anything to a client or a manager.

So what for you: with a chat tool, you stay in charge of the edit, which is the point, so always compare the output with what you meant.

The catch: your employer may have banned them

JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo have all banned or restricted staff use of ChatGPT over data risk. The Democratic National Committee barred ChatGPT and Claude for staff under an April 2026 policy, while still permitting Google Gemini (company AI policy roundup, checked September 2026). Rules differ by employer, and yours may sit anywhere on that range.

Pasting a client email or an internal report into a personal account can break policy, even if the tool is free and you mean well. Ask before you do it. A short message to your manager or IT team is enough.

If the answer is no, ask whether an approved tool such as Microsoft Copilot can do the same job, and put the request in writing as a workplace adjustment. Our disclosure guide covers how to raise it without over-explaining. In the UK, the Access to Work grant can pay for software a workplace needs assessment recommends, and our Access to Work calculator shows what you might claim.

So what for you: check the AI policy before you paste anything work-related into any chat tool.

A two-week test that costs nothing

Take three real pieces of writing from your week: an email, a longer document, and something you dictated. Run each through the free tier of all three tools. Note how you felt afterwards, and how many edits you had to undo.

Tool	Free tier	Paid	Best for
Grammarly	Yes, basic checks	$12/mo annual ($144), $30/mo monthly	Catching typos across email and browser
ChatGPT	Yes	Plus $20/mo ($240/yr)	Talking a draft out, then tidying it
Claude	Yes	Pro $20/mo ($240/yr)	Calm, controlled editing of pasted text

After two weeks you'll know which one you reached for without being told. That's the one worth paying for, if any. Plenty of people find the free tiers cover a normal working week.

The call

If you draft slowly and stress over spelling, start with Claude or ChatGPT on the free tier and skip Grammarly Pro. If you already write fine but miss typos, Grammarly on annual billing is the cheapest fix at $144. If your employer bans chat tools, use what they approve and ask for it in writing.

Prices move often, and I couldn't verify UK pounds pricing for any of the three today, so check each pricing page before you buy.

So what for you: run the two-week test, pick one tool, and cancel the rest.

More practical reviews sit in our articles index.