If you’ve found your editor has been pointing out a lot of mistakes in your content or you just want to make sure what you’re putting out there is 100% error-free, stick with me.
In this post, I’ll list the best A.I. proofreading software, free and paid, to automate this process.
But first, let’s make sure we know what we mean by proofreading.
What is proofreading?
To anyone that’s not well-versed in the writing process, proofreading is basically checking for errors in a text. It’s the last step of this process since your content is already written and you’re just making sure there are no mechanical errors.
By proofreading, you check and correct formatting issues and inconsistencies, minor spelling and punctuation mistakes, repeated words and even omitted words.
Typically, proofreading is done by the writer of the text, sometime after they finished writing it and they can approach the work with fresh eyes. But it’s also frequently a task performed by another person or, now more than ever, artificial intelligence.
Moreover, these AI proofreading software usually give you guidance to adjust your text and explain why something is grammatically incorrect. So you can actually learn from their corrections (unlike what happens with some human teachers).
Now, please keep in mind the tools I’m about to list here are aimed to reduce the time you spend correcting mistakes but should never replace a second reading. AI can still overlook errors and humans are still very necessary, my friend.
Now, yes, let’s talk about machines.
Top free and paid A.I.proofreading software
Trinka
Trinka is named after its Lead Linguist Trinka D’Cunha, who helmed the Project from day one till it became a reality. It was made in India and has a presence all over the world.
It’s currently partnered with big universities like Princeton and Columbia.
Features
Trinka works only for English and it specializes in publication texts. Besides its grammar and plagiarism checker, it has multiple features ideal for papers: a citation checker, a journal finder and an academic phrase bank.
It’s also great for medical writing because it has an advanced medical spelling and grammar checker. You don’t longer need to teach the grammar assistant medical terms!
Finally, Trinka has browser extensions for Chrome, Edge and Firefox, as well as a Word add-in for Windows and for Mac.
Pricing
Trinka is available both for free and for premium. Its free plan has limited monthly usage and no Microsoft Word add-in. The premium plan costs $20 per month and has more plagiarism checks per month as well as access to new features.
They don’t have a refund policy.
If you need more access and customization options, there’s also a plan for teams and businesses.
Grammarly
Grammarly is the most popular proofreading software out there. It was founded ages ago, in 2009 and has since then grown a lot. They are committed to the responsible innovation and development of AI, mitigating bias and fostering inclusion.
Features
Besides checking your grammar, spelling and punctuation, Grammarly gives you suggestions for clarity, tone and plagiarism. So it’s a cool tool for students that need to properly cite sources for their research and school papers.
On the other hand, GrammarlyGO gives you more personalized assistance and you can customize it with profile options for tone, formality and professional relevance. If you work with a team, you can apply shared guidelines to help your team sound consistent.
Grammarly is available for nearly all browsers extensions, mobile, desktop, Google Docs and Microsoft Office. It also has an API to add a complete writing assistance experience to any web-based text editor.
Pricing
Grammarly can be used for free or by paying for a premium plan. Their free plan, however, is very limited and doesn’t check for consistency in spelling and punctuation or English fluency.
The price for individuals costs $12 per month and for teams is $15 per month per member.
Writer
We’ve talked about Writer in the past and made a review if you want a more in-depth take.
The thing is that Writer is a very cool and flexible A.I. proofreading software that lets you, for example, customize your own content style guide. This gives you a lot of freedom to change whatever rule you want and don’t feel the heavy breath of the A.I. behind your neck.
Features
Like Grammarly, Writer corrects your grammar, punctuation and spelling while also checking for plagiarism. But they go the extra mile with a Snippets feature that lets you create a template to automate your writing. You type a shortcut and then the text you want to be inserted and done.
With Writer you also have a “healthy communication” feature that helps you choose the wording that’s more respectful for everyone. You can tog on or off the gender-inclusive noun and pronouns option.
As to teams, besides setting editorial rules, you can go to “Terms” and tell Writer what words your team should avoid. Organize the terms with tags, filters and more, to get the perfect terminology list.
Writer also seamlessly integrates with Chrome, Word and Google Docs.
Pricing
Writer has a free plan and a 30-day free trial. These are the premium plans:
- Pro: $11 per month. Includes snippets, clarity and writing style configuration.
- Team: $18 per month. Access to quality reports and analytics, multiplayer mode, and terminology management.
- Enterprise: custom. Set up multiple teams with separate writing guidance.
LanguageTool
LanguageTool is one of the tools in this list that I use more frequently.
Unlike Writer and Grammarly, LanguageTool has the huge advantage of supporting other languages other than English. In fact, it masters more than 30 languages and dialects. So it’s ideal for any polyglot that switches often from one language to another.
Features
LanguageTool supports English, German, French, Portuguese and Dutch, as well as language variants. When it comes to error detection, it easily distinguishes between optional and required commas, which are hugely controversial sometimes!
Besides grammar correction, it has an A.I.-based rephrasing function that help you to rewrite entire sentences to make them simpler, shorter or more formal.
LanguageTool has browser add-ons, office plugins, desktop apps and even email add-ons. They currently have a Beta version of Outlook. And there’s an HTTP API available.
When you use LanguageTool on your email, it also corrects the name of the recipient if you misspell it.
Pricing
LanguageTool can be used for free or you can pay for a premium plan:
- For individuals, it cost $9.95 per month and includes an add-in for Microsoft Word.
- For teams, prices start at $9.98 per month. You’ll get a team style guide and a team dictionary and you can pay extra money to add as many users as you want.
Quillbot
The QuillBot project started back in 2017 and since then their user growth has been exponential. As it is the product of a team of former Illinois students, it has, naturally, amazing tools aimed especially at University students such as a citation generator.
But the app is in general targeted to anyone that writes.
Features
Although QuillBot’s grammar checker started as English-only first, it currently supports German and French as well. It’s also prepared to deal with multiple English variants: UK English, US English, Australian English or Canadian English.
With QuillBot, you can also co-write content, dictate it and summarize it.
Unlike our previous options, QuillBot is a bit limited in terms of extensions. It only has Chrome and Word extensions, so forget about Safari and other browsers.
For a review and tutorial on QuillBot, please read this post.
Pricing
QuillBot’s grammar checker is completely free to use.
However, if you want to access other features like their plagiarism checker and citation generator and not be limited by word count, you’ll have to pay for their premium plan.
BONUS: Hemingway
Finally, you can feel like a full writer with Hemingway. This AI proofreading software will handle readability and make writing suggestions, but not so much find grammar errors. We can think of it as a previous step of using other tools like Grammarly or you can use both of them simultaneously.
Features
Hemingway helps you write with power and clarity by highlighting adverbs, passive voice and dull, complicated words.
Hemingway has one-click integrations with Medium and any WordPress blog, so you post right from their Editor.
It is also ideal for collaborative work since you can send a PDF of your text with all the highlights intact.
Pricing
Hemingway is a one-time payment. You can get it for Mac or Windows for $19.99.
Final words
Those were the best free and paid proofreading software. As you could see, each has a unique feature that differentiates them from the rest and speaks to your personal needs.
LanguageTool is my personal favorite and the one I recommend if you only need to check grammar mistakes and also if you write in other languages other than English.
But what about your choice?
Which one do you use?
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