Grammarly Problems & Issues

Grammarly's help center says you can cancel any time but refunds are issued only if required by law; App Store purchases must be refunded through Apple. Cancelling just stops auto-renewal, so users who forget an annual renewal ($144) or a $30 monthly charge usually cannot get money back.

Users report being charged on automatic renewal without clear notification emails or reminders. Some say they were charged after a free trial without clear consent. The combination of auto-renewal and no-refund policy creates unexpected charges users can't recover.

Adding GrammarlyGO generative writing features has made the entire product dysfunctional for many users. People who just want basic grammar help don't want AI writing their content, but the new Grammarly pushes AI suggestions on everyone. Complaints flooding social media led some to cancel subscriptions.

Grammarly constantly tries to upsell users to premium by showing colorful underlines then suggesting upgrades to fix them. These prompts interrupt writing flow and feel manipulative. Free users especially complain about being nagged to upgrade rather than getting useful assistance.

After the company renamed itself Superhuman (October 2025), activating Superhuman Go swaps the Grammarly G icon and widget for a Superhuman logo or tab. Grammarly's own troubleshooting articles now open with this note because users think Grammarly stopped working. Suite plans also can't be merged with existing Grammarly subscriptions.

The Grammarly icon and popup interface obstructs input and blocks important buttons on screen. When trying to select corrections from popups, they vanish and continue disappearing once brought back. This creates frustrating user experience issues.

Grammarly frequently suggests changes that technically improve grammar but alter intended meaning or remove stylistic choices. It marks perfectly acceptable words as issues, adds commas where unnecessary, and changes singular to plural without reason. Users report Grammarly makes their writing worse, not better.

Suggestions feel overly rigid and repetitive, especially for creative or emotionally driven writing. Grammarly flags stylistic choices as mistakes and sacrifices unique text for 'automated perfection.' Writers report losing their voice when following all suggestions.

Grammarly's plagiarism checker scores below 40% accuracy in testing. It misses heavily paraphrased content and fails to detect much copied text. It also incorrectly flags common phrases as potential plagiarism. For serious academic or professional work, users need better tools like Turnitin.

Grammarly detects AI in numerous situations where AI had no involvement. Users report original writing being flagged as AI-generated. Conversely, it misses actual AI writing while flagging regular content as copied. This inaccuracy creates problems for academic and professional users.

Content generated by GrammarlyGO sounds professional but bland. It works for basic business communication but not for building personal brand or creating engaging content. The AI features don't understand creative writing conventions or intentional style choices.

Grammarly's spell-check often doesn't know what users are trying to spell and offers no suggestions for common misspellings. This basic function that users expect to work flawlessly sometimes fails, undermining confidence in other suggestions.

Grammarly for Windows and Mac is now the only supported way to use Grammarly in Word, but users report it crashing, the widget vanishing, and repeated logouts. Official fixes involve repairing .NET Framework on Windows, clearing saved credentials via Terminal on Mac, or reinstalling. The old floating widget was replaced by a tab on the right edge of the screen, which many users mistake for the app disappearing.

Grammarly doesn't work properly without internet, making it useless during travel, in areas with poor connectivity, or during service outages. Users dependent on the tool face productivity losses when connection is unavailable or slow.

Grammarly discontinued its Word add-in on Mac and is retiring Grammarly for Microsoft Office on Windows, ending updates and support. Users on Windows 10/11 with Office 2016+ must switch to Grammarly for Windows; older setups are pushed to the web editor or browser extension. Long Word documents with footnotes, tables or tables of contents still cause underlines to vanish or text corruption.

Users report slow support responses, especially for billing issues. Refund requests are denied citing policy rather than addressing user concerns. Some users wait days for responses to technical issues while being charged for service they can't use.

Using GrammarlyGO means sending text to external AI providers, creating inherent privacy risks. Users working with confidential or sensitive information must accept this data exposure. While Grammarly has privacy policies, some organizations restrict use due to these concerns.