QuillBot vs Grammarly: paraphrasing and grammar compared

By Tried AI Tools · Published October 23, 2026 · Updated October 23, 2026

QuillBot and Grammarly overlap, but they start from different jobs. QuillBot began as a paraphrasing tool and added grammar checking. Grammarly began as a grammar checker that follows you into every app and added AI rewriting. This comparison is based on each company's pricing and help pages, checked on the date above.

At a glance

Sources: QuillBot Premium, QuillBot's pricing FAQ and free vs Premium help article, Grammarly plans and Grammarly Pro. QuillBot's own pages disagree on the free paraphrase limit (100 or 125 words), so try a paragraph to see where yours stops.

Paraphrasing

This is QuillBot's core feature. Free users get two modes (Standard and Fluency). Premium removes the word cap and unlocks all nine modes, custom modes, side-by-side mode comparison and a history of past paraphrases. That control matters if you're rewording sources for an essay or producing several versions of the same copy.

Grammarly Pro handles rewriting differently: it suggests full-sentence rewrites and tone changes inline, and you can ask its AI to rewrite a passage. It's quicker for polishing your own writing, but it gives less control over how much the meaning shifts.

Grammar and style checking

Grammarly's strength is that it works wherever you type: browsers, email, Word, Google Docs and its desktop apps for Windows and Mac. Mistakes are underlined as you go, and it shows how your tone comes across. The free plan already covers spelling, grammar and punctuation.

QuillBot also has a free grammar checker and browser extensions, but most users treat it as a place to paste text into rather than an always-on checker.

AI writing features

Grammarly's free plan includes 100 AI prompts a month and Pro includes 2,000, for drafting, rewriting and replying. Its team features (style guides, brand tones, snippets and usage analytics) suit companies that want consistent writing across staff.

QuillBot's extra tools lean toward study and research: a summarizer, a citation generator, an AI detector and an AI humanizer. The free humanizer is limited to 100 words at a time.

Who should pick which

Pick QuillBot if:

• You're a student who paraphrases, summarizes and cites sources.
• You want a plagiarism checker included at a lower price.
• You'd rather paste text into a tool than have one running in every app.

Pick Grammarly if:

• You write all day in email, documents and chat and want mistakes caught as you type.
• Tone matters, for example in customer-facing or work email.
• You manage a team that needs shared style guides and brand tone.

Use the free plans if you only need occasional checks. Grammarly Free catches most spelling and grammar mistakes, and QuillBot Free handles short paraphrases. A general chatbot can also proofread text you paste in; see Grammarly alternatives for more options and the best AI writing assistants for marketing tools.