Skip to content
effecthub

CiteTrue vs Grammarly

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. CiteTrue starts at $5.99, Grammarly at $12. Both have a free tier. Only CiteTrue ships a public API.

CiteTrueChecks citations against academic databases to catch fabricated or inaccurate references, including ones made up by AI.GrammarlyGrammar, tone and rewriting help inside every app

Side by side

FactCiteTrueGrammarly
CategoryResearch & Citation ToolsGrammar & Proofreading
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$5.99 month$12 month
Public APIYesNo
PlatformsWeb, macOS, Chrome Ext, APIWeb, Chrome Ext, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
CompanyCiteTrueSuperhuman
Launched—2009
Last verifiedSep 1, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

CiteTrue

CiteTrue targets a specific failure mode of AI writing tools, invented citations that look real but don't exist or don't say what's claimed, by checking each reference field against academic databases. Shipping it as a Chrome extension and API alongside the web app makes it easier to slot into an existing writing workflow than a check-one-document-at-a-time tool.

Pros

  • Free tier offers 30 checks a day with no account cost
  • Available as web, Chrome extension, Mac app, API, and MCP server
  • Suggests replacement citations on paid tiers, not just flags

Cons

  • No company or location information disclosed on the site
  • Paid tiers scale quickly in price for higher-volume checking, up to $47.99/month
  • Accuracy depends on database coverage, which isn't detailed publicly

Grammarly

Still the default for catching mistakes inside other people's software, but the free tier has quietly become an AI-prompt meter and the honest price is $30 unless you commit to a full year.

Pros

  • Runs inside the apps people already write in rather than as a separate editor
  • Free tier still covers spelling, grammar and tone detection with no time limit
  • Pro folds in plagiarism and AI-text detection that rivals charge for separately

Cons

  • The $12 headline is the annual rate; paying monthly costs $30
  • Free AI allowance is 100 prompts a month and depletes quickly
  • No public API, so it cannot be embedded in another product
  • Enterprise pricing is not published anywhere on the site

Which one fits

Choose CiteTrue if you need

  • Writers and researchers checking citations added by an AI drafting tool
  • Anyone wanting a quick daily citation sanity-check without paying
  • Developers wanting citation verification via API or MCP inside another tool

Choose Grammarly if you need

  • Anyone writing in a browser, Word or email who wants corrections in place
  • Teams enforcing a house style guide across people who are not writers
  • Non-native English speakers who want fluency rewrites, not just error flags

More comparisons

All CiteTrue alternatives →Browse all Research & Citation Tools →