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Grammarly vs Inkey

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. Grammarly starts at $12, Inkey at $4.99. Both have a free tier.

GrammarlyGrammar, tone and rewriting help inside every appInkeyThirty-odd student tools in one account: essays, maths word problems, paraphrasing, plagiarism and AI checks

Side by side

FactGrammarlyInkey
CategoryGrammar & ProofreadingEssay & Assignment Help
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$12 month$4.99 month
Public APINoNo
PlatformsWeb, Chrome Ext, Windows, macOS, iOS, AndroidWeb
CompanySuperhumanInkey.ai
Launched2009—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

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

Inkey

The value is consolidation: paraphrasing, a plagiarism check and an AI detector under one $4.99 subscription costs less than any one of them bought separately. A free-for-life tier lets you test it honestly. The catch is the word meter — 10,000 words a month is a couple of long essays, and everything you run through any of the 30 tools draws on the same pool.

Pros

  • More than 30 student tools under a single subscription
  • Plagiarism checking and AI detection included rather than sold as add-ons
  • Maths word-problem solving alongside the writing tools
  • Free tier is permanent at 1,000 words a month with no card

Cons

  • Word quotas are shared across every tool, so a paraphrase costs the same budget as an essay
  • No operating company, country or team is disclosed anywhere on the site
  • No API and no editor or browser integration
  • Five tiers separated mostly by word count rather than capability

Which one fits

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

Choose Inkey if you need

  • Students who currently pay for a paraphraser and a plagiarism checker separately
  • Coursework that mixes written assignments with maths problems
  • Testing a writing tool without a card

More comparisons

All Inkey alternatives →Browse all Grammar & Proofreading →