Free grammar checker
Paste, type or upload your text. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, style and readability are checked live in your browser. No account, nothing uploaded.
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Second read by AI
The checks above run in your browser. For subtler mistakes, send the text for an AI proofread or rewrite. It is only sent when you press a button.
- No sign-up, no extension, no word limit for instant checks
- US, UK, Canadian and Australian English dictionaries
- Upload .docx, PDF or a photo and check it in seconds
- AI proofread shown as tracked changes you approve
Reading the marks
Each kind of note has its own proofreader’s mark, so you can tell an error from a suggestion at a glance.
- recieve
- Spelling: a wavy red underline means the word is not in the dictionary.
- should of
- Grammar: a double violet underline marks a grammar or word-choice error.
- late ,
- Punctuation: blue tint for spacing, commas, splices and unmatched quotes.
- in order to
- Style: yellow highlight for wordy phrases, fillers, passive voice and adverbs. Advice, not errors.
- a very long sentence…
- Clarity: lilac for hard-to-read and run-on sentences.
How a grammar checker reads your sentence
Step through what happens between your keystroke and the underline. Pick an example, then press “Next step”.
Split into tokens
First the text is cut into words and punctuation marks. Everything after this works on tokens, not letters.
The takeaway: rule-based checking is fast and private because it never needs to “understand” your text, only to recognise patterns. That is also its limit, which is why the AI second read exists. ahaboo takes a related approach to understanding, with movable explainers on science and money that respond as you adjust them.
Focused checkers
The same engine, narrowed to one problem, for when you only care about commas, passive voice or capital letters.
AI writing tools
Readability
Counters
Grammar guides
What this grammar checker looks for
- Spelling against the SCOWL-based Hunspell dictionaries for US, UK, Canadian or Australian English, with ranked suggestions and a personal word list.
- Commonly confused words: their/there/they’re, your/you’re, its/it’s, then/than, affect/effect, to/too, lose/loose, advice/advise, whose/who’s, every day/everyday. Our grammar guides explain 18 of these pairs.
- Grammar: “could of”, subject–verb agreement (“he don’t”, “we was”), “a” vs “an”, “me and Sam went”, repeated words, lowercase “i”.
- Punctuation: comma splices, missing commas after “However”, spaces before commas, missing spaces after full stops, doubled marks, unmatched brackets and quotes.
- Capitalisation: sentence starts, days, months, languages and nationalities.
- Style and clarity: wordy phrases (“in order to”, “due to the fact that”), redundant pairs (“end result”), filler words, passive voice, adverbs, and sentences too long or too hard to read.
- Readability: Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch–Kincaid grade, plus word, character and sentence counts and reading time.
Nothing on the list needs an account, and none of it sends your words anywhere. The AI proofread is the one exception, and it only runs when you ask.
Questions people ask
Is TextCheck really free, with no sign-up?
Yes. Every check on this site is free and there is no account, email or trial. The spelling, grammar, punctuation and readability checks run in your own browser, so there is nothing to sign up for.
Is my text private?
The instant checks happen on your device: the dictionary and the rules are downloaded once and your text is not uploaded. Only when you press an AI button (AI proofread, Rewrite, tone or essay feedback) is that text sent to our server and an AI model to produce the answer. It is not stored or used for training by us.
How accurate is a free grammar checker?
Spelling checks are very reliable for common words. Rule-based grammar checks catch the frequent, well-defined mistakes (their/there, could of, a/an, subject–verb agreement, comma splices) but no checker understands meaning perfectly. Use the AI proofread as a second read for subtler errors, and always make the final call yourself.
Does it support British, Canadian and Australian English?
Yes. Pick English (UK), (Canada) or (Australia) in the checker. With UK English, “colour”, “organise” and “travelled” are accepted; Canadian English accepts “colour” with “organize”. The AI proofread follows the same setting.
What do the proof score and Flesch score mean?
The proof score starts at 100 and drops with each spelling, grammar, punctuation and clarity note relative to the length of your text (style notes do not count). The Flesch Reading Ease score (0–100) measures how easy your text is to read: 60–70 is plain English, above 80 is easy, below 30 is academic.
Can I check a Word document or PDF?
Yes. Press “Upload file” to import a .docx, .pdf or .txt file. Word and PDF files are converted to text in your browser. For a photo of handwriting or a scanned page with no text layer, the image is sent to an AI model to transcribe it (only when you choose that file), and then checked like any other text.
Is TextCheck a good alternative to Grammarly?
For quick checks, yes: it needs no account or extension, catches common spelling, grammar and punctuation errors instantly, and adds readability scores and an AI proofread. Grammarly’s paid plans offer deeper rewriting and integrations across apps; TextCheck is built for fast, private, free checks in the browser.
Is there a word limit?
The in-browser checker handles long documents; very long texts (tens of thousands of words) simply take a moment longer. AI requests are limited to 8,000 characters at a time to keep the service free.
Can I add names and jargon so they stop being flagged?
Yes. Press “Add to dictionary” on any spelling note. Your personal dictionary is saved in this browser only, and you can clear it on the privacy page.