Grammarly discontinued its Microsoft Word for Mac add-in, which is why the Grammarly tab vanished from your Word toolbar. Nothing on your Mac is broken and reinstalling will not bring it back. The best replacement for most people is Charm, a $9.99 one-time Mac app that corrects spelling and grammar live inside Word itself.
Below: what happened, whether Grammarly still works anywhere on a Mac, and the replacements that actually reach into Word. Several are free and already installed. One is ours, and we say plainly where it fits.
Why did Grammarly stop working in Word on Mac?
Because the integration was retired. Grammarly's own support documentation states that Grammarly for Microsoft Word on Mac was discontinued. There is no version to download, no beta channel, and no setting that switches it back on.
This caught people off guard because the failure looks like a bug rather than a decision, so the natural response is to reinstall Office or sign back into Grammarly. Neither helps, and Microsoft's forums now carry questions from users trying to install an add-in that no longer exists. It was not isolated either: Grammarly also retired its standalone desktop Editor app, and its parent company renamed itself Superhuman in October 2025, though the writing assistant is still called Grammarly.
Can you still use Grammarly on a Mac?
Yes, and this is worth being precise about, because Grammarly has not disappeared from macOS. The browser extension still works in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, and so does the web editor at grammarly.com. If you mostly write in Gmail, Google Docs, or a web CMS, little has changed for you.
What you lost is checking inside the Word desktop app. The remaining route is copy and paste: write in Word, paste into the web editor, review, paste back. That works for a short piece, but it strips formatting, breaks tracked changes, and gets painful past a page. So the test we applied below is simple: does it reach into the Word window, or must you paste into it?
What should you use instead inside Word on Mac?
1. Charm - $9.99 once (best for live correction in Word)
Charm is our own Mac app, so treat this as an interested opinion, but the technical fit is unusually clean. Word for Mac is a native macOS application, and Charm works through macOS accessibility APIs rather than add-ins. Its full live mode therefore runs inside Word: spelling corrected as you type, grammar checked at sentence boundaries, and next-word prediction you accept with Tab. Nothing is installed into Office, and the same engine covers Mail, Notes, Slack, Pages, and Scrivener. Everything runs on-device, which matters if your documents are client files or legal drafts.
The honest limitation: in browsers and Electron apps, Charm switches to Fix Selection, where you highlight text and press Option-Command-V instead of correcting automatically. That does not apply to Word, but weigh it if most of your writing is really in Google Docs. Charm needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later and costs $9.99 once for 3 Macs.
2. Microsoft Editor - included with Microsoft 365
Microsoft Editor is the obvious default, and for many people it is enough. It is built into Word rather than bolted on, so there is no add-in to lose. It flags spelling, grammar, clarity, conciseness, formality, and punctuation as you type, gives an Editor score, and opens a side pane that walks through each category. It follows you into Outlook and Word on the web too.
The limitation is that the advanced suggestions, meaning clarity, conciseness, and formality rather than plain spelling and grammar, need a Microsoft 365 subscription. Without one you get basic checks only, and either way it is confined to Microsoft's own apps, so it does nothing in Notes, Slack, or Pages.
3. Word's built-in spelling and grammar check - free
Before adding anything, confirm what Word already ships with is switched on. Go to Tools, then Spelling and Grammar for a full pass, or Word, then Settings, then Spelling and Grammar to tick "Check spelling as you type" and "Check grammar as you type". Those two boxes restore the familiar red and blue underlines.
It uses the same proofing engine Office has had for years, catching misspellings, doubled words, subject-verb disagreement, and basic punctuation at no cost. The limitation is depth: no sense of tone or word choice, frequent misses on correctly spelled wrong words, and no prediction. We compare it against a live system-wide layer in Charm vs Word autocorrect on Mac.
4. Grammarly browser extension and web editor - free tier plus subscription
If you specifically want Grammarly's suggestions and can change where you write, the extension and web editor remain. Install it for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge and you get Grammarly in Gmail, Google Docs, LinkedIn, and most web text fields. The free tier covers spelling, grammar, and punctuation; the paid tier adds tone, clarity rewrites, and plagiarism checking.
The limitation is the one that brought you here: nothing in this path puts Grammarly back inside the Word window, and the paid tier is an ongoing subscription for a tool that now covers less of your Mac than it did. If it has been misbehaving elsewhere too, our notes on why Grammarly stops working on Mac cover the other causes.
5. LanguageTool - free tier plus premium subscription
LanguageTool is the closest like-for-like replacement if you want a Grammarly-style assistant that still has a real Office integration. It offers an add-in through the Office store alongside browser extensions and a macOS desktop app. Its strength is languages: it checks 30 or more, including German, French, Spanish, and Dutch, which Grammarly never matched. The free tier covers spelling and core grammar with a character limit per check; premium adds style suggestions and paraphrasing.
The limitation is privacy and reach. Checking runs on LanguageTool's servers by default, so text leaves your Mac unless you pay for a self-hosted setup, and it covers nothing outside Office and the browser. More trade-offs in best Grammarly alternatives for Mac.
6. Harper - free and open source
Harper is a newer grammar checker built to be fast, private, and entirely offline. It runs locally with no account and no server call, it is open source, and you can read exactly what it does at writewithharper.com. It ships as an Obsidian plugin, a language server for editors like VS Code and Neovim, and a browser extension. If your objection to Grammarly was that text was uploaded for checking, Harper is the cleanest free answer available.
The limitation here is Word itself. Harper has no Microsoft Word for Mac integration, so it helps in Obsidian, code editors, and the browser rather than in the app you are trying to fix.
7. ProWritingAid - subscription or lifetime licence
Worth naming for long-form authors. ProWritingAid has a real Word integration plus Scrivener support, and goes beyond correctness with 20-plus reports on pacing, repetition, sentence variety, and overused words. It sells as a subscription, with a lifetime licence offered periodically. The limitation is weight: the analysis runs in the cloud, and it is overkill if you only wanted the red underline back.
How do the options compare?
| Option | Works inside Word for Mac | Price | On-device | Grammar depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charm | Yes, live as you type | $9.99 once | Yes | Grammar plus prediction |
| Microsoft Editor | Yes, built in | Included with Microsoft 365 | No, cloud | Grammar plus clarity and tone |
| Word built-in check | Yes, already installed | Free with Word | Yes | Basic spelling and grammar |
| Grammarly extension | No, browser and web editor only | Free tier plus subscription | No, cloud | Deep, including tone |
| LanguageTool | Yes, via Office add-in | Free tier plus subscription | No, cloud by default | Grammar plus 30-plus languages |
| Harper | No | Free, open source | Yes | Solid core grammar |
| ProWritingAid | Yes, via add-in | Subscription or lifetime | No, cloud | Deepest style reporting |
Which one should you actually pick?
For the least friction, switch on Word's built-in checking and see whether Microsoft Editor covers you. Both are already there, cost nothing extra on a Microsoft 365 plan, and remove the add-in dependency entirely.
If you write across the whole Mac, not just Word, Charm is the better fit. It corrects live inside Word because Word is native, and keeps doing it in Mail, Slack, Notes, and Pages, on-device, for $9.99 once. The retired add-in never covered that much.
If you write in several languages, LanguageTool is the clear choice. If you are editing a book, ProWritingAid earns its subscription on report depth. If privacy was the whole reason you left, Harper is free and fully offline, provided you can move that writing out of Word.
Frequently asked questions
Why did the Grammarly tab disappear from Word on my Mac?
It did not break and you did not uninstall it. Grammarly discontinued the Microsoft Word for Mac add-in, and its own support documentation confirms the integration is no longer offered. Reinstalling Word or signing back into Grammarly will not bring the tab back, because there is no add-in left to install.
Can I still use Grammarly on a Mac?
Yes. Only the Word for Mac add-in was retired, not Grammarly itself. The browser extension for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge still works, and so does the Grammarly web editor. What you lose is checking inside the Word desktop app. Our Charm vs Grammarly comparison covers that trade-off in full.
Is there a free grammar checker built into Word for Mac?
Yes. Word for Mac includes its own spelling and grammar checker under Tools then Spelling and Grammar, and Microsoft Editor adds a stronger refinement layer for anyone with a Microsoft 365 subscription. Both are free in the sense that you already have them, and both cover common mechanical errors.
What corrects my writing inside Word on Mac in real time?
Charm does. Word for Mac is a native app, so Charm's live correction works fully inside it: spelling, grammar, and next-word prediction as you type, with no add-in and no pane. Microsoft Editor also works live, but only inside Microsoft apps, whereas Charm covers Word plus everywhere else you write.
Do I have to pay a subscription to replace the Grammarly Word add-in?
No. Charm is a one-time $9.99 purchase covering up to 3 Macs, with no renewal. Harper is free and open source, and Word's built-in checker comes with software you already have. LanguageTool and ProWritingAid are the subscription options, best suited to multilingual or long-form work.