Alternative to LanguageTool
Free LanguageTool alternative after the 14-day trial
In 2026 LanguageTool made its browser extension a Premium feature: new users get a 14-day trial, and after it the extension stops underlining, rephrasing and suggesting synonyms unless you pay. If you used it to send work messages in English, BetterSend's free plan keeps working with no trial clock: 50 AI actions a month in Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, Gmail and eight other sites, plus a desktop app for Mac and Windows. It is a different kind of tool: it rewrites a message when you click, it does not underline mistakes as you type.
By Rubens Jr, Founder of BetterSend
What changed at LanguageTool
- In 2026 the browser extension became Premium only. LanguageTool's own announcement says most of its 6 million extension users used it for free, and that AI made its servers more expensive to run.
- New installs start a 14-day Premium trial. When it ends, the extension stops checking text outside the LanguageTool website, and the AI rewriting, the sentence rephraser and the synonyms stop too.
- The free web editor at languagetool.org still works, with limits, and an extension pointed at a LanguageTool server you host yourself stays free.
- When the trial ends, LanguageTool offers a coupon: 50% off in Brazil and 62 other countries, 20% elsewhere, valid for 90 days.
- LanguageTool belongs to Learneo, which also owns QuillBot, and its announcement suggests QuillBot as the free alternative.
- On the Chrome Web Store the extension is rated 3.3 out of 5 from 12,600 reviews.
What BetterSend gives you for free
- 50 AI actions a month, every month, with no trial that runs out and no card. Each Improve, Translate or Explain is one action.
- 3 tones (Professional, Friendly, Fix Grammar) and 10 free uses of the Pro tones, to try the others on real messages.
- Write in Portuguese, Spanish or any other language and get natural English back, in one click.
- Translate and Explain on the messages you receive, in 44 languages.
- The desktop app for Mac and Windows puts the same button in the Slack, Teams, WhatsApp and Discord apps, on the same free plan.
- Your message is sent only when you click, never stored and never used to train models.
Where LanguageTool is still the better choice
- It checks as you type. BetterSend only acts when you press its button, so it will not catch a typo in text you never run through it.
- It corrects more than 30 languages, with regional variants such as Brazilian and European Portuguese. BetterSend's job is a finished message, usually in English.
- Its core is open source and you can run your own server; pointed at it, the extension stays free.
- It works in Word, Google Docs and LibreOffice, with a personal dictionary and a style guide. BetterSend is for messages, not documents.
Switch in three steps
- 1
Add BetterSend to Chrome and sign in with your email. The free plan needs no card.
- 2
Open Slack, Teams, WhatsApp Web or Gmail, write the draft in your own language and press Improve.
- 3
For the apps installed on your computer, get BetterSend for Mac or Windows.
Common questions
Is LanguageTool still free in 2026?
The website editor is, with limits. The browser extension is free for 14 days for new users and then needs Premium, unless you point it at a LanguageTool server you run yourself.
Is BetterSend a grammar checker like LanguageTool?
No. It does not underline as you type. You write the message, press Improve, pick a tone and get a corrected, natural version back in the chat. Grammar fix is one of the 3 free tones.
Does BetterSend's free plan expire?
No. It has 50 AI actions a month with no end date and no card. Pro, at $4.99 a month, removes the limit and unlocks all 13 tones.
Can I use both?
Yes. LanguageTool Premium or a self-hosted server underlines as you type; BetterSend only acts when you click, so they do not get in each other's way.
Sources
- LanguageTool: the browser extension becomes Premium (checked 2026-10-16)
- LanguageTool extension on the Chrome Web Store (version 11.4.0) (checked 2026-10-16)
- LanguageTool Premium (checked 2026-10-16)
- LanguageTool on GitHub (LGPL 2.1) (checked 2026-10-16)
- BetterSend (checked 2026-10-23)