Grammarly works quietly in the background until, suddenly, it doesn't. The little green circle vanishes, suggestions stop appearing mid-document, or the extension just... sits there, doing absolutely nothing. No error message. No explanation. Just silence.
I use Grammarly across Chrome, Word, and Google Docs -- mostly for client work where I'd rather not have an embarrassing typo slip through. So when something breaks, I've had to figure it out fast. These are the fixes that actually work, in rough order of how likely each issue is to be your problem.
1. Grammarly Browser Extension Not Showing or Is Disabled
Start here. Half the time this is the whole problem.
Open Chrome and click the puzzle piece icon (Extensions) in the top-right corner. Find Grammarly and check if the toggle is on. If it's off, turn it on. If it's on but the extension still won't load, try clicking the three-dot menu next to Grammarly and selecting Manage Extension -- check that it's enabled, then toggle it off and back on.
Also worth checking: open chrome://extensions/ in a new tab and look for any yellow warning banners under Grammarly. Sometimes Chrome flags an extension as outdated or corrupted after a browser update. If you see an error, click Update or remove and reinstall the extension entirely.
One thing people miss -- make sure the extension is pinned to your toolbar so you can actually see when it's active. Unpinned extensions still run, but it's easier to troubleshoot when you can see the icon.
2. Grammarly Not Working in Google Docs
This is a known, persistent issue. And Grammarly's been working on it for years with mixed results.
Grammarly's browser extension doesn't have full native integration with Google Docs the way it does with a regular <textarea> input. It relies on a workaround that Google Docs occasionally breaks with updates.
The quickest fix: turn Grammarly off for the Docs tab and back on. Click the Grammarly icon in your browser toolbar while on the Google Docs tab and toggle the switch. Sometimes it just needs to reinitialize.
If that doesn't work, try switching from Google Docs' default editing mode to Suggesting mode and back to Editing mode -- this sometimes kicks Grammarly back into action.
The longer-term answer, honestly, is to use Grammarly's own editor at app.grammarly.com for heavy editing sessions. Paste your content in, edit, paste it back. Not ideal, but it's more reliable than fighting the Docs integration when it decides to misbehave.
3. No Suggestions Appearing in the Editor
Grammarly's showing the icon but no underlines, no suggestions, nothing. A few things could be causing this.
First, check the document language. If Grammarly's set to check British English and you're writing in American English (or vice versa), some suggestions won't appear because the tool doesn't flag what it considers correct for that dialect. In the Grammarly editor or extension settings, make sure your language is set to what you're actually writing.
Second -- check your subscription status. Some suggestion types (like clarity rewrites and tone adjustments) are Premium-only. If your subscription lapsed or isn't syncing, those suggestions won't show. Open app.grammarly.com and log in to verify your account is active.
Third: the site itself might have Grammarly blocked. Some web apps (especially custom text editors) prevent browser extensions from injecting into their inputs. If you're writing inside a specialized SaaS platform and Grammarly isn't showing, that's probably why. Nothing to fix there except paste into Grammarly's editor directly.
4. Grammarly Keyboard Not Showing on Mobile
On iOS and Android, Grammarly replaces your default keyboard. If the keyboard's not showing up, a few things to check:
iOS: Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards and look for Grammarly in the list. If it's not there, tap Add New Keyboard and add it. Also check that Allow Full Access is enabled -- Grammarly needs this to send corrections to its servers.
Android: Go to Settings > General Management > Keyboard list and default (the path varies by phone manufacturer) and make sure Grammarly is listed and set as default, or at least enabled. Then switch to it by holding the spacebar while typing and selecting Grammarly.
If the keyboard appears but keeps disappearing mid-type, try clearing the Grammarly app's cache from your phone's Settings > Apps menu. On Android especially, a bloated cache causes weird keyboard behavior.
5. Grammarly Premium Features Not Activating
You paid for Premium. The features aren't showing up. Deeply annoying.
The most common cause is an account sync issue -- your browser or app thinks you're still on the free tier even though you've paid. The fix is almost always just signing out and back in.
In the browser extension: click the Grammarly icon, then your profile picture or initials, then Sign out. Close and reopen Chrome. Sign back in.
In the desktop app: File > Sign Out from the menu bar, then relaunch and sign back in.
If that doesn't work, try opening app.grammarly.com in an incognito window and check whether Premium features show there. If they do, you have a session/cookie issue in your main browser. Clear site data for grammarly.com: Settings > Privacy > Site Settings > View permissions and data stored across sites -- search for Grammarly and delete its data.
Worth noting: Grammarly Premium is genuinely useful for serious writers. The tone detector and clarity rewrites alone are worth the subscription if you're producing content regularly. Our full Grammarly review covers what you actually get for the money.
6. Grammarly Slowing Down Your Browser
Real problem. Grammarly injects JavaScript into every page you visit with a text field, and on content-heavy sites or pages with giant text areas, that overhead adds up.
The fix: disable Grammarly on sites where you don't need it. Click the Grammarly icon in your toolbar while on that tab, then toggle Check this site to off. It saves a list of sites where it's disabled and won't run on those pages.
For heavy browser slowdowns, also check how many other extensions you're running. Grammarly plus a bunch of other content-injecting extensions (LastPass, Honey, ad blockers doing heavy lifting) can stack up. Try disabling extensions one by one to isolate whether it's actually Grammarly.
If your laptop fan is spinning hard while typing a long Google Doc, Grammarly is often the culprit. Disabling it for that session usually helps immediately.
7. Grammarly Not Working in Microsoft Word or Outlook
The Grammarly desktop add-in for Word and Outlook is separate from the browser extension -- it has its own install process and its own set of ways to break.
If suggestions have stopped appearing in Word: open Word and look for the Grammarly tab in the ribbon. If it's missing entirely, you may need to reinstall the desktop add-in. Download the latest version from app.grammarly.com/apps.
If the tab is there but suggestions aren't showing: close Word, open the Grammarly desktop app (the standalone one), and sign in. Sometimes Word's Grammarly add-in loses its authentication when the main app isn't running.
For Outlook specifically: Grammarly works in the compose window but NOT in the reading pane or inline reply. If you're trying to use it in the wrong spot, that's why. Open a new compose window and it should activate.
After reinstalling, you may need to restart both your computer and Word for the add-in to register properly. Annoying but necessary.
8. Suggestions Disappearing Mid-Sentence
You start typing, Grammarly underlines something, you go to click it -- and the suggestion vanishes before you can. Or worse, suggestions appear and disappear in a loop while you're trying to type.
This is almost always a browser memory issue. Grammarly's extension keeps a small buffer of your text in memory to process suggestions. When that buffer gets stressed -- usually because you've had many tabs open for a long time -- it starts behaving erratically.
Fix: close and reopen your browser entirely. Not just the tab -- the whole browser. Chrome accumulates memory debt over long sessions.
If it keeps happening: try reducing the number of tabs you have open, or use Chrome's Memory Saver feature (Settings > Performance) to hibernate tabs you're not actively using. Grammarly runs more stably when Chrome isn't memory-starved.
9. Grammarly Plagiarism Checker Not Loading
You click the plagiarism report and it spins forever or throws an error. A few scenarios here.
First: plagiarism checking is a Premium-only feature. If you're on the free plan, it won't load at all (sometimes the UI doesn't make this obvious).
If you are on Premium and it's not loading: the most common culprit is a VPN or network proxy interfering with Grammarly's connection to its plagiarism database. Disable your VPN temporarily and try again.
Corporate or school Wi-Fi networks sometimes block the specific domains Grammarly's plagiarism checker pings. If you're on a restricted network, try from a different connection (personal hotspot works well for a quick test).
Also make sure the document you're checking isn't too long. Grammarly's plagiarism checker has a word limit per check -- if you're submitting a massive document, try checking it in sections.
10. Grammarly Account Not Syncing Across Devices
You're Premium on your laptop but free on your phone. Or your personal dictionary on one device doesn't show up on another.
First step: make sure you're signed into the same account everywhere. Sounds obvious, but people sometimes have a work Google account on one device and a personal account on another. Check the email address in each device's Grammarly settings.
If accounts match: clear app data on the problem device. On iPhone, the nuclear option is deleting and reinstalling the Grammarly app. On Android, go to Settings > Apps > Grammarly > Storage > Clear Data (note: this resets any local settings).
For the browser extension: clear Grammarly's site data in Chrome as described in fix #5, then sign back in. Syncing usually restores within a minute or two.
The personal dictionary specifically -- Grammarly syncs that via your account, but it can lag. If words you added on one device aren't showing on another after signing in, wait a few minutes and try a fresh login.
Still Broken?
If none of these work, Grammarly's support (at support.grammarly.com) is actually decent. Their chat function resolves most issues faster than a ticket. Have your account email and a description of exactly what's happening ready.
For a general sense of what Grammarly's best at -- and where it falls short compared to other AI writing tools -- check out our best AI writing tools roundup for 2026. And if you're wondering how Grammarly compares to AI assistants like Claude or ChatGPT for actual writing work, the Claude vs. ChatGPT for writing comparison covers how those tools handle tasks Grammarly doesn't even attempt.
For serious writers, Grammarly Premium is worth the cost -- once you get it actually working.
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