Is Grammarly Safe for Kids?
Grammarly requires 13+ in the US, 16+ everywhere else. Our own recommendation is 13+ in the US, 16+ elsewhere; school account below that. The free tier — corrections and explanations — is genuinely useful and low-risk for a student. The generative tier is a different product: it will write the paragraph rather than fix it, and that crosses the line most schools draw. Worth being explicit with your child about which half they are allowed to use.
Checked against Grammarly’s own terms and help documentation on 28 July 2026. Sources at the foot of this page.
Guided, age-appropriate AI projects instead of an open-ended chatbot. Free to start, no card required.
What is Grammarly?
A writing assistant that corrects grammar and style, and in its paid tier will generate and rewrite text outright.
What do under-18s actually get on Grammarly?
Individual accounts follow the 13-in-the-US, 16-elsewhere floor. Institutions holding a Grammarly for Education subscription can extend access to learners younger than 16 provided they obtain permission from a parent or guardian. Outside a Grammarly for Education team, Grammarly states it does not knowingly collect personal information from under-13s.
What parental controls does Grammarly have?
None for individual accounts. The school route is the supervised one, governed by the institution.
At a glance
| Vendor minimum age | 13+ in the US, 16+ everywhere else |
|---|---|
| Our recommendation | 13+ in the US, 16+ elsewhere; school account below that |
| Cost | Free tier for basic corrections; paid tier adds generative writing features |
| Data handling | Text is processed to generate suggestions, so anything your child writes with it on passes through the service. |
| Use in school | Well established through Grammarly for Education, which is also the only route for under-16s. |
What should parents know?
- •The age floor is 16 outside the US, which catches many parents out.
- •Correcting and generating are very different acts — agree which is allowed.
- •A school Grammarly for Education account is the only sanctioned route for under-16s.
- •Everything written with it enabled is processed by the service.
What to do instead of just banning Grammarly
A ban usually moves the use out of your sight without improving your child’s judgement, and on this tool there are no parental controls to set up: None for individual accounts. The school route is the supervised one, governed by the institution. That leaves your own supervision, or an age-appropriate alternative, as the options. The line worth holding is our own recommendation rather than the vendor’s floor — 13+ in the US, 16+ elsewhere; school account below that — and a workable household rule only has to settle two things: what Grammarly may be used for, and what your child has to be able to explain afterwards without it.
If the answer at home is “not this one, not yet”, the interest still needs somewhere to go. The first 3 chapters of Grade 6 are free, with no card, and they teach how a system like this produces an answer — which is the part that makes a teenager harder to mislead by one.
Read next, for this kind of tool:
- My Teen Uses ChatGPT for Homework
Where help ends and outsourced thinking begins.
- AI and Your Teenager: A Parent’s Guide
The full picture, and where each specific worry fits.