Why Is Grammarly Not Working? 8 Fixes That Actually Work (2026)

By SM Mehedi Hasan

Why Is Grammarly Not Working? 8 Fixes That Actually Work (2026)

Grammarly stops working most often because the browser extension is disabled, the account session has expired, a conflicting extension is blocking it, or the site you’re on isn’t supported.

For 80% of cases, toggling the extension off and on, signing out and back in, or clearing browser cache resolves the issue immediately.

 

Grammarly works quietly in the background, until it suddenly doesn’t. The green icon disappears. Suggestions stop appearing mid-document. The floating widget vanishes from Gmail.

And there’s no error message explaining why. Just silence. Most people assume Grammarly is down, restart the page three times, then give up.

But the actual cause is almost always something specific and fixable in under two minutes.

This guide covers every common failure mode with the exact steps to fix each one, including problems that only happen in Word, in Google Docs, behind a VPN, or when Premium features go missing.

Before Anything Else: Run This 60-Second Diagnosis

Before Anything Else: Run This 60-Second Diagnosis

Most people jump straight into reinstalling or clearing caches without checking whether the problem is actually with Grammarly’s servers first. Save yourself the effort.

  1. Go to status.grammarly.com and check for any active incidents or degraded service notices. If there’s an outage affecting all users, no local fix will help until Grammarly resolves it on their end.

  2. Check whether Grammarly is toggled on in your browser. Go to chrome://extensions/ and look for the Grammarly extension. Is the toggle blue (on) or grey (off)?

  3. Look at the Grammarly icon in your browser toolbar. Is it green (connected and active), grey (signed out or disconnected), or missing entirely (extension disabled or removed)?
What You See What It Means Where to Start
Green icon, no suggestions appearing Site-specific issue or extension conflict Fix 3 or Fix 4
Grey icon in toolbar Signed out or connection lost Fix 2
No icon in toolbar at all Extension disabled or not pinned Fix 1
Works on some sites, not others Site permissions or unsupported page type Fix 3
Nothing in Word or Outlook Desktop app issue or wrong document view Fix 5
Premium features missing Account sync problem Fix 2
"Can't connect" or "connection unstable" Network or VPN blocking WebSocket Fix 6

Run that check before anything else. It saves time and narrows down which fix actually applies to your situation.

Fix 1: The Extension Is Disabled or Not Pinned

1.  Re-enable and Pin the Grammarly Extension

 

Most Common

 

This is the number one reason Grammarly stops working, and the one people check last. Browser updates, other extensions, or accidental clicks can toggle Grammarly off without any notification.

 

After a major Chrome update, browser extensions sometimes get disabled automatically as a security precaution. The extension still shows in your list, but the toggle is off. Grammarly appears to be “broken,” but it’s just switched off.

 

  1. Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions/ in the address bar.

     

  2. Find Grammarly in the list and check whether the toggle is blue (on) or grey (off).

     

  3. If it’s grey, click the toggle to turn it back on.

     

  4. If the icon is missing from your toolbar, click the puzzle piece icon at the top right of Chrome and click the pin icon next to Grammarly to add it to your toolbar.

     

  5. Refresh any tab where Grammarly wasn’t working and test

On Edge, go to edge://extensions/ and follow the same steps. On Firefox, go to the menu and select Add-ons and Themes, then find Grammarly and check its status there.

 

Pro Tip

 

If Grammarly keeps getting disabled after browser updates, check whether your browser is in managed mode (common on work or school devices). In Chrome, go to chrome://management/.

If it shows “managed by your organization,” your IT department may be controlling which extensions stay active. You’ll need to contact them to whitelist Grammarly permanently.

Fix 2: Sign Out and Sign Back In to Sync Your Account

2.  Sign Out Completely, Then Sign Back In

 

Also Fixes Premium Issues

If Grammarly is showing as active but suggestions aren’t appearing, or your Premium features have vanished even though you’re still subscribed, an account sync issue is almost certainly the cause.

 

Your browser or app thinks you’re on the free tier even though you’ve paid.

This happens most often after a billing renewal, a plan upgrade, or when you switch devices.

 

The session token stored in your browser gets out of sync with your actual subscription status on Grammarly’s servers.

  1. Click the Grammarly icon in your browser toolbar.

  2. Click your profile picture or initials in the top right corner of the panel.

  3. Click “Sign out”

  4. Fully close Chrome (not just the tab), then reopen it.

  5. Click the Grammarly icon again and sign back in with your credentials.

  6. Open app.grammarly.com and check whether your account shows the correct plan.

In the desktop app on Windows or Mac, go to File in the menu bar and choose Sign Out, then relaunch the application and sign back in.

 

If Premium features still don’t appear after signing back in, open app.grammarly.com in an incognito window and check your plan status there, incognito bypasses any cached session data and gives you a clean read of your actual account status.

Fix 3: Grammarly Not Working on a Specific Website

3. Check Site Permissions and Compatibility

 

Browser / Specific Sites

 

If Grammarly works fine on Gmail but disappears on a different site, the issue is almost always site-level permission settings or a framework that Grammarly doesn’t support on that particular page.

 

When you first install Grammarly, it needs explicit permission to read and change data on each site.

For most sites, this is granted automatically, but some sites get toggled off during extension updates or if you previously clicked “Don’t allow” on a permissions prompt.

 

  1. Click the Grammarly icon in your toolbar while on the problem site.

     

  2. Check whether the toggle for the current site is on or off. If it shows “Off for this site,” click it to turn it on.

     

  3. If that option isn’t visible, right-click the Grammarly icon in your toolbar and select “Manage extension.”

     

  4. Under “Site access,” make sure it’s set to “On all sites” or manually add the specific site.

     

  5. Refresh the page and test.

Some sites are simply not compatible with Grammarly. To check whether a specific site is officially supported, go to Grammarly’s compatibility checker page and search the site name.

If the result shows “Unsupported,” the framework used by that site blocks Grammarly from injecting itself. iFrames in Safari are one common example of this.

In those cases, copy your text into the Grammarly Editor at app.grammarly.com to check it there instead.

 

Also worth knowing: Grammarly does not work inside PDF viewers opened in Chrome, inside native app windows on desktop, or in most browser-embedded coding environments. These aren’t bugs — they’re unsupported contexts.

Fix 4: Clear Browser Cache and Disable Conflicting Extensions

4.  Clear Cache and Isolate Extension Conflicts

Common After Updates

A corrupted browser cache is one of the most frequent causes of Grammarly behaving strangely after a browser or extension update.

 

And other extensions — especially ad blockers, privacy tools, and other grammar checkers — regularly conflict with Grammarly by blocking the scripts it injects into pages.

Most people try disabling other extensions first and skip the cache. Both steps matter. Do them in this order.

Step A: Clear Cache

  1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Delete on Windows or Cmd+Shift+Delete on Mac.

  2. Set the time range to “All time.”

  3. Check “Cached images and files” and “Cookies and other site data.”

     

  4. Click “Clear data.”

  5. Relaunch your browser completely (close all windows, not just the tab)

Step B: Isolate Extension Conflicts

  1. Go to chrome://extensions/ and toggle off every extension except Grammarly.

  2. Open a site where Grammarly wasn’t working and test.

  3. If Grammarly now works, turn extensions back on one at a time, testing after each one.

  4. When Grammarly breaks again, you’ve found the conflicting extension.

  5. Common culprits include Ghostery, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, other grammar checkers, and some VPN extensions.

After identifying the conflict, you have two options: keep the conflicting extension disabled while using Grammarly, or check if the conflicting extension has a whitelist feature where you can allow Grammarly’s domains specifically.

Pro Tip

If you don’t want to disable all your extensions to find the conflict, try opening an incognito window with only Grammarly enabled (extensions don’t load in incognito by default unless you allow them).

 

If Grammarly works perfectly in incognito, a regular-mode extension is definitely causing the conflict.

Go to chrome://extensions/ and check which ones have “Allow in incognito” turned on, disable those ones at a time until you find the culprit.

Fix 5: Grammarly Not Working in Microsoft Word

Fix 5: Grammarly Not Working in Microsoft Word

5.  Fix Grammarly in Microsoft Word Specifically

Word / Desktop App

This is the one fix that almost no troubleshooting guide explains fully. Grammarly in Microsoft Word only works in the Print Layout view.

If you’re in Outline view, Draft view, or Web Layout view, the Grammarly panel simply doesn’t appear, and there’s no error message telling you why.

Check your document view first:

  1. In Word, click the “View” tab in the ribbon.

     

  2. In the Views group, click “Print Layout.”

     

  3. Wait a few seconds, the Grammarly panel should appear on the right side of the document.

If you’re already in Print Layout and Grammarly still isn’t showing:

  1. Check the system tray (bottom-right corner of Windows taskbar) for the Grammarly icon.

  2. If the icon is grey, right-click it and choose “Start Grammarly” or sign in again.

  3. Confirm you have the Grammarly desktop app installed (not just the browser extension), since Word integration requires the desktop app specifically.

  4. If you have Office 2013 or earlier, Grammarly does not support those versions — 2016 or newer is required.

  5. Close Word entirely, reopen it, and let Grammarly load from the system tray.

One less obvious issue: if you have two Word documents open at the same time, Grammarly only activates in one of them. Close the second document, and Grammarly will activate the remaining one. This is a known limitation, not a bug.

For Outlook, the same Print Layout rule doesn’t apply, but the desktop app still needs to be running. Check the system tray first before anything else.

Desktop App vs Browser Extension

Grammarly in Word requires the desktop app installed on your computer. The browser extension alone will not work in Word, Outlook, or any other desktop application.

 

If you only have the browser extension, download the Grammarly desktop app from grammarly.com/desktop/windows or the Mac equivalent.

Fix 6: "Can't Connect" or Grammarly Blocked by VPN or Firewall

6.  Fix Connection Issues Caused by VPN, Firewall, or Network

 

VPN / Network / Corporate Wi-Fi

 

Grammarly processes text on its servers via an encrypted WebSocket connection. VPNs, corporate firewalls, and some antivirus programs block WebSocket traffic or flag Grammarly’s domains as suspicious.

When that happens, you get a “Can’t connect to Grammarly” message, or suggestions simply stop loading even though the extension appears active.

 

This is more common on corporate or school networks than on home Wi-Fi, but antivirus software like AVG, Avast, Bitdefender, and ZoneAlarm can also block WebSocket ports used by Grammarly.

 

If you’re on a VPN:

 

  1. Temporarily disconnect your VPN and test Grammarly.

     

  2. If it works without the VPN, the VPN is blocking Grammarly’s server connection.

     

  3. Try switching to a VPN server closer to your location (lower latency reduces packet loss that triggers Grammarly’s connection errors)

     

  4. In your VPN settings, try switching protocols, WireGuard or IKEv2 tend to have fewer conflicts than OpenVPN with Grammarly.

     

  5. If your VPN has a split tunneling feature, add Grammarly’s domains to the exclusion list so Grammarly traffic bypasses the VPN entirely.

If you’re on a corporate or school network:

 

  1. Ask your network administrator to whitelist the following domains: grammarly.com, grammarly.io, and grammarly.net

     

  2. Confirm that ports 80 and 443 are open, and that WebSocket connections on those ports aren’t being filtered.

     

  3. As a test, switch to a personal mobile hotspot, if Grammarly works immediately, the corporate network is the issue.

If antivirus is blocking it:

 

  1. Temporarily disable your antivirus and test Grammarly.

     

  2. If that fixes it, add Grammarly as a trusted application in your antivirus settings rather than leaving it disabled.

     

  3. Windows Defender Firewall can also block WebSocket connections, go to Control Panel, System and Security, Windows Defender Firewall, and add Grammarly as an allowed app.

Fix 7: Grammarly Not Working in Google Docs Specifically

7.  Restore Grammarly in Google Docs

Google Docs Only

Google Docs requires a specific permission that Grammarly needs to activate its integration. This is separate from the general “on/off” toggle in the extension.

 

If that permission was revoked, which can happen silently during Chrome updates, Grammarly won’t appear in Docs even though it works fine everywhere else.

  1. With Google Docs open, click the Grammarly icon in your toolbar.

  2. If it shows a message about needing permissions for Google Docs, click “Enable Grammarly for Google Docs.”

  3. A permissions prompt will appear — click “Allow” to grant Grammarly access to read and modify content in Google Docs.

  4. Refresh the Google Doc and wait a few seconds for the Grammarly sidebar to load

If no permissions prompt appeared and Grammarly still isn’t working in Docs:

  1. Go to chrome://extensions/ and click “Details” on the Grammarly extension.

  2. Under “Site access,” confirm that docs.google.com is listed and allowed.

  3. If it’s not listed, change site access to “On all sites” or manually add docs.google.com

     

  4. Close and reopen Google Docs.

There’s also a quirk worth knowing: Grammarly’s behavior in Google Docs is handled by the browser extension, not the desktop app. If you have the desktop app installed, Grammarly in Docs still runs through the extension.

 

That’s why if you uninstall the desktop app, Docs coverage is unaffected, but if you uninstall the extension, Docs coverage disappears entirely even with the desktop app running.

Known Issue

Grammarly currently does not work inside Google Docs tables. If your cursor is inside a table cell in Google Docs, suggestions will not appear.

 

This is an unsupported context. Move the text outside the table temporarily if you need Grammarly to check it.

Fix 8: Full Reinstall When Nothing Else Works

8.  Completely Uninstall and Reinstall Grammarly

 

Last Resort

 

If you’ve worked through every fix above and Grammarly still isn’t functioning correctly, a clean reinstall removes any corrupted extension files or misconfigured settings that built up over time.

 

For the browser extension:

 

  1. Right-click the Grammarly icon in your toolbar and select “Remove from Chrome” (or the equivalent in your browser)

     

  2. Go to chrome://extensions/ and confirm the extension is fully removed from the list.

     

  3. Close Chrome completely (all windows)

     

  4. Open Chrome and go to the Chrome Web Store

     

  5. Search for Grammarly, find the official extension, and click “Add to Chrome.”

     

  6. Sign in when prompted and test on a site that was previously broken.

For the desktop app on Windows:

 

  1. Go to Settings, Apps, Installed Apps, search for Grammarly, and click Uninstall.

     

  2. Restart your computer before reinstalling — this clears any residual files.

     

  3. Download a fresh installer from grammarly.com/desktop/windows

     

  4. Run the installer and sign in again.

Reinstalling does not affect your Grammarly account, documents, or saved settings. Everything is tied to your account, not the local installation. Sign in after reinstalling, and everything comes back as it was.

In My Experience

The Patterns I Kept Seeing Across Different Failure Types

 

Compared to similar troubleshooting content I’ve read, the biggest gap in most guides is that they list fixes but don’t tell you which problem they’re solving. “Clear your cache” is advice that works for maybe 20% of cases.

Applying it to a VPN blocking issue or a Word view problem wastes time.

I ran into an issue where Grammarly worked perfectly in Chrome but showed absolutely nothing in a new Word document.

Cleared cache twice, reinstalled the extension, nothing helped — because the browser extension doesn’t touch Word at all.

The desktop app was the missing piece. Once I checked the system tray and realized the Grammarly desktop app had crashed silently in the background, restarting it fixed everything immediately. No reinstall needed.

 

The thing that surprised me most was the Print Layout issue in Word. I’d been in Web Layout view for a completely legitimate formatting reason and couldn’t figure out why Grammarly had “stopped working.”

Switched to Print Layout, and the suggestion panel appeared within five seconds.

That specific fix isn’t documented clearly anywhere in Grammarly’s own support pages, and it’s probably the most common cause of “Grammarly not working in Word” complaints that don’t actually involve the desktop app being broken.

 

One pattern worth mentioning: after the Superhuman rebrand in October 2025, a subset of users reported account sync issues where Premium features temporarily disappeared.

The sign-out and sign-back-in fix (Fix 2) resolved it in essentially every case. If you’re experiencing Premium features going missing and your subscription is definitely active, that’s still the first thing to try in 2026.

Quick Reference: Most Common Problems and Their Fixes

Problem Most Likely Cause Fix to Try First
No Grammarly icon in toolbar Extension disabled or not pinned Fix 1
Green icon but no suggestions Site permissions or extension conflict Fix 3, then Fix 4
Premium features missing Account session out of sync Fix 2
Nothing in Microsoft Word Wrong view mode or desktop app not running Fix 5
Not working in Google Docs Missing Docs permission or conflict Fix 7
"Can't connect" message VPN, firewall, or antivirus blocking WebSocket Fix 6
Works on some sites, fails on others Site not compatible or extension conflict Fix 3, then Fix 4
Nothing works after browser update Corrupted extension files Fix 8

Frequently Asked Questions

Either the extension is disabled, not pinned to your toolbar, or a browser update toggled it off. Go to chrome://extensions/ and check whether Grammarly’s toggle is on. Then pin it via the puzzle-piece icon in the toolbar.

Grammarly needs a special permission to run in Google Docs. Click the Grammarly icon in your toolbar while in Docs, find the option to enable it for Google Docs, and allow the permissions prompt. Then refresh the document.

The account session is out of sync with your subscription status. Sign out of Grammarly completely, close the browser, reopen it, and sign back in. Premium features typically reappear after signing back in on the affected device.

First, check you’re in Print Layout view (View tab, then Print Layout). Grammarly doesn’t activate in Outline, Draft, or Web Layout views. Also, confirm the Grammarly desktop app is installed and running in your system tray.

Yes, VPNs can block Grammarly by interfering with its WebSocket connection to its servers. Temporarily disconnect the VPN to test. If Grammarly works without it, use VPN split tunneling to exclude Grammarly’s domains from the VPN tunnel.

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