Hemingway Editor

Highlights the sentence you should have cut in half.

About Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is a writing tool that marks up a draft for readability. Text is highlighted in five colours: red for a sentence far more complex than the chosen target score, yellow for one that is hard to read but less severe, purple for a word that has a simpler exact synonym, blue for adverbs, passive voice and qualifiers, and green for a grammar, spelling or punctuation problem. Green requires a Plus subscription; the other four do not.

The target score is adjustable rather than fixed. The default is grade 9, and paying users can switch between three presets named Accessible, Default and Technical, which changes what counts as too complex rather than changing the text itself. An expanded statistics panel reports letters, characters, words, sentences, paragraphs and reading time.

The free web editor applies no word count limit to a document, and the free grammar checker can be used without creating an account. That checker flags context sensitive word choice, run on sentences, tense shifts between sentences, missing commas and wrong word usage. Three other free tools sit beside it: a paraphrasing tool, an AI proofreader and a readability checker.

Hemingway Editor Plus costs $10 per month on monthly billing, or $100 per year, which the vendor equates to $8.33 a month. Grammar fixes are uncapped for paying users, and on a team plan each user receives 10,000 AI sentences per month. The free trial runs for two weeks and does not ask for a credit card, and no charge is applied when it ends unless you pick a paid plan and enter payment details.

The desktop application is sold on different terms. Hemingway Editor 3 costs $19.99 as a single purchase rather than a subscription, runs on macOS and Windows, and works fully offline with no internet connection required. It exports to plain text, PDF, Word .docx, HTML and Markdown, and publishes to WordPress in a single click. The trade-off is that it excludes the AI features found in the subscription product, so the two are companions rather than the same tool at two prices.

Key features

Highlights in red any sentence far more complex than the chosen target score.
Highlights in yellow sentences that are hard to read but less severe than red ones.
Marks adverbs, passive voice and qualifiers in blue.
Marks a word in purple when a simpler exact synonym exists.
Marks grammar, spelling and punctuation problems in green for Plus subscribers.
Flags context sensitive word choice, run on sentences, tense shifts and missing commas.
Switches the readability target between Accessible, Default and Technical, with grade 9 as default.
Reports letters, characters, words, sentences, paragraphs and reading time.
Runs fully offline on macOS and Windows in the desktop application.
Exports to plain text, PDF, Word .docx, HTML and Markdown.
Publishes to WordPress in one click from the desktop application.
Checks grammar in the browser without an account and with no word count limit.
Publishes four free tools: grammar checker, paraphrasing tool, AI proofreader and readability checker.

What people use it for

Cutting a draft to grade 9 reading level before it goes to a general audience.
Raising the target to Technical when writing documentation for an expert readership.
Editing a manuscript offline on a laptop with no internet connection.
Pasting a draft into the browser for a quick grammar check without signing up.
Sending a finished post to WordPress instead of copying it across by hand.
Checking reading time before agreeing a word count with an editor.

Key facts about Hemingway Editor
Category	Writing
Pricing	Freemium
Free tier	Yes
Upvotes	10
Listed	22 August 2026

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