Comparison
CapyBro vs Grammarly
Free, open-source, works in any Windows app — not just where Grammarly's extension reaches.
Grammarly is great, but it's locked to your browser and Microsoft Office, costs $144/year, and sends every word you write to its servers. CapyBro brings AI to a single global hotkey that fires in any Windows app — Word, Telegram, Outlook, VS Code, Discord, your IDE — and supports a local Ollama mode where your text never leaves the machine.
Side-by-side at a glance
| Feature | CapyBro | Grammarly Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free forever + $19 one-time Pro | $12/mo = $144/year |
| Works in | Any Windows app (system-wide hotkey) | Browser, MS Office, dedicated apps |
| Open source | Yes (MIT) | No |
| Local AI (no cloud) | Yes, via Ollama | No, all cloud |
| Custom prompts | Unlimited, user-defined | Fixed feature set |
| Multi-provider AI | OpenRouter + Ollama (GPT, Claude, Gemini, +) | Grammarly engine only |
| Translation | Any language pair | Not first-class |
| Telemetry | Zero | Heavy (per their privacy policy) |
| UI languages | English, Ukrainian, Russian | English only |
The full story
Why I left Grammarly Premium
I used Grammarly for three years, paid $432 total, and only ever used two features: grammar fixes and tone changes. Every year the price climbed. CapyBro Free covers ~80% of that value at zero cost — and the Pro tier is one-time, not annual.
Where Grammarly is still better
Real-time scanning across browser inputs, plagiarism detection, brand-voice profiles for teams, and a polished onboarding for non-technical writers. If you live in Chrome and Word and need a passive tool that flags typos as you type, Grammarly is purpose-built for that.
Where CapyBro wins
Works in IDEs, Discord, Telegram, Steam chat, every Windows app — Grammarly doesn't touch those. Custom prompts let you save transforms like "rewrite as polite formal Ukrainian email" or "explain like to a non-developer" that Grammarly's fixed feature set can't express. Privacy is a hard line: Ollama mode means your text never leaves your computer.
How to migrate from Grammarly to CapyBro
1) Let your Grammarly subscription run out — no need to cancel mid-cycle, you've already paid. 2) Download CapyBro from capybro.app and run the installer (~50 MB, 30 seconds). 3) During onboarding, pick OpenRouter and paste any API key (or skip and use local Ollama). 4) In Prompts, create the four you actually used in Grammarly: "Fix grammar", "Make formal", "Improve clarity", "Shorten". You're done — Ctrl+Shift+E now does what Grammarly did, in every app.
Who should pick which
Common questions
Is CapyBro really free?
Yes. The core is MIT open-source, free forever. A Pro tier exists at $19 one-time but it's optional and covers extras like usage statistics, settings backup, and curated Prompt Packs.
Will CapyBro detect typos in real-time like Grammarly?
No, CapyBro is hotkey-triggered, not real-time-scanning. This is a deliberate design choice — less noise, less battery drain, more privacy.
Does CapyBro work offline?
Yes, when you use Ollama mode. The local AI processes everything on your computer with zero network calls.
How many languages does CapyBro support?
The UI is in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. The actual AI processing works in any language your chosen model understands — which is hundreds for OpenRouter, dozens for Ollama.
Can I import my Grammarly prompts?
Not directly — they're different products. But CapyBro's custom prompts let you replicate Grammarly's "make formal", "improve clarity", "shorten" etc. in about 30 seconds of setup.
Try it free, switch on your terms
Download CapyBro, paste your existing OpenAI/Anthropic key (or skip and use Ollama), and the same workflow you knew from Grammarly works in every Windows app instead of just the browser.