7 Best Punctuation Checker Tools [Definitive List for 2024]

I love cooking my children and my friends. 

Oh, wait — don’t leave!

I actually meant “I love cooking, my children, and my friends.”

Do you now see why correct punctuation matters? 

Two punctuations literally made the difference between a loving person and a merciless, bloodthirsty cannibal. 

But let’s face the facts: even the best writers make mistakes from time to time. 

It’s not because they aren’t aware of the rules they should follow. Rather, it’s just easy to overlook the little things once you get into the writing flow.

Punctuation mistakes are among those things. 

In this guide, we’ll analyze and compare the top 9 punctuation checkers that will streamline the proofreading process. 

With the right tool by your side, you can focus on pouring your thoughts into words — punctuation error-free. 

Best Online Punctuation Checker Tools

If you’re going to review and compare tools, you need to do it right.

To help you pick the punctuation checker that matches your requirements, here’s what I’ll do:

1. First, I’ll introduce each tool, show you how to use it, and explain its best features.
2. After the introduction, I will point out the tool’s pros and cons — pretty standard review stuff.
3. Lastly, I’ll give my final ratings based on the tool’s usability, accuracy, features, and value for money. 

Sounds fair? 

Then let’s get started. 

1. Grammarly

Over the past few years running Master Blogging, Grammarly has been one of my go-to tools in my content development strategy. 

It has everything you could ever want in a writing tool. 

Rich text formatting options, grammar checker, customizable proofreading goals, plagiarism checking — you name it. 

Punctuation checking? 

Grammarly has that feature as well. 

Punctuation errors actually fall under the “Correctness” category of Grammarly alerts along with spelling and grammatical mistakes. 

To demonstrate how it works, I tested this post’s introduction and intentionally added punctuation errors.

Here’s what Grammarly’s proofreading algorithms found out:

It comes to no surprise that Grammarly caught all of the punctuation errors I injected. Grammarly is, after all, one of the tools that I trust and personally use. 

Grammarly doesn’t only find and highlight these issues for you. By clicking on an alert card, the assistant will provide correction suggestions for certain issues. 

Here’s an example of a punctuation error in my draft:

Clicking on the green correction suggestion will automatically apply it to your draft. 

That’s as easy as you can get with proofreading tools. 

To help you avoid similar mistakes in the future, Grammarly will also include a brief explanation of the error.

In the case above, I deliberately left out the comma between two coordinate adjectives. This is a common punctuation mistake that writers commit when they’re writing in a hurry. 

If you still haven’t fully grasped the rule you just broke, click the ‘More’ button denoted by the triple-dot icon. 

Grammarly will immediately expand the alert card with an explanation of the punctuation rule. Some examples are also included for your future reference. 

Another punctuation mistake you should watch out for is a missing comma after introductory phrases. An example would be the phrase “with one of these tools by your side,” which I included in my sample.  

Here are a few more sentences that have punctuation errors to show the issues Grammarly can detect: 

Grammarly Extra Features

• Punctuation App on Your Phone — Do you write a lot of emails or social media posts on your mobile device? The Grammarly Keyboard (for iOS | for Android) lets you utilize the punctuation checker on the go.
• Customizable Goals — Unlike the majority of proofreading tools out there, Grammarly lets you optimize its scoring algorithm to match your writing goals. Whether you need to write a humorous article or a thesis, Grammarly will give you the tools necessary to succeed.
• Comprehensive Alert Categories — Grammatical, spelling, and punctuation mistakes aren’t the only things Grammarly catches. It also deeply analyzes your draft’s clarity, reader engagement factor, and delivery to help you create a masterpiece. 
• Web Browser Extensions — The Grammarly web browser extension lets you use its proofreading capabilities as you work online. This is a must-have feature if you write emails often or create posts directly on content management systems like WordPress.
• Desktop App and MS Office Integration — If you prefer launching Grammarly from your desktop, you can do so with the downloadable app. You may also install the integration for MS Word or Outlook if you use a Windows device.

How much does it cost?

You must be wondering why I’m such a huge fan of Grammarly. 

Aside from its top-notch features, its core proofreading features are also available for free.  

Yes — that includes the punctuation checker as part of the correctness mistake detection. 

To unlock everything else, you’ll need to subscribe to Grammarly Premium. 

• Monthly Plan — $29.95 per month
• Quarterly Plan — $19.98 per month
• Annual — $11.66 per month

Want to save a few bucks?

Let me sweeten up the deal for you. 

Since you’re here in Master Blogging, you are eligible for a 25% discount on all Grammarly plans.

What are the cons of Grammarly? 

If Grammarly is so great, what’s the point of writing about its alternatives? 

As much as I like Grammarly, it does have a few disadvantages you should know: 

• Steep Short-Term Pricing — I’m sorry to say, but Grammarly is on the expensive side if you go with a monthly billing plan. 
• Google Docs Integration — Although Grammarly’s Google Docs integration is already available, it’s still slow and buggy. Sometimes, it doesn’t even work at all unless I refresh the entire page. 
• No MS Office Integration for Mac Users — For some reason, the MS Office integration is only supported on Windows devices. Since I use both Mac OS and MS Word, you can imagine how disappointed I was when I realized this. 

Final Ratings

• Usability: 5/5 
• Accuracy: 5/5
• Features: 5/5
• Pricing: 5/5
• Total: 20/20

Click here to experience Grammarly!

2. ProWritingAid

In the landscape of proofreading tools, ProWritingAid is undeniably on the same level as Grammarly. 

ProWritingAid is another cloud-based proofreading platform with a solid lineup of features for creating polished and publish-worthy articles. It doesn’t wait to show off its toolset, either.

Upon loading up the editor, ProWritingAid unveils everything it has to offer on the main toolbar.

Of course, we’re not here to gush over ProWritingAid’s complete set of features. 

The question is, how good is it in detecting punctuation errors?

The best way to answer that is to take the tool for a spin. And to keep this review unbiased, we’ll examine the same text I tested on Grammarly. 

ProWritingAid managed to pick up most of the intentional punctuation errors in my draft. However, it missed the missing comma after the introductory phrase, which Grammarly detected without a hitch.

ProWritingAid also failed to detect the missing comma for the sentence with a series of three or more words. 

On the plus side, ProWritingAid also offers correction suggestions to all the detected punctuation errors. It will also display a fairly detailed explanation of the mistake. 

Just click on the information or ‘I’ button on the top-right corner of the pop-up to expand the error’s description.

If the rule is still somewhat unclear to you, click ‘Read More.’ This will take you to actual articles that thoroughly discuss the punctuation rules you need to remember. 

If English isn’t your native language, you will learn a lot and grow more as a writer with ProWritingAid. Its interface may be less streamlined than Grammarly’s, but its library of learning resources more than makes up for it.

In any case, the education-centered approach is one of ProWritingAid’s advantages over other punctuation checkers.

ProWritingAid Extra Features

• Repeats Checker — ProWritingAid automatically identifies the most used words and phrases in your draft. It will also present you with alternatives to add more word variety to your article. 
• Sticky Sentence Checker — Sticky sentences contain a lot of glue words that affect readability, like “but,” “even,” “make,” and “from.” While they’re necessary for the construction of coherent sentences, they have little to no meaning by themselves. 
• Clichés Checker — You may think that clichés are clever, but they sometimes make your article more generic and less creative. ProWritingAid lets you avoid them along with redundancies that needlessly lengthen sentences.

How much does it cost?

If your only goal is to check for punctuation errors, ProWritingAid’s free editing tool should suffice, but there’s a catch. 

Unless you pay for the premium version, you can only check up to 500 words at a time.

The good news is, a premium ProWritingAid license only costs half the price of a yearly Grammarly subscription. 

• 1 Year License — $70
• 2-Year License — $100
• 3-Year License — $140
• Lifetime License — $240

If you only need ProWritingAid for a short-term project, buying the license for a whole year isn’t cost-effective. 

Don’t fret — I have here a 25% discount coupon code you can use on your ProWritingAid purchase.

What are the cons of ProWritingAid?

Despite the fact that ProWritingAid is a top-tier proofreading tool, it’s far from perfect.  

Here are four reasons why:

• Incomplete Detection — As we concluded in our test above, ProWritingAid doesn’t detect all punctuation issues in an article. 
• Incorrect Suggestions —Apart from the missed errors, ProWritingAid has a tendency to provide incorrect suggestions. They’re still grammatically-sound, but they often nullify or change the meaning of sentences.
• Inflexible Pricing —Want to use ProWritingAid for a small project that only takes a month or two? You’re out of luck — they don’t offer a monthly subscription that would perfectly suit your requirements.
• Performance Issues —Several reviews and user feedback claim to have experienced slow performance with ProWritingAid when working on long documents. Since I haven’t experienced this myself, I guess it’s related to the specifications of your machine. 

Final Ratings

• Usability: 5/5
• Accuracy: 4/5
• Features: 5/5 
• Pricing: 4.5/5
• Total: 18.5/20

Click here to experience ProWritingAid!

3. Virtual Writing Tutor

I think I’ve covered enough paid punctuation checkers in this list. 

It shouldn’t be a problem for you if you’re a well-off writer with a reliable source of funds. But for students, aspiring freelancers, and new website owners, I’m sure you’ll appreciate a free option.

Virtual Writing Tutor is a free-to-use app that grants visitors instant access to their proofreading tools. 

You don’t even need to go through a tedious registration process to get any of them to work. Just head to Virtual Writing Tutor’s homepage and the tools will be presented to you right away.

For now, what we need to look at would be its punctuation checker. 

Plugging in our sample text, I clicked ‘Check Punctuation’ to start the analysis. 

I must say, Virtual Writing Tutor runs surprisingly fast. Within seconds, it generated a report of my draft’s punctuation errors below the main text field. 

The error report contains three sections: an exclamation mark tracker, some statistics, and the list of punctuation mistakes found. 

What’s the deal with the exclamation mark tracker?

If you’re writing an academic piece, a rule of thumb is to avoid exclamation marks, which make the tone informal. Virtual Writing Tutor can help you in this regard by tracking the number of exclamation marks in your article.

The next section is a collection of statistics about your draft. Other than tracking the progress of your proofreading efforts, these numbers don’t mean much. 

At the bottom of the error report, you’ll see the list of punctuation mistakes identified by Virtual Writing Tutor. 

The tool may have missed some of the errors in my draft, but it was able to detect others.

As you can see, Virtual Writing Tutor kept the report clean. 

There’s no need for pop-up windows and sidebars that tell you where the errors are. The punctuation mistakes will be organized in the order they were found by Virtual Writing Tutor. 

A short but descriptive explanation of the error is also included to help the writer avoid repeating them later. More importantly, Virtual Writing Tutor concludes each error with some suggestions. 

Virtual Writing Tutor Extra Features

• Vocabulary Analysis Tool — If you need to improve your article’s readability, you should control your usage of advanced and academic words. The vocabulary tool makes this easier by counting word types — from low-beginner words to very advanced academic words. 
• Random Error Game — Always remember that the availability of proofreading tools shouldn’t discourage you from working on your writing skills. With Virtual Writing Tutor’s “Random Error” game, you can improve your own ability to identify common mistakes over time. 
• Voice Recognition and Text-To-Speech Technology — Virtual Writing Tutor has both text-to-speech and voice recognition features in its free web interface. These are features that even some premium proofreading software don’t possess. 

How much does it cost?

As I’ve said before, Virtual Writing Tutor is a free-to-use platform. 

Use it as much as you like, and don’t worry about premium plans or subscriptions. The free interface doesn’t have any limitations that will solicit any form of payment.

What are the cons of Virtual Writing Tutor?

Since Virtual Writing Tutor is a free tool, you have every reason to ignore all the cons it may have. But in order to keep this listicle objective, I decided to mention some of its cons anyway.

• Internal Server Errors — I’ve used Virtual Writing Tutor several times in the past week writing a series of proofreading tool reviews. During that time, I got a handful of “internal server errors” that forced me to reload the page.
• Login Issues — You may also run into some issues while logging into your Virtual Writing Tutor account. According to the site’s error message, the login issues are caused by a server problem. 
• Fewer Punctuation Errors Detected than Grammarly — One can argue that comparing Virtual Writing Tutor with Grammarly is unfair since the latter is a premium tool. However, don’t forget that Grammarly’s punctuation checker is accessible using the free version as well. 

Final Ratings

• Usability: 3.5/5
• Accuracy: 4/5
• Features: 4/5
• Pricing: 5/5
• Total: 16.5/20

Click here to experience Virtual Writing Tutor!

4. Becorrect

The next tool I’ll share is still in its beta version, but it surely has a lot of promise.

Becorrect is a cloud-based grammar checker that can help you write polished articles in no time. It has a clean user interface where the text goes to the left while alerts appear on the right.

Whoever came up with Becorrect’s layout may have drawn inspiration from Grammarly — in the best way.

After running my test, I was honestly impressed with how many errors were pointed out.

Becorrect not only found grammatical and spelling mistakes, it also identified most of the punctuation mistakes in the piece. 

To show the full description of the alerts, click on them for a short explanation. You can also apply any suggestion by clicking the possible correction indicated by the arrow.

Becorrect Extra Features

• Simple Color Codes — The current beta version of Becorrect color-codes grammatical mistakes blue, typos red, and punctuation errors grey. That’s a nice touch if you want to focus on a specific type of error when proofreading.
• Real-Time Text Analysis — As soon as you make modifications or enter new words, the checker works in the background and automatically updates alerts. This makes it possible for you to create short write-ups on Becorrect from start to finish. 
• American and British English Support — Becorrect’s website states that the engine is being developed to support other languages. For now, it accepts the spelling and grammar rules of American and British English.

How much does it cost?

If you are as intrigued by Becorrect as I was, you’d also check their site for pricing information. But as of writing this review, Becorrect only offers the free beta version for the public to try. 

What are the cons of Becorrect?

Before you read about Becorrect’s cons, I can’t stress enough that the tool is still in its beta version. 

Major improvements and upgrades are most certainly on their way. That means any flaw I described here may or may not be on the final version. 

In the meantime, I’d like to share my criticism of the beta version I’ve tested. 

• Unclear Correction Interaction — I’m all for Becorrect’s straightforward and intuitive interface, but it’s definitely not finished. For example, there’s no cue that clicking on the alert’s label would apply the correction rather than show the explanation.
• Insufficient Alert Explanations — New writers who are learning English may not find Becorrect’s error explanations helpful. For instance, the feedback for a missing comma is “probably wrong punctuation.”
• Grammar Checks Sometimes Slow — Becorrect is sometimes slow in generating an analysis report of your draft. This is more likely to occur when you make changes or add new text to your article on the editor. 

Final Ratings

• Usability: 4/5
• Accuracy: 4/5
• Features: 3/5
• Pricing: 5/5
• Total: 16/20

Click here to experience Becorrect!

Additional Punctuation and Comma Checker Tools

The list above contains the popular grammar and punctuation checker tools I’ve tested, except for Becorrect that’s still in beta.

If you dig deep, you can probably find dozens — if not hundreds — of alternatives with a built-in punctuation corrector. But if you need something you can trust, I advise you to pick one from the five tools listed above. 

I do, however, have a few more punctuation checker tools I’d like to talk about.

Allow me to share with you my experience with them.

5. LanguageTool

LanguageTool is a handy grammar checker that was able to identify my incorrect comma placement. Their premium solutions have some interesting features, like extended support for German and French languages and a Microsoft Word add-on.

To use LanguageTool, simply enter or paste your draft into the text field and click ‘Check Text.’

As for the results, Language Tool was able to recognize one out of the six punctuation errors in my draft. 

LanguageTool Extra Features

• Google Docs Integration — I found LanguageTool back when I was looking for proofreading add-ons for Google Docs. It seamlessly blends with the web interface, works fast, and has all the primary grammar checking features.
• LibreOffice Integration — LibreOffice is the go-to office suite of people who couldn’t afford MS Office, especially now that it’s a subscription service. If you belong to that group, LanguageTool will be an excellent addition to your digital ecosystem.
• Multi-Language Support — LanguageTool may not support as many languages as Ginger Software, but it’s significantly cheaper. Just remember that it offers grammar checking for additional languages — not translation.

How much does it cost?

LanguageTool’s free version can analyze documents that are up to 20,000 characters in length. You can increase this limit by purchasing one of its two premium plans. 

• Premium Plan — $4.92 per month or $59.00 per year
• Enterprise Plan — Starts at $39.00 per month

What are the cons of LanguageTool?

• Punctuation Checker Isn’t Good — Let’s be honest, LanguageTool’s punctuation checking capabilities simply can’t measure up against Grammarly and similar tools. To be fair, it can adequately detect spelling and grammar mistakes in my previous tests. 
• Not as Many Grammar Checking Features — Not only did LanguageTool’s punctuation checker underperform, its grammar checker also won’t give you anything new. 
• No Mobile Support — At this point, most proofreading software with paid plans have their own mobile app. Free tools like Virtual Writing Tutor get a pass, but not LanguageTool with its premium options. 

Final Ratings

• Usability: 4/5
• Accuracy: 2/5
• Features: 3/5
• Pricing: 5/5
• Total: 14/20

Click here to experience Language Tool!

6. OnlineCorrection.com

If you have time to spare, why not try out OnlineCorrection.com?

That’s what I did when I was doing research for this post. 

OnlineCorrection.com is a free, minimal grammar checker that can detect grammar, spelling, and a few punctuation mistakes. 

Long story short, it performed just as well as LanguageTool in terms of punctuation checking.

OnlineCorrection.com Extra Features

• Multiple English Dialects — OnlineCorrection.com may not have a lot of noteworthy features, but it does support major English dialects. This includes American, British, Australian, New Zealand, and South African. 
• Autocorrect Feature — If you want, you can take a shortcut and let OnlineCorrection.com apply the necessary corrections automatically. All you have to do is tick the “Autocorrect” checkbox below the tool’s text field.
• Text Correction for Other Languages — The group that developed OnlineCorrection.com also created multiple corrector sites for various languages. Some examples are French, Spanish, Russian, Polish, German, and Italian. 

How much does it cost?

I don’t mean to judge a book by its cover, but OnlineCorrection.com’s design clearly implies that it’s free. 

Guess what? It really is. 

Just like Virtual Writing Tutor, OnlineCorrection.com isn’t selling any premium subscriptions with extra perks. 

What are the cons of OnlineCorrection.com?

• Punctuation Checker is similar to LanguageTool — In OnlineCorrection.com’s defense, it doesn’t market itself as a free punctuation checker. Instead, it’s just a free grammar checker that happens to have limited punctuation checking capabilities. 
• It Doesn’t Detect Some Grammar Errors — When I was testing OnlineCorrection.com, I played around and added some errors in my draft. The tool failed to detect most of them, even basic ones like incorrect subject-verb agreements. 
• It Doesn’t Understand Context —In an error that OnlineCorrection.com found successfully, it presented a list of all possible spelling corrections. When I picked a word that didn’t make sense, the tool thinks the problem is solved.

Final Ratings

• Usability: 4/5
• Accuracy: 2/5
• Features: 2/5
• Pricing: 5/5
• Total: 13/20

Click here to experience OnlineCorrection.com!

7. PunctuationCheck.net

Here’s one more site for the road. 

As the name suggests, PunctuationCheck.net is a tool specifically designed to find punctuation mistakes. 

It must be able to capture more punctuation errors than the other tools mentioned above. 

Or so I thought. 

As it turns out, PunctuationCheck.net couldn’t find anything — not even typos and grammar mistakes. 

Since the tool ranked highly in search engines, I’m inclined to think that the tool is past its development stage. It’s not under development, and there are no indications that it’s under maintenance — it just doesn’t work. 

PunctuationCheck.net Extra Features

If a tool named “PunctuationCheck.net” can’t even detect punctuation errors, it’s pointless to check if it can do anything else.

I did so, anyway. The bottom line is, PunctuationCheck.net doesn’t have any functional features to be found.

How much does it cost?

There are logos of payment processors at the site’s footer, but that’s about it. There’s no information about any premium PunctuationCheck.net packages.

What are the cons of PunctuationCheck.net?

If you think about it, this entire section on PunctuationCheck.net is about its cons. The site is fast and well-designed, though, but I don’t think anyone here cares about that. 

Final Rating

• Usability: 3/5
• Accuracy: 0/5
• Features: 0/5
• Pricing: 0/5
• Total: 3/20

Click here to experience PunctuationCheck.net!

Punctuation Checker FAQs

Hopefully, you have a clear idea of what tool to use by now. 

If not, then let me answer some of the frequently asked questions or FAQs regarding punctuation checkers. 

1. Is a free punctuation checker enough?

Yes. 

With the right tool, you can eliminate punctuation mistakes in your writing without spending a dime. 

Take Grammarly, for example. 

The results don’t lie — Grammarly is the best tool there is if you want to get rid of punctuation mistakes.

You don’t even need to buy Grammarly Premium to do it. The free web interface can already detect most grammatical, spelling, and punctuation mistakes there is to find. 

Becorrect can also detect punctuation errors nearly as effectively as Grammarly. However, the developers will presumably update their pricing once the tool leaves beta. 

As your third option, Virtual Writing Tutor is another free punctuation checker you could use. But since it still misses basic punctuation errors, I’d only recommend it to native-English writers.

2. Why are the same tools rated differently here from the other listicle?

If you read my previous post about the best grammar checkers, you may recognize some familiar names.

I’m talking about Grammarly, WhiteSmoke, ProWritingAid, Ginger Software, and Virtual Writing Tutor.

You may also notice that their ratings here differ from their ratings in the previous post. 

The explanation here is simple: I rated them with their plagiarism checker tools in mind.

Certain factors like the tool’s features and pricing stayed the same, so their ratings on those aspects didn’t change. 

3. What should I pick: ProWritingAid vs Ginger Software vs WhiteSmoke

Whenever I discuss proofreading tools, I always include Grammarly along with ProWritingAid, Ginger Software, and WhiteSmoke. 

We already established that Grammarly is ahead when it comes to finding punctuation errors. But what about the other three?

If you’ve been paying attention, you should already know the answer. 

ProWritingAid detected more punctuation errors although we only tested its free, online editing tool. 

4. Can I use a punctuation checker offline?

What if you’re at school without internet connection and need to check the punctuation of your assignment?

Is there a tool you can use while offline?

For general proofreading, then yes — After the Deadline and the Hemingway Editor have downloadable versions you can count on. 

Sadly, none of them are able to scan articles for punctuation mistakes. 

For the situation I described above, the best course of action is to get connected and use proper punctuation checkers.

5. What’s the best way to improve my punctuation usage over time?

Two words: keep writing.

At the end of the day, punctuation and grammar checkers are merely band-aid solutions. While they can help you recognize the mistakes you’ve overlooked, you need to learn how to identify them yourself. 

That’s the reason most punctuation checkers provide explanations for each alert. Platforms like WhiteSmoke even provide video tutorials along with dozens of comprehensive guides.

Conclusion

Found a tool you want to use to make error-free articles?

That’s great; I did spend a lot of time and energy putting together this listicle, after all.  

What keeps me going is the thought that my blog helps you guys take on the challenges of writing. And as always, I’m looking forward to your comments. 

Anything you have to say is welcome — be it a suggestion, question, or honest feedback. 

Cheers!