How to Configure Grammarly's Generative AI Features and Personalized Style Preferences Across Desktop and Web Apps

Modern writing workflows frequently oscillate between drafting quick messages in workplace chat apps, polishing client emails in desktop clients, and composing long-form reports in web browsers. While automated proofreading has long been standard, Grammarly's generative AI tools transform the assistant from a passive proofreader into an active writing collaborator. However, out-of-the-box AI suggestions often risk sounding generic, repetitive, or misaligned with a writer's natural cadence. By configuring account-level generative AI toggles, establishing personal voice profiles, setting granular document goals, and tailoring prompt behaviors across both desktop and web applications, users can ensure that AI assistance enhances productivity without erasing their distinctive writing style.

Enabling and Managing Generative AI in Account Settings

Before customizing stylistic preferences, users must ensure that generative AI capabilities are properly activated and configured within their primary Grammarly account. Because Grammarly synchronizes preferences across connected clients, account-level configurations serve as the foundation for both web and desktop experiences.

Toggling Generative AI Features

To manage access to generative AI writing features:

1. Log in to the Grammarly Web Application in your preferred web browser.
2. Select your profile avatar or account icon in the lower-left corner and choose Account Settings.
3. Navigate to Feature Customization within the settings menu.
4. Locate the Generative AI toggle. Turning this setting on activates generative prompts, automated rewriting tools, and contextual suggestion cards across all signed-in clients. Turning it off restricts Grammarly strictly to traditional grammar, spelling, and mechanics checking.

For enterprise, business, or educational accounts, generative AI access may be centrally managed by team administrators. If the toggle appears grayed out or displays an organization badge, administrative policies dictate which AI features and specialized agents are permitted across company workspaces.

Managing Privacy and AI Model Training

Users concerned about data privacy and how their writing interacts with machine learning models can manage data-sharing permissions directly:

1. Navigate to the Grammarly Privacy Settings dashboard.
2. Locate the Product Improvement and Training controls.
3. Review whether your anonymized writing samples may be utilized to train Grammarly's foundational and generative models. Toggling this option off preserves full access to generative AI writing tools while preventing your inputs from being used in broader model optimization datasets.

Calibrating Personal Style Preferences and Voice Profiles

Generative AI is most effective when it understands the intended audience, formality, and unique voice of the author. Grammarly provides both document-level goals and persistent voice profiles to guide its suggestions.

Establishing a Personal Voice Profile

A common frustration with AI-generated text is that it can sound sterile or overly formal. Grammarly addresses this by allowing users to establish a personal voice profile that guides rewrites and generative drafts:

• Voice Descriptors: In the generative AI panel, users can select primary tone attributes that represent their preferred communication style—such as direct, approachable, authoritative, or witty.
• Formality Baselines: Users can set an overarching baseline for formality, ensuring that generated suggestions neither lapse into casual slang nor stiff bureaucratic phrasing.
• "Use My Voice" Action: Once configured, suggestion cards and rewrite prompts present a dedicated Use My Voice button. Clicking this option rewrites existing text to match the user's defined tone descriptors rather than a generic neutral style.
• Writing Sample Calibration: In advanced configurations and specialized agents (such as the Humanizer tool), users can provide representative samples of their own writing. The model analyzes sentence length variability, vocabulary choices, and transitional phrasing to replicate that rhythm in future drafts.

Setting Document Goals and Context

For specific writing projects, document goals provide immediate stylistic boundaries that refine how the AI evaluates clarity, tone, and delivery. Users can configure goals in the Grammarly Editor or through the desktop assistant panel:

1. Open a document in the Grammarly Editor or launch the assistant side panel in a supported desktop application.
2. Click the Goals icon (target symbol) in the right-hand panel.
3. Configure the four primary dimensions:
   • Audience: Select between General (accessible to anyone), Knowledgeable (requires basic field familiarity), or Expert (supports advanced jargon and specialized terminology).
   • Formality: Choose Informal, Neutral, or Formal to determine acceptable contractions, conversational phrasing, and sentence structures.
   • Domain: Choose from categories such as Academic, Business, General, Email, Casual, or Creative. Each domain applies distinct stylistic rules; for example, the Academic domain strictly discourages informal idioms and first-person references.
   • Intent: Identify whether the text aims to Inform, Describe, Convince, or Tell a Story, which influences recommended transitional phrases and persuasive vocabulary.

Brand Tones for Teams

While individual users manage personal voice profiles, organizations using Grammarly Business or Enterprise can establish Brand Tones. Administrators define mandatory, recommended, and discouraged tones across departments. When team members compose messages, the real-time tone detector flags off-brand expressions and suggests on-brand alternatives to maintain organizational consistency.

Navigating Desktop vs. Web Configuration

Grammarly delivers generative writing assistance across two primary environments: native desktop applications (Grammarly for Windows and Grammarly for Mac) and web-based tools (the browser extension and Grammarly Editor). While account preferences synchronize seamlessly, each platform provides distinct interaction models and local configuration options.

Grammarly for Windows and Mac (Desktop Application)

The standalone desktop application integrates system-wide, floating alongside native desktop software such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Apple Mail, Discord, and Notion.

• The Floating Widget (Pill): The floating Grammarly widget appears automatically next to active text fields. Clicking the widget reveals quick-action generative prompts, tone detectors, and rewrite recommendations.
• Widget Positioning and Hiding: If the widget obstructs critical interface elements in a specific app, users can click and drag it to a new location or right-click the widget to hide it temporarily (for 1 hour or for the remainder of the session) in that specific application.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Users can trigger the generative AI prompt box instantly using keyboard shortcuts (such as Option + Space on macOS or customizable hotkeys on Windows), allowing rapid drafting without reaching for the mouse.
• Application-Specific Settings: Through the desktop menu bar or system tray icon, users can access preferences to disable Grammarly entirely within sensitive applications (such as password managers or terminal emulators).

Grammarly Web Application and Browser Extensions

The web experience centers around the full-page Grammarly Editor at app.grammarly.com and browser extensions available for Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox.

• Grammarly Editor: The web editor provides the most comprehensive environment for long-form drafting, comprehensive document scoring, and detailed goal adjustment. The side panel displays categorized cards for Correctness, Clarity, Engagement, and Delivery.
• Browser Extensions: When writing in webmail, content management systems, or project management platforms, the browser extension overlays inline generative prompts. Users can highlight any sentence to reveal the rewrite menu or click the floating prompt icon to generate new text from scratch.

Platform Comparison: Generative AI and Style Controls

Directing Generative AI with Custom Prompts and Persistent Instructions

Beyond static settings, writers can actively steer Grammarly's generative engine using custom prompts and fine-tuning feedback mechanisms.

Leveraging the Custom Prompt Field

When highlighting existing text or drafting new sections, Grammarly offers a flexible custom prompt box. Rather than relying solely on pre-packaged suggestions like "Shorten it" or "Improve it," users can input natural-language directives tailored to their immediate goals:

• "Rewrite this email to decline the meeting politely while offering an asynchronous alternative."
• "Make this project update sound optimistic and action-oriented for executive leadership."
• "Condense these three paragraphs into four concise bullet points with bold lead-ins."
• "Rephrase this explanation to eliminate technical jargon for a non-technical client."

Training the Assistant via Suggestion Feedback

Grammarly continuously refines its stylistic awareness based on user acceptance and dismissal behavior. When the assistant offers a stylistic or generative rewrite that contradicts your personal voice:

1. Hover over the suggestion card in the side panel or floating widget.
2. Click the three dots (More Options) icon on the card.
3. Select Hide suggestions like this or Ignore all.

Choosing "Hide suggestions like this" informs the underlying model that specific rule types—such as passive voice alerts, split infinitive warnings, or specific tone shifts—should be suppressed in future sessions. This prevents repetitive, unwanted edits from cluttering your writing flow.

Utilizing Snippets for Standardized Phrasing

For users who frequently type repetitive greetings, disclaimers, or status updates, Grammarly Premium and Business accounts support Snippets (text expansion shortcuts):

1. Access the Snippets section within your Grammarly dashboard.
2. Define a shortcut trigger (e.g., \intro or \sync).
3. Enter the full text block, complete with formatted paragraphs or bullet points.
4. When typing in any desktop or web application, entering the trigger immediately expands into the pre-approved text, ensuring stylistic consistency across daily communication.

Fine-Tuning Diction: Language Variants and Personal Dictionaries

A refined personal style relies heavily on accurate vocabulary that respects regional spelling and industry-specific terminology.

Selecting Your English Dialect

Grammarly supports multiple English dialects, each applying distinct spelling rules, punctuation conventions, and regional vocabulary:

1. Open your Account Settings and select Language Preferences.
2. Under I write in, choose your primary dialect:
   • American English (e.g., color, analyze, period inside quotation marks)
   • British English (e.g., colour, analyse, punctuation outside quotation marks)
   • Canadian English (blends British spelling conventions with North American terminology)
   • Australian English (follows Commonwealth spelling and regional usage)
   • Indian English (incorporates recognized Indian idioms and Commonwealth spelling)

Selecting the correct dialect prevents generative rewrites from inadvertently substituting regional spellings or phrasing that looks unnatural to your intended audience.

Building a Personal Dictionary

Technical writers, marketers, and researchers often use specialized acronyms, product names, or foreign terms that automated checkers flag as errors. Adding these terms to your personal dictionary stops false-positive correction flags:

1. Go to Account Settings > Customize > Personal Dictionary.
2. Type the word or acronym exactly as it should be capitalized and formatted (e.g., Kubernetes, microservices, or SaaS).
3. Click Add.

Once added, the personal dictionary synchronizes across both desktop and web applications. Grammarly will neither flag the term as a misspelling nor attempt to replace it during generative rewrites.

Best Practices for Maintaining Authentic Authorial Voice

Integrating generative AI into your writing workflow should amplify your efficiency without homogenizing your personal perspective. Consider the following guidelines when configuring and utilizing Grammarly's AI features:

1. Treat Generative Rewrites as Drafts, Not Final Decrees: When using "Use My Voice" or custom rewrite prompts, review the proposed text before accepting. Ensure that subtle nuances, personal anecdotes, and technical precision remain intact.
2. Align Goals with Document Context: Avoid leaving document goals on a single default. An executive summary sent to a board of directors requires Formal / Business / Convince settings, whereas a team Slack announcement benefits from Neutral / Casual / Inform.
3. Refine Custom Prompts Iteratively: If a generated response misses the mark, provide follow-up instructions directly in the prompt box (e.g., "Make it slightly more casual and remove the exclamation marks") rather than starting over from scratch.
4. Regularly Audit Ignored Rules and Dictionary Entries: Periodically review your personal dictionary and dismissed suggestion types in Account Settings to ensure outdated terminology or overly broad suppressions are cleaned up.

By deliberately configuring account settings, personal voice profiles, document goals, and prompt instructions, writers can leverage Grammarly's generative AI across desktop and web applications while preserving their unique professional voice.