--- title: I replaced Grammarly with a local LLM, and none of my... description: A writer describes switching from Grammarly to a local LLM (like Gemma 4) for light proofreading, using a carefully crafted prompt to make only minimal grammar... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-grammarly-with-a-local-llm-and-none-of-my-writing-leaves-my-laptop-anymore-uaclfv2qb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I replaced Grammarly with a local LLM, and none of my writing leaves my laptop anymore | daily.dev og:description: A writer describes switching from Grammarly to a local LLM (like Gemma 4) for light proofreading, using a carefully crafted prompt to make only minimal grammar... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-grammarly-with-a-local-llm-and-none-of-my-writing-leaves-my-laptop-anymore-uaclfv2qb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/uAclFv2qB.png og:image:alt: I replaced Grammarly with a local LLM, and none of my writing leaves my laptop anymore og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I replaced Grammarly with a local LLM, and none of my writing leaves my laptop anymore **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A writer describes switching from Grammarly to a local LLM (like Gemma 4) for light proofreading, using a carefully crafted prompt to make only minimal grammar and clarity fixes without changing tone or voice. The switch was motivated by Grammarly's increasingly aggressive AI rewriting (to the point some publications ban it) and by privacy concerns around pasting sensitive, sometimes embargoed, writing into cloud LLMs like ChatGPT or Claude. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What prompt should I use to get an LLM to proofread my writing without rewriting it? Ask the model to clean up the text 'very, very slightly,' explicitly instructing it not to change anything unnecessary, to focus only on flow, grammar, clarity, or awkward phrasing, and to avoid altering tone, voice, structure, or wording unless clearly needed. Repeating 'keep the changes very minor' at the end reinforces restraint and prevents the model from over-rewriting sentences into generic-sounding AI prose. _daily.dev surfaces more prompt techniques for developers fine-tuning how AI assists their writing and code._ ### Why would someone use a local LLM instead of Grammarly or ChatGPT for proofreading? Local models keep sensitive or embargoed writing off external servers entirely, avoiding the discomfort of feeding more personal text into AI training data. Grammarly's suggestions have grown more aggressive, frequently rewriting sentences into AI-sounding prose, which led some publications to ban it outright, while small local models like Gemma 4 can perform light grammar cleanup without that risk or overreach. _Developers weighing cloud versus local AI tools for sensitive text can track these trade-offs on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [My local LLM is small enough to run on my laptop, but smart enough to replace these 3 subscriptions](https://daily.dev/posts/my-local-llm-is-small-enough-to-run-on-my-laptop-but-smart-enough-to-replace-these-3-subscriptions-7vhtu9law) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [My local LLM rewrote my resume better than ChatGPT, and it's not even close](https://daily.dev/posts/my-local-llm-rewrote-my-resume-better-than-chatgpt-and-it-s-not-even-close-ionsdqndo) · XDA Developers · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era — LessWrong](https://daily.dev/posts/i-am-definitely-missing-the-pre-ai-writing-era-lesswrong-gimtu2jni) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Blogging with LLMs as a non-native speaker](https://daily.dev/posts/blogging-with-llms-as-a-non-native-speaker-fuwilwfbz) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#local-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/local-ai), [#gemma](https://daily.dev/tags/gemma) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-grammarly-with-a-local-llm-and-none-of-my-writing-leaves-my-laptop-anymore-uaclfv2qb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I replaced Grammarly with a local LLM, and none of my writing leaves my laptop anymore","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-grammarly-with-a-local-llm-and-none-of-my-writing-leaves-my-laptop-anymore-uaclfv2qb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-grammarly-with-a-local-llm-and-none-of-my-writing-leaves-my-laptop-anymore-uaclfv2qb"},"datePublished":"2026-10-03T18:03:07.661Z","dateModified":"2026-10-03T18:03:36.472Z","description":"A writer describes switching from Grammarly to a local LLM (like Gemma 4) for light proofreading, using a carefully crafted prompt to make only minimal grammar...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/72cdaee2b9729d003811092bc9066d91?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/72cdaee2b9729d003811092bc9066d91?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-grammarly-with-a-local-llm-and-none-of-my-writing-leaves-my-laptop-anymore-uaclfv2qb","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"privacy,local-ai,gemma","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I replaced Grammarly with a local LLM, and none of my writing leaves my laptop anymore"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-grammarly-with-a-local-llm-and-none-of-my-writing-leaves-my-laptop-anymore-uaclfv2qb#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What prompt should I use to get an LLM to proofread my writing without rewriting it?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Ask the model to clean up the text 'very, very slightly,' explicitly instructing it not to change anything unnecessary, to focus only on flow, grammar, clarity, or awkward phrasing, and to avoid altering tone, voice, structure, or wording unless clearly needed. 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