How to uninstall Grammarly Desktop on Mac

Grammarly Desktop works through your Grammarly account, and removing the app does not delete that account or cancel a subscription. The part that needs care is getting it to stay quit, because a launch agent called Shepherd can bring its helper back. This guide covers Grammarly for Mac from grammarly.com, whose app is named Grammarly Desktop, and the Homebrew cask grammarly-desktop. The Grammarly browser extensions and the add-in for Microsoft Word are separate products and stay installed.

Quit Grammarly and keep it quit

Click the Grammarly icon in the menu bar and choose Quit.
Search Activity Monitor for Grammarly. In the recorded test the helper was started again by Grammarly's com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.Shepherd launch agent, and the first removal attempt stopped because Grammarly could not be quit.
If a Grammarly process keeps returning, or Finder says "Grammarly Desktop" can't be moved to the Trash because it's open, follow Grammarly's own fix: click the Grammarly icon, choose Settings…, turn off Launch at startup in the Customization tab, restart the Mac and do not reopen apps after the restart. Grammarly: I can't uninstall Grammarly for Mac

Remove the app

After Grammarly and its helpers have stopped, use Finder’s Shift + Command + G to copy the complete ~/Library/Application Support/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama and wanted ~/Library/Preferences/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.plist to an independent private backup and inspect the copies. Then open Finder › Applications, find Grammarly Desktop and move it to the Trash. That is the whole procedure in Grammarly's uninstall instructions. Afterwards open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions: in the recorded test Grammarly's login helper was still listed there, pointing at the app in the Trash. Turn it off.

What Grammarly leaves behind

Press Shift + Command + G in Finder and check these locations, taken from Homebrew's zap list for the cask. Skip any that is missing.

Location	What it holds	What to do
`~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.Shepherd.plist` and `~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.Uninstaller.plist`	Grammarly's Shepherd and Uninstaller launch agents	Remove after the app is gone; Shepherd is what restarted Grammarly in the test
`~/Library/Application Support/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama`	Local app data	Remove with the app once you no longer use Grammarly on this Mac
`~/Library/Caches/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama`	Cache	Safe to remove
`~/Library/Preferences/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.plist`	Preferences	Remove with the app
`~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama`, `~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.binarycookies`, `~/Library/HTTPStorages/com.grammarly.GRLlamaOnboarding.binarycookies`, `~/Library/WebKit/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama` and `~/Library/WebKit/com.grammarly.GRLlamaOnboarding`	Web storage, including the onboarding screen's	Remove with the app

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the app is in the Trash:

pgrep -il grammarly
launchctl list | grep -i grammarly
ls ~/Library/LaunchAgents | grep -i grammarly

No output from pgrep means no Grammarly process is running. Identify a listed process’s executable and owner before treating it as this Grammarly helper; for a confirmed match, return to the quit step before deleting its data.
This filtered launchctl check covers matching rows in the current user session only. Identify a listed job before treating it as this app’s; no output after a successful command without errors means only that no row matched grammarly, not that all services are gone.
The last command lists filenames matching grammarly in ~/Library/LaunchAgents. No output after a successful directory read without errors means only that the pattern matched nothing in this directory; it does not establish that loaded services are gone. A permission or read error leaves the check unresolved.

For a helper that returns after uninstalling, see App Still Running After Uninstall on Mac?

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole skips --zap when the zap list reaches data you left unchecked, a path another installed app uses, or anything Mole cannot check, and it still cleans the leftovers you selected.

The grammarly-desktop cask installs the app as Grammarly Desktop. Its uninstall step unloads the com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.LoginHelper, .Shepherd and .Uninstaller jobs, which is the part the app-in-Trash route leaves to you. Its zap list covers the two launch agent plists, ~/Library/Application Support/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama, the cache, preferences, HTTP and WebKit storage, and the login helper's recent-items entry. brew uninstall --cask --zap grammarly-desktop moves all of them to the Trash. To remove only the app and keep those files:

brew uninstall --cask grammarly-desktop

Homebrew's grammarly-desktop cask

Account and subscription

Uninstalling does not cancel a Grammarly subscription or delete your account. Manage both in your Grammarly account on the web.

What Mole lists

For Grammarly Desktop from grammarly.com:

~/Library/Application Support/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama, the cache, preferences, HTTP storage and WebKit data filed under com.grammarly.ProjectLlama are selected by default.
The two launch agent plists, com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.Shepherd and com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.Uninstaller, are selected by default.
Login items are not edited; turn off the login helper in System Settings.

What this test covered

On September 19, 2026, Grammarly Desktop was copied out of the app bundle in Grammarly's download, without running its installer, and uninstalled with Mole 1.15 Preview build 277 using the default selection. On the first attempt Mole reported that Grammarly could not be quit, because the Shepherd launch agent kept restarting its helper. After that job was unloaded, a second attempt removed the app, the launch agent, the Application Support folder and the preferences. The login helper entry in System Settings stayed, pointing at the app in the Trash. The record includes no signed-in account, and the Homebrew cask, the browser extensions and the Word add-in were not tested.