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.Shepherdlaunch 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
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/WebKit/com.grammarly.ProjectLlama and the matching com.grammarly.GRLlamaOnboarding entries |
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
pgrepmeans no Grammarly process is running. A listed process means the helper is still alive; go back to the quit step before deleting anything else. - A line from
launchctl listmeans a Grammarly job is still loaded in your session. After a restart with the plist files gone, it should not come back. - A file name from the last command means that launch agent plist is still in
~/Library/LaunchAgents. No output means both are gone.
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 undercom.grammarly.ProjectLlamaare selected by default.- The two launch agent plists,
com.grammarly.ProjectLlama.Shepherdandcom.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.