How to check passive voice in Google Docs
Google Docs can suggest active voice, but only on paid Google Workspace plans. Google's 2022 rollout limited the 'Active voice' writing suggestion to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Education Plus editions; personal Gmail accounts get spelling and grammar suggestions only. If you have an eligible plan, passive sentences get a purple underline under Tools › Spelling and grammar.
Who gets the feature
Google announced the assistive writing suggestions — word choice, active voice, conciseness and inclusive language — in March 2022 and listed the editions that receive them: Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Education Plus. If your account is a personal Gmail, a Business Starter plan or a legacy G Suite plan, the active-voice suggestion is not available, and no setting will turn it on.
Ordinary grammar suggestions, which Google introduced in 2019, are available more widely, but they flag errors — tense, agreement, confused words — not passive voice.
Turning it on (eligible accounts)
- Open Tools › Spelling and grammar.
- Make sure Show grammar suggestions is ticked. On eligible editions this also enables the style suggestions; they are on by default.
- Passive sentences get a purple underline. Hover or click to see the suggested active rewrite, then Accept or dismiss with the ×.
If the underline never appears, your administrator may have turned off the feature for the organisation, or your edition is not eligible.
What it does and does not do
Google’s suggestion is per sentence and offers a rewrite, which is useful. It does not give you a count, a percentage, or a list of all passive sentences in one place, and it does not explain why a sentence was flagged. Like Word, it also treats be + -ed adjectives as passive more often than it should.
The free route for any account
Select all (Ctrl/Cmd+A), copy, and paste into the checker. You get every passive highlighted in your text, the passive percentage against published benchmarks, the reason for each flag, and an active rewrite where the doer is named. Nothing is uploaded; the check runs in your browser. The converter gives you a cleaned copy to paste back into the Doc.
The Workspace Marketplace also lists add-ons that include a passive voice check; search it for “passive voice” and read the permissions carefully, because most add-ons need access to the document’s contents.
Questions people ask
- Does Google Docs check for passive voice?
On paid Workspace editions (Business Standard and above, Education Plus), yes: an ‘Active voice’ suggestion underlines passive sentences in purple. On free personal accounts, no — only spelling and grammar suggestions are available.
- Why don't I see passive voice suggestions in Google Docs?
Either your account is a personal Gmail or a Workspace tier below Business Standard, or the suggestions are switched off under Tools › Spelling and grammar. Your Workspace admin can also disable them.
- What does the purple underline mean in Google Docs?
A tone or style suggestion — word choice, active voice, conciseness or inclusive language. Blue underlines are grammar; red are spelling.
- Is there a free way to check passive voice in a Google Doc?
Select all, copy, and paste into our checker. It runs in your browser, counts every passive, gives a percentage and suggests rewrites. There are also Docs add-ons in the Workspace Marketplace that include a passive voice check.
Check your own text
Paste a paragraph. The check runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Open the full checker for benchmarks and longer texts.