About Authorship

What is Authorship?

Authorship enables users to demonstrate their sources of text in a Google Doc, Microsoft Word document, and our AI writing surface, docs. When Authorship tracking is enabled within Google Docs (via the browser extension) or Microsoft Word (via the desktop application for Windows and Mac), it proactively tracks the writing process. In docs, Authorship is enabled automatically, capturing every draft and revision from the start.

Authorship in Google Docs and Microsoft Word automatically categorizes the source of text as it is entered into the body of a document. Because the writing assistant runs in your browser and across your desktop applications, it can distinguish between text typed directly into your document, text pasted from a browser-based source, and text pasted from an unknown source, such as a private browsing window.

Authorship in Google Docs and Microsoft Word also provides specific categorizations that distinguish AI-generated text from text typed by the user and then modified with our on-demand AI rephrasing. Authorship also categorizes text that is typed and then edited using traditional, non-generative features, such as grammatical error correction, clarity rewrites, and word choice suggestions.

For Free accounts and Pro, Plus, and Premium plans purchased through our website:

Basic Authorship tracking is available to all users in Google Docs and Microsoft Word, with the option to generate and share as many Authorship reports as needed. The Authorship agent is available in docs.

Pro, Premium, and Plus plans also include detailed attribution for external sources, including text copied from a website or desktop application (in Microsoft Word only) and text copied from a generative AI source.

Pro, Premium, and Plus users also have access to AI and plagiarism detection within Authorship reports, which show specific text that may overlap with online sources or may have been AI-generated, even if it was not directly pasted into the document.

For Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Grammarly for Education accounts purchased through our Sales team:

Users with these accounts can activate tracking, produce, and share unlimited reports. They will also receive detailed attribution from external sources and can view AI and traditional plagiarism checks within their reports.

Users of the browser extension for Chrome and Edge can enable Authorship in Google Docs. Users of the desktop app for Windows and Mac can enable Authorship within Microsoft Word.

For the Authorship agent to work in docs, the subscription admin should enable the following controls on the Feature access page: Grammarly Editor, docs with agents, AI assistant, and paragraph-level rewrites.

Note for K–12 Grammarly for Education and Grammarly Business account admins: Grammarly Business admins can use the admin panel to switch Authorship on or off for their entire team.

• K-12 institutional admins should reach out to their Customer Success Manager to request that Authorship be turned on for their users.
• By default, Authorship is not available in the desktop application for Windows and Mac for Business team members. To give your team access to Authorship in Microsoft Word before the feature becomes generally available, reach out to your Customer Success Manager to request it.

How do I activate Authorship?

Within Google Docs 

If you have the browser extension installed in Chrome or Edge and you open a blank Google Doc, you will see a dialog asking you to enable Authorship. 

After you click OK or close the dialog, you will see two notifications in the lower-left corner of your screen: one will let you know that Authorship is now available, and the other will show the menu to activate Authorship tracking. 

You can: 

1. Click the thumbprint icon next to the Track writing activity pop-up to turn on Authorship tracking for that single document session.
2. Take no action, in which case nothing is tracked. 

You can also select the Start automatically option in the menu if you want tracking to start automatically whenever a new Google Doc is opened. This means you will always be able to generate a report that categorizes text sources. If you only enable tracking for the current document, keep in mind that you will have to turn it on individually from the thumbprint icon in the lower-left corner of your screen for each document you want to track. 

Once you click Track writing activity (shown as a thumbprint icon) for the first time within Google Docs, a clipboard permissions dialog will appear: 

Once you click Allow access, the browser extension will ask for its own permissions. The Chrome permissions are shown below as an example: 

Important: If you do not allow clipboard access, Authorship will only track text actions within the current Google Doc and will not attribute any text from browser-based sources.

Once you have turned on Authorship and granted clipboard access, the menu will look like this: 

You can keep the thumbprint icon from appearing via the individual settings in the browser extension main menu.

Within Microsoft Word

If you have the desktop application for Windows and Mac installed and open a blank Microsoft Word document, you will see a dialog asking you to activate Authorship.

Note: There is currently a 20-page limit for Authorship in Microsoft Word when using the desktop application for Windows and Mac. After this limit is exceeded, the tracked history may become unreliable. 

After you click OK or close the dialog, you will see two notifications in the lower-left corner of your screen: one will let you know that Authorship is now available, and the other will show the menu to activate Authorship tracking.

Note for Mac users: You must save your document to enable tracking. 

Once you’ve seen this dialog, you can: 

1. Click the thumbprint icon next to the Track writing activity pop-up to turn on Authorship tracking for the current, single document session.
2. Take no action, in which case nothing is tracked. 

You can also select the Start automatically option in the menu if you want tracking to start automatically whenever a new Microsoft Word document is opened. This means you will always be able to generate a report that categorizes text sources. If you only enable tracking for the current document, keep in mind that you will have to turn it on individually from the thumbprint icon at the bottom left for each document you want to track.

Once you click Track writing activity (shown as a thumbprint icon) for the first time within Microsoft Word, a clipboard permissions dialog will appear: 

Important: If you do not allow clipboard access, Authorship will only track text actions within the Word document itself and will not attribute any text from browser-based or desktop sources.

Once you have activated Authorship, the following menu will appear: 

You can prevent this menu from appearing in the desktop application for Windows and Mac by adjusting the individual settings. 

Within docs

The Authorship agent in docs automatically runs in the background the moment you start writing.

How does the Authorship feature know where my text came from?

Authorship in Google Docs or Microsoft Word only works if you provide access to your clipboard. Once granted via the steps above, the writing assistant can see the latest text copied to the clipboard from browser-based sites or, if you are working in Word, from desktop applications. The writing assistant only has access to the most recent copied action. Authorship concerns only text that appears in the body of the document. With clipboard access, Authorship can determine whether text was copied from a generative AI source such as ChatGPT or Claude, or from a more traditional online source such as Wikipedia.

Without clipboard access, Authorship in Google Docs and Microsoft Word can still document your typing actions and actions taken using the writing assistant within the document. It can also categorize any pasted text as “copied from an unknown source,” but cannot attribute the text beyond that.

How do I know that Authorship is recording my activity in a document?

You are always in control of whether Authorship records your writing activity. By default, Authorship in Google Docs and Microsoft Word does not track your writing activity. Once you have activated Authorship tracking, you will see a colored thumbprint icon in the lower-left corner of the screen in both Google Docs and Microsoft Word. The thumbprint icon will be gray if tracking is not activated.

In docs, the Authorship agent starts tracking your activity automatically.

How do I view my Authorship report?

When you are ready to view your report, hover over or click the thumbprint icon in the lower-left corner of your screen and select See report. In both Microsoft Word and Google Docs, the report will open in a separate tab in your default browser. The report includes three sections: 

1. Authorship Analytics: Shows a breakdown of your text sources, organized by “human-typed” and “sourced” categories, along with data about the time spent on the document and the number of active writing sessions. A “session” expires after 10 minutes of idle time in the document. 
2. Authorship Report: Includes the full body of your text, color-coded by text category, along with details about the text source. 
3. Authorship Replay: Shows your full typing and editing history from start to finish. The replay is meant to help you remember the primary actions you took in your document, giving you the opportunity to delete unnecessary text, cite sources, and make last-minute edits.

To view your report for the Authorship agent in docs, click the Open full report button in the lower-right corner.

Authorship is showing inconsistent attribution. Why is that?

While Authorship is generally available, it may not capture 100% of cases accurately. There may be cases where keystrokes are typed too fast for Authorship to pick them up, cases where text is pasted from a desktop source where Authorship does not run, or instances where text was pasted from a new AI tool that has yet to be categorized as generative AI.

If you notice a bug, please report it by contacting our Customer Care team: Submit a request

How do I share my report with others?

At the top of your report, click the Share button. You will see a unique URL that you can copy and share with whoever you choose. Your audience will see the same information available in the report.

What content is attributed and what is not?

Within Google Docs: Any text from a browser-based source where the writing assistant is available will be attributed. That includes text from a generative AI tool, an academic article, a periodical, and more. Text copied from a desktop source or private browsing window will not be attributed, but will be categorized as “Copied from an unknown source.” 

Within Microsoft Word: Similar to Google Docs, any text from a browser-based source where the writing assistant is available will be attributed. Additionally, because the desktop application works across other desktop applications, text from these applications will also be attributed (e.g., Apple Notes or the ChatGPT desktop app).

Within docs: Any text from sources outside docs will not be attributed. It will appear under the “Unknown” category.

Authorship stores its data per device only. As long as you are typing on the same device in the same tracked document, your writing will be attributed as “Typed by human.” If you move the document to a different device and write anything there, your previous writing will be attributed as “Unknown” because the new device has no Authorship data stored on it. 

Which Authorship features are available on each plan? 

All users have access to Authorship’s basic tracking and reporting features. All plans, including the Free plan, allow to: 

• Generate an unlimited number of Authorship reports 
• Share an unlimited number of Authorship reports
• See “Typed by a Human” analytics 
• See “Typed by a Human” detailed insight cards
• See color-coded text broken down in the report

Paid subscribers can additionally see: 

• “Copied from a source” analytics (including the percentage of text that was AI-generated) 
• “Copied from a source” detailed insight cards, including specific text from an AI-generated source 

What data does Authorship collect about me?

To provide a record of your editing history, Authorship will collect the text you write in the context of a document, including text you write and then delete, text you paste from websites or desktop sources (with their source names, such as Wikipedia and ChatGPT), and your prompts to generative AI.

We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy and Data Privacy Addendum. You can also submit a request on the Privacy page to view data associated with your account.

What data does Authorship not collect about me?

Authorship does not collect or store any data unrelated to the writing process. It does not track browsing history or web traffic that does not involve copying text into your clipboard (for instance, video views, article reading, or gaming activity). Authorship only collects the text you copy to your browser’s clipboard and paste into the body of your document.

Where is Authorship data stored?

While you are writing, Authorship stores data only on your device. 

On-device data is stored encrypted at rest using the AES-256 GCM encryption algorithm and a randomly generated 256-bit key. The key is stored on our servers, retrieved from your device on demand during your Authorship session, and kept in memory to read and write encrypted authorship data.

When you delete your Google Docs browsing data, the Authorship on-device data is also deleted. 

When you click See report on the thumbprint icon in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, Authorship data for the current document is sent to our servers over an encrypted TLS connection for processing. The data remains on our servers for up to 24 hours.

When you share your Authorship report with others, such as an instructor or editor, the report data for that document is sent to our servers and stored for 12 months or until you delete your account, whichever comes first. As the originating user, you can view the report at any time during that 12-month period by returning to the original document and clicking View report. You can delete this report data at any time by clicking the trash bin icon for the respective document, as shown below.

What Authorship data is shared when I generate and send a report link?

When sharing a report, your reader can see the same information you see, including:

1. Top-level document analytics 
2. The full text of your document, color-coded by source 
3. Text insight cards describing the text source, word counts, words edited, and typing/editing time  
4. A full replay of your typing and editing process 

The replay feature lets you see text as it’s written and deleted, the names of websites from which text is copied, and your prompts to generative AI tools. You can preview what data will be available to your reader by clicking See report and replaying the writing activity before sharing. You also have the option of excluding the replay when sharing if you do not want your audience to see your entire writing and editing process.

What are some security considerations when using Authorship?

Authorship data includes a history of how your document has been edited, including parts you have deleted from the latest version, and the names of websites you may have used while editing. While this data is encrypted on-device at rest, it may be accessible by other users of the device while you are logged in on that device. We recommend logging out before letting others use your device, especially on a shared device such as a school or library computer.

For Grammarly for Education Admins: Authorship Analytics 

As your users activate and use Authorship in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you will begin to see aggregated data in your Grammarly for Education admin panel under the Analytics tab. The Authorship Analytics subtab will show the following data across your institution:

1. Total amount of text that is typed 
2. Total amount of text that is copied from a website 
3. Total amount of text that is AI-generated 
4. The top 10 sources of external text used in writing