25 Best Google Docs Add-Ons and Extensions for 2021

For a free word processor, it’s hard to get much better than Google Docs. You can write an article (like this one), create your résumé, work on a paper, etc. right in your Google document. 

But if you’re an advanced user, the built-in features in Google Docs may not be enough for you. Having said that, you can add features to fill in the gaps and continue using it without any issues—with the help of Google Docs Add-Ons.

What is a Google Docs add-on?

It is a feature that adds new functionality to Google Docs that it previously lacked. The purpose of an add-on is similar to that of a browser extension—to gain additional features. 

Before we jump on to the list of best add ons, let’s have a look at how to install or remove an add on.

You can find all the Google Docs add-ons in the G Suite Marketplace.

How to install an add-on in Google Docs?

To install an add-on:

1. In the Google Docs’ menu bar, click ‘Add-ons’ and then select ‘Get add-ons’. This opens the ‘G Suite Marketplace’.
2. When you find an add-on you need, click the blue ‘Install’ button. The add-on will be installed in your Google document.

Best Google Docs Add-Ons & Extensions

Like most Google applications, Google Docs also offers a huge number of add-ons, extensions, and plugins. These can be used by anybody who just wants to pen down their thoughts, write sales documents, business policies, or create notes for students. We have tested over 30 add-ons, checked each one against the other similar add-ons and picked the ones that work consistently and offer the most features.

Here are the 25 add-ons we came up with based on who it is most suitable for:

Google Docs Add-Ons for writers

1. Writing Habit

Writing Habit – Become a better writer

The only way to become a better writer is by developing a habit of writing more. You also have to be consistent and track your progress against your writing goals. That’s why there is ‘Writing Habit’. 

It tracks the number of words you’ve written over time and when you wrote them. You can set a daily and overall goal so that you have something to reach for in your journey to getting better. And, as you write, the addon shows you how you’re progressing with charts and numbers.

Who is it suitable for?

• Aspiring writers
• Non-native English speakers

Pro tip: Set your goals low initially until you consistently hit them. And then move up from there.

Best features:

• Daily and overall word tracking with progress bars, based on goals that you set
• Charts that show you how you’ve been doing over the last 7 and 30 days
• 180 days of writing history to help you look back and see what you wrote and when you wrote it.

Pricing: Free

2. Grammarly

Grammarly – The AI-powered writing assistant you need

While we are on the topic of writing, it’s very important to maintain good spelling and grammar. The words that you use affect the meaning and clarity of your message. Grammarly is the browser extension you need, to make sure you improve your writing overall.

Not just grammar and spelling, Grammarly even helps you with the style and tone of your writing. This way you can eliminate writing errors and find the right words to express yourself. And wherever you find yourself writing in your browser, you will be given suggestions that you can rely on.

Note: Currently, this extension is only available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge browsers.

Who is it suitable for?

• People with basic writing skills
• Anyone who needs kickass, error-free writing
• Non-native English speakers

Best features:

• Finds many errors that Google’s spell checker cannot detect
• Helps in providing enhanced vocabulary based on the tone of the article
• Checks for plagiarism
• Offers team account features

Pricing: Free for basic checking. The paid plans start from $11.66 per month.

3. ezNotifications for Docs

ezNotifications for Docs – Get alerts on new changes via email

One of the best things about working on Google Docs is collaboration. If given access, multiple people can make changes to the document and work together. But, sometimes, if it is an important document, you want to get notified of any changes made to it. 

ezNotifications for Docs is the perfect add-on for that. It alerts you of any changes (via email) made in your Google document automatically, even a change in the file name. You can even set how often you want to get notified, hourly or daily.

Who is it suitable for?

• Copywriters
• Content writers
• Editors

Best feature:

• Option to select the frequency between an hourly and daily rate (for daily rate select the hour of the day to be notified)

Pricing: Free. The paid plan is $7 per year.

4. Search & Navigate

Search & Navigate – Find your way around a long document

When you have a really long document, finding your way around it can be challenging. Search & Navigate (previously called Doc Explorer) is an add-on to make that easier for you. Using this, you can quickly find and navigate to any part of your document—text, headings, bookmarks, images, or tables.

When you open the sidebar, you can switch between the list of headings, bookmarks, images, tables, and search results. 

Who is it suitable for?

• Students and teachers who work on reports or research papers

Best features:

• Feature to create a guide through the text with the help of bookmarks and manage them in the sidebar for future reference
• Option to have the add-on open by default for specific documents

Pricing: Free

5. Doc Builder

Doc Builder – Save hours of typing with reusable text snippets

Speaking of long documents, if you regularly use the same text snippets in your documents, Doc Builder is for you. Its basic function is to insert text snippets that you often use and save custom styles. 

Say, you are writing a bunch of emails. And there are a few chunks of text that repeat in every email, like the headline or a disclaimer. Just create individual documents (as files) for these chunks of text and then when you are preparing your emails, select the file you want and insert it in your email. 

Who is it suitable for?

• People who work on financial reports, technical or legal documents.

Best features:

• Option to auto-format your snippets based on themes defined in a Google Sheet.
• Can organize your frequently used text snippets in folders on Google Drive for instant access.

Pricing: Free

6. SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant

SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant – Rank #1 on search engines

When you’re writing content for the web, it’s your responsibility to ensure that it is searchable, in other words, SEO-friendly. So, what if there is a tool that can help you with that on the go? 

Turns out, there is one—SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant. It provides instant recommendations to help you optimize your content based on the best-performing articles from Google top 10 search results.

Who is it suitable for?

• Content writers
• Marketers
• SEOs

Best features:

• Checks the article’s quality calculated according to metrics such as readability, text length, and target keywords
• Evaluates your text’s difficulty based on the recommended Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease score
• Check your links for possible errors and problems

Pricing: The free plan lets you create just one recommendation set for a single document. Paid plans start from $99 per month.

7. Google Docs Offline

Google Docs Offline – Access Google Docs without the Internet

There are going to be times when you don’t have access to the Internet but still need to work on a Google document. Fortunately, you can get around that using Google Docs’ offline mode. 

The catch is that you can use this only on the Chrome browser. 

Best features:

• Pin important documents
• Seamlessly copy and paste into your document

Pricing: Free

Google Docs Add-Ons for students and teachers

8. OrangeSlice: Teacher Rubric

OrangeSlice: Teacher Rubric – Grading your students is now faster and easier

If you’re a teacher, you know that grading your students’ assignments, papers, etc. takes so much time that it can bring your efficiency to a screeching halt. That is because there are just a lot of things to consider during a grading process.

“How can I create a rubric which gives a complete picture of my student’s performance?“

“Rubrics are nice and all, but calculating the final grade? That is so tedious.”

OrangeSlice: Teacher Rubric has answers to all of these questions. You can easily add a rubric to your Doc, assess it, and generate a percentage or points grade.

Best features:

• Facility to add points or percentage grade in the rubric
• Fully customized rubric
• Addresses all grading needs with extra credit and late penalty

Pricing: Free

9. Form & Quiz Maker

Form & Quiz Maker – Convert your document into a self-marking quiz in under 5 minutes

If you are a teacher who likes to conduct quizzes out of the blue, you will always need a set of questions ready. Form & Quiz Maker is just what you need for those surprise quizzes.

Pricing: $30 per user per year

10. EasyBib Bibliography Creator

EasyBib Bibliography Creator – Easily cite sources in your research paper

If your work requires writing or working with research papers, you are probably familiar with the website, EasyBib.com. EasyBib Bibliography Creator, the add-on works just like the website and is an excellent tool to help you cite your sources if you are writing a research paper. 

Who is it suitable for?

• Students who work on research papers

Best features:

• Format citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and over 7000 other styles.
• Option to search for a book by its title or ISBN

Pricing: Free

11. MathType

MathType – Work on Math equations right in Google Docs

When you’re working with mathematical equations on Google Docs, you might not be able to find all of the symbols and notations that you need. Luckily, there is MathType. It is a popular equation editor that helps you type or handwrite mathematical equations in a Google document. 

Best features:

• Support for chemical notations included
• MathML and LaTeX are also available

Pricing: It starts from $39.95 per year.

12. Yob – Graph Editor

Yob – Graph Editor – A powerful graph editor for Google Docs

Speaking of math, if you want to plot some data and stick a graph in your document, check out Yob – Graph Editor. It is a powerful graph editor and analysis tool designed to complement Google Docs. It also provides plotting and regression functionality right alongside the document you are working on, making life easier for both students and teachers.

Note: Yob – Graph Editor currently only supports Google Chrome and Firefox browsers.

Who is it suitable for?

• Students and teachers in the area of statistics

Best features:

• Calculated columns and non-linear curve fitting
• Can add colors and insert data sets

Pricing: Free

13. Translate+

Translate+ – Translate text into other languages right in your document

If you want to translate text in your Google Docs, there is a built-in feature available. But its limitation is that it translates your whole document. If you want to translate only a selected text area, use ‘Translate+’.

Who is it suitable for?

• Language teachers
• Students who are learning a new language

Best features:

• Supports many popular languages
• Bridge-language function to find out your best translation solution

Pricing: Free

14. SpeakD

SpeakD – Give voice to your writing

Some learners can struggle with print-based information. They might be learners with learning difficulties like dyslexia or those for whom English is not a native language. 

Fortunately, there is SpeakD. It is an add-on that gives voice to your writing. With its help, you can improve reading accuracy, note-taking, and understanding. You can even correct any mistakes you have made before you hit publish.

Who is it suitable for?

• Students with learning disabilities
• People who want to improve their speech

Best features:

• Can even select specific text in your document to only hear just that part

Pricing: Free

Google Docs Add-Ons for business and productivity

15. Mail Merge

Mail Merge – Easily personalize your emails

Writing personalized emails to customers is a great way to build relationships with them. But you need not type in an email to each customer separately to do that. Mail Merge, a popular feature built within a lot of word processors can help you do that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come built-in with Google Docs. That’s why there is Mail Merge, an add-on, specifically to solve that problem. 

It takes data from a Google spreadsheet and then uses it to replace the fields throughout your email message with the relevant information of each individual that is being messaged.

Who is it suitable for?

• Email marketers
• Business professionals who send bulk emails

Best features:

• Offers a ton of templates
• Has great formatting options for merge fields and regular text 
• Can even add images as labels
• No limit to how many merge fields you can enter

Pricing: Free to use for the first five merges. $30 for a year or $80 for a lifetime license. It also has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

16. DocuSign eSignature

DocuSign eSignature – Prepare, sign and act on contracts right in Google Docs

If you are running a business, you will be constantly working on agreements—from contracts and offer letters to account openings and invoices. And, processing and approving them can take a lot of time, ultimately diminishing your productivity. 

DocuSign eSignature is created to solve that problem. It is one of the best productivity tools that allow you to prepare, sign, act on and manage agreements right from your Google document, helping you complete your business faster. 

Who is it suitable for?

• Real estate agents
• Lawyers
• Contractors

Best features:

• Can sign as many documents as you need
• Mobile app access
• Secured cloud storage for your documents

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start from $10 per month.

17. DocSecrets

DocSecrets – Encrypt and hide sensitive information

Being in the business world, you regularly deal with trade secrets and sensitive material. That’s why, when you are working with sensitive documents, privacy and encryption are of the utmost importance. 

If you are a business user who is looking to share documents that contain sensitive information, you might want to try ‘DocSecrets’. Using that, you can hide areas in your document, displayed as highlighted text. And, when given the correct passphrase it reveals all the hidden areas in your document. 

Best features:

• All encryption is performed in your browser
• Supports document sharing 

Pricing: Free

18. Fillable Document

Fillable Document – Make your document a live fillable form 

‘Fillable Document’ turns your Google document into a live fillable form. These form entries will be stored in your Google spreadsheet. This add-on makes template processing and mail merging easy and visual with Google Docs which comes in handy when you work with templated documents on a day-to-day basis.

Pricing: Free for 10 documents a month. Paid plan is $9 per month or $90 per year.

19. VOGSY

VOGSY – Run business processes in your document

VOGSY is a professional services automation platform that helps you streamline business processes such as Project Management, Finance & Billing, Resource Management, etc.

Who is it suitable for?

• Project managers
• HR managers
• Accountants

Pricing: $19 per user per month

20. Lucidchart Diagrams

Lucidchart Diagrams – The #1 visual productivity platform for teams

A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. Communicating something visually can turn a complex concept into a simple one. If you need a tool that can help you do that, look no further than ‘Lucidchart Diagrams’.

It is a one-stop solution for all your design and visualization needs. You can use it to create flowcharts, ERDs, BPMN diagrams, wireframes, mockups, network diagrams, organizational charts, and more.

Who is it suitable for?

• Designers
• Marketers

Best features:

• Integrates with G Suite, Google Drive, Slack and more
• Real-time collaboration
• In-editor group chat and commenting with @mentions

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start from $7.95 per month.

Google Docs Add-Ons for developers

21. Code Blocks

Code Blocks – Insert code directly into Google Docs

Developers, usually, don’t look at Google Docs as being a potential coding editor. Of course, that’s not what it’s meant for. However, Google Docs can be a great tool for writing your code documentation. But still, it lacks features like syntax highlighting and code formatting. 

That’s where Code Blocks comes in. It makes it easy to put your code directly into Google Docs. 

Pro tip: Use background color for the code area to help your readers spot your code easily.

Who is it suitable for?

• Developers who write technical documentation
• Product managers

Best features:

• One-click syntax highlighting
• Automatic language detection (or choose it yourself)
• Format code inline or as blocks
• Preview changes before updating your document

Pricing: Free

22. Docs to Markdown

Docs to Markdown – Convert a Google document to simple, readable Markdown or HTML

If you want to publish your blog posts or newsletters on the web, you need them in a Markdown or HTML format. But there is no easy way to do that if you use Google Docs’ built-in tools. 

To fill that void, there is ‘Docs to Markdown‘ (previously called gd2md-html). It easily converts your document into a simple and readable Markdown or HTML. 

Who is it suitable for?

• People who use Google Docs to write their posts and move it over to WordPress

Best features:

• Handles embedded paragraphs in list items for Markdown.
• Warns about multiple H1 headings in the top comments

Pricing: Free

More Google Docs Add-Ons

23. G Barcode QR Code Generator

G Barcode QR Code Generator – Generate high-quality images of Barcodes and QR Codes

If you want to generate barcodes or QR codes in your Google document, use the add-on, ‘G Barcode QR Code Generator’. This opens a sidebar in your document where you can configure all the specifics of your code—including its size and color. From there, it takes just a couple of clicks to paste the code into your document.

Pricing: Free for the first 20 codes. The paid plan costs 99 cents per month or $8 dollars per year or $14 dollars for lifetime access.

24. Icons for Slides & Docs

Icons for Slides & Docs – Get access to a large database of icons for Google Docs

Make your document stand out with beautiful icons with ‘Icons for Slides & Docs’. Every icon is customizable to make sure you get the look you want.

Who is it suitable for?

• Designers
• Teachers
• Students

Pricing: $11 per month

25. Flat for Docs

Flat for Docs – Add music notation to your document

Create music notation or tablature to your document easily with ‘Flat for Docs’. You may not be able to compose a full score with this, but this definitely comes in handy for doing your music exam papers or worksheets.

Who is it suitable for?

• Music teachers and students
• Musicians

Pricing: $6.99 per month or $49 per year or $149 for lifetime use. 

Conclusion

So there you go. These add-ons can push the capabilities of Google Docs and turn you into a power user. Go ahead and use the ones that suit your needs. 

If you wish to go a step ahead and create automated workflows between Google Docs and other apps, check out Google Docs integrations.

Frequently Asked Questions