Most people use AI to revise articles in this way: copy the text into ChatGPT, say “Help me polish this paragraph,” and then watch as AI returns a completely new version of the text. You then manually compare the two versions to see what changed. This back-and-forth process is inefficient and unintuitive. editGPT solves this problem by presenting ChatGPT’s edits in a “track changes” format, similar to Word’s revision mode, so you can clearly see exactly what was deleted and what was added at a glance.
What is editGPT?
editGPT is a browser extension for ChatGPT (primarily supporting Chrome) that adds a feature to the ChatGPT interface: when you ask ChatGPT to revise your article, its response is displayed in track changes format—deleted content is marked with red strikethroughs, and added content is highlighted in green. This allows you to clearly see every specific edit.
It is essentially not an independent AI service, but a tool that enhances the ChatGPT user experience, specifically optimized for the scenario of “having AI help me revise my article.”
What Problem Does It Solve?
Anyone who has used ChatGPT to revise articles knows the feeling:
You send a 300-word text to AI and ask it to polish it. AI returns a revised version of 280 words. The question is, how do you know what changed? You have to place the two texts side by side and compare them character by character. Small changes are easily missed, while large changes leave you unsure if they align with your intended direction.
editGPT automates this comparison work. All edits are displayed as annotations within ChatGPT’s response, allowing you to see at a glance through color coding: which word was replaced, which sentence was deleted, and where a clause was added.
For those who take their original writing seriously—such as wanting to preserve their own writing style or only correcting specific errors rather than rewriting the entire piece—this visualized difference feature is genuinely useful.
Key Features
Track Changes Display
The core feature. After installing the extension, when you make a revision request in ChatGPT (e.g., “Fix the grammar in this paragraph” or “Improve the clarity of the article”), ChatGPT’s response will automatically apply track changes formatting:
- Deleted content: Red text with strikethrough
- Added content: Green text with underline
- Unchanged content: Standard black text
You can instantly see what edits AI made without manually comparing the original and revised texts.
Accept/Reject Edits
For each edit, you can choose to accept (apply the change) or reject (keep the original text), rather than having to accept or reject all of AI’s changes for an entire paragraph at once. This gives you finer control over the editing results.
Compatibility with ChatGPT’s Native Features
editGPT does not alter ChatGPT’s core functionality; it simply adds a visual layer on top of revision responses. You are still using ChatGPT, just viewing the results in a more intuitive way.
Suitable Scenarios
English Academic Writing: When writing an English paper and wanting ChatGPT to help with grammar and expression, but wishing to retain your own description of the research content without having AI rewrite everything. Track changes allows you to see every edit clearly and decide whether to keep or accept it.
English Business Writing: When drafting emails, reports, or proposals, sending them to AI for revision, and wanting to verify that AI hasn’t altered your meaning or made unnecessary changes.
Language Learning: Using ChatGPT to revise your own English writing, then using the track changes feature to clearly identify grammatical issues or inaccurate word choices as learning materials.
Editing and Proofreading Work: When you need to present revision suggestions clearly to others; the track changes format is the standard workflow for such scenarios.
How to Use It
- Search for “editGPT” in the Chrome Web Store and install the extension.
- Open ChatGPT (chat.openai.com).
- Send your text to ChatGPT in a conversation, asking it to revise (e.g., “Please improve this paragraph,” “Check the grammar,” etc.).
- If AI’s response is a revised version, editGPT will automatically display track changes formatting within the response.
No additional setup is required; simply use it normally in ChatGPT after installing the extension.
Comparison with Other Tools
vs Grammarly: Grammarly is a professional grammar and style checking tool with its own AI engine, offering more specialized real-time checking and explanations. editGPT is essentially an auxiliary tool for using ChatGPT. If you are already using ChatGPT to revise articles, editGPT makes the process smoother, but it is not an independent grammar checking tool.
vs Paperpal: Paperpal is a professional polishing tool tailored for academic writing, with more comprehensive features (consistency checks, journal recommendations, specialized terminology understanding). editGPT is simpler, focusing solely on visualizing ChatGPT’s edits; their functional positioning differs.
vs Word’s Track Changes: Word has built-in track changes functionality, but this is used when you are editing yourself and does not involve AI. editGPT allows AI’s edits to be presented in the same format, merging the two workflows.
Pricing
editGPT’s basic features are free and do not require an additional subscription. However, you need a ChatGPT account (the free version is sufficient; use ChatGPT Plus if you want to use GPT-4).
Limitations
Dependent on ChatGPT: editGPT is an enhancement plugin for ChatGPT and cannot be used independently of it. If you do not use ChatGPT, it has no value.
Limited Functionality: Its core function is solely the visualization of track changes, without a complex feature set.
AI Edit Quality Depends on Your Prompts: editGPT makes the editing results more readable, but the quality of the edits themselves still depends on the quality of ChatGPT and the prompts you provide.
Chrome Limitations: It primarily supports the Chrome browser; other browsers may not be supported or may offer an incomplete experience.
Limited Chinese Scenarios: It is mainly targeted at English writing scenarios; there are few use cases for revising Chinese articles with it.
Practical Advice
Use with specific modification instructions: Asking ChatGPT to "edit this article" is too vague. Specify exactly what needs changing—for example, "only fix grammatical errors without altering sentence structure," or "improve paragraph clarity while preserving technical terminology." This ensures the AI’s edits align more closely with your needs and makes tracking the results more useful for evaluation.
Carefully verify important content before accepting changes: AI edits can sometimes alter meaning, especially in technical or specialized content. Tracking changes lets you see what was modified, but you must ultimately decide whether to accept them.
editGPT is a lightweight tool with a clear purpose. It doesn’t solve overly complex problems, but for those who frequently use ChatGPT to edit English articles, it genuinely streamlines the workflow. If this sounds like your use case, installing it is worth trying—and it’s free.