Comparison
Pilcrow vs Gboard on iPhone
Gboard is Google’s keyboard, and on iPhone it is free, with Google Search, GIFs and glide typing built in. Pilcrow is a paid keyboard built around corrections and several languages at once. They are good at different things; here is which is which.
The short answer. Choose Gboard if you want search, GIFs and stickers inside the keyboard and you want it free. Choose Pilcrow if your priority is corrections that leave your words alone, languages that change mid-sentence, a keyboard that works with Full Access off, or a learned dictionary you can read and edit one word at a time.
We make Pilcrow. Every statement about Gboard below is taken from Google’s Gboard Help pages for iPhone or from Gboard’s App Store listing, as they stood in October 2026, and linked at the end.
What Gboard does well
- Google in the keyboard. The listing’s pitch is search without leaving the conversation: places, videos, images, weather, news, sports scores. If you share links and look things up mid-chat, nothing else on the iPhone does this as directly.
- GIFs, emoji search and stickers, all from the keyboard.
- Glide typing, Gboard’s name for swipe. Google’s help page notes that not every language supports it.
- Up to three languages at a time. Google’s iPhone setup page says Gboard “can support up to 3 languages at a time”, and the listing’s version notes say you can type in several without changing language, with the caveat that not all languages are supported.
- A clear privacy statement. The listing spells out what Gboard sends to Google and what it does not (see below).
- It is free, and widely used: the US listing shows a 4.1 rating from about 60,000 ratings.
Where the two differ
Updates
The App Store’s version history for Gboard on iPhone lists 2.3.19, released in May 2022, as the latest version. That does not mean it has stopped working, and plenty of people use it happily. It does mean that if you have seen a Gboard feature on an Android phone, check Google’s iPhone help pages before assuming the iPhone app has it. Pilcrow is updated regularly, and new languages and fixes to existing ones arrive as downloads without waiting for an app update.
What Full Access is for
Google’s setup page says that with Full Access on, you can use Google Search on your keyboard: “Your searches will be sent to Google, but nothing else will be shared.” Gboard’s listing adds the detail. It sends your searches to Google to show results, sends usage statistics so Google can see which features are used and understand crashes, and sends voice input to Google for transcription if you use the microphone. It says that, other than searches and voice input, it does not send anything you type to Google, and that the words it stores to help with spelling stay on the device and can be cleared.
Pilcrow’s Full Access does something narrower. Turning it on adds haptic feedback, the clipboard panel with its paste chip, and the app’s view of the words the keyboard has learned. It cannot add network access, because the Pilcrow keyboard contains no networking code at all; there is no search in it to send anywhere. Everything typing-related works with the switch off. The general question is covered in what “Allow Full Access” means on iPhone.
Several languages
Gboard handles up to three at a time. Pilcrow lets you enable several and tells them apart word by word, so a sentence that changes language halfway through needs no globe key, and every language can be typed on the layout your fingers already know. If you write in two or three languages, both can cover you; the difference is in how each decides which language a word belongs to, and whether you can keep the layout you know.
Corrections, and what you can see of them
Pilcrow is tuned to leave correctly spelled words alone: on held-out text it changes a correct word fewer than 7 times in 1,000 while restoring 61–72 % of words typed with a genuine slip, quoted at the worst end across the languages it ships. Undo a correction once and that correction is never applied to that word again. Everything it has learned — words, phrases, spellings, corrections you accepted or refused — is a list you can open from the keyboard and edit one line at a time.
Gboard’s listing says the words it stores can be cleared at any time. We could not find a description of a per-word view in Google’s iPhone help, so we make no claim either way about one.
Side by side
| Gboard (iOS) | Pilcrow | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free for three days, then a one-time purchase or a yearly or monthly plan |
| Languages at once | Up to three | Several, told apart word by word |
| Swipe typing | Glide typing, not in every language | In every language it ships, and across the space bar |
| Search, GIFs, stickers | Built in | No |
| Full Access used for | Google Search in the keyboard | Haptics, the clipboard panel, the app’s view of learned words |
| Network in the keyboard | Searches, usage statistics and voice input go to Google, per its listing | None; the keyboard has no networking code |
| Latest iPhone version | 2.3.19, May 2022 | Updated regularly |
Which one should you pick?
Gboard is the better fit if search, GIFs and stickers in the keyboard are what you use most, if you want a free keyboard, or if you already rely on Google’s voice typing.
Pilcrow is the better fit if you are tired of correct words being changed, if you switch language mid-sentence, if you want the keyboard to work fully without Full Access, or if you want to see exactly what it has learned and remove any single piece of it.
You can keep both. Add them in Settings › General › Keyboard › Keyboards and switch with the globe key. Pilcrow’s three free days start from the first word you type with it, and nothing is charged when they end.
Weighing Microsoft’s keyboard too? Read Pilcrow vs SwiftKey, or the roundup of keyboards for typing in two languages.
Last checked October 2026 against Google’s Gboard Help pages for iPhone and the US App Store listing. Google and Gboard are trademarks of Google LLC; Pilcrow is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. If anything here is out of date, write to info@pilcrowtype.com.
Sources
- App Store, Gboard – the Google Keyboard (description, privacy section, version history, ratings)
- Gboard Help, Set up Gboard – iPhone & iPad (Full Access, up to three languages)
- Gboard Help, Type in a different language – iPhone & iPad
- Gboard Help, Slide your finger to type – iPhone & iPad
Read next
- Pilcrow vs Microsoft SwiftKey on iPhoneA fair comparison of two iPhone keyboards for people who type in more than one language: how many languages at once, Full Access, accounts and backup, what you can see of your own dictionary, and price.
- The best iPhone keyboards for typing in two languages (2026)Five iPhone keyboards compared for bilingual and multilingual typing: Apple’s keyboard, Gboard, Microsoft SwiftKey, Typewise and Pilcrow. Languages at once, swipe, Full Access, accounts and price.
- What “Allow Full Access” means for iPhone keyboardsThe warning iOS shows for every third-party keyboard, explained from Apple’s own documentation: what a keyboard can do without Full Access, what changes with it, what Gboard, SwiftKey and Pilcrow use it for, and how to decide.
- Pilcrow: the keyboard that never argues backWhat it does, the measured numbers, screenshots and the price.