When do you use kurai vs gurai? It doesn’t seem to say on the page for the grammar point.
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as far as i researched about it before, they are literally interchangeable.
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I have just created a new word that I use: kuraiguraigoro
It’s not correct but it’s about right
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That was so lame, I had to like it.
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According to the grammar point entry, ぐらい is more common in speech. As @stillwill said, the two are interchangeable. There are multiple hinative threads on this, and all the ones I spot checked said they are the same, and that it mostly comes down to the speaker’s choice. This one has an answer that points to a particular usage pattern, but other speakers in the same thread just said they’re the same.
It’s possible ぐらい arises naturally the same way 連濁 does for other words, or it could also be a regional thing. Just speculating there.
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I have updated both くらい grammar points with this caution note. くらい and ぐらい may be used 100% interchangably, but ぐらい is far more common in speech.
Occasionally people may argue about a small difference, but realistically there isn’t any. ぐらい is used more often simply because it is easier to say without needing to pause in speech. This is also true for ごろ.
Disclaimer - There may be some difference regionally, but none that I have ever been exposed to (living in Tokyo).
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From my experience living in Japan previously and working now at a Japanese company, ぐらい is used nearly 100% of the time. In writing, it depends mostly on the setting and the addressee (internal mail vs mail to customer e.g.).
Just like mentioned above by Asher, there is no difference, or at least none worth fussing over.
Disclaimer - in Japan I was living in Utsunomiya but my current company is from Kansai; I couldn’t notice any regional difference regarding くらい / ぐらい.
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I just happened to come across this document, which is a list of the 5000 most common words in Japanese sorted by frequency. It happens to have a call out for くらい・ぐらい (p. 15):
It’s a pretty cool document. I was planning to go through it to look for any words I might not yet have in my Anki deck, but I found it’s also full of useful little pronunciation tips that like one.
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I’ve always gone with ぐらい has it’s easier to say.
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both were fine for me until ‘to the extent’ is added to also use くらい.
then nightmare began