Readability Checker
Score how easy your writing is to read.
How to use the Readability Checker
- Paste the text you want to check.
- Read the reading-ease score and grade level.
- Shorten sentences and simplify words to improve it.
About the Readability Checker
The Readability Checker scores how hard your text is to read using three classic formulas: Flesch Reading Ease, the Flesch–Kincaid grade level and the Gunning Fog index. All three are driven by the same raw ingredients — your average words per sentence and your average syllables (or share of longer words) per word — so shorter sentences and simpler words push every score toward “easier”. It also shows sentence, word and syllable counts and how many words run to three or more syllables.
It is a quick sanity check for blog posts, emails, help docs or anything meant for a broad audience: aim for plain English and you will reach more readers. Everything is computed in your browser, so your text stays private.
Two honest limits. Syllables are estimated by a vowel-group heuristic, not looked up in a dictionary, so unusual names or words can be counted wrong and nudge the scores. And all three formulas are English-only and decades old — they measure sentence and word length, not whether your writing is clear, accurate or well argued. Use the number as a guide, not a verdict. To trim wordy passages, try the text summarizer, or check word balance with the keyword density checker.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Flesch Reading Ease score?
Higher is easier. Scores around 60 to 70 read as plain English suitable for most adults; below 30 is hard, university-level text. The right target depends on your audience, so treat the band as guidance rather than a pass mark.
How are syllables counted?
They are estimated with a heuristic that counts vowel groups and adjusts for a silent trailing “e”, the standard approach for readability tools. It is not a dictionary lookup, so unusual or foreign words can be off by a syllable, which shifts the scores slightly.
Why do the three scores sometimes disagree?
Each formula weights sentence length and word complexity differently, so a text with long sentences but simple words can land in different places on each scale. Read them together rather than trusting any single one.
Does a good score mean my writing is good?
No. These formulas only measure sentence and word length. Clear, accurate, well-organised writing can score in any band; use the score to catch overly long sentences and heavy words, not to judge quality.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. All scoring happens in your browser, so nothing you paste is sent to a server or stored.