Readability score checker
This readability checker scores English text with six common formulas and explains what the grade level means. Writers, teachers, marketers and students use it to check whether a draft is easy enough for the people who will read it.
- Runs in your browser
- Free, no account needed
- Copy or download the result
Result
Example
Good writing is easy to read. Short sentences help readers follow your point. Long words and long sentences slow them down, especially on a phone screen. Try reading your draft out loud. If you run out of breath before a sentence ends, split it in two.
Flesch Reading Ease: 87.1 (easy, about 6th grade) Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 3.4 Gunning Fog Index: 4.5 SMOG Index: not calculated (it needs at least 30 sentences; this text has 5) Coleman-Liau Index: 6.5 Automated Readability Index: 3.6 Average grade level: 4.5 What this means: the grade scores estimate the US school grade a reader needs to understand the text on first reading. An average of 4.5 is about US grade 5, so a typical student aged 10 to 11 should be able to read it. Flesch Reading Ease runs the other way: higher scores (up to about 100) are easier. Counts Sentences: 5 Words: 46 Syllables (estimated): 60 Words with 3 or more syllables: 3 Complex words for Gunning Fog: 1 Letters: 200 Average words per sentence: 9.2 Average syllables per word: 1.30 Note: texts under 100 words give less stable scores.
How to use the readability score checker
- Paste your text into the English text box.
- Press Run to score it.
- Read the scores, the plain explanation and the sentence, word and syllable counts.
- Press Copy result or Download to keep the report.
How it works
Flesch Reading Ease uses 206.835 minus 1.015 times words per sentence minus 84.6 times syllables per word, and Flesch-Kincaid uses 0.39 times words per sentence plus 11.8 times syllables per word minus 15.59.
Gunning Fog, Coleman-Liau and the Automated Readability Index are also shown, plus an average grade level. SMOG is only calculated when the text has at least 30 sentences, because the formula was built for 30-sentence samples.
Syllables are estimated with an English rule of thumb: count vowel groups, drop a silent final e and most -es and -ed endings, and count a consonant plus -le as a syllable. Some words will be off by one, so treat scores as estimates.
Sentences end at a period, question mark, exclamation mark or blank line. Common abbreviations such as Mr. and e.g. do not end a sentence.
Text over 200,000 characters is rejected, and texts under 100 words get a note that scores are less stable.
Everything runs in your browser. Your input is not uploaded or stored.
Questions and answers
What is a good Flesch Reading Ease score?
Scores of 60 to 70 count as plain English that most adults read easily. Higher scores are easier, and scores under 30 are very hard to read.
What does Flesch-Kincaid grade level mean?
It estimates the US school grade a reader needs to understand the text on first reading. A score of 8 means a typical 8th grader, about 13 to 14 years old, should follow it.
Why is the SMOG score missing?
SMOG was designed for samples of 30 sentences. The tool leaves it out for shorter texts instead of showing a number that would be unreliable.
Does it work for languages other than English?
The formulas and the syllable rule are made for English, so scores for other languages will not mean much.