Readability Checker
Paste any text to calculate its Flesch Reading Ease score and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Understand how easy or difficult your writing is to read and how to improve it.
Readability Checker
Flesch Reading Ease Score Reference
90–100: Very Easy
Understood by an average 11-year-old. Used in children's books and simple instructions. Short sentences, one-syllable words dominate.
70–90: Easy
Plain English. Suitable for general web content, marketing copy, and consumer-facing product descriptions. Newspapers like USA Today target this range.
60–70: Standard
Average readability. The New York Times and most business writing falls here. Accessible to most adults who are comfortable readers.
30–60: Difficult
College-level reading. Academic journals, legal documents, and technical writing typically score here. Requires focused reading to understand.
0–30: Very Difficult
Expert-level text. Graduate academic papers, dense legal contracts, and highly technical documentation. Best understood by specialists in the field.
How to Improve
Split long sentences. Replace polysyllabic words with shorter synonyms. Use the active voice. These three changes have the biggest impact on your score.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Flesch Reading Ease score?
The Flesch Reading Ease score rates text on a scale of 0–100. Higher scores mean easier reading. Scores of 60–70 are considered standard (plain English). Scores above 80 are very easy (simple English). Scores below 30 are very difficult (university-level text). The formula weights average sentence length and average syllables per word.
What is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level?
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level maps text complexity to a US school grade level. A score of 8.0 means the text is readable by an 8th-grader. Most newspapers target Grade 8–12. Technical or academic writing often scores Grade 14+ (college level). Lower scores indicate more accessible writing.
How can I improve my readability score?
The two biggest factors are sentence length and word complexity. To improve your score: split long sentences (over 25 words) into two shorter ones; replace multi-syllable words with simpler synonyms where possible; use the active voice (shorter sentence structures); and avoid nested clauses.
What readability score should I aim for?
It depends on your audience. General web content: aim for 60–70 (standard). Marketing copy and landing pages: aim for 70–80 (easy). Technical documentation: 50–60 is acceptable. Academic papers: 30–50. Children's content: 80–100. The key is matching complexity to your reader's expected level.
Why is my score different from other readability tools?
Syllable counting algorithms vary between tools — accurate syllable counting in English is a hard problem due to exceptions and irregularities. Different tools use different heuristic algorithms, which can produce slightly different syllable counts and therefore different scores. Results across tools may differ by a few points.
Does the tool support languages other than English?
The Flesch formulas were designed for English text and calibrated on English syllable patterns. The tool will produce a numeric result for other languages, but the score will not be meaningful in the same way, as syllable counting uses English heuristics.