Readability Checker
The readability checker scores text with the Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch–Kincaid Grade and Gunning Fog formulas, and shows the sentence and syllable averages behind them. All three measure sentence and word length, which is a useful proxy for difficulty and not a judgement of whether the writing is any good.
Text
Readability
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How to use the Readability Checker
- Paste at least a paragraph — scores from one or two sentences are meaningless.
- Read the Flesch Reading Ease score first: higher is easier, and 60 to 70 is plain English.
- Use the sentence and syllable averages to see what is driving the score.
- Shorten the longest sentences and replace the longest words, then check again.
Example
Input
The cat sat on the mat. It was a small cat.
Output
Flesch Reading Ease: 99.7 — Very easy
Common use cases
- Checking that public-facing copy is readable by a general audience.
- Meeting a plain-English requirement for government or healthcare content.
- Finding the paragraphs in a long article that are hardest going.
- Comparing a draft against a rewrite to confirm the edit actually helped.
Limitations and things to watch for
- Every formula here measures only sentence length and word length. A short sentence made of jargon scores well and communicates nothing, so a good score is necessary rather than sufficient.
- Syllable counting is a heuristic. English spelling has no reliable rule for it, so individual words will be counted wrongly; across a paragraph the errors average out.
- The formulas were calibrated on English prose. Scores for other languages, for code, or for text full of names and numbers are not meaningful.
- Flesch Reading Ease can go below zero or above 100 for extreme text. That is the formula behaving normally, not an error.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Flesch score?
Around 60 to 70 is plain English and suits a general audience. Newspapers typically land in the 50s, academic writing in the 30s or below. Aim for 60 or above for anything a non-specialist has to act on.
Which formula should I use?
Flesch Reading Ease for a single number to track over time, Flesch–Kincaid Grade when you need to state a reading level, and Gunning Fog when the concern is dense multi-syllable vocabulary. They mostly agree, so pick one and stay with it.
Why did my score change when I only edited punctuation?
Because sentence count drives every formula. Splitting one long sentence into two immediately improves the score without changing a word, which is a fair reflection of how much easier it is to read.
Does a good score mean the writing is good?
No. These measure length, not clarity, accuracy or structure. Text can score well and still be vague or wrong. Treat a poor score as a prompt to look at your longest sentences, not as a verdict.
Is my text uploaded?
No. The analysis runs entirely in your browser, so unpublished drafts stay on your device.