How to check readability
- Paste your text: a blog post, landing page, email, report or school essay. Results update as you type.
- Read the Flesch Reading Ease score (higher is easier) and the average grade level across five formulas.
- Check the highlights: long sentences in yellow and very long ones in red, possible passive voice with a wavy underline and adverbs with a dotted underline.
- Shorten the highlighted sentences and swap long words for shorter ones, then watch the scores improve.
What the scores mean
Flesch Reading Ease runs from about 0 to 100 and is based on sentence length and syllables per word. 60–70 is plain English that most adults read comfortably; above 80 is easy enough for children; below 30 reads like academic papers. Most web content should aim for 60 or higher.
Grade levels estimate the US school grade needed to understand the text. Flesch–Kincaid uses words per sentence and syllables; Gunning Fog counts complex words of three or more syllables; SMOG was designed for health information; Coleman–Liau and the Automated Readability Index use letters per word instead of syllables. Formulas disagree a little, so the average is shown. For a general audience, aim for grade 7–9.
Readability formulas measure surface features, not meaning, so treat them as a guide. A short sentence full of jargon can still confuse readers. Plain language improves comprehension for everyone, including non-native speakers and people reading on phones, and it tends to keep visitors on the page longer.
Analysis happens in your browser; your text is not uploaded or stored anywhere else.
What is a good Flesch reading ease score?
60–70 is a good target for most websites and business writing. Consumer content and instructions should aim for 70 or more.
How do I make my writing easier to read?
Keep sentences under about 20 words, use everyday words, prefer active voice, split long paragraphs and use headings and lists.
Is the syllable count exact?
It uses a well-tested rule-based estimate for English, which is accurate enough for readability scores but can be off by one for unusual words.