Check how hard your text is to read with nine published formulas and a consensus grade. Paste your draft and see long sentences, complex words and the pace of your writing at once.
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This Readability Checker runs nine published formulas on text you paste and reports US school grade levels plus a plain English ease score. You also get average words per sentence, complex word counts, long sentences listed out, and pattern counts for passive forms and words ending in -ly.
Paste any draft into the box and run the check. There is no word limit and nothing is sent to a server. The formulas work from two counts: how long your sentences run and how long your words run, with syllables as the word measure.
The page reports Flesch Reading Ease with its plain English band, where 60 to 70 counts as plain English that most adults can follow with ease. It also reports Flesch-Kincaid Grade, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau, Automated Readability Index, Linsear Write and LIX. Each formula weights the counts a bit differently, so the grades rarely agree to the digit.
For that reason the page shows a consensus grade, the middle value of the grade formulas, so one odd score does not pull your reading of the text too far in either direction. Under the scores you get the working details: average words per sentence, how many words have three or more syllables and what share they form, every sentence over 20 words, and counts of possible passive constructions and -ly words worth a second look.
Blog writers use it before publishing to catch a draft that crept up to a college grade when the audience needs plain language. A post can read well to its writer and still hide three 35 word sentences that tire a reader on a phone.
Teachers and students use it to match handouts and essays to a target grade. Support teams use it on help articles and reply templates, where a lower grade usually means fewer follow-up questions. Job posters and public bodies use it on notices that must be clear to a wide audience by policy or by law.
It also helps in editing passes. If the consensus grade sits two levels above your target, the long sentence list shows you where to cut first. Shortening the longest sentences moves the scores faster than swapping single hard words, and the list saves you hunting for them.
Some writing suites keep the readability score inside a paid plan. Here the full set runs free, on text of any length, with the formulas named so you can look up how each one is built. That openness matters because a score you cannot trace is hard to act on.
Scores vary a little between checkers. Syllable counters differ on words like business, every and different, and a one syllable swing across many words shifts the grade. Treat a half grade gap between tools as noise, not as an error in either tool. Compare scores from the same checker across drafts of the same piece instead, which is the use these formulas were built for.
Grade levels are US school grades. A grade 8 result means a typical US student in the eighth school year can handle the text on a first read. It does not mean the text is childish, and many best sellers and major newspapers sit near that level on purpose.
The formulas count sentence length and word length only. They cannot judge clarity, logic, truth or tone. Short choppy nonsense can score as easy reading, and a careful technical passage can score as hard even when its audience follows it with no trouble.
The passive count is a pattern count, not a firm ruling. It spots shapes like a form of be plus a past participle, and some matches are active in sense or are the clearest way to say the thing. The -ly count works the same way and includes plain words like family or only in some counters, so read the list as prompts for your own judgement. Your readers remain the real test, and a score is a guide for revision, never a grade for the ideas.
A score of 60 to 70 is plain English for a general audience. Scores of 70 to 80 read easier still, while scores under 50 suit trained readers. Match the target to your audience rather than chasing the highest number.
For the open web, grade 7 to 9 works for most topics. Legal, medical and academic writing often sits higher by need. Use the consensus grade on this page as your guide and keep it steady across a site.
Syllable counting rules differ between tools, and each formula weights sentence and word length in its own way. Small gaps are normal. What matters is the change when you revise the same text in the same checker.
No. The formulas cannot judge clarity, correctness or sense. Nonsense in short sentences scores well. Read the long sentence list, fix the worst spots, then read the draft aloud as a final check.
A word with three or more syllables. The page shows the count and the share of your total words. A high share often points to jargon you can swap for shorter plain words your readers already know.
No. Paste text of any length and run the check as often as you like. The work happens in your browser, your text is not uploaded, and no account is needed.
Same rules as this one: free, in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
Words, characters, sentences and reading time, live.
UPPER, lower, Title and sentence case in one click.
Characters with and without spaces, counted as you type.
Count sentences and check how long they run.
Count paragraphs, lines and words in one paste.
Count letters alone, with spaces and lines shown too.
Headlines capitalized the way style guides ask for.
How many minutes your text takes to read or say aloud.