Readability Score Checker
Score any text with Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau and ARI as you type.
Enter some text to see its readability scores.
Heads up: short samples give unreliable scores. Aim for at least 3 sentences (100+ words) for a trustworthy result.
Flesch Reading Ease
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Higher is easier. 60–70 is plain English that most adults read comfortably.
Grade level scores
- Flesch–Kincaid grade
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- Gunning Fog index
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- SMOG index
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- Coleman–Liau index
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- Automated Readability
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- Average grade level
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Text statistics
- Words
- 0
- Sentences
- 0
- Syllables
- 0
- Complex words
- 0
- Words / sentence
- 0
- Reading time
- 0 min
Hardest sentences to read
How it works
Paste your text and this readability checker scores it live with six classic formulas: Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch–Kincaid grade level, the Gunning Fog index, SMOG, the Coleman–Liau index and the Automated Readability Index. Each one combines sentence length with word difficulty — measured in syllables for the Flesch family and SMOG, and in letters per word for Coleman–Liau and ARI — so together they give you a rounded picture instead of a single number.
Reading Ease runs from 0 to 100 and higher is easier: aim for 60–70 for a general audience, and treat anything under 30 as academic. The grade level scores estimate the US school year a reader needs to follow the text on a first pass. The "hardest sentences" list ranks your individual sentences by their own reading ease, which is usually the quickest way to find what to rewrite: split the long ones and swap long words for short ones.
Syllables are counted with a vowel-group heuristic, so unusual names and abbreviations can be off by one — the scores are estimates, not exact measurements. Everything is computed in your browser with plain JavaScript. Your draft is never uploaded, stored or sent to any server.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good readability score?
For general web content aim for a Flesch Reading Ease of 60-70, which maps to roughly an 8th to 9th grade reading level and is the range most newspapers and plain-English guidelines target. Marketing copy and support articles often do better at 70-80, while technical documentation for specialists can sit at 40-50 without hurting anyone. Below 30 the text reads as academic and most people will need a second pass to follow it.
How is the Flesch Reading Ease score calculated?
The formula is 206.835 minus 1.015 times the average number of words per sentence minus 84.6 times the average number of syllables per word. Long sentences and long words both push the score down, so the fastest way to raise it is to split sentences and swap multi-syllable words for short ones. Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau and ARI use the same ingredients in different proportions, which is why this tool shows all six plus their average grade level rather than a single number.
Is my text uploaded or stored anywhere?
No. Every count, syllable estimate and formula runs in your browser with plain JavaScript, so unpublished drafts never leave your device. There is no account, no API key, no ads and no tracking of what you paste, and the page keeps working with your network disconnected. Syllables are estimated with a vowel-group heuristic, so treat the scores as close estimates rather than exact measurements.