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Readability checker

Flesch reading ease and grade level, with the sentences dragging you down. Free and no account. Nothing leaves your browser.

Nothing is uploaded. Everything here runs in your browser.

What it tells you

  • Flesch reading ease

    The 0 to 100 score, with Flesch's own bands rather than invented ones. 60 to 70 is plain English.

  • Flesch-Kincaid grade level

    The US school grade needed to read it comfortably. Most web writing should land between 7 and 9.

  • The two averages that drive both

    Words per sentence and syllables per word. Every readability formula is some arrangement of these two.

  • Your five hardest sentences

    Ranked by their own grade level, so you get an edit list rather than a verdict.

How to use it

  1. 1Paste your draftAny length. Nothing is uploaded, so unpublished work is safe to paste.
  2. 2Read the scoreReading ease above 60 is comfortable for a general audience. Below 50 is heavy going for anyone not already invested.
  3. 3Fix the worst sentences firstSplit the top two in the hardest-sentences list. That usually moves the overall score more than rewording anything else.

Questions people ask

What is a good Flesch reading ease score?

For most web writing, 60 to 70, which Flesch called plain English and which lands around 8th or 9th grade. Technical documentation can sit lower without being a problem, because the reader arrived motivated and already knows the vocabulary. Marketing copy scoring below 50 is usually costing you readers.

How accurate is the syllable count?

It is a heuristic, and it is wrong on a small share of words. English spelling makes syllables genuinely hard to derive: queue is one syllable and poem is two, from similar letters. This uses the standard vowel-group approach with adjustments for silent endings, which is what every readability tool does. Read the output as about ninth grade rather than as a measurement, and treat any tool claiming an exact grade from a paragraph as overselling the same arithmetic.

Does readability affect SEO?

Not as a ranking factor. Google does not score your Flesch number. It matters because a page people can follow gets read, shared and linked, and one they bounce off does not. The effect is real and it is indirect.

Why is my score low when the words are simple?

Almost always sentence length. The formula weights words per sentence heavily, so a paragraph of ordinary words in one 60 word sentence scores worse than difficult vocabulary in short ones. The hardest-sentences list will show you which ones.

Is my text sent anywhere?

No. This runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored or logged, which you can verify by opening your network tab and typing.

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