Free tool
Readability Checker That Marks the Sentences Making Your Text Hard
Paste a page of copy and you get a reading ease score, a grade level and the text itself with the trouble spots highlighted. It is made for English and checks everything in your browser.
Reading ease
Grade level, average
US school grade needed to follow it
Your text, marked
Show
Hover a marked word to see a plainer one. English only. The text is kept in this browser.
Your text is checked in your browser and never sent anywhere. The last text you pasted and your highlight choices are kept on your own device.
Reviewing page copy before it goes live
Service pages and landing pages are read quickly, often on a phone. A score tells you how hard the text is, and the highlights tell you why. Paste the copy, read the top figure, then scroll the marked version and fix what lights up. The Try a sample button loads a deliberately stiff paragraph so you can see each kind of mark before using your own words.
The scores you get
| Score | What it reads |
|---|---|
| Flesch Reading Ease | A figure out of 100, where a higher number is easier |
| Flesch-Kincaid grade | A school grade based on sentence length and syllables |
| Gunning Fog | A grade that leans on long words |
| SMOG | A grade based on words of three or more syllables |
| Coleman-Liau | A grade based on letters per word and sentence count |
| Automated Readability Index | A grade from letters per word and words per sentence |
The big grade number is the average of the five grade formulas. Syllables are counted by rule, as every tool of this kind has to do, so the figures are close and not exact. Short texts swing a lot, so give it at least a few sentences.
What the highlights mean
- Long sentences are shaded when they pass twenty words, and shaded more strongly past thirty.
- Hard words are words of three or more syllables, apart from names and some common endings.
- Passive voice is spotted by a form of to be or to get followed by a past participle.
- Adverbs are words ending in ly, with a list of exceptions such as family and early.
- Wordy phrases have a plainer suggestion that shows when you hover over them.
Each kind can be switched off, and the counts next to the switches update as you edit.
Where the tool stops
The marks are pattern matches, so they sometimes flag a word that is fine and miss one that is not. A hard word may be the exact word your reader expects, like a product name. Treat the highlights as questions to ask of your text, not orders. It reads English only, and it does not check grammar or spelling, for which the spell checker is better.
Reading a grade level sensibly
A grade level is a statement about sentence length and word length, not about how smart your reader is. Text for a general audience that sits at a middle school level is not dumbed down. It is quicker to read, and busy people read it with less effort. A technical page for specialists can score higher without being a problem, as long as the difficulty comes from necessary terms and not from long, winding sentences.
Use the score to compare two versions of the same paragraph. If the rewrite moves the number toward easier and your meaning is intact, the change helped.
A quick editing routine
- Paste the copy and note the starting score.
- Fix the very long sentences first, since splitting one sentence in two lowers the score the most.
- Replace marked wordy phrases with the plainer suggestion where it keeps your meaning.
- Turn passive lines around so the person doing the thing comes first.
- Look at the hard words and keep only the ones your reader needs.
Then paste the new version and compare the two scores side by side.
Plain writing and conversion
Clear wording supports a page that needs to turn visitors into enquiries. Our beginner guide to website conversion optimization shows where copy sits among the other levers.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Flesch Reading Ease score?
The tool names a band for your score, such as Plain English or Fairly hard, and the school level it matches. For most business pages, plain wording in the middle bands is a sensible aim.
Why do the grade levels disagree with each other?
Each formula weighs sentence length, word length and syllables differently. The page shows all five and averages them so one oddity does not decide the result.
Does it work for languages other than English?
No. The formulas and word lists are for English, so scores for other languages will mean little.
Can it fix my text?
It marks and suggests, but you do the editing. Hover a marked wordy phrase to see a plainer alternative.
Is the text I paste sent anywhere?
No. The analysis runs in your browser. The latest text is kept on your own device so it is there when you return.
Why is there no score for very short text?
A few words give a number that jumps around, so the page asks for at least a few sentences before it shows scores.
Are adverbs always bad?
No. The tool marks words ending in ly so you can look at them, not because each one is wrong. Many are doing real work and deserve to stay.
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