Readability checker
Paste a page, an article or an email to see how easy it is to read. You'll get three standard readability scores, the reading time, and a list of the long sentences worth splitting first. Everything runs in your browser, so your text isn't sent anywhere.
Readability Checker
Paste your text. It's scored in your browser and never sent anywhere.
Paste some text, or try the sample, to see its scores
Key takeaways
- Paste any English text to get a Flesch Reading Ease score, a Flesch-Kincaid grade level and a Gunning Fog index.
- The checker lists your longest sentences first, because shortening them usually improves the score most.
- For web pages written for a general audience, aim for a reading ease of 60 or more and a grade level of 8 or below.
- Your text is scored in your browser and is never uploaded or stored.
How the readability scores work
| Score | What it measures | Aim for on the web |
|---|---|---|
| Flesch Reading Ease | Sentence length and syllables per word, on a 0–100 scale where higher is easier | 60 or above |
| Flesch-Kincaid grade | The US school grade a reader needs to follow the text | 8 or below |
| Gunning Fog index | Years of education needed, giving extra weight to words of three or more syllables | Under 12, and under 8 for a broad audience |
The Flesch Reading Ease scale
| Score | How it reads |
|---|---|
| 90–100 | Very easy |
| 80–89 | Easy |
| 70–79 | Fairly easy |
| 60–69 | Plain English |
| 50–59 | Fairly difficult |
| 30–49 | Difficult |
| 0–29 | Very difficult |
Want this applied to your site?
The free written audit identifies exactly where these improvements move the needle for your pages — no call required.
Does readability affect SEO?
There's no evidence that Google uses readability formulas such as Flesch as a ranking factor. Clear writing helps in other ways: readers understand the page and are more likely to act on it, and AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews find it easier to quote a short sentence that answers a question on its own.
How to make your writing easier to read
- Keep most sentences under 20 words. Split long ones where a second idea starts.
- Use the everyday word: "use" rather than "utilise", "help" rather than "facilitate".
- Prefer active voice: "We fixed the bug", not "The bug was fixed".
- Put the answer first, then the detail.
- Break steps and options into lists, and keep paragraphs to one idea.
What readability formulas can't tell you
The formulas only count sentences, words and syllables. They can't tell whether a short sentence is confusing, or whether a technical term is one your readers use every day. Treat the scores as a prompt to look again, not a target to hit at any cost. Syllables are estimated, so scores can differ slightly from other tools.
Frequently asked questions
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