Readability Score Checker

There are no settings to adjust. The report is built from whatever text sits in the box and refreshes while you type or edit.

1. Paste your text into the input box, or type directly. A full paragraph or more gives steadier scores than a single line.
2. Look at the Flesch reading ease line first. It shows a number and a plain-language band such as Plain English (8th to 9th grade).
3. Check the grade-level scores below it: Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau and the Automated readability index, followed by their average.
4. Read the counts underneath: words, sentences, syllables, complex words, average and longest sentence length, and the number of sentences over 25 words.
5. Shorten the longest sentences and replace long words, then watch the scores change. Reading time and speaking time appear at the end.

The checker works on the text exactly as pasted. Headings, menu text and captions are counted as part of the sentences around them, so remove navigation text and boilerplate before you paste if you want a score for the body copy alone.

All of these formulas look at two things: how long the sentences are and how long the words are. Flesch reading ease is 206.835 - 1.015 x (words / sentences) - 84.6 x (syllables / words). Higher is easier. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level is 0.39 x (words / sentences) + 11.8 x (syllables / words) - 15.59 and gives a US school grade. Gunning Fog counts complex words of three or more syllables, SMOG leans on them even more heavily, and Coleman-Liau and the Automated readability index use letters per word instead of syllables.

Take the sample sentences about a cat and a dog: 27 words, 4 sentences and 31 syllables. That is 6.75 words per sentence and 1.15 syllables per word. Reading ease is 206.835 - 1.015 x 6.75 - 84.6 x 1.148, which comes to about 103, a very easy text. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level works out at 0.6. Scores above 100 are possible with very short sentences, and a long, heavy sentence can even score below zero.

Scores are most helpful as a comparison. Check a draft, edit it, and see whether the numbers move in the right direction. Web copy aimed at the public often works well in the plain English band or a little easier, while technical or legal writing will naturally score lower. The line counting sentences over 25 words gives you a ready-made editing list, and the complex-word percentage shows where shorter alternatives could help. Reading time uses 200 words a minute and speaking time uses 130, with a minimum of one minute, which suits planning a talk or a video script.

Know the limits. The checker is for English only, and syllables are counted by a rule, so the figures differ slightly from other tools. It warns when the sample has fewer than about 100 words, since short passages swing wildly, which includes the cat and dog sample above. Most importantly, the formulas measure the length of sentences and words, not clarity, accuracy or tone. A paragraph of short, misleading sentences scores as easy, and a precise explanation that needs a technical term may score as hard. Treat the numbers as a prompt to reread, not as a verdict. Reading the text aloud, or asking someone unfamiliar with the subject to try it, will catch problems that no formula can.

To keep working on a draft, the word counter tracks length against a limit, the sentence counter shows how your sentences are distributed, and the free online notepad gives you somewhere to rewrite them. Titles are better handled by the title case converter.