Readability Score
Paste your text and get its readability at a glance: a Flesch Reading Ease score, the grade level a typical reader needs, and supporting metrics.
- Flesch-Kincaid grade
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- Gunning Fog
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- SMOG
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- Words
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- Sentences
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- Syllables
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- Avg words / sentence
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- Avg syllables / word
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How it works
Readability formulas estimate how hard a text is to read from two things: sentence length and word length (approximated by syllable count). All scoring happens in your browser.
- Flesch Reading Ease — 0 to 100. Higher is easier. 60–80 is plain, everyday writing; below 30 is academic or technical.
- Flesch-Kincaid grade — the US school grade needed to understand the text on first read.
- Gunning Fog — like Flesch-Kincaid, but based on "complex" words (three or more syllables).
- SMOG — counts polysyllabic words and is often preferred for health and safety writing.
Syllables are estimated with a vowel-group heuristic, so unusual names and loanwords can nudge the numbers. Treat the scores as a guide, not a verdict.
Frequently asked questions
What score should I aim for?
Most consumer-facing writing targets a Flesch Reading Ease of 60 or higher (about an 8th-grade level). Legal and academic texts commonly sit below 30. If your audience is general, aim for short sentences and common words.
Why do the formulas disagree?
Each formula weights sentence length and word complexity differently, and they use different thresholds for what counts as a "hard" word. A spread between them usually means the text mixes simple and complex passages.
How are sentences counted?
A new sentence starts after a period, question mark or exclamation mark. Abbreviations like "e.g." can inflate the count slightly, which lowers the scores a little.
Does it work for non-English text?
No. The formulas and the syllable heuristic are tuned for English. Other languages need their own readability models.