How to Check the Readability Score of Your Text
Measure how easy your writing is to read with our free Readability Checker. Get Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, and other scores instantly.
Steps
Paste your text
Copy the text you want to analyse — an article, email, landing page, or any piece of writing — and paste it into the input area. For accurate results, include at least a few complete sentences.
Click Analyse
Press the Analyse or Check button. The tool processes your text and calculates multiple readability metrics simultaneously.
Read your Flesch-Kincaid score
The Flesch Reading Ease score ranges from 0 to 100. A score of 60–70 is considered plain English, suitable for most web audiences. Scores above 70 are very easy to read; below 30 is academic-level writing. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level translates this into a US school grade.
Review additional metrics
Check the Gunning Fog index, SMOG grade, and Coleman-Liau index for additional perspectives. Each metric uses a slightly different formula, so looking at the consensus across all scores gives the most reliable picture of your text's difficulty.
Revise and re-check
Edit your text to simplify complex sentences, replace jargon with plain words, or break long sentences into shorter ones. Paste the revised text back in and re-analyse to verify the improvement.
Understanding Readability Formulas
Readability formulas estimate reading difficulty by measuring text properties that correlate with comprehension difficulty. The most common factors are sentence length (longer sentences are harder to process) and word length (longer words typically have more syllables and are less familiar). The Flesch Reading Ease formula, developed by Rudolf Flesch in 1948, combines average sentence length and average syllables per word into a score from 0 (most difficult) to 100 (easiest). The Gunning Fog index, created by Robert Gunning in 1952, counts the proportion of complex words (three or more syllables) alongside average sentence length. Different formulas weight these factors differently, which is why a single text can score differently across metrics. The key insight is that all valid formulas agree on the direction: shorter sentences and simpler words consistently produce higher (easier) scores.
Readability by Content Type
Different types of content have different readability targets. Consumer marketing copy should be at a 6th–8th grade reading level — roughly equivalent to a Flesch Reading Ease of 65–80. Blog posts and general web articles work well at 8th–10th grade. News reporting targets 8th grade because newspapers are written for broad audiences. Business reports and white papers are typically written at a 12th grade level for educated professional audiences. Academic journals and legal documents often score below 30 on the Flesch scale, which is fine for their specialist audiences but would be a problem on a public-facing website. Knowing your audience's expected reading level is as important as knowing your current score.
Beyond Scores: What Readability Tools Cannot Measure
Readability scores are useful signals, but they measure surface-level text properties rather than true comprehension. A text can score well on all formulas while still being confusing if it uses jargon, assumes unstated context, presents information in the wrong order, or lacks clear transitions between ideas. Scores also do not account for visual presentation: even perfectly scored text becomes harder to read in a small font with poor contrast or insufficient line spacing. Use readability scores as a quick diagnostic — a low score is always worth investigating — but combine them with plain-language editing principles, user testing, and readability feedback from real readers in your target audience.
Frequently Asked Questions
For most web content targeting a general audience, aim for a Flesch Reading Ease score of 60–70 and a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 8th grade or below. Marketing copy and consumer-facing content should aim even higher — 70 to 80. Technical documentation and academic writing will naturally score lower, which is acceptable when the audience expects specialist content.
No single formula is perfect because readability depends on vocabulary, sentence structure, and context simultaneously. The Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level are the most widely recognised. The Gunning Fog index is popular in journalism. The Coleman-Liau index is based on characters rather than syllables, making it more reliable for digital text analysis. Use the consensus across all available scores rather than relying on one.
Google's quality guidelines emphasise content that serves users, and difficult-to-read content leads to higher bounce rates and lower engagement. Readable content also earns more backlinks and social shares because readers find it easier to process and share. While readability is not a direct ranking factor, its downstream effects on user behaviour strongly influence search performance.
The most effective improvements are: shortening sentences (aim for an average of 15–20 words), replacing multi-syllable words with simpler alternatives, breaking dense paragraphs into shorter chunks, using bullet lists for parallel items, and adding subheadings to help readers navigate long sections.