Readability Checker – Flesch Reading Ease and Grade Level

How to use the readability checker

Paste at least a few sentences of English text into the box. You’ll see:

• the Flesch Reading Ease score and what it means,
• five grade-level scores,
• your average words per sentence and syllables per word,
• the number and share of complex words (three or more syllables).

The readability formulas

SMOG uses the number of words with three or more syllables; Coleman-Liau and the Automated Readability Index use letters per word instead of syllables.

Reading Ease scale

Example

“The cat sat on the mat. It was a sunny day. The dog ran to the park.” has short sentences of mostly one-syllable words, so it scores above 90 — very easy.

Tips to improve readability

• Keep sentences short — aim for an average of 15 to 20 words.
• Choose short, common words: “use” instead of “utilise”, “help” instead of “facilitate”.
• Use the active voice: “We sent the invoice” rather than “The invoice was sent by us”.
• Break up long paragraphs and use headings and bullet points.
• Cut jargon, or explain it the first time.
• Read it aloud — the text to speech tool can help you hear clumsy sentences.

Limits of readability scores

Formulas only measure sentence and word length. They can’t tell whether text is well organised, accurate or suitable for its audience. Short words can still be confusing, and some long words — such as “information” or “community” — are perfectly familiar. Use the scores as a quick check alongside real feedback from readers.

Writing for international readers

If many of your readers speak English as a second language, aim for an even easier score. Short sentences, common words and one idea per sentence help non-native speakers and machine translation alike, and they make text easier to read on small phone screens.

Who uses readability scores

Content writers, marketers, teachers, government bodies writing public information, healthcare providers preparing patient leaflets, and anyone writing for a broad audience. Some organisations and governments require plain-language standards for public documents.

Count words and reading time with the word counter, and check length limits with the character counter.