Paste any English text to get its Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid grade, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau and ARI scores, explained in plain words, with long sentences and passive voice highlighted so you know exactly what to rewrite. Nothing leaves your browser.
Paste some text to see its scores.
A readability score estimates how easy a text is to read from things that can be counted: how long the sentences are and how long the words are. This tool runs the six standard formulas on your text, turns them into a plain verdict and a reading age, and then shows you exactly where the text gets hard: sentences that run too long are shaded and passive phrases are underlined, so you know which lines to rewrite rather than just getting a number.
Tip: Don't write to the formula. Splitting every sentence and swapping every long word can make text choppy. Use the scores to find the worst passages, fix those, and read the result aloud.
Grade scores use the US school system: grade 8 is a reader of about 13 or 14, grade 12 is the last year of secondary school, and anything above 12 is university level. The tool adds the approximate age next to every grade, so you don't need to know the US system. A good rule for anything public is grade 8 or below; government style guides in many countries ask for plain language at about that level, and most adults, including experts, prefer it when they're reading quickly on a screen.
The average grade is the mean of the five grade formulas, which smooths out their individual quirks. Expect the formulas to disagree by two or three grades; that's normal, and the direction of change after an edit matters more than any single number.
Sentences over 25 words are shaded amber and over 35 words red. One long sentence among short ones is fine; several in a row make readers work. Split them at "and", "which", "although" and "because", or turn a list hidden inside a sentence into bullet points.
Passive voice is underlined: "the form was submitted" instead of "you submitted the form". It hides who does what and adds words. It's not wrong, and it's useful when the actor doesn't matter, but if more than about one sentence in ten is passive, the text feels distant. Detection looks for a form of be or get followed by a past participle, so a few adjectives such as "is tired" may be flagged; ignore those.
These formulas only count; they can't tell whether a text makes sense, is well organised or uses words the reader knows. A short sentence full of jargon can score well and still be hard. Syllables are counted with the usual vowel-group rule, so scores can differ from other tools by a point or so. The formulas were built for English: other languages have longer or shorter words on average, so their scores aren't comparable, and the tool warns when the text doesn't look like English. Bullet points and headings without full stops are treated as separate sentences, which is what readers do too.
Put the most important information in the first sentence of each paragraph.
Use, help, about, start and buy beat utilise, facilitate, approximately, commence and purchase.
If a sentence needs two commas and an "and", it's probably two sentences.
Turn instructions and options into numbered or bulleted lists.
Prefer "we will email you" to "you will be emailed".
Scores are a guide. Watching one real reader use the page tells you more.
60 or above suits most web pages and the general public. 70 to 80 is easy for almost everyone; below 50 needs an educated or specialist reader.
Not as a direct ranking factor, but clear text keeps visitors reading and answers their question, which is what search engines aim to reward.
Each weighs different things: syllables, letters or long words. Differences of two or three grades are normal; use the average and watch how it changes.
The formulas are for English. Other languages have adapted versions, such as Fernández Huerta for Spanish and Amstad for German, which this tool doesn't calculate.
At least 100 words gives a stable score. SMOG is designed for 30 sentences or more.
No. The checks and previews run in your browser, on your device. Nothing you type or paste is uploaded, stored or logged.
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