Free Readability Score Checker

Paste your text below to instantly see its reading level, grade score, and complexity breakdown across 6 readability formulas.

Words
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Sentences
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Avg Sentence
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Read Time
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Flesch Reading Ease
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Rates text on a 0–100 scale. Higher scores mean easier reading. 90+ is very easy; below 30 is very difficult.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade
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Estimates the U.S. school grade level a reader needs to understand the text.
Gunning Fog Index
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Estimates years of formal education needed. Heavily influenced by long sentences and complex words.
SMOG Index
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Grade level estimate. Most accurate with 30+ sentences. Widely used in healthcare and public communications.
Coleman-Liau Index
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Grade level based on characters per word rather than syllables. Useful for technical or scientific text.
Automated Readability Index
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Grade level based on characters per word and words per sentence. Reliable for a wide range of writing styles.

Breakdown

Paste your text above and click Analyze Text to see a full breakdown.

What Do These Scores Mean?

Flesch Reading Ease

Scores range from 0–100. A score of 70–80 is easy for most adults. Newspapers typically score around 65. Academic writing often falls below 30.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level

Corresponds to U.S. school grade levels. A score of 8 means an 8th grader can read it comfortably. Most popular novels score between 6 and 8.

Gunning Fog Index

Estimates years of education needed to understand the text. Scores above 17 are considered extremely difficult. Most business writing aims for 12 or below.

SMOG Index

Simple Measure of Gobbledygook. Requires 30+ sentences for full accuracy. A standard benchmark in public health writing, which typically targets Grade 6–8.

Coleman-Liau Index

Uses characters per word rather than syllables, making it more consistent across different text types. Returns a U.S. grade level estimate.

Automated Readability Index

One of the oldest readability formulas. Uses characters and sentence length to estimate the grade level needed. Commonly used for technical writing assessment.