Readability Score Checker
Score any text with Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau and ARI in your browser. Your writing never leaves your device.
The Readability Score Checker analyzes your text entirely in your browser. Drafts, emails, and unpublished copy you paste are scored on your device and never uploaded to ArrayKit.
Open the Word & Character Counter
About Readability Score Checker
The Readability Score Checker measures how hard your writing is to read and turns it into numbers you can act on. Paste an article, email, or landing page and it computes the Flesch Reading Ease score, the Flesch-Kincaid grade, the Gunning Fog index, SMOG, Coleman-Liau, and the Automated Readability Index, then averages the grade-based formulas into a single reading level. Alongside the scores you get live counts of characters, words, sentences, syllables, and complex polysyllabic words, so you can see exactly what is pushing the grade up. It is built for writers, editors, marketers, teachers, and developers writing docs who want plain, skimmable prose. Every score is calculated in your browser as you type, so the text you paste never leaves your device.
Features
- Six formulas at once: Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau and ARI
- An overall grade level that averages the five grade-based scores into one number
- A reading-ease band label — from Very easy to Very confusing — with a visual 0–100 meter
- Live counts of characters, words, sentences, syllables and complex words as you type
- Highlights how many polysyllabic words are driving the grade up
- Copy a plain-text report of every score and count with a single click
- Handles long articles, emails and landing-page copy without slowing down
- Runs entirely in your browser, so drafts and unpublished copy stay on your device
How to use the Readability Score Checker
- Paste or type your text into the box, or load the example to see live scores
- Read the Flesch Reading Ease meter for a quick easy-versus-hard verdict
- Check the overall grade level and the six formula scores below it
- Shorten long sentences and swap complex words to bring the grade down
- Copy the full report to share it or compare against a later draft
Example
Input
Good writing is easy to read. It uses short words and clear, simple sentences.
Output
Flesch Reading Ease: 83 (Easy)
Flesch-Kincaid grade: 3.9
Short words and short sentences push the ease score up and the grade level down.
Common errors & troubleshooting
- The grade level looks too high for text that reads fine. — These formulas reward short sentences and short words, so one very long sentence or a cluster of long technical terms can spike the grade. Split the sentence and the score usually settles.
- Syllable counts look slightly off on a few words. — The syllable count is a phonetic heuristic, not a dictionary lookup, so unusual spellings and proper nouns can be off by one. It stays accurate enough for the aggregate scores.
- SMOG or the overall grade seems unstable on very short text. — SMOG is designed for passages of roughly 30 sentences. On a sentence or two the estimate is noisy — paste a fuller sample for a reliable reading level.
- Bulleted lists or headings inflate the sentence count oddly. — Lines without end punctuation can merge or split unexpectedly. Add a period, or score the running prose separately from lists and headings.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a good Flesch Reading Ease score?
- For general web writing, aim for 60 or above, which reads at about an eighth-grade level. Scores of 70 to 80 feel effortless, while anything under 30 is dense and best reserved for academic or legal audiences.
- Which readability formula should I trust?
- No single formula is definitive, which is why this tool shows six. Flesch-Kincaid and Flesch Reading Ease are the most widely cited, and the overall grade level averages the five grade-based formulas so one outlier does not dominate.
- How does the checker count syllables?
- Each word is scored with a phonetic heuristic that counts vowel groups and drops common silent endings. It is fast and works offline, but because it is not a dictionary it can miss a syllable on unusual words or names.
- What does the tool treat as a complex word?
- Any word estimated at three or more syllables is treated as complex, or polysyllabic. Gunning Fog and SMOG both key off these words, so trimming jargon and long words is the quickest way to lower those grades.
- Does the readability checker work for languages other than English?
- The syllable heuristic and every formula are tuned for English, so grade levels on other languages are unreliable. Character, word, and sentence counts still work, but treat the readability scores as English-only.
- Why is the grade level different from the reading-ease score?
- Flesch Reading Ease is a 0 to 100 scale where higher is easier, while the grade levels estimate US school years where higher is harder. They move in opposite directions: an easy text has a high ease score and a low grade.
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