Readability Checker: Flesch Reading Ease & Grade Level

Paste your text to see its Flesch reading ease score, Flesch-Kincaid grade level and four other readability scores. Hard sentences and long words are marked so you can see what to fix. It all runs in your browser. Your text is never uploaded.

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Flesch reading ease

55.0

Fairly difficult, about 10th to 12th grade level

87 words in 5 sentences. 1 hard sentence, 1 very hard. This is the sample text. Paste your own to replace it.

Grade-level scores

Flesch-Kincaid grade: 9.9; US school grade, from sentence length and syllables per word.
Gunning Fog: 12.5; Years of schooling for a first read. Punishes words of 3+ syllables.
SMOG: 12.0; Grade to understand nearly all of it. Counts long words only.; Unreliable under 30 sentences. This text has 5.
Coleman-Liau: 12.2; Grade from letters per word and sentence length. No syllables.
Automated Readability Index: 11.0; Grade from characters per word and sentence length. No syllables.
Average grade: 11.4; Mean of the grade scores above. Grades below 0 show as 0.

Counts

Words: 87
Sentences: 5
Syllables: 138
Complex words (3+ syllables): 12
Average sentence length: 17.4 words
Reading time at 238 WPM: 22 sec
Speaking time at about 150 WPM (approximate): about 35 sec

Your text, marked up

Hard sentence 20 to 29 words: tinted, dashed underline
Very hard sentence 30+ words: stronger tint, double underline
complex word of 3+ syllables: bold, boxed

Readability formulas estimate how hard a text is to read. Short sentences and common words score well. Long sentences packed with multisyllabic terminology, subordinate clauses, and qualifications that the reader must hold in mind before reaching the main verb score badly, because the formula treats length as a stand-in for difficulty. Try replacing this text with your own. Most people find that splitting one long sentence in two moves the grade level down quickly, and that choosing a plain word over a formal one helps even more.

Opens the BriskRead reader with your text. Needs 40 or more characters.

What each score means

All six scores start from the same two facts: sentence length and word length. They weigh them differently.

Flesch reading ease runs from about 0 to 100, and higher is easier. A score of 60 to 70 is plain English.
Flesch-Kincaid grade level turns the same inputs into a US school grade. A 7.5 means roughly seventh or eighth grade.
Gunning Fog estimates the years of schooling needed on a first read. It punishes words of three or more syllables.
SMOG gives the grade needed to understand nearly everything. It counts long words only, and needs 30 or more sentences to be reliable.
Coleman-Liau counts letters per word, not syllables. Letters are easy for software to count. Syllables are a guess.
Automated Readability Index also uses characters, not syllables. It was designed so a machine could compute it.
Average grade is the mean of the grade scores. SMOG joins it once the text passes 30 sentences.

Flesch reading ease, in plain English

Flesch reading ease score bands
Score	Reads as	Typical reader
90-100	Very easy	5th grade
80-90	Easy	6th grade
70-80	Fairly easy	7th grade
60-70	Plain English	8th to 9th grade
50-60	Fairly difficult	10th to 12th grade
30-50	Difficult	College
0-30	Very difficult	College graduate

Very short or very simple text can score above 100.

What grade level should you aim for?

These are rules of thumb, not standards. Match the grade to your reader.

Web pages, news, marketing, instructions: grade 7 to 9, or Flesch 60 to 70.
Health, government and consumer information: grade 6 to 8. Readers are busy and their skills vary.
Work emails and business reports: grade 9 to 11.
Essays and academic articles: grade 12 to 16.
Legal, scientific and technical papers: 16 or higher is common. Specialists tolerate it but still prefer less.

How to make text easier to read

Fix the highlighted sentences first. Then work through this list.

Split long sentences. Cut at "and", "but" or "which". Aim for an average near 15 to 20 words.
Use common words. Choose short, concrete verbs like "use", "help" and "start" instead of formal multisyllable substitutes.
Prefer the active voice. "The team approved the plan" beats "The plan was approved by the team". Formulas cannot see voice. Readers can feel it.
Keep one idea per sentence, and put the main point first.
Cut filler, and explain jargon the first time you use it.
Read it aloud. If you run out of breath, split the sentence.

Where the formulas come from

Flesch, 1948: reading ease. "A new readability yardstick", Journal of Applied Psychology.
Gunning, 1952: the Fog Index, in The Technique of Clear Writing. Overview.
Senter and Smith, 1967: the Automated Readability Index.
McLaughlin, 1969: SMOG grading, Journal of Reading.
Coleman and Liau, 1975: a letter-based formula.
Kincaid and colleagues, 1975: Flesch, Fog and ARI recalibrated on US Navy trainees. Source of the Flesch-Kincaid grade level.
Brysbaert, 1919–2019 meta-analysis: the 238 words per minute silent reading rate used for reading time.

The limits of readability formulas

Formulas see only surface features: how long your sentences and words are. They cannot see meaning, structure, tone or what your reader already knows. "Ergo" is short and hard. "Elephant" is long and easy.

You can also game them. Chop a clear paragraph into fragments and the grade drops while the writing gets worse.

The numbers here are estimates. Syllables are counted by rules, not a dictionary, so expect small gaps against other tools. The formulas were built for English prose and work best on 100 words or more. Lists, code and poetry confuse them. Use the score as a prompt for a second look, not a verdict.

Read it faster once it is clear

Tidy text is quicker to read. Send it to the free BriskRead speed reader and read it one word at a time, or take the reading speed test first.

Readability checker FAQ

What is a good Flesch reading ease score?

Aim for 60 to 70 for most public writing. That is plain English. Higher is easier, but 90 can sound childish to experts.

What is the difference between Flesch reading ease and Flesch-Kincaid grade level?

Both use sentence length and syllables per word. Reading ease runs on a 0 to 100 scale where higher means easier. Grade level gives a US school grade where higher means harder.

Why does my score differ from Microsoft Word or another tool?

Tools count syllables and split sentences in different ways, and they treat headings, lists and numbers differently. A gap of a point or two is normal. Use one tool consistently when you compare drafts.

How much text do I need?

Aim for at least 100 words. Short samples swing a lot, and SMOG needs 30 sentences before it is reliable.

Is my text uploaded or stored?

No. The checker is plain JavaScript on this page, so your text stays in your browser. Speed read this text passes it to the BriskRead reader through your browser session storage.