Readability Checker
Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG & ARI readability scores
Your Text
71
Words
4
Sentences
1 min
Read time
386
Characters
2
Paragraphs
112
Syllables
Flesch Reading Ease
DifficultFlesch-Kincaid Grade
US grade level
9.9
Standard (8th–9th)
Gunning Fog Index
Years of education needed
12.2
Difficult (10th–12th)
SMOG Index
Simple Measure of Gobbledygook
11.2
Difficult (10th–12th)
ARI Score
Automated Readability Index
13.1
Very Difficult (College+)
About the Readability Checker
This readability checker scores text using Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog, SMOG and ARI. Reporting several formulas together is more informative than one, since each weights sentence length and word complexity differently.
A readability checker estimates how hard text is to read from sentence length and word length. Long sentences and long words correlate with difficulty, which is a crude proxy but a consistent one — and it is the basis of every formula here.
Flesch Reading Ease is the most quoted: 60 to 70 is plain English suitable for a general audience, below 30 is dense academic or legal writing. The grade-level formulas express the same idea as school years, which is often easier to act on. Public-facing copy usually aims for grade 8 to 10.
Several scores are shown together because they disagree in useful ways. A text with short sentences but technical vocabulary scores well on some formulas and badly on others, and that gap tells you which lever to pull. None of them assess whether the writing is any good — only how demanding it is mechanically.
How to use the Readability Checker
- Paste your text. Enter the copy you want scored.
- Read the scores. Compare Flesch, Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG and ARI.
- Find the weak spot. Where scores disagree, check whether sentences or vocabulary are the cause.
- Revise and rescore. Shorten sentences or simplify terms, then check the change.
Readability Checker features
- Flesch Reading Ease with a plain-language band
- Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
- Gunning Fog Index
- SMOG Index
- Automated Readability Index
- Word, sentence, paragraph and syllable counts
- Estimated reading time
- Runs in your browser; the text is not uploaded
Frequently asked questions
Which score should I actually use?
Flesch Reading Ease is the most widely quoted, and the band label next to it is usually enough: 60 to 70 is plain English for a general audience, below 30 is dense academic or legal prose. If you need a target to hand to a writer, the grade-level figures are easier to act on.
Why show five formulas instead of one?
Because they disagree in a useful way. Each weights sentence length and word complexity differently, so a text with short sentences but technical vocabulary scores well on some and badly on others. That gap tells you whether to shorten sentences or simplify terms.
What grade level should public-facing copy aim for?
Grade 8 to 10 is the usual target for general audiences, which is lower than most people's instinct. Technical documentation written for practitioners can sit higher without being a problem, because the vocabulary is doing necessary work.
Do these formulas judge whether the writing is good?
No. They measure how demanding text is to decode from sentence and word length, nothing more. Clear, well-structured writing can score badly on a technical subject, and incoherent text made of short words scores well.
How are syllables counted?
By a vowel-group heuristic, which is how readability tools generally do it. It is accurate enough for scoring a passage but will misjudge individual unusual words, so treat a score computed on one or two sentences as noise.