How to check readability
- Paste your text into the box. A few paragraphs give steadier scores than a single sentence.
- Read the Flesch reading ease score with its label, the average grade level and your average sentence length.
- Check Hard to read sentences: sentences over 20 words, or with several words of three or more syllables, are listed so you can split or simplify them. The five grade formulas follow below.
What each formula measures
| Formula | Based on | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Flesch reading ease | Words per sentence and syllables per word | A score, usually 0 to 100. Higher is easier. |
| Flesch-Kincaid grade | The same two measures, weighted differently | A US school grade |
| Gunning fog index | Words per sentence and the share of words with 3+ syllables | Years of schooling needed |
| SMOG index | Words with 3+ syllables per sentence | A US school grade |
| Coleman-Liau index | Letters per word and sentences per 100 words | A US school grade |
| Automated readability index | Letters per word and words per sentence | A US school grade |
A US grade maps to an age by adding about five or six: grade 8 is roughly 13 to 14 years old. Your text stays in your browser while it’s scored.
How to make text easier to read
- Shorten long sentences. If a sentence has two ideas joined by “and” or “which”, split it in two.
- Choose short, common words. “Use” instead of “utilise”, “help” instead of “facilitate”, “about” instead of “approximately”.
- Put the point first. Start a paragraph with what the reader needs, then add detail.
- Prefer active verbs. “The team fixed the bug” is shorter and clearer than “The bug was fixed by the team”.
- Break up lists. A run of items separated by commas is easier to scan as bullet points.
A low score isn’t always wrong. Legal, medical and technical text needs precise terms, and some long words can’t be swapped out. Aim to make everything around them as simple as possible.