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Readability Checker

Check how easy your English text is to read with Flesch, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau, and ARI, and highlight long sentences. Nothing is uploaded.

Runs in your browser · nothing uploaded

Reading level

Grade 9(about age 14+), plain english

Average of the five grade-level formulas below. Many guides suggest grade 8 or lower for general audiences.

Words
58
Sentences
5
Characters
341
Words per sentence
11.6
Reading time
15 sec
Speaking time
23 sec
Readability scores
FormulaScoreWhat it means
Flesch Reading Ease66.7Plain English, 8th to 9th grade. Higher is easier; 60 to 70 is plain English.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade6.8Grade 7. US school grade needed to follow the text.
Gunning Fog9.5Grade 9. Penalizes long sentences and words of three syllables or more.
SMOG9.9Grade 10. Based on words of three or more syllables; most accurate with 30+ sentences.
Coleman-Liau9.6Grade 10. Uses letters per word, not syllables.
Automated Readability Index6.8Grade 7. Uses characters per word and words per sentence.

Highlights

25 words
Readability is how easily a reader can understand a text. Short sentences usually help. Long sentences that wander through many ideas, clauses, and side notes before they finally reach a point tend to lose readers along the way. The report was written by the team, and it was quickly approved by the board. Use plain words whenever possible.

Passive voice, adverbs, and complex words are found with simple rules, so expect a few misses and false alarms. The tool is designed for English.

Why is there an ad? This tool is free and runs on your device. One small ad pays for hosting and new tools. No pop-ups, no autoplay, never inside the tool. How we make money

How to check the readability of your text

  1. Paste or type your English text into the box. The scores update as you edit.
  2. Read the reading level and the six scores: Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade, Gunning Fog, SMOG, Coleman-Liau, and ARI.
  3. Use the highlights to find long sentences, passive voice, adverbs, and complex words, then shorten or simplify them and watch the score improve.

A sentence is long when it has more than the number of words you choose (25 by default). Complex words have three or more syllables, not counting names or common endings such as -ed, -es, and -ing. Syllables are estimated, so scores can differ slightly from other tools.

Questions

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. The analysis runs in your browser, so your draft never leaves your device.

What score should I aim for?

For general audiences, a Flesch Reading Ease of 60 or more and a grade level of 8 or lower is a common target. Legal and scientific writing often scores lower and that can be fine for expert readers. The scores are a guide: they measure sentence and word length, not whether the content is clear or correct.

Why do the formulas give different grades for the same text?

Each formula weighs different things. Flesch-Kincaid and Gunning Fog use sentence length plus syllables or long words, SMOG counts only words of three or more syllables, and Coleman-Liau and ARI use letters per word. The reading level at the top averages the five grade formulas.

How accurate are the passive voice and adverb highlights?

They use simple rules. Passive voice is flagged when a form of "to be" or "to get" is followed by a past participle, and adverbs are words ending in -ly. A few false alarms and misses are normal, so treat the highlights as prompts to reread a sentence, not as errors.

Does it work for languages other than English?

No. The syllable counting and the formulas are built for English, so scores for other languages are not meaningful.

Credits

Built by OneTooling using standard browser features. No third-party code runs on your data.

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