TontonTools

Readability Score Checker

Score your text's readability — Flesch score and US grade level, live.

100% Free No signup Privacy-friendly Text Tools
Updated Sep 2026
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How to use Readability Score Checker

  1. Paste your draft into the box — a paragraph is enough for a meaningful score.
  2. Read the live scores: Flesch ease (aim 60+ for general audiences) and grade level (aim ~8 for public content).
  3. Fix the two levers: split sentences over ~20 words and replace long words with short ones.
  4. Watch the score climb as you edit — the numbers update with every change.

What is Readability Score Checker?

A readability checker scores how easy your text is to read, using the two standard formulas: Flesch Reading Ease (0–100, higher = easier) and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (the US school grade needed to follow the text). Both are computed from just two measurable things — average sentence length and average syllables per word.

The scales have well-known landmarks: 90+ reads like a children's book, 60–70 is plain English (most successful web writing), 30–50 is college-level, and below 30 is academic or legal density. Popular novels sit around 70–80; the average newspaper around 50–60.

About the Readability Score Checker

Paste or write text and the scores update live: Flesch Reading Ease, grade level, and a plain-language rating from "Very easy" to "Very difficult" — plus the word, sentence and syllable stats driving them.

Content writers aim for 60+ because plain writing measurably outperforms dense writing on engagement; marketers score landing pages against their audience; teachers match materials to grade levels; and technical and health writers meet the readability standards many organizations mandate (US plain-language guidelines target roughly 8th-grade level for public documents).

Improving a score is mechanical: split long sentences and swap multi-syllable words for short ones — the formulas reward exactly those two moves. Scoring runs live in your browser; your draft is never uploaded.

Frequently Asked Questions

60–70 for general audiences — plain English. 90+ is very easy (children's books), 30–50 is college-level, below 30 is academic/legal. Most high-performing web content sits between 60 and 80.
The US school grade whose students could follow the text: 8.0 means an eighth-grader (age ~13–14). News aims for 9–12; plain-language guidelines for public documents target about 8.
Flesch = 206.835 − 1.015 × (words/sentence) − 84.6 × (syllables/word). Only sentence length and word length matter — the formula doesn't know meaning, just measurable complexity.
No — it means efficient writing. Hemingway scores in the 90s; legal boilerplate scores under 20. Experts also prefer plain text: studies show even specialist readers comprehend plain versions faster.
Usually a few very long sentences dominate the average. Find the 30+ word sentences and split them — one split often moves the score more than rewording a dozen short lines.

Learn more

Readability Scores Explained: Write Content People Actually Read

If your writing is hard to read, people leave. Here is how readability scores work and how to improve yours.

Read the guide

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