Paste any text and see six readability scores update as you type, including Flesch Reading Ease and the Flesch-Kincaid grade level, plus the exact sentences and words making it hard to read.
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Flesch Reading Ease
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Paste text to score
0 to 100, higher is easier
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Flesch-Kincaid
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Gunning Fog
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SMOG
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Coleman-Liau
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ARI
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Avg grade
How it works
Use at least a full paragraph; formulas are averages, and they get more reliable with more sentences. Nothing leaves your browser.
Flesch Reading Ease runs from 0 to 100, higher is easier. The five grade-level scores estimate the US school grade needed to follow the text.
The checker lists your longest sentences and most frequent complex words. Split the first, swap the second, and watch the score move.
Every classic readability formula measures two things: sentence length and word length. Long sentences make a reader hold more in memory, and long words (measured in syllables or letters) are usually rarer and more abstract. The formulas weigh those two signals differently:
It depends on the reader. Most US newspapers write around a 9th to 11th-grade level. Plain-language guidelines for public information aim for about 8th grade, or a Flesch score of 60 or higher. College essays and journal articles routinely land at grade 12 to 16, and that is fine when the audience is academic. The goal is not the lowest possible number; it is a score that matches the people reading.
A practical rule: if your average sentence is over 25 words, or more than one word in six has three syllables or more, most readers will feel the strain. The stats under the score show both numbers.
Formulas count; they do not understand. A sentence of short words can still be confusing, and a necessary technical term like "photosynthesis" will push the score up no matter how well you explain it. Syllables are counted with a rule-based method that is accurate for most words and slightly off for some, which averages out over a paragraph. Use the scores to find problem areas, then judge the fixes by reading the text aloud.
The implementation of comprehensive sustainability initiatives necessitates substantial coordination between municipal authorities and private stakeholders, consequently delaying the evaluation of environmental outcomes.
Big green projects need the city and private companies to work closely together. That takes time, so it is often years before anyone can tell if the air got cleaner.
Score too high? The text simplifier rewrites dense passages in plain English, keeping every fact. Paste the result back here to see the new grade level.
Pure Write Team
Updated October 2026
Why trust this guide
The scores use the published formulas exactly as defined by Flesch, Kincaid, Gunning, McLaughlin, Coleman and Liau, and Smith and Senter. Syllables are estimated with a rule-based counter, so expect small differences from other tools on individual words, and close agreement over full paragraphs.
FAQ
For general audiences, 60 to 70 is considered plain English, roughly 8th to 9th-grade level. 70 and above is easy. Academic writing often scores 30 to 50, which is normal for that audience.
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