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How hard is your text to read?
Paste text or check a web page to get six readability scores, an average school grade and a reading age. Then see exactly which sentences are long or hard, where the passive voice and wordy phrases are, and which abbreviations nobody has explained, highlighted in your text with a plainer alternative where there is one.
Readable text is one part of an accessible page
Plain language helps everyone, but most accessibility failures are in the code: missing labels, low contrast, keyboard traps. Scan the page for those too.
What the scores measure
Every readability formula works from the same two signals: how long the sentences are, and how long the words are. Flesch Reading Ease turns them into a score out of 100, where higher is easier. The other five give a US school grade: Flesch-Kincaid and Gunning Fog from syllables, SMOG from words of three or more syllables, and Coleman-Liau and the Automated Readability Index from letters. The average of the five grades is the single number to watch, and the reading age is that grade plus five or six years.
The formulas were calibrated against how well readers understood test passages, so they are a fair guide to how much effort a text asks for. But they cannot see meaning. “The cat sat on the mat” and a sentence of short, unfamiliar jargon can score the same, and a short sentence can still be confusing. Use the score to find the hard parts, and the findings to fix them.
What the checker flags
| Finding | When we flag it | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Very long sentence | Over 25 words | Split it. One idea per sentence. |
| Hard or very hard sentence | 8 words or more scoring grade 10 or more (very hard: 14 or more) on its own | Shorten it and use shorter words. |
| Possible passive voice | A form of "be" followed by a past participle | Say who does what: "we approved", not "was approved". |
| Wordy word or phrase | On our list of words with a plainer alternative | Use the suggestion if it keeps your meaning. |
| Unexplained abbreviation | Capitals with no expansion in brackets and no abbr title | Spell it out the first time. |
| Long paragraph | Over 100 words | Break it up, or use a list. |
| Adverb | Words ending in -ly (off by default) | Cut it if the sentence works without it. |
Reading level and WCAG
WCAG 3.1.5 Reading Level asks that when text needs reading ability above lower secondary education, after removing proper names and titles, you also provide supplemental content or a simpler version. Lower secondary education ends around nine years into school, so this tool treats an average grade above 9 as the point to act. A plain-language summary at the top of the page, a diagram or an easy read version all meet it.
The same chapter of WCAG covers the words themselves. 3.1.4 Abbreviations asks for a way to find the expanded form of each abbreviation, and 3.1.3 Unusual Words asks for definitions of jargon and idioms. All three are Level AAA, so they go beyond what most laws require. They matter most to people with cognitive and learning disabilities; see the guide to cognitive accessibility.
What this tool can't tell you
- It is for English. The formulas were made for English, and the syllable count, word list and passive voice check only work in English.
- Syllables are counted by a rule of thumb, not a dictionary, so a few words are miscounted and the grades can differ a little from other tools, which count syllables their own way.
- Passive voice, abbreviations and adverbs are found by pattern, not by understanding the sentence. Expect some false alarms and some misses.
- Headings, list items and labels count as sentences. On a page with many of them the average sentence is short and the scores look easier than the body text really is.
- The web page mode reads the HTML the server sends. It does not run JavaScript, log in, or get past bot checks, so some pages come back nearly empty.
- No formula knows your readers. Testing a page with people from your audience tells you far more than any score.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good readability score?
For a general audience, aim for an average grade of about 8 or 9 or lower and a Flesch Reading Ease of 60 or more, the range usually described as plain English. Text written for specialists can score higher, but every extra grade narrows who can read it comfortably. WCAG 3.1.5 uses lower secondary education, roughly grade 9, as the point where a simpler version or a summary is needed.
Why do the formulas give different grades for the same text?
Each one measures something slightly different. Flesch-Kincaid uses syllables per word, Gunning Fog and SMOG count words of three or more syllables, and Coleman-Liau and the Automated Readability Index count letters instead of syllables. A text full of short but unusual words scores easier on all of them than it really is. That is why the tool shows all five grades and their average rather than picking one.
Does WCAG require a particular reading level?
Only at Level AAA. Success criterion 3.1.5 Reading Level says that when text needs reading ability above lower secondary education, after removing proper names and titles, you provide supplemental content or a version that does not. Most laws and policies cite Level AA, so 3.1.5 is not usually a legal requirement, but plain language helps people with cognitive and learning disabilities most, and also anyone reading on a phone or in a second language.
How is the reading age worked out?
From the average grade. US school grades start at about age six, so a reader in grade 8 is typically 13 or 14 years old. The tool adds five and six years to the rounded average grade and shows the range. Grade 13 and above is shown as 18 or over, university level. Like the grades themselves, it is an estimate from word and sentence length.
Why can't the tool read my web page?
The web page mode fetches the page's HTML and reads the text in it. Many sites build their content with JavaScript after the page loads, so the HTML has little or no text, and this tool does not run the page's scripts. When it finds fewer than 50 words it says so. Copy the text from the page in your browser and paste it into the Paste text tab instead.
Is my text stored or sent anywhere?
Pasted text never leaves your browser: the scores and findings are worked out on your device. When you check a web page, our server fetches that page for you and sends back its HTML, and we record the site's domain, the page path and whether the check worked, so we can see which sites people check. The text itself is not stored.
Essential Accessibility Resources
Comprehensive tools, checklists, and guides to help you create inclusive digital experiences