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Reading Level Checker: Flesch Score and Grade Level

Paste your text and get a live Flesch Reading Ease score, Flesch-Kincaid grade level, word, sentence and syllable counts, plus a plain-English read on how easy your writing is.

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Flesch Reading Ease
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Flesch-Kincaid grade
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Paste at least one full sentence to see your reading ease score and grade level. Aim for an ease score of 60 or higher for general web audiences.

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This tool reads your text the moment you paste it and reports two of the most trusted readability measures: the Flesch Reading Ease score and the Flesch-Kincaid grade level. It also shows the raw inputs behind those numbers, so you can see exactly why a passage scored the way it did: total words, sentences, syllables and the average words per sentence. Lower the average sentence length or trade long words for short ones, and both scores improve in real time.

How the Flesch Reading Ease score works

The Reading Ease score runs from 0 to 100. A higher number means easier reading. It is built from two ratios: the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word. Long sentences and long words both drag the score down. Most popular blogs and news sites sit in the 60 to 70 range, which lands around an 8th to 9th grade reading level.

ScoreReading levelBest for
90 to 100Very easy, 5th gradeBroad consumer audiences and skimmers
70 to 89Easy, 6th to 7th gradeGeneral blog and product pages
60 to 69Plain English, 8th to 9th gradeMost marketing and web copy
30 to 59Difficult, college levelTechnical guides and informed readers
0 to 29Very difficult, graduate levelAcademic and legal documents

Why reading level matters for SEO and UX

Search engines reward pages that keep people reading. When text is dense and hard to follow, visitors bounce, time on page drops, and those signals tell Google the page did not answer the query well. Writing at an 8th to 9th grade level is not dumbing down; it is respecting that most readers skim on a phone between other tasks. Clear copy holds attention, earns more scroll depth and gives your call to action a chance to land.

Aim for short sentences, plain words and one idea per paragraph. If you want a second opinion on how your live pages read and rank against competitors, request a free SEO audit and we will review your content alongside your technical health.

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FAQ

Reading Level Checker: questions, answered

What is a good Flesch Reading Ease score?
For most websites, aim for 60 or higher, which sits in the plain-English range around an 8th to 9th grade reading level. Consumer brands often push for 70 or more so the copy reads easily on a phone. Scores below 50 suit technical or academic audiences but tend to lose general readers.
What is the difference between Reading Ease and grade level?
Both use the same inputs, words per sentence and syllables per word, but they scale differently. Flesch Reading Ease runs 0 to 100 where higher is easier. Flesch-Kincaid grade level converts the same data into a US school grade, so 8.0 means an average 8th grader can read it. Use ease for a quick gauge and grade level when you have a target audience in mind.
How are syllables counted?
The tool uses a standard English heuristic: it counts groups of vowels in each word, drops a silent trailing e, and never returns fewer than one syllable per word. It is accurate for the vast majority of common words. A handful of unusual spellings may be off by one syllable, which has almost no effect on the overall score for normal-length text.
How do I lower my reading level?
Shorten your sentences first, since average words per sentence carries the most weight. Aim for 15 to 20 words per sentence and split anything longer. Then swap multi-syllable words for shorter ones, cut filler, and use one idea per paragraph. Both scores update live here so you can see each edit improve the result.
Does reading level affect SEO rankings?
There is no direct ranking factor for readability, but it shapes the signals that do matter. Clear, scannable text keeps visitors on the page longer, lowers bounce rate and improves the odds they reach your call to action. Those engagement signals help Google judge whether your page satisfied the searcher, so easy-to-read copy supports your rankings indirectly.

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