What is a readability score?
A readability score estimates how easy a piece of text is to understand, based on measurable factors like sentence length and word complexity. This tool uses the Flesch Reading Ease formula, one of the most widely used readability tests, originally developed for evaluating technical manuals and later adopted across publishing, education, and web content.
How the Flesch Reading Ease score works
The formula scores text from 0 to 100. Higher scores mean easier reading:
- 90–100: Very easy — understandable by an average 11-year-old.
- 60–70: Standard — easily understood by 13–15 year olds, the target for most general-audience writing.
- 30–50: Fairly difficult — best suited to college-level readers.
- 0–30: Very confusing — typically dense academic or legal writing.
The score is calculated from two averages: the number of words per sentence, and the number of syllables per word. Shorter sentences built from shorter words score higher (easier); long, syllable-heavy sentences score lower (harder).
Why readability matters
Most general-audience web content performs best in the 60–70 range — easy enough to skim on a phone, without feeling simplistic. Marketing copy, blog posts, and instructions typically aim here. Academic papers and legal documents naturally score lower, and that's expected for their audience — a low score isn't inherently "bad," it depends on who you're writing for.
Frequently asked questions
What's a "good" readability score?
It depends on your audience. For general web content aimed at a broad audience, 60–70 (standard, easily understood by most readers) is a common target. For children's content, aim higher (80+). For academic or technical writing, a lower score is normal and not a problem.
How is the grade level calculated?
This tool also estimates the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, which converts the same sentence-length and syllable data into a rough US school grade level — for example, a score of 8.0 suggests the text is readable by an average 8th grader.
Is syllable counting always accurate?
Syllable counting here uses a common approximation based on vowel patterns, which is accurate for the vast majority of English words but can occasionally miscount unusual words, abbreviations, or numbers — this is standard behaviour for automated readability tools.
How can I improve a low readability score?
Shorten long sentences, replace complex words with simpler synonyms where possible, and break up dense paragraphs. The WordlyCounter word counter's suggestion panel can help flag overly long sentences too.