Score your text with Flesch reading ease and a grade level, and see the sentences that are hardest to read.
How to use the Readability checker
- Paste your text.
- Read the scores and the highlighted long sentences.
- Split or simplify the hardest sentences and check again.
What to aim for
For product pages and blog posts, a Flesch score of 60 or more (roughly grade 8) reads easily for most people. Short sentences and common words help most.
How to read the scores
Flesch reading ease runs from 0 to 100 and higher is easier: 80+ is very easy, 60–79 plain English, 50–59 fairly hard, 30–49 hard and under 30 very hard. Grade level (Flesch–Kincaid) is the US school grade needed to follow the text; 9 or below shows green, 10–12 amber and above 12 red. Gunning fog is another grade estimate that weighs words of three syllables or more. Words per sentence turns amber above 20. Passive sentences counts likely passive constructions such as "was sent". Sentences over 25 words are listed so you can split them.
How to raise a low score
Split long sentences at "and", "but" or "which". Swap long words for short ones: use for utilise, help for facilitate, start for commence. Turn passive sentences active ("we send a reminder" instead of "a reminder is sent"). Use lists for steps instead of chained clauses. Technical terms your readers expect are fine, but explain each one the first time. Syllables are estimated by rule, so names and jargon can skew the score a little.