Free Tool
Readability Checker
Check your text's Flesch Reading Ease score and estimated grade level in seconds.
How to Use This Checker
Paste your writing into the box above. The tool calculates your Flesch Reading Ease score and an estimated grade level based on your average sentence length and word complexity, updated as you type.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Flesch Reading Ease score?
It's a widely used readability formula that scores text from 0 to 100 based on sentence length and word complexity (measured by syllable count). Higher scores mean easier-to-read text.
What grade level should my essay be?
This varies by assignment and instructor, but most college-level academic writing falls in the 'Difficult' to 'Fairly difficult' range, since academic vocabulary and longer sentences are common and often expected.
How accurate is the syllable count?
Syllables are estimated using a common heuristic pattern rather than a dictionary lookup, so the score is a close approximation rather than an exact measurement.
Check sentence structure too with the Paragraph Checker or get overall stats from the Word Counter.