Readability Analyzer
A readability analyzer turns sentence length and word length into a score that estimates reading effort. Paste "We closed the shop at six. The rain kept most people at home." into the box here and it reports 13 words in 2 sentences, 6.5 words per sentence, 1.15 syllables per word, a Flesch Reading Ease of 100 labelled Very Easy, and a Flesch-Kincaid grade of 0.6.
Readability Scores
Writing Stats
Recommendations
How does this readability analyzer score your text?
It measures the two things every classic formula relies on - how long your sentences are and how long your words are - then reports Flesch Reading Ease, a Flesch-Kincaid grade, a Coleman-Liau index and the sentence-level detail behind them, recalculated as you type.
Popular Tools
About Readability Analyzer
This analyzer reads whatever is in the text box and recalculates on every keystroke. The ring on the right is Flesch Reading Ease: 206.835 minus 1.015 times words per sentence minus 84.6 times syllables per word, clamped to 0-100 and labelled Very Easy at 80 and above, Easy from 60, Moderate from 40, Difficult from 20 and Very Difficult below that. The Readability Scores panel underneath converts the same measurements into a US school grade with Flesch-Kincaid (0.39 times words per sentence plus 11.8 times syllables per word minus 15.59) and with Coleman-Liau, which counts characters instead of syllables: 0.0588 times characters per 100 words minus 0.296 times sentences per 100 words minus 15.8. A Gunning Fog figure is shown alongside them.
The strip under the box counts words, sentences, paragraphs and characters, and estimates reading time at 238 words a minute and speaking time at 150. The Writing Stats panel breaks the score into the parts you can act on: average words per sentence, average syllables per word, how many words carry three or more syllables, how many sentences run past 20 words, and vocabulary richness, which is unique words divided by total words.
Recommendations only appear when a threshold is crossed: a sentence over 20 words, more than 15 per cent of words with three or more syllables, an average above 20 words a sentence, or a Flesch Reading Ease below 50. They are prompts, not rewrites. The tool does not check grammar or spelling, does not rewrite anything, and does not judge whether the content is accurate or well organised.
Syllables are counted with an English vowel-group rule, so text in other languages still returns numbers but they are only comparable between your own drafts, not against published benchmarks. Everything is computed by JavaScript on this page: the text you paste is never uploaded or stored.
Use Cases
How to use
Select the sample paragraph in the large box on the left and paste your own text over it; the numbers refresh on every keystroke, with no button to press.
Read the strip directly under the box for words, sentences, paragraphs and characters, plus the estimated minutes to read and to speak aloud.
Check the ring on the right: it is the Flesch Reading Ease value out of 100 with a plain-language label from Very Easy to Very Difficult underneath.
Compare the figures in Readability Scores - Flesch-Kincaid grade, Gunning Fog and Coleman-Liau - to see the same text expressed as a school level.
Open Writing Stats to find what to cut: average words per sentence, average syllables per word, complex words, long sentences and vocabulary richness.
Work through the Recommendations panel, edit in the box, and watch the ring move; when the panel empties it shows that no threshold is still being crossed.
Pro Tips
- The box opens with a 55-word sample paragraph already in it. Select all and paste over it; leaving the sample in place folds its words and sentences into your counts.
- The Paragraphs counter splits on blank lines only. If you paste from a document where every line is a single newline, it will report one paragraph no matter how many visual breaks you see.
- The ring is Flesch Reading Ease, not a percentage of anything. A two-sentence, thirteen-word note reaches 100; a single 22-word sentence built from abstract nouns lands on 0.
- Vocabulary richness is unique words divided by total words, so short samples always look rich - a 13-word sentence can read 100%. Only compare it between texts of similar length.
- Sentences are split on full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, so "Dr." and "e.g." each add a sentence. Expect the average words per sentence to read low in text full of abbreviations.
Troubleshooting
Every counter shows 0, the ring is empty and no label appears under it.
The box is empty or holds only spaces and line breaks. The analyzer resets all statistics when the trimmed text is empty. Paste at least one full sentence ending in a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark and the numbers reappear immediately.
Text pasted from Word or Google Docs is reported as a single paragraph.
Paragraphs are counted by splitting on blank lines, and many editors paste soft line breaks instead. Insert an empty line between paragraphs in the box, or accept that only the Paragraphs figure is affected - words, sentences and every score are unaffected.
The sentence count is higher than the number of sentences you actually wrote.
Sentences are split on runs of full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, so "Dr.", "e.g." and "3.5" each end a sentence. Because average words per sentence then falls, the Flesch scores read easier than they should. Spell abbreviations out before analysing text that is full of them.
A French, German or Spanish text returns a grade that looks implausible.
Syllables are counted with an English vowel-group rule and the Flesch coefficients were fitted to English. Numbers still appear for any language, but treat them as a comparison between your own drafts rather than as a published grade level.
The word count does not match the one your editor reports.
Words here are runs of non-whitespace characters, so "e-mail" is one word, "1,250" is one word and a bullet character on its own line counts as a word. Strip list markers and stray symbols before comparing the figure with a word processor.
Frequently Asked Questions
A readability score condenses sentence length and word length into one number that estimates reading effort. The ring on this page is Flesch Reading Ease on a 0-100 scale where higher is easier. The sentence pair "We closed the shop at six. The rain kept most people at home." scores 100 here, while one 22-word administrative sentence scores 0.
This tool labels the Flesch Reading Ease bands for you: 80 and above is Very Easy, 60-79 Easy, 40-59 Moderate, 20-39 Difficult and below 20 Very Difficult. For anything a general audience has to act on - a form, a policy note, a product page - aim for the Easy band or better. Technical documentation written for specialists routinely sits lower and that is not a fault.
Flesch Reading Ease = 206.835 - 1.015 x (words / sentences) - 84.6 x (syllables / words). Flesch-Kincaid grade = 0.39 x (words / sentences) + 11.8 x (syllables / words) - 15.59. Coleman-Liau avoids syllables: 0.0588 x L - 0.296 x S - 15.8, where L is characters per 100 words (spaces excluded) and S is sentences per 100 words.
Forty sits at the bottom of the band this page calls Moderate, which runs from 40 to 59. It is readable but demanding, and the Recommendations panel is already active at that level because it starts warning below 50. Look at Writing Stats first: shortening the two or three sentences flagged as 20+ words usually moves a 40 into the 50s without touching vocabulary.
Work on the two numbers the formulas actually see. Bring Avg words/sentence in the Writing Stats panel below 20 and get the Long sentences (20+ words) counter to zero by splitting the worst offenders. Then reduce the Complex words (3+ syl) count by swapping long nouns for shorter ones. The score updates as you type, so you can watch each edit pay off.
Almost always one of two things this page counts for you. Either sentences are running long, which shows as Long sentences (20+ words), or a large share of your words carry three or more syllables, which shows as Complex words (3+ syl). A single 22-word sentence made of abstract nouns is enough to push Flesch Reading Ease to 0 in this tool.
They read the same two inputs and answer different questions. Flesch Reading Ease is a 0-100 comfort score where higher is easier; that is the ring. Flesch-Kincaid converts the same measurements into a US school grade, so the Readability Scores panel prints Grade 0.6 for the easy two-sentence example and Grade 32.7 for one dense administrative sentence.
Microsoft documents it under File > Options > Proofing: tick "Check grammar with spelling", tick "Show readability statistics", then run the spelling and grammar check and Word reports Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level at the end. In Microsoft 365 the same figures live in the Editor pane under Document stats. This page runs the same two formulas without the round trip.
It matters as an editing signal, not as a verdict. These formulas only see sentence length, syllables and characters; they cannot tell whether a text is accurate, well ordered or interesting. Use the number to catch the two faults it measures well - sentences that have quietly grown and vocabulary heavier than the audience needs. A page can score 80 and still confuse people.
For general web and business writing read the ring, because the Very Easy to Very Difficult label under it is derived from Flesch Reading Ease. If you have to name a school level, quote Flesch-Kincaid from the Readability Scores panel. Coleman-Liau is the one to prefer for scanned or OCR text, since it counts characters rather than guessing syllables.