Readability checker
Paste any text and get its Flesch-Kincaid grade level and reading ease, worked out in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Worked out in your browser. The text is never sent anywhere or saved.
Paste some text above and the numbers appear here.
What the numbers mean
Flesch–Kincaid grade level turns two things into a US school grade: how long the sentences are and how many syllables the words have. A result of 4.2 means the text is about as hard as a typical fourth-grade passage by that measure.
Flesch reading ease uses the same two things on a 0 to 100 scale where higher is easier. Flesch’s own bands are:
| Score | Description | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 90 and up | Very easy | about 5th grade |
| 80–89 | Easy | about 6th grade |
| 70–79 | Fairly easy | about 7th grade |
| 60–69 | Plain English | about 8th–9th grade |
| 50–59 | Fairly difficult | about 10th–12th grade |
| 30–49 | Difficult | college |
| below 30 | Very difficult | college graduate |
What they do not tell you
Both formulas are decades old and look at the surface of a text only. They do not know whether the words are familiar to a child (a short word like “ague” counts as easy), whether the ideas need background knowledge, how the page is laid out, or whether the pictures help. A text with long names or place names scores harder than it reads. A text of short, choppy sentences scores easier than it reads.
Use the grade to compare two texts or to catch a passage that is far too hard or easy, then trust your own judgement of the reader. It is not a diagnosis of a child and not a substitute for listening to them read.
How to use it
- Paste or type a passage (about 100 words or more works best).
- Read the grade level and reading ease, with the counts underneath.
- Edit the text and the numbers update as you type: shorten a long sentence and watch the grade drop.
Ideas for class
- Check that a passage you wrote or found suits the group you will read it with.
- Compare two versions of the same text, one for the class and one for a reader who needs it easier.
- Shorten the longest sentences in a letter home and see the grade fall.
- Let older students check their own writing: is the grade what they were aiming for?
- Test the directions on a worksheet, since directions are often harder than the content.
- Teach sentence length: have students paste two paragraphs and compare the averages.
Related
Questions
Is my text uploaded or saved?
No. The numbers are worked out by this page in your browser, and the text is not sent to any server or stored. Close the tab and it is gone.
What is a good Flesch–Kincaid grade for my students?
There is no single good number. A passage a grade or so below your students' level is easy to read for fluency practice; a passage at or a little above grade level is for reading with support. Use the number to compare passages, not to label a child.
Why does my score change when I add or remove a title?
Each line is counted as its own sentence, because titles and list items have no full stop. A few short lines pull the average sentence length down and the grade with it. Paste only the passage if you want the passage's number.
How accurate is the syllable count?
It counts syllables by rule, not from a dictionary, so it is occasionally off by one on a word. Across a passage the errors mostly cancel, and the grade is usually within a grade of a dictionary-based count. It is an estimate.
Does it work for poems, dialogue and math problems?
Poems and dialogue give odd results because the formulas assume full sentences of ordinary prose. Numbers and symbols are not counted as words, so a math problem is mostly not measured at all.
Is Flesch–Kincaid the same as a Lexile or guided reading level?
No. Those use other methods (a Lexile also uses word frequency; a guided reading level also judges the print, the pictures and the supports). The Flesch–Kincaid grade only looks at sentence length and syllables.
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