Readability Score Calculator
Paste your text below to calculate Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, and Gunning Fog Index scores with instant interpretations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Flesch Reading Ease score?
The Flesch Reading Ease score rates text on a scale from 0 to 100, where higher numbers mean easier to read. Scores of 70–100 are considered easy (plain English), 50–69 fairly difficult (standard), and below 50 very difficult (academic or professional). Most web content aims for 60–70.
What does the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level mean?
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level approximates the US school grade a reader needs to understand the text. A score of 8 means an 8th-grader can read it comfortably. Most general-audience content targets grades 6–8. Technical and legal writing often scores above 12.
What is the Gunning Fog Index?
The Gunning Fog Index estimates the years of formal education needed to understand the text on first reading. A score of 12 corresponds to high-school level. Scores above 17 are considered nearly unreadable for general audiences. The index penalizes long sentences and words with three or more syllables.
How accurate is the syllable counting?
The syllable algorithm uses standard English heuristics — vowel groups, silent 'e', and consonant patterns — and is accurate for most common words. Proper nouns, technical jargon, and unusual spellings may be slightly off. For research-grade accuracy, compare results with a reference tool such as Microsoft Word's readability statistics.