Readability score
Paste your writing to see how easy it is to read. We compute six standard scores locally — nothing is uploaded.
Simplify long sentences automatically
Verbao's AI proofreader rewrites clunky passages while keeping your voice — usually bringing the grade level down two full points.
How to read these scores
Readability scores turn your writing into numbers, but the numbers only matter with context. Lower grade levels do not mean dumbing down — they mean more readers can absorb your point quickly.
Flesch Reading Ease is 0–100 (higher is easier). Aim for 60+ for a general audience and 70+ for children. Academic or technical writing often lands in the 30–50 range.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade estimates the school year needed to understand the text. A score of 8 means a US eighth-grader — roughly UK Year 9 — should follow it. It is the most widely used readability metric in government and education.
Gunning Fog measures writing density. It penalises long sentences and words with three or more syllables. A score of 12 means a reader needs around 12 years of schooling. For mainstream web copy, aim under 10.
SMOG Index stands for Simple Measure of Gobbledygook. It counts polysyllabic words in samples of 30 sentences. It is considered one of the most accurate predictors of reading difficulty, but it needs at least 30 sentences to be reliable.
Automated Readability Index (ARI) uses characters per word and words per sentence. It is useful for technical content where syllable counting can be misleading. UK readers can treat the result as a school-year equivalent.
Coleman-Liau also uses characters and sentences rather than syllables. It was designed to work with typewriters and scanners, so it still performs well on plain text today. UK readers can treat the result as a school-year equivalent.
Average grade is the mean of the five grade-level scores. It is a quick way to see where the different formulas agree. UK readers can treat the result as a school-year equivalent.
Scores are estimates, not guarantees. A technical manual will naturally score higher than a blog post. Match the score to your audience, not a universal target.