liminfoReadability Score
Free web tool: Readability Score
Basic Statistics
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Characters (no spaces)
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Words
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Sentences
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Avg Word Length
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Avg Sentence Length
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About Readability Score
The Readability Score Analyzer computes key readability metrics for any English text in real time as you type. It counts characters (with and without spaces), words, and sentences, then applies the Flesch Reading Ease formula (206.835 − 1.015 × words/sentence − 84.6 × syllables/word) and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula (0.39 × words/sentence + 11.8 × syllables/word − 15.59) to produce scores that map directly to U.S. school grade levels.
Writers, content marketers, educators, UX researchers, and legal professionals use readability analysis to calibrate text complexity to their intended audience. A blog post targeting a general audience should aim for a Flesch score above 60 (8th–9th grade), while technical documentation or academic papers may intentionally score below 30. The tool auto-detects whether the input is primarily English or another language and only shows Flesch scores when English text is detected, preventing misleading results from syllable counting on non-English words.
All text analysis runs entirely in the browser using pure JavaScript. The syllable counter uses a vowel-group algorithm with a final silent-e correction, providing reasonable accuracy across common English vocabulary without the overhead of a pronunciation dictionary. No text is uploaded or stored — the moment you clear the input area, all computed values disappear.
Key Features
- Real-time character count (total and without spaces) as you type
- Word count and sentence count using punctuation-boundary detection
- Average word length in characters and average sentence length in words
- Flesch Reading Ease score with 7-level interpretation (Very Easy to Very Difficult)
- Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level mapped to the U.S. school grade system
- Auto language detection — Flesch scores only shown for English-dominant text
- Total syllable count computed via vowel-group algorithm with silent-e correction
- 100% client-side processing — your text never leaves your browser
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Flesch Reading Ease score?
Flesch Reading Ease is a numerical score from 0 to 100 that measures how easy a text is to read. Higher scores indicate simpler text: 90–100 is very easy (5th grade), 60–70 is standard (8th–9th grade), and below 30 is very difficult (graduate level). The formula was developed by Rudolf Flesch in 1948 and is still widely used in publishing, government, and healthcare to gauge audience accessibility.
What is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level?
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level translates a text's complexity into a U.S. school grade equivalent. A score of 8 means the text is appropriate for an 8th grader. The formula was developed by the U.S. Navy in 1975 and is built into Microsoft Word's readability statistics. Unlike Flesch Reading Ease, lower grade-level numbers indicate simpler text.
Why does the tool not show Flesch scores for my text?
Flesch formulas are calibrated for English phonology and rely on syllable counting based on English vowel patterns. When the tool detects that more than 50% of the non-space characters are non-alphabetic (as in Korean, Chinese, or Japanese), it skips the Flesch calculation to avoid inaccurate results. For Korean text analysis, use a dedicated Korean readability metric.
What is a good readability score for a website or blog?
For general consumer audiences, aim for a Flesch Reading Ease of 60–70 and a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 7–9. News websites typically target grade 8–10. If your audience is professionals in a specialized field, scores in the 30–50 range are acceptable. Landing pages and marketing copy often target grade 6–8 to maximize comprehension and conversion.
How accurate is the syllable counter?
The syllable counter uses a vowel-group heuristic with adjustments for silent trailing "e" and short words of three characters or fewer (always counted as 1 syllable). This approach achieves reasonable accuracy for common English words but may miscounts syllables in proper nouns, technical jargon, or words with unusual vowel clusters. For academic research requiring precise syllable counts, compare with a pronunciation dictionary such as CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.
What counts as a sentence boundary?
The tool splits text on sequences of period (.), exclamation mark (!), or question mark (?) characters, then filters out empty segments. This means abbreviations like "Dr." or "e.g." may artificially inflate the sentence count, which would lower the average sentence length and slightly raise the Flesch Reading Ease score. For the most accurate results, avoid abbreviations that end with a period in the middle of a sentence.
Can I analyze very long documents?
Yes. The tool processes text of any length directly in the browser using efficient JavaScript string operations. There is no character limit enforced by the tool itself. However, very large pastes (hundreds of thousands of characters) may cause a brief UI lag while the browser synchronously computes the statistics on each keypress, since the analysis runs reactively on every input event.
How does readability relate to SEO?
Search engines like Google use engagement signals such as bounce rate and time-on-page as indirect ranking factors. Content that is too complex for its target audience tends to have higher bounce rates. Writing at the appropriate reading level for your audience improves comprehension, dwell time, and shareability, all of which contribute positively to SEO performance. Most SEO tools recommend targeting a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 8 or lower for general web content.