Flesch Reading Ease Calculator
Paste your text to get its Flesch reading ease score and what it means.
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How to use the Flesch reading ease calculator
- Paste your text into Text to score.
- To try a sample first, choose one of the presets: Easy sample, Medium sample (the default), or Hard sample.
- If each line is a separate sentence, such as a list of short items, open “More options” and turn on Treat each line as a sentence.
- Read the Flesch reading ease score, shown large to one decimal place.
- Check the Band and US school level, for example “easy, about 6th grade level”.
- Read the Flesch-Kincaid grade (secondary), for example “5.1 (Grade 5)”.
- Check the counts: Words, Sentences, Syllables (estimate), Average words per sentence, and Average syllables per word.
- Read “How it was calculated” to see the formula filled in with your numbers.
The page shows a warning when the score is above 100 or below 0, and another when the text is very short (under 3 sentences or 30 words). Text over 200,000 characters is cut, with a warning. Use Copy result to copy the numbers as text, Copy link to copy a web address that reopens the tool with your settings, and Print / save as PDF to keep a record. Reset returns the tool to its starting sample. A very long pasted text is left out of the copied link.
What is a good Flesch reading ease score?
There is no single good score. Higher is easier, and the right target depends on who will read the text. A score of 60 to 70 is the plain English band, which the table maps to 8th and 9th grade in the US school system.
- 90-100: very easy (5th grade)
- 80-90: easy (6th grade)
- 70-80: fairly easy (7th grade)
- 60-70: plain English (8th and 9th grade)
- 50-60: fairly difficult (10th to 12th grade)
- 30-50: difficult (college)
- 10-30: very difficult (college graduate)
- Below 10: extremely difficult (professional)
A score exactly on a boundary goes to the easier band, so 90 counts as very easy and 60 counts as plain English.
How is the Flesch reading ease score calculated?
The score starts at 206.835 and subtracts 1.015 times the average number of words per sentence, then subtracts 84.6 times the average number of syllables per word. Rudolf Flesch published this formula in 1948 in “A new readability yardstick” (Journal of Applied Psychology 32(3):221-233).
Only sentence length and syllables per word are measured. Longer sentences and longer words both lower the score. Words and sentences are counted directly, but syllables are estimated: the tool uses the CMU dictionary where a word is listed and spelling rules otherwise.
Take the text “The cat sat on the mat. The dog ran to the cat.” It has 12 words in 2 sentences, so there are 6 words per sentence. Each word has one syllable. The calculation is 206.835 - (1.015 × 6) - (84.6 × 1), which gives 116.1. The tool shows an above-100 warning for this text because the score is over 100.
Sources (checked 2026-10-15): Flesch–Kincaid readability tests (Wikipedia).
Worked examples
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| The cat sat on the mat. It was a warm day. The dog ran to... | reading ease 114.9 (very easy) |
| Good writing is easy to follow. Short sentences help, but... | reading ease 80.5 (easy) |
| Organizations frequently underestimate the administrative... | reading ease -46.5 (extremely difficult) |
Calculated by the tool above; open it with the same values to see each step.
Frequently asked questions
Is Flesch reading ease the same as the Flesch-Kincaid grade?
No. The Flesch reading ease score is an ease score, where higher means easier. The Flesch-Kincaid grade is a US school grade. It uses the same two averages with different weights, which is why the tool shows it as a second figure.
Can the score be over 100 or negative?
Yes. The scale is not capped. Very simple text can score above 100, and very long sentences with long words can fall below 0. The tool shows a warning in either case.
How accurate is it?
The score uses only sentence length and syllables per word. Syllable counts are estimates, and very short texts give rough results. Treat the number as a guide, not a measure of quality.
What is the Flesch reading ease test?
It is the same score, often called a test. It is a formula, not an exam, so you simply get a number from your text.
What does a score of 60 mean?
It is the start of the plain English band, which the table maps to 8th and 9th grade in the US school system. Scores from 60 to 70 fall in this band.
Does the tool store the text I paste?
No. Everything runs in your browser, and the text is not uploaded or stored by the site. The tool is free, with no sign-up or account.
Related tools
- Flesch-Kincaid calculator: use it when you want the grade-level result on its own.
- Flesch reading ease scale: use it to see each score band laid out in more detail.
- Flesch-Kincaid formula calculator: use it to work through the grade formula step by step.
- Readability formulas compared: use it to see how different readability formulas measure text.
- Reading level checker: use it when you need a reading level for a text rather than a formula score.
- What is reading level: use it to learn what a reading level means before you compare scores.
- Readability checker: use it to start from the main page and choose a score for your text.