Softonic

Readability Analyzer

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Paste any English text and the analyzer returns four readability scores side by side (Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index and SMOG Grade) along with raw counts: words, sentences, syllables and complex words. Good for calibrating blog posts, UX copy, legal notices and school assignments. These formulas are calibrated for English, so scores for other languages are only rough approximations.

How readability scoring works

  1. 1

    Paste text

    At least 100 words gives stable scores; under that the formulas become noisy.

  2. 2

    The analyzer counts

    Sentences, words, syllables (using a hyphenation-based estimator) and complex words (3+ syllables).

  3. 3

    Four formulas run

    Each formula combines the counts differently; all four are reported.

  4. 4

    Interpret side by side

    If the scores disagree strongly, the text probably has an unusual mix of short sentences and long words (or vice versa). Grades are US school grade levels.

The four formulas

Score Output What it reads as easy
Flesch Reading Ease 0-100 (higher is easier) 60-70 is plain English
Flesch-Kincaid Grade US school grade 7-8 for general audience
Gunning Fog Index US school grade Under 12 for general audience
SMOG Grade US school grade 10-12 for news, 14+ academic

Reference targets

  • Direct-to-consumer web copy: Flesch Reading Ease 60-70 (Grade 7-8).
  • News article: Grade 9-11.
  • Academic paper: Grade 12+.
  • Legal notice: often 16+, which is exactly why plain-language laws exist.

Limits of the formulas

Readability scores measure surface complexity, sentence length, syllable count, character count. They do not know whether your prose makes sense. A text can score “easy” and still be incoherent. Use scores as a red flag system, not a writing coach.

Frequently Asked Questions

Each weighs sentence length, syllable count and complex-word count differently. Flesch-Kincaid punishes syllables more, while SMOG and Gunning Fog focus on complex words (3+ syllables). Strong disagreement hints at unusual sentence structure.

Not reliably. These formulas are calibrated on English text. German, French and Spanish have their own family of readability scores (LIX, Fernandez-Huerta, Flesch-Szigriszt) that should be used instead.

Novels use short dialogue sentences and simple verbs, which boost readability. Technical copy packs definitions and qualifiers into long sentences, which hurts it. Aim for the shorter-sentence pattern for marketing copy.

A word of three or more syllables, excluding proper nouns, compound words, and common suffixes like -ing or -ed. “Complexity” would count; “controlled” would not.

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