How hard is this to read?
Paste a piece and get its reading level, its reading ease, how long it takes to read, and the specific sentences carrying the weight.
It is arithmetic over your own text, run in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, no signup.
How it works
Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level, computed from your syllable, word, and sentence counts — the same formulas the US Navy published in 1975, run here without rounding away the hard part.
What it doesn’t do
The formulas count syllables and sentence lengths. They cannot see whether an idea is hard — a clear page about a difficult subject and a muddy page about an easy one can score the same.
Questions people bring here
What is a good reading level for an article?
For most writing on the open web, grade 8 to 10. That is the range where a broad audience reads without effort and the prose still sounds adult. Reflective essays sit comfortably around 11 to 12; technical and academic writing runs higher on purpose, and lowering it there costs precision.
What does the Flesch Reading Ease score mean?
It runs 0 to 100, and higher is easier. Roughly: 90 and above reads like a children's book, 60 to 70 like a plain newspaper, 30 to 50 like an academic paper, and below 30 like a legal contract. The score comes from two things only — how long your sentences are and how many syllables your words carry.
Should I always write for a lower grade level?
No. Simpler is not automatically better; it is only better when the complexity wasn't earning anything. Long sentences and long words are tools, and a piece that never uses them reads flat. Use the number to find the sentences you didn't mean to make hard.
How is reading time calculated?
At 238 words per minute, the consensus figure for adult silent reading of prose. Read-aloud pace is closer to 150, so a piece meant to be spoken takes roughly half again as long as this estimate.
The reference behind it
Every finding here has an entry that explains it — what it is, why it matters, and when the flag is your voice working.
This is the free read
In the editor this number sits next to the sentence that moved it, so a grade level is something you can act on rather than something you have to accept.
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