Education
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Calculator
Paste any text and get instant readability scores: Flesch Reading Ease (0-100, higher = easier) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (the U.S. school grade needed to read it). Used by teachers, the military, insurance regulators, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Grade level
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Scores
- Flesch Reading Ease
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- F-K Grade Level
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- Gunning Fog
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- Years of education
- SMOG Index
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- Years of education
Text stats
- Words
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- Sentences
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- Syllables
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- Avg words/sentence
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Reference benchmarks
- Grade 5-6: Reader's Digest, most TV news, popular fiction
- Grade 7-8: Most blog posts, news articles, business writing
- Grade 9-10: Time, Newsweek — standard for adult general audience
- Grade 11-12: Harvard Business Review, longform journalism
- College+: Academic journals, legal documents, technical manuals
Flesch Reading Ease score
| Score | School level | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 90-100 | 5th grade | Very easy. Children's books. |
| 80-90 | 6th grade | Easy. Conversational English. |
| 70-80 | 7th grade | Fairly easy. Most consumer marketing. |
| 60-70 | 8th-9th | Plain English. Reader's Digest target. |
| 50-60 | 10th-12th | Fairly difficult. Time magazine. |
| 30-50 | College | Difficult. Academic, legal. |
| 0-30 | Graduate | Very difficult. Scientific papers, contracts. |
FAQ
Where does this score come from? +
Rudolf Flesch developed the Reading Ease formula in 1948. J. Peter Kincaid adapted it for the U.S. Navy in 1975 to assess training manuals. Both are now standard in education, government, and publishing.
How is grade level calculated? +
FKGL = 0.39 × (words/sentences) + 11.8 × (syllables/words) − 15.59. Lower numbers = lower grade level needed.
Where is this required? +
Insurance policies (most US states require Flesch 40+), military/federal manuals (DOD MIL-M-38784B requires grade ≤8), legal forms in many states (consumer disclosures), and many state education curricula.
Should I always aim for low grade level? +
Match your audience. Children's books: grade 3-4. General adult: 7-9. Technical or academic: 12+ is fine. Plain-language laws aim for 8 because that's the U.S. median adult reading level.
How accurate is syllable counting? +
The English-only heuristic here counts vowel groups (with adjustments). It is ~95% accurate. Specialized linguistic libraries are slightly better but slower.