What this text analyzer does
Paste any text and this tool measures how readable it is. It calculates a Flesch reading-ease score, estimates the reading level, and breaks down your writing into sentence and word statistics — average sentence length, syllables per word, complex words and more. It even detects whether your text is English or German and scores it with the right formula. Everything runs locally in your browser.
Understanding the readability score
The Flesch reading-ease score runs from 0 to 100. A higher score means easier to read. As a rough guide:
| Score | Level | Typical audience |
|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | Very easy | 11-year-old reader |
| 70–89 | Easy to fairly easy | General public |
| 60–69 | Standard | 13–15-year-old reader |
| 30–59 | Difficult | University level |
| 0–29 | Very difficult | Academic, legal, technical |
Most web copy aims for 60 or above, so the widest possible audience can follow it without effort. News writing typically sits around 60–70.
What drives the score
Two things mostly determine readability:
- Sentence length — long sentences with many clauses are harder to follow. Shorter sentences raise the score.
- Word length — words with more syllables slow readers down. Plain, common words raise the score.
That's why the quickest way to make writing clearer is to split long sentences and replace long words with simpler ones. The statistics panel shows your average sentence length and syllables per word so you can see exactly where to cut.
English and German
Readability formulas are language-specific because the two languages build words differently. This tool uses the original Flesch formula for English and the Amstad adaptation for German, and picks the right one automatically by detecting the language of your text. Scores are therefore comparable within a language, but you should not compare an English score directly against a German one.
Good uses for a readability check
- Making marketing or product copy easy to scan.
- Tuning blog posts and articles for a broad audience.
- Simplifying official letters, instructions or forms.
- Checking that study material matches a target reading level.
A note on accuracy
Syllable counting uses a heuristic, so a few unusual words may be off by one syllable. The score is meant as a practical guide, not an exact linguistic measurement — use it to compare drafts and spot overly dense passages, not as an absolute verdict.