What Is a Good Readability Score? Flesch Reading Ease Explained
Updated October 2026
A readability score turns your text into a number that says how easy it is to read. It is handy as a quick check, but it is easy to misread. This guide explains what the two common scores measure, what a good score looks like, and where the numbers mislead.
What a readability score measures
The scores look at two things only: how long your sentences are and how long your words are. Short sentences with short words score as easy. Long sentences with long words score as hard. They do not know whether your text is clear, accurate or interesting.
Flesch Reading Ease
Reading ease runs from about 0 to 100, and a higher number means easier text. Here is the usual way to read it:
| Score | How it reads | Typical text |
|---|---|---|
| 90 to 100 | Very easy | Simple instructions, children's books |
| 70 to 90 | Easy to fairly easy | Chatty blog posts, product pages |
| 60 to 70 | Plain English | Most news and web writing |
| 30 to 60 | Fairly difficult to difficult | Long articles, reports |
| 0 to 30 | Very difficult | Legal and scientific text |
The score is not limited to 0 to 100. A text of very short words and sentences can score above 100, and a text with very long ones can go below 0.
Grade level
The grade level uses the same two measurements and gives the result as a school grade in the United States. A grade of 8 means that a typical student around the age of 13 or 14 could read the text. It is useful when you write for a general audience, because most people prefer text that is easier than they strictly need.
What is a good score?
There is no single good score. It depends on who reads the text and why.
- Web pages, emails and help articles: aim for the plain English range, around 60 to 70 or higher, because people scan on a phone.
- Technical, legal or academic text: a lower score is normal. Use shorter sentences where you can, but do not drop the correct terms.
- Children's text: aim for the easy end, and check with the real readers if you can.
Treat the score as a signal that tells you where to look. If one paragraph is far harder than the rest, read it again and see if it can be simpler.
Where the score misleads
- It is for English. The formulas were made for English, and the results for other languages are not reliable.
- It counts syllables with a rule of thumb. The tool estimates them, so a few words are counted wrong and the score is a rough figure, not an exact one.
- Short is not always clear. Choppy sentences and slang can score as easy and still confuse the reader.
- A hard word is not always a bad word. Terms your reader knows, such as product names, can lower the score without making the text harder for them.
- Do not write for the number. Changing words only to raise the score can make the text worse.
Easy ways to make a text easier to read
- Split sentences of more than 25 words into two.
- Use the shorter word when two words mean the same, such as use instead of utilize.
- Put the main point first.
- Use lists and short paragraphs for steps and options.
- Read the text aloud. Where you run out of breath, the sentence is too long.
Common questions
- Does readability affect SEO? Google does not publish a readability score as a ranking factor, but pages that people can read easily are more useful to them, and that is what search engines try to reward.
- Is a score of 60 bad? No. It is plain English and a sensible level for most web text.
- Why does the score change when I change one word? Every word and sentence changes the averages, so a short text moves a lot with a small edit.
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