Blog
What Is a Good Readability Score?
The short answer: a Flesch Reading Ease score of 60 to 70 is a good target for general readers, while 90 to 100 works well for material people need to scan quickly. The right range still depends on the audience and the subject.
Readability scores are most useful as ranges, not pass-or-fail grades. A score of 60 to 70 usually means the text can be understood by a broad adult audience without much effort. A score of 90 to 100 is very easy and suits FAQs, recipes, simple instructions, and introductions. A score below 50 may still be appropriate for specialists, but it will slow down readers who are new to the topic.
How Flesch-Kincaid scores are calculated
Flesch Reading Ease uses two averages: sentence length and syllables per word. The formula is 206.835 minus 1.015 times the average sentence length, minus 84.6 times the average number of syllables per word. In practice, shorter sentences and shorter words produce a higher score.
A paragraph with 18-word sentences and mostly one-syllable words may land near 80 or above. The same idea written in 35-word sentences with longer academic vocabulary can fall into the 30s. This is why two drafts can cover the same subject and receive very different results. The score measures surface complexity, not whether the argument is correct, useful, or interesting.
Ideal scores by content type
There is no universal number for every page. Reader expertise, expected reading time, and search context all matter. These ranges are practical starting points rather than strict rules:
- Blog posts: 60 to 70. This range keeps explanatory writing friendly while allowing enough variety to sound natural.
- Academic writing: 30 to 50. Technical terms and carefully qualified claims lower the score, but the prose should still avoid needless sentence length.
- News articles: 50 to 65. Journalists often combine familiar language with names, numbers, and background that increase complexity.
- Marketing copy: 60 to 80. Short, direct sentences help readers understand an offer without slowing the page.
A score outside the preferred range is a signal to review the draft, not an automatic defect. The useful question is whether the score matches the audience's needs.
How to improve readability
You do not need to rewrite every sentence. Small structural changes often move a score into a more comfortable range while preserving the meaning.
Shorten long sentences. Look for sentences over 25 words and split them at natural transitions. If a sentence contains several ideas joined by "and," "which," or "because," it may work better as two sentences. Keep the most important idea first so readers know where the sentence is going.
Reduce passive voice. Passive constructions hide the actor and usually add words. "The report was reviewed by the team" becomes "The team reviewed the report." Passive voice is sometimes the right choice, especially when the actor is unknown or unimportant, but active phrasing usually makes responsibility and action clearer.
Choose simpler words. Replace inflated phrases such as "in order to," "utilize," and "at this point in time" with "to," "use," and "now." Keep specialized terms when they are necessary, but define them the first time they appear. Simpler language is not less intelligent. It simply asks less work from the reader.
Use our Readability Checker to measure Flesch Reading Ease, see the grade level, and highlight sentences longer than 25 words. After revising, run the draft through the Word Frequency Counter to catch repeated wording, or use the Text Summarizer to check whether the main points still stand out in a shorter version.