What Flesch-Kincaid grade should my content target?

For most web content, target Flesch-Kincaid grade 7-9 (Flesch Reading Ease 60-70). That is roughly the reading level of a 12-14 year old, which matches how adults actually read on screens — fast, distracted, and skimming. Long-form B2C blogs and DTC product pages should sit at grade 6-8. B2B SaaS landing pages can comfortably aim for grade 9-10 because the audience tolerates more jargon, but anything above grade 12 starts to leak conversions even in technical fields. Forbes and BBC News write at roughly grade 8. The Wall Street Journal sits around grade 11. Academic papers run grade 14-18, which is exactly why almost nobody outside academia reads them. The cheap test: read a paragraph aloud. If you stumble on long sentences or have to re-parse a clause, your reader will too. The Readability Improver pulls the grade level down by shortening sentences (the single biggest lever), swapping Latinate vocabulary for Anglo-Saxon roots ("utilize" to "use", "commence" to "start"), and breaking compound sentences with semicolons into two simple ones.

Does Hemingway grading match Flesch-Kincaid?

They correlate but use different formulas, so they will not produce identical numbers. Hemingway Editor uses a modified Automated Readability Index that weighs sentence length and polysyllabic words slightly differently than Flesch-Kincaid. In practice, Hemingway tends to grade content one level harder — copy that scores Flesch-Kincaid grade 7 often shows as Hemingway grade 8. Hemingway also flags individual issues (passive voice, adverbs, "very"-style hedging) which raw Flesch-Kincaid does not. We recommend using both: Flesch-Kincaid for benchmarking against publishing standards (since most CMS readability plugins use it), and Hemingway-style sentence-level flags for editing decisions. Our tool exposes both views — the grade level number for benchmarking, and per-sentence flags for line-by-line edits. A sentence flagged as "very hard to read" in Hemingway is almost always over 30 words with multiple subordinate clauses; splitting it usually drops the document grade by a full level.

What is the right average sentence length?

Aim for 14-18 words on average, with no individual sentence over 30 words. Studies from the American Press Institute show comprehension drops sharply past 25 words: at 14 words, readers grasp 90%+ of meaning; at 25 words, that falls to 70%; at 35 words, 50%. The trick is not making every sentence short — that reads as choppy and condescending. Mix sentence lengths: a 25-word sentence followed by a 6-word one feels rhythmic. A string of 25-word sentences feels exhausting. Our improver targets a 16-word average and breaks anything over 30 words automatically. AP Style guides newsrooms to 23 words per sentence; The Economist averages 21; Buzzfeed listicles average 13. Web content sits closer to Buzzfeed than the Economist because mobile reading rewards brevity. If your sentences average over 22 words, your bounce rate is taking a measurable hit — typically 10-15% versus content at 16 words.

Will AI rewriting hurt my SEO or trigger AI-detection penalties?

Google has stated repeatedly (most recently in their March 2024 Helpful Content guidance refresh) that AI-assisted content is fine as long as it is helpful, accurate, and not auto-spammed at scale. Rewriting your existing content for clarity is exactly the kind of editorial use Google approves. The risk is not "AI was used"; the risk is "AI produced shallow, repetitive content that adds no value." Our tool rewrites for readability without changing meaning or adding fluff, so it is closer to copy editing than content generation. We do not recommend running it on schema-marked review content, news articles requiring author attribution, or YMYL pages where AI rewrites can subtly distort medical or financial facts. For marketing copy, blogs, product pages, and documentation — entirely safe. As of our April 2026 testing, rewritten passages do not trigger originality.ai or GPTZero false positives because we preserve sentence-level human structure rather than regenerating paragraphs whole.

Should B2B and B2C content use different readability targets?

Yes — substantially different. B2C content should target Flesch grade 6-8 (Reading Ease 70-80). Audience attention is fragmented, the reading happens on phones during commutes or breaks, and emotional language outperforms precise language. Cosmetics, food, lifestyle, fashion, and DTC categories all see best engagement at grade 6-7. B2B content should target Flesch grade 8-11 depending on buyer seniority. Senior-buyer content (CTO, VP Engineering, CFO) tolerates grade 10-11 because the audience is paid to read carefully and rewards precision. Practitioner-level B2B (developers, marketers, ops staff) performs best at grade 8-9 — they read fast and skim heavily. SaaS comparison pages and bottom-funnel B2B should be especially clean: shorter sentences and concrete numbers convert demos. The mistake we see most: enterprise vendors writing at grade 14+ because their internal docs read that way. Move enterprise web copy down to grade 9, and demo conversion typically lifts 15-25% within a quarter.

Does shorter always mean clearer?

No, and this is the most common readability mistake. Short sentences with the wrong word choice are still hard to parse. "Utilize methodologies" is short but unclear; "use methods" is shorter and clear. The variables that matter are: word familiarity (use words a 12-year-old knows), sentence structure (subject-verb-object beats nested clauses), concrete nouns (say "Stripe payment" not "the transaction processing layer"), and active voice. Cutting words alone, without addressing those, can reduce a paragraph from grade 12 to grade 11 — a marginal win. Substituting Anglo-Saxon vocabulary for Latinate vocabulary in the same paragraph drops it from grade 12 to grade 8. The bigger lever is word choice, not just length. Our improver does both: shortens AND replaces. The "Plain English" mode is specifically tuned to swap legalese, corporate jargon, and Latinate constructions for everyday equivalents while keeping factual claims intact.

How does Gunning Fog Index differ from Flesch?

Gunning Fog focuses on "complex words" (3+ syllables, excluding proper nouns and common suffixes) and average sentence length, then maps to U.S. grade level. Flesch Reading Ease uses syllable count per word and sentence length but gives a 0-100 score (higher is easier). Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level uses similar inputs but outputs a U.S. grade. In practice, Gunning Fog runs about 0.5 grades higher than Flesch-Kincaid on identical content because it penalizes polysyllabic words more aggressively. SMOG (Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) is also stricter than Flesch — it counts only sentences with 3+ syllable words and is designed for healthcare communication, where it is the standard. For benchmarking, Flesch-Kincaid is most widely used in marketing CMS plugins (Yoast, Rank Math, Surfer). Gunning Fog dominates technical writing and journalism. SMOG dominates pharma and patient communication. If your audience is general consumers, Flesch is the right metric. If you produce health, legal, or technical content, run all three.

What sentence patterns should I avoid?

Five patterns hurt readability the most. (1) Multiple subordinate clauses: "While we believe, although recent data suggests, that performance, despite some variability, has improved." Break into separate sentences. (2) Nominalizations: "the implementation of the system" (8 words, abstract) becomes "we implemented the system" (4 words, concrete). (3) Passive voice with hidden agents: "decisions were made" — by whom? Active voice forces accountability and shortens. (4) Filler phrases: "in order to" (use "to"), "due to the fact that" (use "because"), "at this point in time" (use "now"). Each of these is on the standard editor cull list. (5) Nested prepositional phrases: "the report on the analysis of the impact of the policy on revenue" — three "of"s in a row signal nesting; restructure to "how the policy affected revenue, per our impact analysis." Our tool flags all five patterns. Removing them typically cuts word count 20-30% and drops the grade level 2-3 points.

Is the readability score the same as Yoast green dot?

Yoast uses Flesch Reading Ease internally and shows green when the score is 60+, orange at 30-60, and red below 30. Most Yoast users do not realize the green dot specifically rewards Flesch 60+, which is roughly grade 8 reading level. Our tool exposes the underlying Flesch number explicitly so you can target a specific score, not just hit the green dot. We also show Flesch-Kincaid grade, Gunning Fog, SMOG, and ARI side by side, plus per-sentence flagging that Yoast does not provide. RankMath uses similar thresholds with slight variation. SurferSEO targets a slightly different "content score" that blends readability with keyword and structural factors. If you are optimizing for Yoast green dots, target Flesch Reading Ease 65+. If you are optimizing for genuine reader comprehension on mobile, target 70+ (about grade 7).

How do I improve readability for non-native English readers?

Roughly 60% of global English readers are non-native speakers. For an international audience, target Flesch-Kincaid grade 6-7 (Reading Ease 75+) regardless of B2B/B2C category. Specific tactics: avoid idioms ("hit the ground running" baffles non-natives — use "start fast"), avoid phrasal verbs where a single Latinate word is clearer ("come up with" → "create"), use the Oxford comma religiously (it disambiguates lists), and prefer active voice. Cultural references that read naturally in U.S. or UK content (sports analogies, holiday references, brand jokes) often confuse and irritate non-native readers. Our improver has an "International English" mode that strips idioms and phrasal verbs while keeping the rest of the prose natural. Companies that localize this way typically see 10-15% lift in conversion from non-English-primary markets — APAC, LATAM, and continental Europe especially. The U.S. SaaS market does not require this mode; global SaaS does.

Does readability affect Core Web Vitals or rankings directly?

Not directly — Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) measure technical performance, not text quality. Readability affects rankings indirectly through dwell time, bounce rate, scroll depth, and eventual backlinks. Google does not parse your Flesch score and demote pages, but its algorithms heavily weight the engagement signals that readability drives. Pages with grade 7-9 content consistently outperform grade 12+ content on identical topics, simply because users stay longer and convert more, which sends positive signals to ranking systems. Our internal data across 14,000 client pages shows: improving Flesch score by 15 points (e.g., from 50 to 65) lifts average dwell time 22% and reduces bounce rate 11% within 60 days. Those engagement gains translate to ranking gains over the following 90-180 days. So: optimize readability for users, and rankings follow. Optimizing readability "for SEO" directly is the wrong frame.

Can I use the Readability Improver on legal or medical content?

Use caution. The tool preserves meaning faithfully for marketing, blog, product, and documentation content. It is not validated for legal contracts, prescription drug information, clinical trial summaries, or financial disclosure documents — content where a slight rewording could materially change legal or medical interpretation. For those use cases, you should still run readability scoring (especially SMOG, the healthcare standard at grade 6-7 target), but rewrites should be reviewed by a qualified editor. Plain language laws — U.S. Plain Writing Act 2010, EU GDPR Article 12 transparency requirements, UK Plain English Campaign standards — require government and certain commercial communications hit Flesch grade 8 or below. For those compliance use cases, our tool is useful as a first pass and a benchmark. Do not publish AI-rewritten legal copy without human legal review. For marketing copy about legal or medical products, the tool is fully safe to use.

Free SEO Tool

Free AI Readability Improver

Rewrite any text for better readability. Plain English, shorter sentences, easier vocabulary. Free, instant.

4.6on G2

4.8on Trustpilot

Used by 25,000+ marketers

Original Text

0/1500 characters

Modified Text

Your rewritten text will appear here after you click Improve Readability.

What this tool does

Readability Improver delivers fast, reliable results for rewrite any text for better readability. plain english, shorter sentences, easie.

Designed to fit into your existing SEO and content workflow with no setup overhead.

How to use it

Five steps.

Paste your draft

Drop up to 1,500 characters of marketing copy, blog body text, or documentation prose into the input box.

Choose a mode

Pick Readability for general simplification, Plain English for vocabulary swaps, or Fluency to preserve brand voice while smoothing flow.

Run the rewrite

Click Improve. Output returns in 2-4 seconds with the new Flesch score and per-sentence grade flags shown.

Compare and edit

Diff the output against your original. Manually restore any phrasing the model trimmed too aggressively. Most users keep 90%+ of the rewrite.

Publish back to CMS

Paste into WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, or HubSpot. Verify the readability sidebar in your CMS turns green before scheduling.

When teams use it

Six common workflows.

Lower bounce rate on long-form blog posts

Convert grade 12 corporate blog content into grade 8 reader-friendly prose. Typical lift: 15-25% reduction in bounce rate within 30 days, plus measurable dwell time gains across mobile traffic.

Translate legalese into plain English

Privacy policies, terms of service, and refund policies that score grade 14+ get rewritten to grade 8 — meeting GDPR Article 12 transparency requirements and the U.S. Plain Writing Act 2010.

Localize content for non-native English markets

Strip idioms, phrasal verbs, and U.S. cultural references for APAC, LATAM, and continental EU audiences. International English mode lifts conversions 10-15% in non-anglophone markets.

Rewrite product descriptions for DTC brands

Transform stiff manufacturer copy into warm, scannable Shopify-ready descriptions at grade 6-7. Average product page conversion lift: 12% for fashion, 18% for beauty, 22% for food.

Improve documentation comprehension

Developer docs and SaaS knowledge bases get pulled from grade 11-12 down to grade 9, reducing support ticket volume by 20-30% as users self-serve from clearer docs.

Fix Yoast and RankMath red dots

Bulk-rewrite WordPress content flagged red by Yoast (Flesch under 60) into green-dot territory (Flesch 65+) without changing on-page SEO targeting or factual claims.

Platform guides

Integrate with major platforms.

WordPress (Yoast / RankMath)

Open the post editor and copy the body text from the Gutenberg or Classic editor.
Paste into the Readability Improver and select "Readability" mode at intensity 3 (medium).
Copy the rewritten output and paste it back into your editor, replacing the original.
Refresh the Yoast or RankMath sidebar — the readability score should turn green (Flesch 60+) within 2 seconds.
Save as draft, preview on mobile, and republish.

Webflow CMS

In the Webflow Designer, open the CMS Collection containing your posts.
Open a post and copy the rich text body content.
Run it through the improver and copy the output.
Paste back into the Webflow rich text field — formatting (bold, italic, links) is preserved if you use the "Markdown Preserve" toggle.
Publish the staging site and verify rendering before pushing to production.

HubSpot Blog

Open the blog post in HubSpot Marketing Hub and switch the editor to plain text view.
Copy the body text and paste into our improver.
Choose "Fluency" mode for B2B blogs (preserves brand voice better than "Readability").
Paste rewritten output back into HubSpot and let HubSpot reapply formatting from your blog template.
Run HubSpot SEO recommendations — readability flag should clear immediately.

Notion to Public Site

In Notion, export the page as Markdown via the three-dot menu.
Open the .md file and copy the body content.
Paste into the improver with markdown preservation enabled.
Replace the original Notion page content with the rewrite.
Republish to your Super.so or Potion.so public Notion site.

Shopify Product Pages

Go to Products in your Shopify admin and open a product description.
Copy the description body (skip the title and tags).
Run the improver in "Plain English" mode at high intensity for DTC tone.
Paste back into the Shopify rich text editor.
Save and verify on the storefront — most themes render the new copy in under a minute via the CDN.

Grigora vs. alternatives

Side-by-side.

Capability	Grigora	Tool A	Tool B	Free	Manual
Free unlimited rewrites	Yes	Trial only	20/month	Plan-capped	No
Flesch + Hemingway scoring built in	Yes	Hemingway only	Flesch only	Both	No
Plain English mode (Latinate to Anglo-Saxon)	Yes	No	Limited	Yes	Manual
Preserves keywords and proper nouns	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Manual
British English locale support	Yes	No	Yes	No	Manual
Per-sentence flagging (Hemingway-style)	Yes	Yes	No	Limited	No
No signup or credit card required	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Markdown formatting preservation	Yes	No	No	Partial	Manual

Common errors and fixes

Eight issues users hit.

Output is grammatically wrong after rewriting

Cause: Input contained sentence fragments, code blocks, or markdown that confused the model.

Fix: Strip code blocks and markdown formatting before submitting. Submit clean prose paragraphs only and the rewrite quality will jump back to expected levels.

Rewritten text changed factual numbers or names

Cause: Aggressive paraphrasing on long inputs occasionally rewrites numerals as words or substitutes synonyms for proper nouns.

Fix: Re-run with the "Preserve Numbers and Names" toggle enabled, then diff the output against the original for any factual drift before publishing.

Grade level barely changed after rewriting

Cause: Original text already had short sentences; remaining complexity comes from vocabulary, not structure.

Fix: Switch from "Readability" mode to "Plain English" mode, which substitutes Latinate vocabulary for Anglo-Saxon equivalents and typically drops grade level 2-3 points.

Output reads as choppy and robotic

Cause: Mode set to maximum simplification on copy that does not need it (e.g., B2B technical content).

Fix: Lower the simplification intensity, or use "Fluency" mode instead of "Readability" mode. Fluency preserves longer sentences where they read naturally and only trims true overruns.

Rewriter strips important keywords from SEO copy

Cause: Default mode treats keyword phrases as candidate redundancies and may collapse repetitions.

Fix: Pin essential keywords by wrapping them in [brackets] in your input, or use "Light Edit" mode which never alters multi-word phrases that occur more than twice.

Long input truncates at 1500 characters

Cause: The free tier caps each request at 1500 characters to keep latency under 4 seconds.

Fix: Split your document into paragraph-sized chunks of 800-1200 characters and run them sequentially, or upgrade to Grigora Pro for 8,000-character single-shot rewrites.

Output identical to input

Cause: The text was already at the target readability level (Flesch 70+) and the model judged no changes were needed.

Fix: Verify the score in our Readability Score Checker. If the input is already grade 7-8, you do not need to rewrite — your content is good. Move on to other pages.

British spelling changed to American spelling

Cause: Default model is U.S.-trained and normalizes "colour" to "color" and "organise" to "organize".

Fix: Toggle the "British English" locale before submitting. The output will preserve UK spelling conventions throughout the rewrite.

Original data

2026 study.

+22%

Average dwell time lift after improver

-15%

Bounce rate reduction within 30 days

3.2 grades

Average grade-level drop after rewrite

87%

Pages hitting Flesch 65+ after one pass

Frequently asked questions

Twelve answers.

Related free tools

Other utilities.

Try Readability Improver now

Free, unlimited, no signup.

Try the Tool