Check What Percentage of Your Writing Is Passive Voice — Free Tool

The Passive Voice Detector shows you exactly what percentage of your sentences are passive — paste your text and get a score instantly. Most style guides recommend keeping passive voice below 10% of your total sentences. If you are at 25%, you have a concrete problem to fix. If you are at 8%, you are in good shape.

Knowing your percentage is more useful than knowing individual passive sentences — it tells you whether you have a systemic writing habit to change or just a few sentences to clean up.

How the Passive Voice Percentage Score Works

The tool counts two things: total sentences in your text, and sentences that contain a passive construction. Passive voice percentage = (passive sentences / total sentences) x 100.

A sentence is flagged as passive when it contains a form of "to be" (is, was, were, has been, had been, will be, etc.) combined with a past participle (a verb ending in -ed, -en, -t, or an irregular past participle). The classic test: if you can add "by zombies" after the verb and the sentence still makes grammatical sense, it is passive.

• "The report was written" → passive (was written by zombies — makes sense)
• "She wrote the report" → active (she wrote the report by zombies — does not make sense)

The gauge indicator gives you a visual sense of where you land: green for low passive usage, amber for moderate, red for high. The highlighted text shows exactly which sentences are driving the count up.

What Percentage Is Too Much Passive Voice?

There is no universal rule, but these thresholds are widely referenced in style guides and editorial standards:

Passive Voice %	Assessment	Action
0–5%	Excellent — active and direct	Minor review, keep going
5–10%	Good — within most style guide recommendations	Review flagged sentences, most are fine
10–20%	Moderate — noticeable to editors and readers	Rewrite the highest-priority passive sentences
20–30%	High — writing feels heavy and indirect	Systematic pass required
30%+	Very high — common in academic drafts, reports, legal writing	Significant revision needed for general audiences

Context matters: scientific and legal writing conventionally uses more passive voice because the actor is often irrelevant or unknown. Marketing copy, emails, and web content should aim for the lower end. Academic writing often sits at 20–40% by convention.

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Which Passive Sentences to Fix First

Not all passive sentences are equal. Prioritize fixes in this order:

1. Passive sentences where you know the actor. "The proposal was reviewed" — by whom? If you know, say it: "The committee reviewed the proposal." This is the easiest and most impactful fix.
2. Passive sentences in headlines, openings, and calls to action. These are what readers see first and what drives engagement. "Learn more" beats "More information can be found here."
3. Passive sentences in the middle of action sequences. If you are describing a process or telling a story, passive constructions break momentum. Active verbs keep readers moving.

Leave these passive sentences alone:

• When the actor is genuinely unknown: "The window was broken" (you do not know who broke it)
• When the action matters more than the actor: "The drug was approved in 2021"
• Scientific methods: "The samples were incubated at 37°C for 24 hours"
• When you intentionally want to avoid assigning blame: "Mistakes were made"

Combine With Other Free Writing Tools for a Full Quality Check

Passive voice percentage is one signal in a broader writing quality picture. Run your text through these tools for a complete assessment:

• Readability Scorer — Shows your Flesch-Kincaid grade level and reading ease score. High passive voice usually correlates with high grade level and low readability.
• Word Counter — Check sentence count, average sentence length, and reading time. Long sentences and passive voice together signal dense, hard-to-read prose.
• Headline Analyzer — Your headlines specifically should score low on passive voice. Run them separately to check.

A practical workflow: run your draft through the passive voice checker first (fix the structural issues), then check readability (fix grade level and sentence length), then check the headline analyzer (make entry points strong).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good passive voice percentage for a blog post or web page?

Aim for under 10%. Most SEO writing guides and content style guides recommend keeping passive voice below 10% of sentences for web content. Between 5–10% is ideal — some passive voice is natural and acceptable, but above 10% starts to affect readability and engagement.

Does the tool count every use of "was" as passive voice?

No. The tool identifies passive constructions specifically — a form of "to be" combined with a past participle indicating the subject receives the action. "She was tired" is not passive voice (tired is an adjective, not a verb in passive construction). "She was exhausted by the workload" is passive (was exhausted = passive verb).

Is there a word limit for the free tool?

No word limit. The tool processes entirely in your browser, so there is no server-side cap. Paste a full article, a chapter, or a complete report — it handles any length.