What Is a Good Readability Score? Target Numbers by Use Case

A "good" readability score depends entirely on what you are writing and who is reading it. A Flesch Reading Ease of 45 is terrible for a blog post but perfectly fine for an academic paper. A score of 80 is great for a landing page but would sound oddly simplistic in a business report. Here are the target numbers for every common writing scenario, based on what actually performs well.

Target Readability Scores by Content Type

Content Type	Flesch Reading Ease	Grade Level	Gunning Fog
Landing pages	65-80	5-8	7-10
Marketing emails	60-75	6-9	8-11
Blog posts	60-70	7-9	9-12
Product descriptions	60-70	7-9	8-11
Business emails	50-65	8-11	10-13
Resumes	50-65	9-12	10-14
Technical documentation	45-60	10-13	12-15
White papers	40-55	11-14	12-16
Academic papers	30-50	12-16	14-18
Legal documents	20-40	14-20+	16-20+

These ranges come from analyzing thousands of successful examples in each category. They are guidelines, not rules — a brilliant blog post at Flesch 55 is better than a mediocre one at 65.

The Average American Reading Level — Why It Sets the Baseline

The average American adult reads at roughly an 8th grade level. This is not an insult — it is a well-documented literacy statistic from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) and reinforced by subsequent studies.

What this means for your writing:

• If you write at an 8th grade level (Flesch ~60-65), most American adults can comfortably read your content
• If you write at a 12th grade level (Flesch ~40-50), you are excluding roughly 40% of American adults
• If you write at a college level (Flesch ~30-40), you are writing for about 30% of the adult population

This is why newspapers target 6th-8th grade. This is why government communication guidelines recommend 6th grade or below. And this is why your blog post scoring at Flesch 35 is getting a high bounce rate.

Note: this is not about intelligence. It is about cognitive effort. A doctor reading your blog post after a 12-hour shift does not want to parse complex sentences. A lawyer scrolling LinkedIn at 6am wants clear, scannable text. Writing at a lower grade level respects everyone's time and attention.

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When Low Readability Scores Are Actually Fine

Not everything should target Flesch 65. Some contexts inherently require complex language:

• Academic papers: Discipline-specific terminology is unavoidable. "Longitudinal multivariate regression analysis" cannot be simplified to "number crunching over time" in a journal article. Aim for the upper range of academic readability (40-50 Flesch) by keeping sentence structure simple even when vocabulary is complex.
• Legal contracts: Precision matters more than readability. "Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions" has a specific legal meaning that cannot be replaced with "despite the above." Some legal jurisdictions are pushing for plain-language alternatives, but formal legal text remains dense by necessity.
• Technical specifications: API documentation, engineering specs, and protocol descriptions serve an expert audience that expects technical precision. Flesch 45-55 is appropriate here.
• Medical writing: Patient-facing materials should be simple (Flesch 60-70). Clinician-facing materials can be complex (Flesch 35-50). Know your audience.

Check Your Score in 10 Seconds

1. Copy any text you have written — email draft, blog post, report section, social media post.

2. Open the Readability Scorer in any browser.

3. Paste the text and click "Analyze Readability."

4. Compare your Flesch Reading Ease score to the target range for your content type (use the table above).

5. If your score is below the target range, check the "average words per sentence" metric first. This is usually the biggest factor. If it is above 20, you have sentences to split.

You do not need to check readability on every email or Slack message. Focus on content that matters: published blog posts, important emails to clients, landing page copy, resumes, and any content your audience will judge you by.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good readability score for a blog post?

Flesch Reading Ease of 60-70 works for most blog content. This targets an 8th-9th grade reading level, accessible to the vast majority of adult readers while still allowing depth and nuance.

Is a readability score of 50 good or bad?

It depends on context. A score of 50 is too low for a blog post or marketing email (aim for 60+). But it is perfectly fine for a business report, technical document, or academic abstract.

What readability score does Grammarly recommend?

Grammarly labels Flesch scores above 60 as "good" readability and flags content below 40 as "hard to read." Their recommended range aligns with general best practices: aim for 60+ for consumer-facing content.

What is the highest possible readability score?

The Flesch Reading Ease scale technically goes to 121.22 (for text with only one-syllable words in very short sentences), but scores above 100 are unusual. In practice, 90-100 represents very easy text like children's books.