---
title: "Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level"
id: "flesch-kincaid-grade-level"
project: "ClickHelp User Manual"
url: "https://docs.clickhelp.com/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/flesch-kincaid-grade-level"
updated: 2026-11-05T12:34:07Z
---

# Flesch\-Kincaid Grade Level

Documentation index for AI tools: [/llms.txt](/llms.txt)
 
**The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level** is a readability metric used to determine how difficult a text is to understand based on the length of words and sentences in the text. The values vary from 0 to 18, where 18 represents the most difficult text. Here's how the grade level should be interpreted:

| Value | School level | Student age range | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0-1 | Pre-kindergarten - 1st grade | 3-7 | Basic level for those who just learn to read books. |
| 1-5 | 1st grade - 5th grade | 7-11 | Very easy to read. |
| 5-11 | 5th grade - 11th grade | 11-17 | Average level. Good for the majority of marketing materials. |
| 11-18 | 11th grade - 18th grade | 17 and above | The text is for skilled readers. For example, an academic paper. |

A grade level of 8 (13- to 15-year-old students) is recommended for English content to be successfully read by 80% of readers in the USA. The level for marketing materials may vary from grade level 6 to 15, where lower levels are okay for short blog posts or emails, and higher levels can be used for ebooks.

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Since it's based on the [American Education system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States#Educational_stages), school levels and age ranges may be inaccurate for non-English languages. However, it's still possible to compare the relative readability of two topics written in the same language.

| If a metric value is zero, make sure that the project language matches the content language and check the punctuation. |
| --- |

Check out the other readeability metrics:

* [Coleman-Liau Index](/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/coleman-liau-index)
* [Flesch Reading Ease](/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/flesch-reading-ease)
* [Gunning Fog Index](/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/gunning-fog-index)
* [Automated Readability Index](/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/automated-readability-index)
* [Linsear Write](/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/linsear-write)
* [SMOG Index](/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/smog-index)
* [FORCAST Grade](/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/forcast-grade)
* [New Dale-Chall Score](/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/new-dale-chall-score)
* [Average Grade](/articles/clickhelp-user-manual/average-grade)