Is my resume uploaded?

No. The file is read inside your browser and never sent anywhere. You can watch your browser's network panel while it runs to check.

Does a model or chatbot score my resume?

No. Fixed rules match words and check the layout. The rules and weights are printed in the Method block on this page.

What score should I aim for?

There is no target. Employers' systems differ, and there is no standard ATS score. Use the results to find gaps, not to hit a number.

Which files can I check?

PDF and Word (.docx) files up to 5 MB and 10 pages, or pasted text. Save an old .doc file as .docx or PDF first.

Does it work in other languages?

No. It reads English resumes and job descriptions only, and stops rather than give a wrong result.

Free ATS resume checker: match your resume to a job description

For job seekers: check how well your resume's words match one job description, and which layout choices resume parsers often misread.

Rule-basedInstant, rule-based result.

Check it yourself: every request this page makes

Every request this page has made since you opened it

The list fills in once the page has loaded.

Downloads bring the tool to you. Nothing has been sent. Your file and your text are not in any of these.

Offline

Not loaded yet: the checker loads when you start using it

Or open your browser's developer tools, choose Network, run the tool and watch: your file never appears.

Your data. Runs in your browser. Your resume and the job description are never uploaded. How we handle data

1Your resume

Upload a filePaste text

Drop a PDF or Word file here, or choose one.An old .doc file? Save it as .docx or PDF first.

Choose a file

PDF or Word .docx, up to 5 MB and 10 pages.

2The job description

0 of 20,000 characters, at least 300. Include the requirements.

Fixed rules, no model. Your resume and the job description stay on this device.

Example result from made-up data

From the made-up sample. Press Load a sample to run it yourself. Your first check replaces it.

Read cleanly

Checked: keyword match 64 out of 100, readability 95 out of 100.

Keyword and structure match. Not a prediction of hiring odds.

Keyword match: Measures word overlap with this job description, not your chances of being hired. 11 of 20 keywords found.
Readability: Measures how cleanly resume parsers can read your file, from the fixed checks below.

There is no standard ATS score. Employers' systems differ, so use this to find gaps, not to hit a number.

Keywords from the job description

Missing keywords first, by the points each would add. 11 of 20 found in your resume.
Keyword	From the job description	Weight	Why it counts	In your resume	Points if added
Looker Studio	What you'll do, twice	Standard	Listed skill	Missing	+7
Sales operations	Requirements, once	Must have	Listed skill	Missing	+5
Pipeline management	Requirements, once	Must have	Listed skill	Missing	+5
Written communication	Requirements, once	Must have	Listed skill	Missing	+5
Sales leaders	About the role, twice	Standard	Repeated phrase	Missing	+5
Forecasting	What you'll do, once	Standard	Listed skill	Missing	+3
Dashboards	What you'll do, once	Standard	Listed skill	Missing	+3
Power BI	Nice to have, once	Nice to have	Listed skill	Missing	+2
Documentation	Nice to have, once	Nice to have	Listed skill	Missing	+2
Revenue operations	Requirements, twice	Must have	Listed skill	Near the top	None
HubSpot	Requirements, twice	Must have	Listed skill	In Experience	None
Salesforce	Requirements, twice	Must have	Listed skill	Skills section only	None
SQL	Requirements, once	Must have	Listed skill	In Experience	None
Google Sheets	Requirements, once	Must have	Listed skill	In Experience	None
Data analysis	Requirements, once	Must have	Listed skill	Skills section only	None
Sales	About the role, 4 times	Standard	Repeated phrase	In Experience	None
Analyst	Job description, twice	Standard	Repeated phrase	In Experience	None
Report	About the role, twice	Standard	Repeated phrase	In Experience	None
Customer success	What you'll do, once	Standard	Listed skill	In Experience	None
Zapier	What you'll do, once	Standard	Listed skill	In Experience	None

Points are rounded, so they may not add up exactly.

Readability checks

Email
Passed
Found an email address.
Phone
Passed
Found a phone number.
Experience heading
Passed
Found: Work experience
Education heading
Passed
Found: Education
Skills heading
Passed
Found: Skills
Dates
Warning
3 date ranges under Experience, in mixed formats.
Give every job a date range in one format, such as Jan 2023 to Mar 2025.
-5 points
Garbled characters
Passed
Every character reads as text.
Length
Passed
265 words.
Bullets
Passed
12 bullets under Experience.
Numbers in bullets
Passed
6 of 12 bullets hold a number.
Icons
Passed
No icon characters next to contact details.
Real text
Not checked
Pasted text is already text.
Columns, Layout tables, Text boxes, Contact only in header or footer
Not checked
Pasted text has no layout.

What the parser read

Your resume as a list of lines, in the reading order our parser rebuilt, with the headings it found.

01Example candidate
02Revenue operations analyst
03candidate@example.com | +1 555 010 0199 | Bangalore
04Section: SummarySummary
05Analyst with four years of keeping sales data clean and reports on time for software teams. Comfortable in spreadsheets, SQL and the CRM, and happiest when a manual report becomes a scheduled one.
06Section: ExperienceWork experience

What to do next

01Add Looker Studio to an Experience bullet: about +7 keyword points.
02Add Sales operations to an Experience bullet: about +5 keyword points.
03Add Pipeline management to an Experience bullet: about +5 keyword points.

Hiring at volume? See resume screening automated

What your browser sent

After you run a check, this lists every request your browser made during it, from the browser's own timing data.

01How it works

How the checker reads your resume.

Fixed rules, printed in full below. No model is called at any step, and nothing leaves your browser.

How it works

Paste a job description and add your resume as a PDF, a Word file or pasted text. The checker reads the job description, weights its lines by section, so requirements count more than nice-to-haves, and keeps the 25 terms that matter most. It then looks for each one in your resume by name, common alias and word stem, whole words only.

You get two scores side by side, never one ATS score: keyword match, which measures word overlap with this job description, and readability, which starts at 100 and loses points for layouts that resume parsers often misread, such as two columns, tables, text boxes or contact details only in the page header.

Each missing keyword shows how many points it would add, and What the parser read shows your resume in the order our parser rebuilt it. Fixed rules do all of this in your browser. No model is called, and your resume and the job description are never uploaded.

Method

Every rule below is printed from the checker's own settings, so this is exactly what runs. Version 25 Oct 2026.

1. Keywords from the job description

01Both texts are normalised the same way: one form for look-alike Unicode characters, lower case, straight quotes, one kind of dash, no bullets, invisible or control characters. Tokens longer than 40 characters are ignored, and c++, c#, node.js and ci/cd stay whole.
02239 common English words and 148 job-ad words (such as "experience", "strong" and "team") never become keywords.
03Names from the skills list (365 entries with their other names) are matched first, longest name first, as whole words.
04Other words count when they appear 2 or more times, or once under a must-have heading. Phrases of 2 to 3 words count when they appear 2 or more times. A word already inside a kept keyword is not kept again.
05Each keyword scores: section weight × 1.5 if it is on the skills list × how often it appears, counted up to 3. The top 25 are kept. With fewer than 5, the check stops and asks for the requirements.
06In your resume, a keyword matches by its name and its other names, as whole words: "java" never matches inside "javascript". Words outside the skills list also match by a light word stem, so "reports" matches "reporting".
07Short names that are also everyday words ("go", "r", "pm", "ml", "c") count in a job description only when written with a capital in a list, and match your resume in that short form only when the job description used it.

2. Section weights

Nice to have: weight 1: Headings with "nice to have", "nice-to-have", "bonus", "preferred", "a plus", "good to have"
Must have: weight 2: Headings with "requirements", "required", "must have", "must-have", "what you'll need", "what you will need", "qualifications", "what we're looking for", "what we are looking for"
Not counted: Headings with "benefits", "perks", "what we offer", "about us", "about the company", "equal opportunity", "how to apply", "salary", "compensation"
Standard: weight 1.5: Lines before any heading, and under every other heading

3. The two scores

Keyword match: 100 × (sum of the scores of the keywords found in your resume) ÷ (sum of the scores of all kept keywords), rounded
Points if added: 100 × (the missing keyword's score) ÷ (sum of the scores of all kept keywords), rounded
Readability: Starts at 100 and loses the points below, never under 0
Skills section only: A keyword found only under Skills counts as found, with the tip to also show it in an Experience bullet

There is no target score and no band such as good or poor. The two scores are never added together.

4. Readability deductions

Readability deductions, from 100
Check	When it applies	Points off
Real textNeeds the file	Under 200 characters of text per page	Points off: Score 0, check stops
ColumnsNeeds the file	Two groups of line starts side by side on the page, each holding at least 25% of the lines	Points off: 15
Layout tablesNeeds the file	A Word table holds over 30% of the text	Points off: 10
Text boxesNeeds the file	Any Word text box holds text	Points off: 10
Contact only in header or footerNeeds the file	Email or phone found only in the page header or footer	Points off: 10
Email	No email address anywhere	Points off: 10
Phone	No phone number (8 or more digits; + ( ) - and spaces allowed)	Points off: 5
Experience heading	None of: experience, work experience, professional experience, employment history, work history	Points off: 10
Education heading	None of: education, education and training, academic background, education and qualifications	Points off: 5
Skills heading	None of: skills, technical skills, key skills, core competencies	Points off: 5
Dates	No date ranges under Experience, or date formats mixed (Jan 2024 next to 01/2024 or 2024)	Points off: 5
Garbled characters	Over 1% of characters are replacement, private-use or control characters	Points off: 10
Length	Under 250 words (10); over 1,200 words or 3 pages (5)	Points off: 10 or 5
Bullets	Fewer than 3 bullets under Experience	Points off: 5
Numbers in bullets	Under 20% of bullets contain a number	Points off: 3 (a tip)
IconsNeeds the file	Private-use characters (icon fonts) next to contact details	Points off: 5

5. Limits and stops

Resume file: PDF or Word .docx, up to 5 MB; PDF up to 10 pages
Word file contents: Read in steps, stopping at 5 MB of unzipped text per part and 20 MB in total
Pasted resume: Up to 30,000 characters; layout checks are skipped
Job description: 300 to 20,000 characters
Time limit: 30 seconds, then the job stops
English only: Stops when under 15% of words are common English words
Same text twice: Stops when the two texts share over 80% of their 5-word sequences
Copied from the job description: A warning, no deduction: a run of 12 or more words copied, or one keyword used more than 8 times
Broken fragments: A warning, no deduction: over 30% of lines are under 3 characters

Assumptions

Thresholds are starting values, checked against made-up fixtures, and may change with a new version.
Resume parsers differ. These checks flag layouts that parsers often misread; they do not copy any one product.
The skills list is written by hand (365 entries), so a real skill missing from it can still count as a word or phrase.

Version: 25 Oct 2026
Cite it as: Todkett, ATS resume checker, version 25 Oct 2026, https://todkett.com/tools/ats-resume-checker/

02Limits

What it does not do

It measures word overlap with one job description, not your chances of being hired.
There is no standard ATS score; employers' systems differ.
English resumes and job descriptions only.
A resume that is a scanned image cannot be read.

03Stress test

How we test this tool.

The same checks as every automation on this site. Checks that need a server or a model say Not needed, with the reason.

ATS resume checker, check by check

Not yet0 of 4 checks that apply have passed

No recorded test run yet.

Checks marked Not yet are still open.

Stress test for the ATS resume checker: each check, what it checks and its status
Check	What it checks	Status
ST1Test set Not yet The unit tests and the made-up resume files: one column, two columns, scanned, a Word table layout, contact details in the header, locked and damaged. What this means: Test set	The unit tests and the made-up resume files: one column, two columns, scanned, a Word table layout, contact details in the header, locked and damaged. What this means: Test set	Not yet
ST2Prompt attack Not yet The shared injection strings pasted as the job description and as the resume: they are read as plain text and change nothing. What this means: Prompt attack	The shared injection strings pasted as the job description and as the resume: they are read as plain text and change nothing. What this means: Prompt attack	Not yet
ST3Run twice Not needed Runs in your browser: no server Sending the same input twice, or rerunning after a crash, never doubles a record, a message or a payment. What this means: Run twice	Sending the same input twice, or rerunning after a crash, never doubles a record, a message or a payment. What this means: Run twice	Not needed Runs in your browser: no server
ST4Failure recovery Not needed Runs in your browser: no server A failed call is retried a set number of times. If it still fails, the item is parked for a person. Nothing is dropped silently. What this means: Failure recovery	A failed call is retried a set number of times. If it still fails, the item is parked for a person. Nothing is dropped silently. What this means: Failure recovery	Not needed Runs in your browser: no server
ST5Load and limits Not yet A 6 MB file, an 11-page file, a 20,001-character job description, a Word zip bomb and 50 checks back to back. What this means: Load and limits	A 6 MB file, an 11-page file, a 20,001-character job description, a Word zip bomb and 50 checks back to back. What this means: Load and limits	Not yet
ST6Failure alert Not needed Runs in your browser: no server If a run fails, a named person gets an email saying which step failed. What this means: Failure alert	If a run fails, a named person gets an email saying which step failed. What this means: Failure alert	Not needed Runs in your browser: no server
ST7Human sign-off Not needed Runs in your browser: no server Nothing reaches a customer, a candidate or a money system without a person, unless a fixed rule allows it. What this means: Human sign-off	Nothing reaches a customer, a candidate or a money system without a person, unless a fixed rule allows it. What this means: Human sign-off	Not needed Runs in your browser: no server
ST8Rules around the AI Not needed No AI step Fixed rules run before the AI and check its answer after. If the AI fails or is down, the workflow falls back to a safe result. What this means: Rules around the AI	Fixed rules run before the AI and check its answer after. If the AI fails or is down, the workflow falls back to a safe result. What this means: Rules around the AI	Not needed No AI step
No upload Not yet The network log during a full check: no request may hold resume text, job text or file bytes. Check it yourself What this means: No upload	The network log during a full check: no request may hold resume text, job text or file bytes. Check it yourself What this means: No upload	Not yet

0 passed, 5 not needed, 4 not yet. We show what we tested, never the test data.

What we test

04Changes

What changed

25 Oct 2026First version, from the free tools architecture.
25 Oct 2026Built the checker, its example result and its unit tests.

05Questions

Questions about the checker.

Is my resume uploaded?
No. The file is read inside your browser and never sent anywhere. You can watch your browser's network panel while it runs to check.
Does a model or chatbot score my resume?
No. Fixed rules match words and check the layout. The rules and weights are printed in the Method block on this page.
What score should I aim for?
There is no target. Employers' systems differ, and there is no standard ATS score. Use the results to find gaps, not to hit a number.
Which files can I check?
PDF and Word (.docx) files up to 5 MB and 10 pages, or pasted text. Save an old .doc file as .docx or PDF first.
Does it work in other languages?
No. It reads English resumes and job descriptions only, and stops rather than give a wrong result.

From one resume to every applicant.

Each workflow page walks through the whole job step by step: the fixed rules, the one AI step and what a person checks. Build it yourself in n8n, and book a call if you get stuck.

Copy a workflow Book a 30-minute call

07Credits

Credits and licenses

Reading PDF files: PDF.js by Mozilla, pdfjs-dist version 6.4.299, in its own Worker in your browser; Apache License 2.0
Unzipping Word files: fflate by Arjun Barrett, version 0.8.3, in the checker's Worker; Expat license, permissive
Skills list: 365 names of tools, methods and skills, with their other names, written by Todkett; No third-party data