Free ATS résumé checker
Free ATS résumé checker. See what the software sees.
Upload or paste your résumé and get a Pass-Through score in about 30 seconds: whether an applicant tracking system can read it, where your skills sit, and how it reads to a recruiter. Add a job posting and you also get your Role Fit for that job.
- No signup to see your score
- Job posting optional
- Scored by the same engine as the app
88% of employers say qualified, high-skills candidates are vetted out of their hiring process for not matching the exact job-description criteria (Harvard Business School & Accenture, 2021)
97.4% of Fortune 500 companies run a detectable applicant tracking system, so a résumé meets software before it meets a person (Jobscan, 2026)
7.4 sec is the average initial résumé screen, and the best-performing résumés in the study opened with an overview or mission statement (Ladders, 2018)
What the checker looks at
The checker gives you one number from 0 to 100, Pass-Through. It answers a single question: will this document reach a person? It is built from three parts.
- Parses cleanly (45 points). Whether an applicant tracking system can pull your name, job titles, dates and bullets out of the file in the right order. Missing or unusual section headings, and text that comes out of order (usually from columns or tables), cost points here.
- Evidence placement (40 points). Whether the skills a job asks for appear where a recruiter looks: in a bullet or your summary, not only in a skills list. Without a posting, the checker uses the skills typical for the role your résumé describes. With one, a job title that lines up with the posting counts too.
- Recruiter read (15 points). Action verbs, numbers that show results, a human voice rather than a list of keywords, and contact details a recruiter can use.
Paste the job posting as well and you also get Role Fit, a letter grade from A to D for how your experience matches what that posting asks for: years, title, degree, credentials and skills. Role Fit is about you, not the layout, so changing the template never moves it. The two together give you one verdict, such as “Ready to send” or “Right role, fix the document”.
What's a good ATS score?
On the Pass-Through score:
- 90 and up: Gets through. The software can read the résumé and finds your skills where it looks.
- 70 to 89: Likely gets through. One part is costing you points, and the checker names it.
- Under 70: Likely filtered. Something is stopping the software from reading or ranking you.
Other checkers report a percentage on their own scale, so a 77% from one tool and a 77 here are not the same thing. No public study ties any vendor's score to interview rates, ours included. Treat the number as a list of things to fix, not a prediction. There is more on this in What's a good ATS score?
What an applicant tracking system does with your résumé
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software employers use to collect and sort applications. Most large employers run one:
of Fortune 500 companies run a detectable applicant tracking system, so a résumé meets software before it meets a person.
Jobscan, 2026
Three things happen to your résumé inside it.
- It is parsed. The system turns your file into fields: contact details, job titles, dates, skills. A résumé that parses badly can arrive with empty fields or scrambled bullets.
- It is searched and ranked. Recruiters search and filter on skills, titles and keywords, and some systems rank applicants against the posting. Skills that appear both in the posting and in your experience help you show up.
- It is screened by knockout questions. Questions on the application form, such as work authorization, location or a required license, can screen you out before anyone reads the résumé. No résumé change alters those answers.
The common platforms are Workday, iCIMS, Greenhouse, Lever, Oracle Taleo, SAP SuccessFactors and SmartRecruiters. They differ in the details, but all of them read a clean, single-column résumé with standard headings. The cost of a résumé that doesn't match the posting closely is real:
of employers say qualified, high-skills candidates are vetted out of their hiring process for not matching the exact job-description criteria.
Harvard Business School & Accenture, 2021
For a deeper look, read how ATS systems actually work.
Formatting that parses
Most parsing problems come from a handful of layout choices. Before you send a résumé, check that it has:
- One column. Tables, text boxes and sidebars can come out of the parser in the wrong order.
- Standard section headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills.
- Job title, company and dates for each role, with the dates in one consistent format, such as Jan 2022 – Mar 2024.
- Contact details in the body of the page, not in the document header or footer.
- A common font, and no text inside images or icons.
- A .docx file or a PDF whose text you can select, unless the posting asks for something else.
The full list is in ATS résumé format rules for 2026.
Keywords without stuffing
Keyword stuffing means pasting the posting's terms into a long skills list or hidden text. It may nudge a search match, but the person who opens the résumé next sees it straight away. What works is evidence: name the skill where you used it, in a bullet with the result.
“Built the SQL reporting the finance team used to close the books each month” puts SQL where a recruiter looks and shows what you did with it. That is exactly what the evidence placement part of the score measures. To see which terms show up most in postings for your field, look at the 2026 résumé keyword leaderboard.
Checker vs tailoring
The checker tells you what's wrong with the résumé you have. It doesn't rewrite anything. To fix it for a specific job, tailor it: OneResume reads the posting, rewrites your bullets from your real history so the skills it asks for land where recruiters look, then checks every line of the full rewrite against your profile so nothing is invented.
You can try it free with tailor your résumé to a job description.
What the checker can't tell you
- Whether you'll get an interview. The score measures the document. Referrals, timing, how many people applied and the recruiter's judgment all matter, and no checker can see them.
- How you'll answer knockout questions. Those live on the application form.
- How one company's system is set up. Every employer configures its own filters and questions.
- Whether a person will like it. A résumé that gets through still has to read well in a few seconds, which is what the recruiter read part of the score is for.
is the average initial résumé screen, and the best-performing résumés in the study opened with an overview or mission statement.
Ladders, 2018
Questions people ask
Is 77% a good ATS score?
It depends on whose scale it is. Every checker scores differently, so a 77% from one tool doesn't translate to another. On OneResume's Pass-Through score, 77 sits in the 70–89 band, "Likely gets through": the software can read your résumé, but one part is costing you points, and the checker names which one. Aim for 90 or more on a résumé tailored to the job.
How do I get a 100% ATS score?
You don't need 100, and chasing it by stuffing keywords makes the résumé worse for the person who reads it next. Aim for 90 or more: a single-column layout with standard headings, the skills the posting asks for named in your bullets (not only in a skills list), numbers that show results, and contact details in the body of the page. Tailoring the résumé to each posting is the fastest way there.
Can ChatGPT check my ATS score?
ChatGPT can give you feedback on a résumé, but it doesn't parse the file the way an applicant tracking system does, and it can give a different score if you ask twice. A checker built on a fixed rubric scores the parsed résumé the same way every time and tells you why each point was lost. Use ChatGPT for wording if you like, then check the result here.
Is there a free ATS checker without signing up?
Yes, this one. It shows your Pass-Through score and the top issues without an account. A free account adds the full report and AI rewrites: 2 free rewrites your first month, then 1 a month.
How do I check if my résumé is ATS-friendly?
Run it through a checker that parses the file and reports what it found: missing headings, text read out of order, skills that appear only in a list. Then check the basics by hand: one column, standard headings, dates in one format, contact details in the body of the page and a file whose text you can select. Paste a job posting too and you'll see how the résumé reads for that job.
Which résumé checker is best?
The one that tells you why. Look for a checker that shows what it parsed and names the cause of every lost point, rather than a single number. We compared the main free and paid checkers side by side. Read the comparison.
Find out what the software sees before you apply.
Free, about 30 seconds, and no signup to see your score.