SnugCV

Free tool

ATS resume checker

Upload your resume as a PDF to see whether software can read it cleanly. The checker looks at the text inside the file, lists what it found and says what to fix. Add a job posting to see how many of its must-have terms your resume contains.

ATS resume checkerFree

Upload a PDF resume to see whether its text can be read cleanly, and optionally how many of a posting's terms it contains. One free run, no account.

Choose a PDF or drop it here

Read in memory and discarded. It is not stored.

0 of 15,000 characters

A text check cannot see everything, and no tool can tell you how an employer's system will treat your file. If you add a posting, its text is sent to an AI service to be read and is not stored by SnugCV. The run is counted with a hashed IP address and a cookie.

How it works

  1. Upload a PDF

    Your file is read in memory while the check runs and discarded afterwards. It is never saved.

  2. Add a posting if you like

    Paste the job posting to get a keyword match. Without one you still get all the readability checks.

  3. Read the results

    Fix the failed checks first, then the warnings. The extracted text shows what software sees in your file.

What this number means

X of Y readability checks passed
Each check measures something about the text inside your file. The number is how many came back clean. It is a count of checks, not a grade out of 100.
X of Y must-have terms found
How many of the posting's must-have terms appear in your resume text. Plural and verb endings are ignored, and a synonym is not counted.

Neither number is a score, a pass rate or the odds of getting through any employer's ATS. Employers configure their systems differently and none of them publish how they work. A text check also cannot see everything, and the possible-columns check is a heuristic that can be wrong in either direction.

What gets checked

Text can be read
The file has real, selectable text and not a picture of a page.
Order and characters
Words come out whole, with no letter-spacing, unreadable symbols or text in tiny fragments.
Section headings
Plain headings such as Experience, Education, Skills and Summary are present.
Contact details
An email address and a phone number are in the body of the page, near the top.
Dates
Dates are present and written in one style.
Length
Pages and words, against the usual one to two pages as a rule of thumb.
Bullets and symbols
Bullets come out as ordinary characters, with no icon glyphs, emoji or symbol-font characters.
Possible columns or tables
A heuristic from where the text sits on the page. It says possible because it can be wrong either way.

Free to try

You can run the checker once without an account, and a free account gets up to 10 runs a day. The run is counted with a hashed IP address and a cookie. The privacy policy has the details.

Questions people ask

Does this give me an ATS score?

No. It reports checks it can measure from the text inside your file and, if you add a posting, how many of the posting's terms your resume contains. Employers' systems do not publish how they work, so no outside tool can give you the odds of passing one.

Is my resume stored?

No. The PDF is read in memory while the check runs and then discarded. It is not written to disk or storage. If you add a posting, its text is sent to an AI service to find its keywords, and SnugCV does not keep it.

Why does it only accept PDF files?

A PDF is what most people send, and the checks read the text and its position inside the file. If your resume is a word processor document, use its Save as PDF option and upload that file.

What does it mean when no text can be read?

The file is probably a scan or a picture of a page, so software sees no words in it. Export it again from your word processor with its own Save as PDF option, or retype it, and run the check again.

If every check passes, will I get an interview?

No. Passing the checks means the file is easy to read as text. Whether a person wants to interview you depends on your experience and how well the resume fits the job, which no file check can judge.

Should I fix every warning?

Judge each one. A warning is a place to look, such as a date style that varies or a layout that might be in columns. The extracted text at the bottom of the results shows what software sees, which is the best way to decide.

Guides that go with this tool