What this checker looks at
| Check | What we look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Text can be read | A real text layer, no scanned pages, no junk characters from fonts or icons, no letter-spaced headings | An ATS reads text, not pixels. If extraction fails, your resume looks empty. |
| Layout | Side-by-side columns, tables, text boxes, images; text in Word headers and footers | These are the most common causes of scrambled or skipped text. |
| Section headings | Standard headings for experience, education and skills (many spellings, including Indian formats) | Parsers file your content by its heading. |
| Contact details | Email, phone and LinkedIn as plain text in the body | Your candidate profile is filled in from these. |
| Dates | Dates present, one consistent format, no seasons or short years | Dates are used to work out your years of experience. |
| Keywords | Terms from the job description that your resume does not contain | Recruiters search for these terms. |
| Length | Word and page count | Recruiters skim; one page for freshers, up to two for experienced people. |
| Fonts | Fonts without a character map, Type 3 fonts, icon fonts, script fonts | Some fonts extract as gibberish. |
How to read your results
Start with What an ATS reads from your file. Read it as if you were the software: is your name on the first line? Does each job title sit next to its company and dates? Are any lines from different parts of the page mixed together? If the extracted text is wrong, no amount of keyword tuning will help; fix the layout first.
Then work through the findings marked Problem and Check. Each one says why it matters, so you can decide whether it applies to you. Finally, paste the job description and add the missing keywords that genuinely describe your experience.
The quickest fix for most layout problems is to rebuild the resume in a single-column template. Our free resume builder makes ATS-safe PDFs and Word files with no sign-up, and its templates pass every layout check here. Freshers in India can start from the fresher resume format.
If a job portal rejects your PDF for its file size, compress the PDF and run it through this checker again to make sure the text still extracts the same way.
What this checker cannot tell you
- Whether a particular employer’s system will rank you highly. Settings differ by company and by job.
- Whether your experience fits the job. That is still a person’s decision.
- Anything about images: if your resume is a scan or a design exported as a picture, the checker can only tell you that no text was found.
Questions people ask
What is an ATS resume checker?
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software employers use to collect and search applications. It converts your resume to plain text and splits it into sections. This checker does the same conversion in your browser, shows you the text it got, and runs a list of rules that catch the common reasons a resume is read badly: columns, tables, text boxes, missing headings, unreadable fonts, missing contact details, inconsistent dates and missing job keywords.
Is the score my real ATS score?
No, and no tool can give you one. Every employer uses a different system with different settings, and most do not “score” resumes at all; recruiters search and filter them. Our number is our own rubric: the weights are shown on the page, and it is useful for comparing two versions of your own resume. Treat the individual findings as the real output.
Is my resume uploaded?
No. Your PDF or Word file is opened and checked in your browser using pdf.js and our own code. Nothing is sent to a server, and nothing is stored after you close the tab.
Which files can I check?
Text-based PDFs and Word .docx files. Old .doc files need to be saved as .docx first. Scanned PDFs (pictures of a resume) are detected and flagged, because an ATS cannot read them either.
How does the keyword match work?
Paste the job description and the checker pulls out the terms it repeats and the known skills and tools it mentions, ignoring filler words. It then looks for each term in your resume, allowing simple word forms (manage, managed, managing). Missing terms are listed so you can add the ones that are true for you.
Do two-column resumes really fail ATS checks?
Not always. Newer systems handle some columns well. But many parsers read straight across the page, and when they do, lines from your sidebar get mixed into your job history. You can see whether that happens to your file in the “What an ATS reads” panel. A single column is read correctly by every system, which is why we flag columns as something to check, not an automatic failure.
Is it free?
Yes, with no limit on checks, no sign-up and no paid tier hiding the results.