ATS resume checker
Upload your resume and see the text an applicant tracking system extracts from it: the order it reads, the headings it finds, and whether it picks up your dates and contact details. You get a score, the problems in plain language and how to fix each one.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Your file stays on your device
- PDF and Word
Your file never leaves your browser. It is read on this device and nothing is uploaded.
Compare with a job ad (optional)
We show which of the ad’s key terms appear in your resume. The ad stays on this page too.
What we check
Each check looks at a place where resumes often break in an ATS. Every finding comes with the reason and the fix.
Text extraction
Whether the file holds real text or a picture of text, whether characters come out cleanly, and whether spaced-out headings like “S K I L L S” fall apart into single letters.
Layout and reading order
Whether two columns get mixed line by line, whether the text starts with your name and whether your contact details come early. In Word files: tables, text boxes and the page header.
Section headings
Whether standard headings such as Experience, Education and Skills are there. We recognise the common headings in English, Turkish, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
Contact details
Email, phone number, city and a LinkedIn address written out in full.
Dates and bullets
Whether your dates use one format and include months, and whether your achievements sit in separate bullets.
Length and file
Page count, amount of text, page size, document title, embedded fonts and the file name.
Compare with a job ad
Paste a job ad and we show which of its key terms your resume already uses and which are missing. The comparison is plain word matching with no AI involved, the same keyword count that AlderCV’s job match feature uses. It is shown on its own and does not change the score.
What the application system sees
A recruiter sees the page. Text-based application systems read the words inside it, in order, and AlderCV templates keep that order. The checker above shows the text of your own file in the same order.
Example: a registered nurse’s resume in the Harbor template. The dark side column sits on the left, yet the text reads the main column first (profile, experience, education) and the side column after it.
- Laura Bennett, RN
- Registered Nurse · Med-Surg & ICU
- laura.bennett@example.com
- +1 206 555 0119
- Seattle, WA
- PROFILE
- Registered nurse with 5+ years on medical-surgical and intensive care units; BLS and ACLS certified. Led a double-check and barcode scanning initiative that cut medication errors on a 32-bed unit by 30%.
- EXPERIENCE
- Registered Nurse, Medical-Surgical Unit, St. Brigid Medical Center
- Mar 2022 – Present · Seattle, WA
- Provided direct care for 6–8 patients per shift on a 32-bed medical-surgical unit
- Cut medication errors on the unit by 30% by leading a double-check and barcode scanning initiative
- Educated patients and families on discharge plans, contributing to a 12% drop in 30-day readmissions
- Precepted 8 new graduate nurses through their orientation period
- Registered Nurse, Intensive Care Unit, Pinecrest Regional Hospital
- Jun 2020 – Feb 2022 · Tacoma, WA
- Responded to rapid response and code situations as a BLS and ACLS certified nurse
- Documented assessments and care plans accurately in the electronic health record (Epic)
- Served on the infection control committee, helping lower catheter-related infections by 40%
- EDUCATION
- Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), University of Washington
- 2016 – 2020 · Seattle, WA
- SKILLS
- Patient assessment
- Medication administration
- IV therapy
- BLS / ACLS
- Wound care
- Electronic health records (Epic)
- Infection control
- Patient education
- LANGUAGES
- English
- Native
- CERTIFICATIONS
- Registered Nurse License, Washington State Department of Health
- May 2020
- Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), American Heart Association
- Jan 2025
- Basic Life Support (BLS), American Heart Association
- Jan 2025
The order text-based parsers read: the order the document is written in.
How an ATS reads a resume
An applicant tracking system doesn’t look at your resume the way a person does. It extracts the text inside the file and tries to split it into fields: name, contact details, jobs with their dates, education, skills. Those fields become your candidate profile, and recruiters search them.
Nothing warns you when parsing goes wrong: your PDF still looks fine, but the profile is missing a job, has dates attached to the wrong role, or has skills mixed into a job description. A recruiter searching for your skills may not find you.
Most problems come from a handful of causes: text that is really an image, columns stored line by line, unusual headings, and contact details placed where parsers don’t look. The checker tests for each of them.
What the score tells you, and what it doesn’t
The score measures how cleanly your file can be parsed, out of 100. It doesn’t predict whether you’ll get an interview. No tool can reproduce every ATS: Workday, Greenhouse, Taleo and the rest each read files a little differently.
The checks are deterministic. The same file always gets the same result, and every point taken off is listed with its reason. A few checks, such as spotting your city, are approximate, and the result says so.
Privacy: your file stays on your device
The checker runs entirely in your browser. Your file is opened by JavaScript on this page (PDFs with Mozilla’s pdf.js library), analysed in memory and forgotten when you close the tab. It is never uploaded, and the job ad you paste stays on the page as well.
We count only that a check ran, the score range, the page count and whether a job ad was added. We never record the file, its text or the ad.
Frequently asked questions
Is the ATS checker really free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no limit on how many files you check and no paid version of this tool.
Is my resume uploaded anywhere?
No. Your file is read and analysed in your browser, on your device, and never sent to a server. Nothing is kept once you close the page.
Which files can I check?
Text-based PDF and Word (.docx) files up to 10 MB. Older .doc files, Pages documents and images are not supported, so export them to PDF first. We read the first 10 pages.
My PDF looks fine. Why is my score low?
Because an ATS reads the text inside the file, not the page you see. The list of findings shows exactly what costs points, for example columns that get mixed line by line or a heading the parser cannot recognise.
Can a two-column resume get through an ATS?
Yes, if the file stores each column in one piece. The checker shows whether yours does. If the text jumps between the columns line by line, it is flagged as something to fix.
Does a high score guarantee an interview?
No. A high score means your text is likely to be extracted cleanly. Whether you get shortlisted depends on your experience, how well it fits the job, and the screening questions on the application form.
How do I fix the problems?
Edit your original file, or rebuild your resume in AlderCV, where every template uses real text, standard headings and a clean reading order. Starting from a template is free and needs no sign-up. Importing an existing PDF or Word file uses AI and is part of Pro.
Build a resume that parses cleanly
Every AlderCV template uses real text, standard headings and a logical reading order, and we test the text order of generated PDFs automatically. It’s free, the PDF has no watermark, and you can start without an account.