ApplyLift
Build your CV

Free tool

Check your resume against any job description

See what an applicant tracking system extracts from your resume, which knockout requirements you clear, and which required keywords are missing, with a 0 to 100 score. Instant, free, and your resume never leaves your browser.

Just your resume. A 0 to 100 check of how cleanly it parses: contact details, sections, dates, evidence and language, with every point explained. Free, and nothing you paste leaves your browser.

Paste text, drop a PDF anywhere on this box, or
0 words

Add at least 100 characters of resume text to scan.

What you'll get

Parsed like an ATS

The candidate record a parser builds from your text: contact details, sections, dated roles, degree, skills.

Readability score

A 0 to 100 score across contact details, section structure, length, quantified impact and language quality, with every point explained.

Fix-by-fix breakdown

Exactly which lines are costing points and what to change, plus an optional AI rewrite of your weakest bullets. Then match the result against a real posting.

How it works

  1. 1

    Paste your resume text or drop in a PDF. We parse it into the same candidate record an ATS builds: contact details, sections, dated roles, degree, skills.

  2. 2

    Paste the job description. We read its knockout requirements and split required skills from nice-to-haves. Or switch to the general check for a standalone score.

  3. 3

    Get your score, the filters you clear or fail, the exact terms you're missing, and an optional AI review of how to close each gap honestly.

How ATS actually filter resumes

The scary version, where a robot reads your resume and rejects 75% of applicants before a human sees them, is mostly a myth. It makes for good headlines and better sales pitches, but it's not how most hiring works.

The myth of the robot rejection

An applicant tracking system is really a database with a parser in front of it. The parser turns your resume into a candidate record: name, email, phone, each role with its dates, your degree, a list of skills. Recruiters and hiring managers then search and filterthose records, much like you'd search your inbox. When a recruiter is filling a React role, they search their ATS for "React". If your resume never says "React", you don't show up in that search. You weren't rejected; you were invisible.

That distinction matters, because the fix isn't to game a robot. It's to make sure the real words a recruiter will search for are actually on your resume, in a place a parser can read them.

What this checker actually tests

Three things, in the order a real screen applies them. First, parsing: can a parser find your contact details, recognize your section headings, and read the dates on your roles? If not, the rest never happens. Second, knockouts: the hard requirements a recruiter turns into filters or screening questions, such as years of experience, a degree, a certification, or the job title itself. Third, keywords: which of the terms the posting names appear in your resume, weighted by whether they sit in the requirements, the nice-to-haves, or the role description.

What a match score actually tells you

It matters that the wording lines up: most searches look for exact phrases, so "project management" and "managed projects" aren't the same to a keyword filter. Hard skills, tools and certifications carry far more weight than soft skills; nobody filters candidates by "team player". Treat the score as a proxy for how findable you are, not a grade, and treat a knockout as the thing to fix first.

What to do with your missing keywords

Work the missing terms into your resume only where they're honestly true of you: in your skills section, your bullet points, and your summary. Mirror the job's phrasing for skill names. And never resort to white-text keyword stuffing: parsers read it, humans see it when they paste your resume into a document, and it reads as exactly what it is.

Questions, answered

What is an ATS?
An applicant tracking system: the software most mid-size and larger employers use to collect, parse, search and filter applications. It turns each resume into a candidate record (name, contact details, roles, dates, education, skills) and recruiters search and filter inside it using keywords from the job they're hiring for.
Does this checker work like a real ATS?
It reproduces the first pass: it parses your resume into the same kind of candidate record a real parser builds, checks the knockout requirements a recruiter would apply (job title, years of experience, degree, certifications), and tests which of the posting's required and preferred terms appear in your text. It runs in your browser with no AI, which is also how most ATS matching works.
Do ATS use AI to score resumes?
Mostly not. Systems like Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS and Taleo parse and store; recruiters then search, filter and rank by keywords and knockout questions. Some now add AI-assisted ranking that weighs skills and titles rather than exact words. Either way the fix is the same: real skills stated in the posting's language, in a layout a parser can read. Our optional AI review is the layer a good recruiter or coach adds on top: what to change and how.
What's a good ATS match score?
There's no magic number, but clearing every knockout requirement and covering roughly 70% or more of the posting's required terms is a sensible target. Chasing 100% usually means stuffing in terms that aren't really you.
Do ATS automatically reject resumes?
Mostly no. Despite the myth, humans do the filtering; they search and sort inside the ATS, often with knockout questions (years of experience, degree, work authorization). A low score means you're harder to find in those searches, not that a robot binned you.
Why does it say my text isn't a resume?
Because a resume has a recognizable shape: contact details, section headings like Experience and Education, and dated roles. If none of those are found, a real parser would produce an empty record and any keyword score would be meaningless, so the checker tells you instead. You can still scan it anyway.
Should I add every missing keyword to my resume?
Only the ones that are genuinely true of you, phrased the way the posting phrases them. Required terms matter most, preferred terms are tiebreakers, and terms from the role description help in full-text searches. Coverage of the truth beats coverage of the list.
Is my resume uploaded or stored anywhere?
No. The parsing and scoring run entirely in your browser; nothing you paste or upload is sent to a server. Only the optional AI review, if you choose to run it, sends your text to our server for the analysis.
How is this different from ApplyLift's AI review?
The free scan does what the software does: parse, filter and match exact terms. The AI review reads meaning: for each missing term it judges whether your resume already supports it, says where it belongs, and rewrites one of your own lines to include it, or tells you not to add it. New accounts include free credits to try it.

Keep going

Pull every keyword from the job description firstTest what the ATS actually sees in your PDFCut the buzzwords weakening your resumeAll free tools

A score shows the gap. AI closes it.

ApplyLift's AI reads your CV against this exact job and rewrites it to fit, then drafts the matching cover letter. Sign up free and get AI credits to try it.

Create free account

More free tools

ATS file testKeyword finderBuzzword checker