The ATS CV checker is a free tool that runs fourteen checks on your CV text and names a specific fix for each problem it finds, rather than just giving you a number.
Paste your CV and get fourteen checks back instantly: weak opening verbs, achievements with no numbers, filler phrases, missing dates and more. Nothing is stored, and you do not need an account.
Tip: open your CV as a PDF, select all, copy. If what you paste comes out scrambled, that is exactly what screening software receives.
Your report will appear here.
None of these involve AI. They are deterministic checks run on your text, which is why the result is the same every time and why each one can name its own fix.
Before using any tool, do this:
Read what comes out. If your name is at the top, your roles are in order and your bullets are intact, a parser will manage. If your job title is welded to a skill from another column, or half the document is missing, that is exactly what the employer’s software receives — and no amount of keyword tuning fixes it.
An applicant tracking system is a database. It tries to pull your CV apart into structured fields — name, email, employers, titles, dates, education, skills — and recruiters then search that database. The failure mode is quiet rather than dramatic. There is rarely a robot stamping REJECTED on your file. What happens is that your experience lands in the wrong field or vanishes, and when a recruiter searches for the skill you spent four years developing, your name is not in the results.
What is an ATS score?
A measure of how well your CV is written and structured for automated screening. There is no official industry score — every tool computes its own, so treat any number as relative guidance rather than a pass mark.
Do applicant tracking systems automatically reject CVs?
Rarely on their own. The far more common outcome is that the system parses your CV badly and a recruiter’s search simply never surfaces you.
Is my CV stored when I use the checker?
No. The text is analysed and discarded in the same request. Nothing is written to a database and no account is required.
Are CV templates with columns and icons bad?
For ATS purposes, usually yes. Columns get read in the wrong order, icons carry no text, and header contact details are often skipped.
Should I use PDF or Word?
PDF is safe with any system built in the last decade and preserves your layout. If an advert explicitly asks for Word, send Word.
See also what makes a CV ATS-friendly, the AI resume optimizer, and our ATS-safe CV templates.
Applicant tracking systems don’t reject CVs for being badly written in a human sense — they reject them for being hard to parse or for reading as generic. The checks here fall into three groups:
Parsing risk: content that a real ATS is likely to misread or drop, such as text inside tables or text boxes, dates in inconsistent formats, missing section headings, and contact information placed somewhere the parser doesn’t expect it.
Content strength: the things a hiring manager notices even after the CV passes the ATS — bullet points that describe responsibilities (“responsible for social media”) instead of outcomes (“grew social engagement 40% in six months”), weak or repeated opening verbs, achievements with no number attached to show scale, and a summary that’s generic enough to belong on anyone’s CV.
Completeness: gaps in the basics that quietly hurt an application — missing dates on a role, no location, an unexplained employment gap, or a skills section that doesn’t reflect the keywords in the kind of job you’re applying for.
A bare percentage score tells you something is wrong without telling you what. Each of the fourteen checks here names the specific line or pattern that triggered it and explains the fix in one sentence, so you can act on it directly in CV Studio rather than guessing what a number means.
