What is a good ATS score?
There is no official ATS score, so no number is universally “good”. Every checker computes its own figure from its own rules. Treat a score above roughly 80 as a sign that nothing structural is broken, and treat the individual warnings as the real output — they tell you what to fix, which a number never does.
Do applicant tracking systems actually score CVs?
Mostly not in the way people imagine. An applicant tracking system is a database. Its job is to parse your CV into structured fields — name, employers, titles, dates, skills — and let recruiters search that database. Some enterprise systems rank candidates against a specific job requisition, but that ranking belongs to the employer and their chosen criteria. It is not a portable score that follows your CV around.
So when a tool gives you an “ATS score”, it is not reading a number out of any employer’s system. It is running its own checks on your document and expressing the result as a percentage. That is genuinely useful, but only if you understand what is being measured.
What does a CV score actually measure?
Most checkers, including the one on this site, assess two different things at once:
- Parsing safety — whether the structure survives being read by software. Single column, standard headings, real text rather than images, month-and-year dates, contact details in the body rather than a page header.
- Writing quality — whether the content persuades a human. Weak verbs, achievements with no numbers, filler phrases, missing dates.
The first category is pass-or-fail and worth taking literally. The second is editorial judgement, and a lower score there is a prompt to think, not an instruction to obey.
Should you chase a perfect score?
No, and chasing one usually makes a CV worse. The common failure is keyword stuffing: repeating a phrase from the job advert until the score rises, producing a document that reads like it was written for a machine. A recruiter reads it after the parser does, and padding is obvious.
A more useful target is this: no structural warnings at all, and every remaining flag either fixed or consciously ignored because you disagree with it. A CV at 85 with clean structure and strong writing beats one at 98 that has been tuned into noise.
How do you raise a low score properly?
Fix structure first, because it is objective and it is what actually breaks. Move to a single column, use conventional section headings, put your contact details in the body, date every role with a month and a year, and export a text-based PDF rather than a scan or an image.
Then improve the writing on its own merits: lead bullets with a strong verb, attach a number to any achievement that has one, and cut phrases that carry no information. Mirror the language of the specific job advert where it genuinely describes what you did.
You can run the checks on this site free and without an account with the free ATS CV checker, or start from a layout that is already structurally safe using the free CV templates.
Frequently asked questions
Is 75% a good ATS score?
It is workable, but it usually means there are several fixable warnings left. Read them before deciding. If they are all structural, fix them. If they are stylistic and you disagree, you can reasonably leave them.
Do different ATS checkers give different scores?
Yes, often very different ones, because each uses its own rules and weighting. That is the clearest evidence that the number is relative guidance rather than a measurement of anything standard.
Does a high score mean I will get an interview?
No. It means your CV is likely to be read correctly and reads competently. Whether you are shortlisted depends on your fit for that specific role, which no checker can assess.