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Browse the free resume template gallery to compare all 18 layouts and download sample PDFs before creating an account. The ATS checker answers one question: can software read your resume? It opens a PDF the way an applicant tracking system (ATS) does, pulls out the text, and shows you what survived and what didn’t. It works with a PDF made in any tool, not only Reactive Resume. The check runs entirely in your browser. The file isn’t uploaded or stored, and you don’t need an account.

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Before you start

  • Have your resume as a PDF, up to 25 MB. Password-protected PDFs can’t be checked; save an unprotected copy first.
  • Optionally, copy the text of a job posting you’re applying for.

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Check your PDF

1

Open the checker

Go to rxresu.me/ats-checker. If you host Reactive Resume yourself, add /ats-checker to your own address.
2

Paste a job posting (optional)

Paste the posting into Job posting. The report then shows which of its terms your resume already has. Do this before you add the file.
3

Add your PDF

Drag the file onto the box, or select Drop a PDF here or choose a file to pick it. To see how the checker works first, select Check a sample file.
Drop zone reading Drop a PDF here or choose a file, Up to 25 MB, checked in your browser, never uploaded, with a Check a sample file button and an empty Job posting box below

The drop zone and the optional job posting

4

Wait for the three steps

The checker shows its progress: Opening the file, Reading the text, then Checking layout and content. This usually takes a few seconds.

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Read the report

The report has the score and issues on the left and your file on the right.
ATS checker results page with a score of 88, Reads cleanly, issue rows for Readability, Layout and Terms from the posting, a Fix these in the editor button, and the sample resume PDF on the right

A finished check

The score. A number from 0 to 100 with a verdict: Reads cleanly (80 and above), Mostly readable (50 to 79) or Hard for software to read (below 50). It combines five categories, and a serious problem (a blocker) caps it: a PDF with no real text can’t score well because its margins are tidy. The score reflects how reliably text comes out of the file, not your chances of getting the job. The issue rows. Each category with something to fix gets a row, worst first. Open a row to see each problem in bold, followed by what to do about it. If you pasted a posting, the last row, Terms from the posting, counts the terms found (for example 4/14) and lists the missing ones.
Score of 88 with the Readability row open, listing a ligature problem and icon-font glyphs with their fixes, then Layout and Terms from the posting rows and the Fix these in a few minutes card

The score, issue rows and the fix card

The five scored categories are: Writing gives advice for the person reading your resume, such as numbers that show impact, first-person pronouns and long bullets. These tips appear in the results alongside the scored findings and never affect the score. Only the first 30 pages of a long file are checked; the report says so when that happens.

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See your file as software reads it

Above your file, switch between two views:
  • Original page shows the PDF as a person sees it.
  • As software reads it shows the plain text a parser extracts, in the order it comes out.
Compare the two. Look for a sidebar landing in the middle of your experience, contact details split across lines, or icons turning into empty boxes.
Plain text extracted from the sample resume in a monospace font, with empty box characters where the section icons were

As software reads it: icons from an icon font come out as empty boxes

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Fix the issues in Reactive Resume

Select Fix these in the editor to import the same file into a free Reactive Resume account. The file is read in your browser, the same way the check read it, and the new resume opens in Check with the issues waiting for you.
  • If you’re signed in, the import starts straight away.
  • If you aren’t, you’re taken to create an account first. The file waits in your browser in the meantime and is imported as soon as you’re back, then removed from the browser.
To start over with a different file, select Check another file.
No tool can tell you whether an application will be rejected. That depends on the employer’s system, the screening questions and the person reading. The checker measures one thing: how faithfully software can extract your file’s text.

Checking your resume before you apply

Check mode in the editor: live checks, job match and a writing review.

Importing resumes

Bring an existing resume into Reactive Resume from a PDF, Word or JSON file.